Wild Food Larder

Having spotted a fabulous wild plum tree yesterday i was keen to get out today and pick enough to make my version of an oriental classic plum sauce.  As it turned out  i managed to find another tree, boughs bent under the weight of bright yellow fruit. This was a Yellow egg plum tree on the corner of an office park and suburbia.

Trailer full of yellow egg plums to be used for other recipes

Still shocked that no one had picked any my bike trailer was quickly filling and tyres bulging form the weght.

1kg of mirabelle plums making plum sauce

The recipe for this is slightly different to a classic plum sauce in that i have added a tablspoon of barley miso paste for depth of flavour, along with star anise and sechquan peppercorns.

Ingredients

1kg of dark plums

200ml honey or as used dandelion syrup and honey mix

1 bulb garlic, mashed

1 tbl sp grated fresh ginger

150ml tamari or soy sauce

1tsp sechquan peppercorns

2 broken up star anise

1 birds eye red chilli roughly chopped

Method

1. Place everything into a suitable saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook out for a thirty mins or until plums soft and squiggie.

2. Strain through a fine sieve or chinois (conical strainer).

3. I keep mine in a four litre ice cream tub and refrigerate.

Uses

i serve as a dip for my nemes or sea vegetable spring rolls. Also good as an addition to stir fries etc.

As a result of catching yet more Bass recently and feeling in need of light refreshing grub i quickly knocked up this littel number. I thank my training now back in the eighties where and when i was learning the ins and outs of vegetarian and vegan cooking in a little restaurant in Bristol namely Wildoats.

It is always useful to have a working larder in order to whisk things up in a hurry. Necessary ingredients here are ginger, garlic, chilli, fresh coriander, fish sauce and lime. o h and shoyu Tamari or soy sauce if you don’t mind the wheat.

Fish stock

Made from things i happen to have in larder

Bones from bass

1 litre water

1/2 carrot

1 shallot

2 bayleaves

stalks corinader

zest of lime

few peppercorns

sprig rosemary

1/2 birds eye chilli

Soup

Brush fillets with the folowing paste and leave for thirty mins-

Hatcho miso

fish sauce

lime juice

tamari

In a saucepan add one shallot a handfull of sea lettuce, marsh samphire, fresh ginger, garlic, spring onion and carrot. any other veg you wish. Bring to a gentle simmer and add Bass fillets. Serve in ONE MINUTE.

I added Cooked brown Basmati rice to balance.

The finished little Nems

This is a raw version of the recipe below,well almost the same. These are a delicious and light snack suitable at any time of the day. In order to create these tasty little nems i researched many recipes on line to gather in my head the very essence of what i remember a Nem should taste like. Although i have never been to Vietnam  i have eaten in a number of fabulous little Cantonese and Vietnamese restaurants in and around Paris. As i remember the delicate and small Nems were served with lettuce leaves, fresh mint leaves and a tangy orange flavored dipping sauce. I have also eaten them whilst in Bristol. A girlfriend of a friend of mine who, as luck would have it was Cantonese, bought us a selection of nems along for our lunch as part of a picnic. Delicious and different, as they were flavoured using miso, soy and honey. As these Nems are made using Marsh Samphire & sea lettuce both of which are naturally salty i decided on using a Barley Miso. this i mixed with a ration of wo to one with Shoyu/tamari, fish sauce, honey and a little rice wine. thus creating a light sweetness but good strength of savory miso. It works incredibly well. Here is the recipe along with photo shots of assembly.

a piece of sea lettuce is laid on top of a rice paper

Be sure to soak the circular rice papers in warm water first. This will make them easier to handle and roll up.

50g of filling spooned along length of lettuce

I have mentioned 50g of filing but actually 60-70g is more like the true representation here. I did weigh each portion at 50g but added more.

Drizzle (using a pastry brush) an amount of the dipping sauce prior to putting on the next piece of sea lettuce

cover the filling with another piece of sea lettuce

This done it is now time to roll the whole ensemble up like a cigar, so brace yourself and get your nibble  pinkies ready

The finished product all barr the trimming of the ends.

Now rolled up and looking cigar shaped you will notice that it is quite wet and a little slippery. This is normal. Before cutting into sections ready fofr serving, lay on a plastic tray and refridgerate for about an hour un-covered. This will assist the drying out process. Allowing easier handling.

This is a small picture of one of my nems on a plate, lightly brushed with the dipping sauce

Read the rest of this entry »

My love for Chinese, cantonese and Vietnamese spring rolls has led me to  invent my own wild food version. I have researched this quite thoroughly all of the above mentioned countries versions of the spring rolland have decided to make two versions. The first version (pictured above) will be the deep fried version.

