Foraging, building resilience.
I certainly hope my greatest fears are not realised but with the way events in
the Middle East are shaping up, I continue to urge everyone to build up
resilience and work on enhancing practical life skills, sounds like Doomsday
stuff but if we look on the positive side, it can be a delicious and fun
adventure too.
Yesterday, I went for another wander through the fields and along the wild
hedgerows to do a bit of foraging . The May bush or Hawthorn is still in bloom,
a profusion of white flowers and still tender leaves. Bet you didn’t know that
you can scatter them into your green salad, turns out that they are hugely
beneficial for our cardiovascular system. Check out the research.
Young nettles are at their most delicious now too, pick them with gloves and
cook like spinach and add a bit of garlic. Add to mashed potato for Nettle
champ, use for a topping for pizza with goat cheese as Alice Waters does at
Chez Panisse – the heat of the pizza oven removes the sting and makes the
nettles deliciously crispy. Add to pasta with lots of cream and a generous
grating of Parmesan or just make a big pot of nettle soup.
Nettles are super nutritious. Our grandparents were well aware of their medical
properties,” Eat three feeds of nettles during the month of May” to cleanse the
blood and top up iron levels after the long winter months. They were often
referred to as a ‘spring tonic’ or ‘internal spring cleaning’. Loaded with
vitamins, minerals, scarce trace elements and apparently brilliant to ease
arthritis and creaky joints.
Terrific, particularly at this time of year when our immune systems could do
with a boost.
Along the seashore, sea spinach is at its best. It’s more robust than garden
spinach but, oh, how delicious.
One can cook it just like annual or perennial spinach, but it will take a
little longer. Anoint it with lots of butter or extra-virgin olive oil and a
generous grating of fresh nutmeg. Here’s a recipe for sea spinach soup, a gem
that can also be adapted for nettles or watercress.
There are lots of fresh cleavers too, nicknamed (sticky Willie). Just cover
with boiling water to make an infusion to sip, it acts as a natural detox,
helps to flush out the kidneys and urinary tract. Fresh dandelion leaves are
also a powerful diuretic, nibble one leaf a day, great if you have a urinary
infection.
So many wild foods particularly greens are at their very best at present, young
ground elder leaves have a particularly appealing flavour. Little sprigs
of young growth are great in salads and will also liven up a restaurant menu.
By the way, also good added to soup, mashed potatoes etc., just like nettles or
chopped into a quiche.
Try this Foragers Quiche, it’ll probably taste different every time you make
it, depending on your mix of young wild things.
But back to a more sober note. Buy a really good Foraging Book and learn about
the myriads of edible wild foods around us, free for the gathering.
Enjoy foraging on land and seashore whenever you can. Very soon, where others
may just see a profusion of weeds, you’ll see a nourishing and delicious
dinner… Wild foods still have their full
complement of vitamins and minerals and trace elements unlike much of fresh
foods on our shelves. Teach your children also how to recognise edible food in the wild. A walk in the countryside or by the seashore will never be the same again. Enjoy.
Sea Spinach and Rosemary Soup
The trick with these green soups is not to add the greens until the last minute, otherwise they will overcook, and the soup will lose its fresh taste and bright green colour. For a simple spinach soup, omit the rosemary and add a little freshly grated nutmeg with the seasoning.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
50g butter
110g onion, peeled and chopped
150g potatoes, peeled and chopped
600ml homemade chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
425-600ml creamy milk (1/4 cream and 3/4 milk)
salt and freshly ground pepper
225-350g sea spinach, destalked and chopped
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped (optional)
Garnish
2 tbsp whipped cream (optional)
sprig of rosemary or rosemary flowers
Method
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. When it foams add the onions and potatoes and turn them until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes.
Add the boiling stock and milk, bring back to the boil and simmer until the potatoes and onions are fully cooked. Add the sea spinach and boil with the lid off for about 3-5 minutes, until the sea spinach is tender. Do not overcook or the soup will lose its fresh green colour. Add the chopped rosemary if using. Liquidise and taste.
