Weekend food with Darina Allen

ALYS FOWLER dedicated her book The Thrifty Forager “to my mother — thank you for teaching me to eat my weeds” — how cool is that!

It’s a terrific book; Alys’s mum taught her how to forage when she was just a tot, the first thing she distinctly remembers is sucking nectar from clover flowers.

Foraging, or searching for food ‘in the wild’ brings out the latent hunter-gatherer that exists deep in many of our physic.

Nowadays it’s as likely to be in towns and cities as in the countryside.

Ever since I was a child when I picked watercress from the edge of the stream by the Chapel Meadows, I have always loved foraging, except we didn’t call it that back then.

Throughout the year we had little expeditions, to find wild strawberries down the bog lane, bilberry or fraughans on Cullohill mountains around Lunaghsa (the first week of August). Later there were damsons around the old castle and wild hazelnuts, rowans and elderberries in the hedgerows.

Where others see weeds or nothing at all I can see dinner, not just fruit, berries and nuts.

There are all those greens and leaves that feed and nourish and heal.

Early in the year, young hawthorn leaves are known to be excellent for your cardiovascular system.

Young nettles have long been incorporated into our diet, their value as a blood cleanser is well known and the knowledge has been passed from generation to generation. Chickweed, sorrel, ground elder, sweet woodruff, bittercress, garlic mustard, oraches, daisy, borage, shepherds purse, ladies smock, mallow, ransomes etc.

Flowers are also edible — violets, pansies, roses (wild and old varieties are best, avoid heavily sprayed flowers from the florists) daisies, clover, field poppy, dandelion, day lily, mallow, marigolds, nasturtiums and many more.

Guess what, as ‘local’ has become the sexiest word in food, and not only over here but also in the United States and Australia where local is more valued and evocative than organic, foraging has now become so hip you can’t imagine. Thanks to The Thrifty Forager published by Kyle Books I have discovered many new finds which I can’t wait to taste.

Perrine Puyberthier’s Plum Tarte

For the pastry:

300g (10 ½ oz) flour

150g (5oz) butter

50g (2oz) caster sugar

2 egg yolks

1 glass of milk

Mix the flour with the butter and sugar until it becomes sandy textured.

Add the egg yolks and milk and mix together into a ball.

Cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge to stand for 1 hour.

After an hour roll out the pastry to fit a 23cm (9in) tart case.

Line the pastry with baking powder and baking beans or dried pulses and bake blind at 180ºC/gas mark 4 until it turns pale brown.

Let it cool. (obviously get rid of the paper and beans first!)

Meanwhile prepare the crème patissiere:

500ml (18floz) milk

1 vanilla pod

100g (3 ½ oz) caster sugar

2 egg yolks

50g (2oz) cornflour

Heat the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla pod.

Do not let it boil.

In a bowl, mix the sugar with the two yolks until it becomes smooth and shiny.

Add the cornflour and stir well.

Take the hot milk off the stove and remove the vanilla pod.

Put it back on a low heat and add the sugary egg mixture, stirring constantly. It usually takes about 15 minutes for the crème to cook. It should become stiff and come away from the sides of the pan, but it can take a little longer.

The plum filling:

1kg (approx 2lb) plums

Wash the plums, halve them and take out the stones.

Spread the crème patissiere on the pastry and cover neatly with the plums.

You can spread a layer of plum jam between the crème and the plums to add a touch of sweetness.

The greatest joy about this tarte is its delicious tartness.

Bake the tart at 180C/gas mark 4 for 15 to 20 minutes — the plums will become soft and slightly caramelised.

Roast Rack of Spring Lamb with Membrillo

Serves 4-6

Many butchers will prepare a rack of lamb for you.

2 racks of lamb (6 cutlets each)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Accompaniment:

Membrillo (see recipe)

Garnish:

Sprigs of fresh mint

Prepare the racks of lamb.

Score the fat. Refrigerate until needed.

Preheat the oven to 220C\425F\gas mark 7.

Sprinkle the racks of lamb with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Roast fat side upwards for 25-30 minutes depending on the age of lamb and degree of doneness required. When cooked, remove lamb to a warm serving dish.

Turn off the oven and allow the lamb to rest for 5-10 minutes before carving to allow the juices to re distribute evenly through the meat.

Carve the lamb and serve 2-3 cutlets per person depending on size. Serve with membrillo.

