Wild Food Larder

St. Georges Part two……

The spade was to dig out BBQ sized turf so as not to scorch ground and was replaced after.
The Bass was delicious and very simply cooked with just salt.pepper, olive oil and lots of fresh lemon juice. Served with St.George mushrooms in lemon butter & bread. Oh and a simple wild salad of lambs sorrel, wild pea shoots, garlic mustard leaf and ox ey daisy shoots…..
Truly scrumptious.

It has almost become an annual road trip these days to locations where st. Georges appear in vast numbers each year. 2009 is no exception. We set off obscenely early to avoid traffic and although three hours on the road is too long in my opinion the sun shone bright and the skies remained clear.
Picking the first fungi of the year is incredibly exciting and is difficult to explain to those fungal virgins. I cannot compare it with anything else though my head is trying.
We had a plan however, we bought with us BBQ, spade, whole 3lb sea bass caught the day before, charcoal, frying pan butter,lemons and seasonings.
This is what occured below

Little old sleepy clevedon in the west country has thrown a suprise that in my world is hugely surprising but magically exciting, and will possibly make me chuckle to myself for years to come.

There is a marina at the end of clevedon promenade which has been there since the nineteen thirties and was for many decades used by local mad people who enjoyed swimming in the middle of winter………………….bbbbrrrrr. It is also a great spot for parents, accompanied with small screaming and over excited children to dangle left over pieces of bacon rind from breakfast, tied in one of mothers washing tablet bags and dangled over the edge to entice sideways party animals (aka shore crabs). Who then are shaken into sand buckets of warm sea water.

Apart from these activities the lake sees very little action and is viewed simply as a piece of water that in the summer turns aqua marian in color due to the silt settling, thus giving the bristol change ahead of it an even more unfriendly and diry demenour. Until one day a few years ago i happened to be fishing nearby for cod and noticed that it had been emptied of water and in amongst the old bicycles and rubber wellies were two enormous diggers, chugging out huge bucket loads of black silt and dispencing them over the marina wall onto the foreshore.

Intrigued and curious i strolled down and jumped into the now empty marina which suprisingly had a solid concrete bottom under the silt, and there they were………..i had struck gold.

“Cockles and cockles alive alive oh”! billions of the little critters just sat there waiting to be scooped up and taken home to be scoffed in a zillion different ways. I was so excited i almost wet myself and forgot that i was not wearing wellies only brand new trainers…… bugger!

I dashed home for wellies and rake and trays.

The result was as i remember twenty kilos of cockles to do with many many things.

Above are the ingredients for my cockle and wild garlic chowder. Below a large jar of spiced pickled cockles

and below again are an example of cold oak smoked cockles……….delicious

more to follow.

Now however, itis St. Georges day and therefore i must dash out and forage for that amazzing springtime fungus of the same name.

Many things have been written about this brilliant and beautiful plant, i refer you to http://www.huntergathercook.typepad.com/
for a brief and interesting history and origin.
In the west country although mainly growing in surrounding coastal areas its growth and habitat have extended considerably inland, mainly due i surmise as a direct result of the many centuries of trading from all over the world. Bristol being formally one of the worlds greatest and largest coastal ports.
It’s uses then, as indeed now were probably minimal and used only by local and indigenous peoples to the coast.
Today though mostly forgotten in taste it still remains a great substitute as a herb for flavoring a chunky potage or broth, a vegetable when the lower stems are still blanched and young, and the flower in Late April and May, full of yellow dust or pollen that can transform into a delightful and refreshing drink.

In the past i have achieved this using Birch sap as a base due to its  natural sweetness.

At first however, the sap must be pasteurised before the flowers can be  soaked in the liquid for a number of days with oranges and lemons. Following this process over a week or so the now delightful, soon to be drink is then given a carbon dioxide blast to add tiny champagne like bubbles.

Just like spring it is full of zing and will refresh your buds of taste…………..

The recipe however, will be revealed in my new book out next year so stay tuned……….

I feel i must include this recipe as it always gives me much pleasure to put it together, and its uses are many. for those out there who have a passion for cooking and particularly wild garlic i hope this will tickle you as much as it does me.

The other reason for making this today is i might add it to one of my cured sausage recipes. Normally i mince the wild garlic along with the pork and other ingredients which results in a great green pink sausage, much to the amusement of many of my customers at Bath  Farmers market each Saturday. My welsh customers (The Riverside Farmers Market in Cardiff)  also enjoy its outrageous green colour being a colour close to their hearts leek lovers as they are.

Bring to the boil a large pan of water and season with sea salt. Drop in a large handful of wild garlic leaves and long stalks and blanch for one minute. I stand there and turn over and judge one minute. Basically this will allow for color change from dull green  to vibrant green.

remove to a large bowl of very cold tap water to stop the  cooking process. When cool remove and squeeze out excess water. See image below.

This can also be called wild garlic spaghetti i’m sure you will agree when i say it looks simply fabulous just as it is. At this stage i  will toss it with hot linguine  and maybe some grated pecorino and pieces of my own pork prosciutto. Yummy scrummy

The next process involves either a stick blender or magimix. I use a stick blender as my magimix is rubbish, i would however, prefer to use a magimix as it is much easier. Roughly chop blanched wild garlic and add to blender along with about 150ml of  light olive oil followed by sea salt and freshly milled black pepper. Wizz the light fantastic until your now puree looks like the picture below. Taste for additional seasoning and there you go. Ready to use in many different ways.

Later i will add my favorite way of using this puree in a wild garlic risotto with  additional St. Georges mushrooms.

With continued determination i began again but my chefs brain was un-repentent in its mission to not peel off collary bits from dandelion and so again i infused flowers with water and orange segments and brought slowly to a simmer for one hour or more in the forlorn hope that this time it would work.
As i strained the now wilted and sad looking blossoms from there watery grave and disgarding them to my chicken/compost pot, the resulting liqour was a golden albeit slightly green looking ditch water.
Oh no not again………..!
Never one to admit failure i continued the operation and added a reduced amount of sugar to the sad looking ditch water and squirted in juice from a lemon. As the liquid reduced and began to clear leaving a yellow scum to lap at the edges of the pan i began to feel hopeful that although i had cheated i may have just achieved Dandelion Confiture aux fleurs de Pissenlits.
Alas no………..well not to my exacting standards any how. It has made a jam that tastes delicious but the colour is not that which i first imagined and it did not set quite how i imagined, a more syrupy honey drizzler kind of affair.
We shall continue this attempt at Dandelion jam and i will keep you posted as to its success.
There is a moral to this story i know and i need not remind myself. Chefs are not always right and should sometimes follow a recipe rather than make changes first.
Rosie Green if you are reading this i promise to follow to the letter next time.

Welcome to my first blog entry for 2009.
Out walking yesterday in glorious spring sunshine at Woodspring Priory (w-s-m) i had been inspired by a Rosie Green whom i have never met nor spoken with but shared a post on www.Downsizer.net about Dandelion jam. She kindly posted a recipe fora all to play with.
tickled pink and excited i promptly dashed out and picked enough for a small batch.
The results were, to be honest not brilliant. I had tried to cheat by not removing green collery bits and the resulting liquid was too bitter. I had also added too much sugar making it too sweet.
Mistakes have to be made in order to learn.