Wild Food Larder

I am adding this a little later in the season than i would have liked, spring being rather more bouncy this year,and has led me astray spending more time out foraging and enjoying the countryside rather than in the kitchen.

Over the years i have read and tried many varieties of nettle soup and not once have i felt that the humble nettle has been cooked to its potential. there is a train of thought when making creams soups such as nettle and watercress to use potato as a thickener. Often these gloopy starchy bowls of goo have little colour and taste only of the thickener.

I am being arrogant here i realise but then perfection is what i seek in treating a humble weed and transforming it into  something that would encourage more peole to have a go at using them.

So here is my take on a nettle soup. Feel free to have a go and do follow the recipe as it is precise and does work.

If you have any questions then do mail me.

Young Nettle soup

This recipe does not need cream as the rice will achieve creaminess without the starchiness of potato. The lemon juice will hold the colour and give a light tartness. By blanching nettles first will remove any earthy acids.

70g onion

2 tblsp extra virgin olive oil

118g Nettles blanched

70g Green leek

35g white stem of wild garlic

½Stick celery

1 litre light chicken stock

25g Arborio rice

Juice of ½ Lemon

White pepper

Sea salt

Method

1. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and lower in the washed nettles. Cook for one minute only. Refresh in plenty of cold water, squeeze out excess water and chop finally.

2. Sauté onion, celery, white stem of garlic and leek together in olive oil

3. Add the rice and stock. Simmer very gently until rice almost cooked.

4. Time to now add the blanched nettles and continue to cook for a further five mins.

5. Liquidise soup which should still be a vibrant green. When nicely smooth and velvety add a squeeze of lemon juice white pepper and salt.

Watercress Gremolata

A good handful of watercress finely chopped

Zest of ½ Lemon

1 clove mashed garlic

Pinch black pepper

Chorizo slices fried in hot olive oil. The oil will turn red. Now flavoured Dice chorizo and top soup drizzle with oil.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 1:20 pm and is filed under Recipes, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.