Alys Fowler’s Membrillo

Quinces or flowering quinces, japonica

Water

1 vanilla pod, split

Lemon juice and rind of 1 lemon, cut into strips

Granulated sugar

Wash the quinces well, as they have a sticky coating that attracts all sorts of dirt, then chop them into quarters and remove all their pips – like many other rose family plants, the seeds contain nitrites that are converted into hydrogen cyanide in your stomach. Too many seeds can be toxic and result in death.

Place fruit in a large pan, adding just enough water to cover the fruit. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer until tender. This takes 20–30 minutes.

Strain the juice overnight to use for jelly (see opposite) and put the remaining pulp through a sieve or mouli, then add the vanilla, lemon juice, rind and sugar (the same weight of sugar as pulp). Return the pan to the heat and bring slowly to a boil, stirring constantly so that the sugar melts.

Bring this to a rapid boil until it reaches setting point, when the paste will feel thick and scrape clean away from the sides of the pan. This takes between 30–45 minutes. Then take the pan off the heat and pour the paste onto greaseproof paper on baking trays to air-dry. If you have a dehydrator, use it at this stage.

The paste should be about 2cm thick. After several days, it should be slightly shiny and sticky to touch, but not moist.

Wrap the paste in greaseproof paper and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. It will last many months kept like this.

Birgit’s Stone Soup

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main course

Stone soup comes from an old folk story found in many parts of the world about making something out of nothing.

Birgit is quite used to me turning up at her house with a handful of this or that and staying long enough for them to be whipped into something nourishing for lunch. Her version of the soup is excellent for instant positive results after foraging, and ideal when coming back cold from a long foraging walk. This is a warming soup that takes just 30 minutes from bag to bowl.

2 medium onions

Garlic (2 cloves or more to taste)

3 big potatoes

2 big handfuls of mixed foraged herbs: stinging nettles, wild garlic, chickweed, lemon balm, sow thistles, ground elder, bladder campion, three-cornered leeks, herb bennet leaves, sorrel, dandelions, dead nettles, mallows (though these make for a mucilaginous soup if you include too many), fat hen, oraches or borage.

Or just a single green, such as sorrel or stinging nettles

Butter or good frying oil, such as rapeseed oil

Good-quality vegetable stock cube or powder

Good-quality salt (such as Himalayan rock salt or sea salt) and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bread of your choice, to serve

Chop the onions and garlic finely.

Peel and chop the potatoes into fairly small cubes.

Roughly chop the herbs.

Heat the fat in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat.

Add the finely chopped onions and stir until they start to glaze, then add the garlic and fry until just golden.

Add the potatoes and cook for five minutes, stirring to stop them from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Cover with boiling water, add a little vegetable stock (cube or powder) and cook for a further seven to 10 minutes.

Add the roughly chopped herbs and cook until just tender (say another four minutes) — do not overboil the herbs or they’ll lose their goodness.

Season to taste. Serve with chunky bread.

If you prefer a smooth-textured soup, whizz it through a blender.

This will also fuse the flavours together, particularly if you’ve used a lot of bitter herbs, and make it more palatable to those who may be a little wary of wild things.

Hot tips

A feast of Irish food from artisan producers matched with award-winning wines at O’Connell’s in Donnybrook is on Tuesday, September 27, from 7.00pm. Phone [phone] or [e-mail].

I will be giving a cookery demonstration at The Irish Seed Savers Apple Weekend tomorrow. The Apple Weekend starts today at 12 noon at Capparoe, Scarriff, Co Clare. Park at Scarriff National School and take the free shuttle bus to the Irish Seed Savers site. For more information 061-921866 — http://irishseedsavers.ie/

Debbie Shaw (Naturopathic Nutritionist) is back on Saturday, October 1, to teach Feel Good Food for Winter — a day course from 9.30am to 5.00pm at Ballymaloe Cookery School. 021-4646785.

Slow Food East Cork event — A Taste of Honey with Michael Woulfe — is on Thursday, September 29, at Ballymaloe Cookery School at 7.00pm sharp. Michael will talk about the value of bees for pollination and encourage people to keep their own bees. Admission €6 Slow Food Members and €8 Non Slow Food Members.

Lissadell Estate, Co Sligo has the largest private collection of potatoes in Ireland. Dermot Carey and David Langford will give a talk on the collection at Ballymaloe Cookery School on Tuesday, September 27, at 7.00pm. Phone [phone].