Serve in warm bowls garnished with a blob of whipped cream and a sprig of rosemary. If you have a pretty rosemary bush in bloom, sprinkle a few flowers over the top for extra pzazz.
Useful Tip
If you need to reheat a green soup, do so at the last minute. If it sits in a bain-marie or hostess trolley it will lose its lively colour. Use mustard greens or a proportion of mustard greens, red Russian kale is also delicious.
Accompaniments: crusty bread or Cheddar cheese scones.
Foragers Quiche
This tart incorporates many of my favourite wild foods from early spring with the first of the spring onions of the season. Feel free to vary the greens depending on season and availability, the flavour will be a surprise every time.
Serves 6
Ingredients
Pastry
225g flour
a pinch of salt
110g butter
1 egg, beaten
Filling
150g young nettles or a mixture of nettles and sea spinach
25g butter
25g spring onions
10g watercress or wild garlic leaves in season (allium ursinum)
flaky sea salt and fresh ground pepper
3 organic eggs
100ml milk
250ml crème fraîche
grated zest from one organic lemon
1 tablespoon thyme leaves
25g chives
50g grated Parmesan
50g grated Gruyère
pinch of cayenne
1 x 23cm quiche tin
Method
First make the shortcrust pastry.
Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl. Cut the butter into cubes, toss in the flour and then rub in with your fingertips. Keep everything as cool as possible; if the fat is allowed to melt, the finished pastry may be tough. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, stop.
Whisk the egg or egg yolk and add some water. Using a fork to stir, add just enough liquid to bring the pastry together, then discard the fork and collect it into a ball with your hands, this way you can judge more accurately if you need a few more drops of liquid. Although rather damp pastry is easier to handle and roll out, the resulting crust can be tough and may well shrink out of shape as the water evaporates in the oven. The drier and more difficult-to-handle pastry will give a crisper, shorter crust.
Flatten into a round, wrap the pastry in parchment paper and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will make the pastry much less elastic and easier to roll.
Next, line the tart tin with the pastry. Chill and rest. Line with parchment paper, fill with beans and, in a preheated moderate oven 180°C/Gas Mark 4, blind bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool.
Meanwhile, blanch the nettles in boiling, salted water for a minute. Drain and refresh under cold water, drain again and chop. Destalk and chop the sea spinach if using and add to the nettles.
Melt the butter in a sauté pan over a gentle heat. Add the spring onions and sweat for 4 or 5 minutes. Add the watercress or wild garlic and well-drained nettles or sea spinach (if using). Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir to mix and remove from the heat.
Whisk the egg in a bowl with the milk and crème fraîche. Add the finely grated lemon zest, thyme leaves, chives and grated cheese. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and a little cayenne.
Add the greens. Taste and correct the seasoning. (I find it really worthwhile to cook off a spoonful of the mixture in a frying pan to check the seasoning.)
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
Pour
or spoon into the tart shell and cook for 35-40 minutes or until the tart is
set and slightly gold. Remove from the tin. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm
or at room temperature with a little grating of Parmesan on top.
Nettle Champ
Nettles have been valued in Ireland since ancient times not only as a food, but also as a purifier of the blood. The belief is still strong particularly among older people in the country that one should have at least three dinners of nettles in April and May to clear the blood and keep away the ‘rheumatics’ for the coming year. Remember to use gloves to pick up stinging nettles.
Serves
Ingredients
675g old potatoes, e.g. Golden Wonders
25-30g chopped nettle (50g starting weight before destalking)
300ml milk
25-50g butter
salt and freshly ground pepper
Method
Scrub the potatoes and cook in boiling salted water until tender.
Meanwhile, chop the young nettle tops and cook in the milk for approx. 20 minutes.
As soon as the potatoes are cooked, drain and peel immediately while they are still hot. Mash until soft and free of lumps. Pour in the boiling milk, add the nettles and a good lump of butter, beat until soft and creamy. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Serve hot with a lump of butter melting into the centre.