Thistles with Almond Sauce

Yet another experiment with seasonal food!


The trickiest part of preparing thistles is cleaning them of all the prickles (careful -ouch!). The thistle is the national flower of Scotland. There's a story that a bare foot Viking attacker stepped on a thistle at night and cried out, so alerting the defenders of a Scottish castle.
I had only ever had thistles, cardos in Spanish, once in my life before coming to Spain, in the delicious Italian dish -from the region of Piamonte- called Bagna Cauda (served in a sauce made mostly with anchovies and nuts; Argentina has its own variation made with cream). I didn't even know what they were then. Here in Spain people tend to buy them in jars and cook them in a white sauce with the ubiquituous Spanish ham.
Here's a simple recipe:

Thistles with Almond Sauce
Ingredients:
1 bunch thistles
3 tbsp olive oil
pinch salt
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp powdered almonds
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)

Carefully clean the thistles, removing all the prickles and threads. Chop, wash and put them in a casserole. Cover with water and bring to a boil. After 15 minutes, drain, cover with water again and boil for another 45 minutes (the water is changed to remove some of its bitterness. you can add a squirt of lemon juice while boiling to keep the water from darkening). Drain, but save about 1 cup of the resulting broth. In a pan, heat the olive oil. (If desired, add the chopped garlic.) Add the flour gradually, stirring continuously, and then the powdered almonds. Gradually add the broth and let simmer for a few minutes. Pour this sauce over the cooked thistles, simmer another few minutes. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve hot.