Unlike the nasty things one finds in most disgusting English Chinese restuarants dotted around our cities and villages this version is freshly Hot thanks to the addition of the small and fiery Thai style red chillies, lots of fresh coriander, fresh pestled garlic and grated fresh ginger.

Deep Fried Summer rolls with  Marsh Samphire, Sea Lettuce,  dried shrimp, Huss & red chili

Ingredients

marsh samphire

red chili, sliced thinly

grated fresh ginger

several cloves garlic, mashed with salt in pestle & mortar

plenty chopped coriander including stems & root

spring onion green and white

lots of chopped wild sea lettuce

diced pieces of Bull Huss

miso paste

shoyu or Tamari

chopped and soaked vermichelli

A little honey

Method

1. Pretty straight forward, prep and mix all together. Place on paper and roll. Cannot give quantities as for new book, but im sure you can work it out you clever people.

2. A dip can be made to dunk in your hot parcels. there are so many to choose from. However, these rolls are very fresh and light the red chilli comes through in bites and the coriander is excuisite. therefore i would recommend a simple mixture of

Dipping sauce

Shoyu Tamari

Dark sherry

Freshly grated ginger

finely diced red chilli

a little water

honey or sugar to taste

a shake or two of fish sauce (Nam pla)

On a recent short break  to Cornwall i was fortunate enough to go out in a friends boat, fishing along stretches of the river Foy. This 10lb Bull huss was the first and largest fish of the day.

The Bull huss like the humble dog fish and Smoothhound has a somewhat mixed bag of opinions. Indeed it is still not part of our national diet of favoured fish, and yet there are no strict fish quotas on either of the three species.

Once upon a year dog fish was indeed battered and deep fried and sold as rock salmon. No more however, as it has now been relabeled by some bureaucrat or other as rock eel.

huss on the other hand i can only guess as  being one of the same, as the species are very similar.

The recipes i am about to show you are quite simple so i hope you have a go. A few of the better Supermarkets will sell Huss and should a number of good fishmongers if you are fortunate to have one near you.

The flesh is bone free, very soft and quite sweet.

Deep fried Bull huss in a cider Batter

It is possible to see in the image on the left how white and bone free the flesh is. Once skinned the huss can be easily filleted. the bones should  be used to make a light fish stock or nage.

Batter recipe

200ml good quality single apple cider

125g flour

salt & pepper

1 egg separated

method

1.In a bowl add flour salt and pepper and egg yolk. /whisk in cider and set aside

2.Whisk the egg white too stiff peaks and fold into the flour,egg and cider mixture

3.Take each piece of fish and first dip in seasoned flour and then batter.

4. Fry at 180 degrees until crisp and brown.

I served this with a wild fennel herb mayonnaise

Wild fennel Mayonnaise

2 egg yolks

1 tbl sp white wine vinegar

250ml light olive oil

salt & pepper

lemon juice

1 tbl sp freshly copped wild fennel herb

Method

1. Whisk egg yolks with white wine vinegar till frothy and sabyon esq.

2. Begin adding oil slowly emulsifying  the liason. Continue to add oil if too thick add a tbl sp water.

3. When consistency achieved add fennel and adjust seasoning with lemon juice.

A summer to remember 2009 will be for me if only because elderflower and meadow sweet are out in bloom together.

Picking Meadow sweet tips

I should mention this as i went out this morning (2 July 2009) wearing only shorts, crocks and T-shirt. What a mistake. I recomend slacks, or jeans and long sleeves.

Habitat

Very distinguishable as picture shows, growing predominantly along side rhines, streams, canals, rivers and some lakes. Often when growing by rhines and small steep river banks, they will grow on the sownward slope toward the water. This makes pickng a little cumbersome, stretching through lots of high nettle. Be prepared.

Meadow Sweet Cordial

I was going to save this recipe for my new book out next year the wild food of Somerset however, the sun has gone to my head and feeling generous.

I have saved everyone a lot of time here by creating a recipe that can be made by weighing rather than counting.

Recipe

500g open meadow sweet flowers

3 kg raw cane sugar

50g citric acid

10 litres water

6 sliced lemons

Method

Bring water to the simmer with sugar.

In a plastic storage container/bucket add all other ingredients.

Pour on boiling water and leave for two-three days in a cool place and away from sunlight.

Strain and add one cambden tablet to each gallon of liquid.

Bottle and store.

I have recently joined Twitter for reasons culinary. As i began to acrue followers and visited many web sites, one in particular jumped out at me. The making and desperation that crumpets inflict on ones soul when failure is imminent was apparent of the web site author.

I am here to help and share my recipe. To that person out there whose name i have forgotten and web site too, i commented on your site and said i was a chef and would knock up a batch, to photo and share.  behold Below Crumpets in all there holy glory……….

The first photo show the four stages of cooking, i need not explain further just work it out