spring foraging

Blossoms, jelly, gin and rain.

/ Liz Knight / Leave a comment

The British summer is nearly upon us, for a few weeks palest apple blossoms, mauve lilac flowers and early roses have punctuated the green landscape with their splashes of painterly colour..but the north wind doth blow, scattering blossom confetti at the feet of newly swelling fruit trees. And we shall have rain, and soon the rain leaches colour from these late spring blooms. But before you say goodbye to the smells and sights of spring florals, turn a few into a treat fit for a flower fairy, and her boozier elf friends….

These recipes are a mix of wondrous spring flowers, sour early fruit, herby surprises and weedy treats – they are worth both making together and eating / drinking in one sitting. You’ll be full of the joys of late spring if you do.

 

Firstly you’ll need to make a bottle of nettle syrup – don’t be put off, it’s heady stuff & you can eat the nettles for puritanical goodness..pick young nettle tips, add them to a pan with 250ml water, wilt and squeeze out the liquid – add your nettles to wild garlic pesto or blitz with a spoon of cream, scrape of nutmeg and twist of pepper & stir into pasta.

Add 250g sugar to the nettle liquid, warm and dissolve & take the liquid to the boil, making a syrup – add a squeeze of lemon and allow this to cool (e voila – you’ve gotten nettle syrup)

Gather a handful of apple blossoms, a mauve head of a lilac flower, an early rose, a few honeysuckle flowers and a handful of blackcurrant leaves..chop into slivers, and add to them the thinnest slices of rhubarb, pine tips, and angelica stems.

If you want to feed fairies, dissolve gelatine into the nettle syrup, stir in the blossoms and top up with soda water (or processo if your fairies are over 18) pour the mixture into a suitable container & place in a refrigerator until set.

Feasting with an Elf? They’re partial to a sun downer you know – gently pound the flowers, herbs and rhubarb in a pestle & mortar with a spoon of sugar & squirt of lemon. Pour into a tall glass for you and a thimble for the Elf, add a shot of gin or vodka, a chunk of ice and top up with soda.

Eat, drink and get a spring in your step..

 

 

 

 

Breath in the spring..then eat it

/ Liz Knight / Leave a comment

Have you ever noticed the ‘smell of spring’? It usually happens on a dewy morning when the sun is warming up the ground and plants are growing so fast you can almost see them shoot upwards. This recipe captures some of the plants that contribute to this wonderful sweet smell; a wild take on a classic salsa verde – easy to gather, easy to make and very very easy to eat. And would you believe it, it’s delicious with bangers, on bread and probably goes very well with a glass of beer. It also happens to be senstational with spring lamb, pork, fish or cheese.

These are all rough quanities, it’s up to you how much you pick or add. When you are collecting your ingredients have a bite so you get to know the leaves distinct flavours – you’ll have a pleasant suprise! Incase you can’t find them all, I’ve included a ‘non wild’ alternative to the wild ingredients. Adapt this recipe for your own taste buds or what you can gather – the core ‘herby’ ingredients are garlic and ground elder (or parsley) play around with the other ingredients – this kind of recipe is all about having a bit of a play! Think grown up mud pies that happen to taste delicious…go on, get playing
a large handful of wild garlic (or 2 bulbs of garlic)
a large handful of ground elder (or flat leaved / curly leaved parsley)
a few dandelion leaves before the plant has flowered
a handful of ox eyed daisy leaves or daisy leaves from your lawn
a dozen or so pennywort leaves (or a small cucumber with the seeds removed)
a dozen or so sorrel leaves (or a squeeze of lemon juice)
a small handful of mint leaves
a handful of young hawthorn or lime leaves

2 tablespoons of pickled nasturtium seeds, samphire or elderflower buds (or capers)
Virgin Rape seed oil or olive oil
Cider Vinegar
Sugar
Salt

Soak all of the leaves in fresh water with a cup of vinegar added – (this cleans them).
Dry the leaves in a salad spinner (or, if you are like me give and without one, give them a good shake!)
Roll handfuls of leaves into cigars and chopped them as finely as your arms will allow. You can put them in the food processor and blitz them, but the best texture comes from hand chopping (sorry!)
Add the leaves to a bowl, finely chop the nasturium seeds and add these.
Pour in enough vinegar to make the leaves ‘wet’ but not drowned – about 250ml (if you have leaves floating in a pool of vinegar, you’d probably added too much)
Add a few glugs of oil – stir the mixture together
Start adding sugar, tasting along the way –  you want to get to a sweet and sour balance that you like; and finlally season the mixture with salt if you feel it needs it.
Put the salsa verde into a covered jar, pop in the fridge and use within a couple of days

Probably one of the least prescribed recipes you’ll ever read but sometimes you have to use your taste buds rather than a book…

Primrose Curd – A taste of spring to come

/ Liz Knight / Leave a comment

The dirty palette of winter landscapes has suddenly been injected with splashes of vibrant tones, fields are greening with neon new shoots and verges are speckled with yellows of all hues; primroses. gorse flowers, celandine and daffodils, signalling that spring really is coming.

Up here is the hills we’re still in the throws of winter but even here we’ve spotted a few buttery primroses celebrating the very welcome, very delicious flavours of early spring. So whether you’re in sunny parts where spring is springing, or in a colder pocket where you need a glimpse into spring, this is for you…..  What better way to celebrate the coming of spring than with a sweet treat full of spring sunshine flavours, and if you have primroses in your garden you can turn a handful of flowers into a desert to delight even the saddest Jack Frost.

My friend Rebecca lives in a little cottage which has a beautiful shady garden which is covered in primroses in the spring, it is so carpeted in fact that the cottage is called Primrose Cottage and her 2 sons Tim and Rob gather the primroses I use in my curd. Rather than collecting from verges, gather your primroses from clumps in your own gardens. You can pluck and propagate at the same time as primrose seeds can be sown green – pop open the fruit capsule & push the tiny seeds just under the earth – you’ll have your own Primrose Cottage in no time.

Primrose Curd  – with Primrose Meringues

Makes 8

Ingredients

4 large egg whites

240g granulated or caster sugar

8-10 primrose flowers, chopped

Primrose curd (see below) or lemon curd

300ml double cream, whipped

• Preheat the oven to 300F/150C/Gas 2. Put the egg whites and about a quarter of the sugar in a large bowl and whisk to soft peaks. Still whisking, gradually sprinkle in all but about 3 tbsp of the sugar, beating until it is holding soft peaks again. Finally, fold in the last of the sugar and the chopped flowers.

• Line a large baking sheet with non-stick baking parchment and spoon the mixture in eight well-spaced mounds (they’ll need a good 3cm between each).

• Bake for 45 minutes, or until palest gold and dry and firm to the touch. Leave to cool on the paper.

• Very carefully peel the meringues off the paper — they will be fragile. Turn upside down and spoon cream and primrose curd on the base. Decorate with more flowers, crystallised if you like.

Primrose curd

Ingredients

A generous handful of unsprayed washed primrose petals

450g sugar

450g Bramley apples

125g unsalted butter

4-5 large eggs

The zest and juice of 2 lemons

• Day one: finely chop the primrose petals, place them with the sugar in a container and stir through the primrose flowers. Cover and leave for at least 24 hours (this will allow the flavours from the petals to be released into the sugar).

• Day 2: peel and chop 450g of apples, put them into a pan with 100ml of water and the lemon zest. On the hob, gently cook the apple until it is yieldingly soft, then mash it into a purée.

• One-third fill a pan with water and place a snug-fitting heat‑proof bowl on top of the pan. Add the apple, butter, lemon juice and primrose sugar mixture to the bowl. Heat the pan and stir the mixture until the butter has completely melted.

• Turn off the heat and add the eggs to the mixture through a sieve. Stir the eggs in thoroughly with a balloon whisk.

• Put the pan back on a gentle heat and stir the mixture for about 10 minutes, until it thickens. (It will thicken further as it cools.) Pour the curd into sterilised jars, seal immediately and store in the fridge, where it will keep for up to a month.

• If you want to use the curd straight away, transfer the mixture to a wide bowl (ideally a stainless steel one) and sit in a larger bowl of iced water. Stir occasionally until cold.