Foraging for food leads to some tasty treats
I’m looking at the weeds coming up between the paving slabs, the growth on the cracked walls with delight. There’s food in them there fault-lines. Foraging is becoming increasingly popular, and we have been picking blackberries for years, so what’s new? Thanks to imaginative chefs, we now see there is even more pleasure from a walk on the wild side.
There is a balance to be achieved when foraging, so respect nature and the birds and bees which depend on it for food. We can pick some, but leave plenty behind for other creatures.
Foraging underlines the changes of seasons and, while we have just missed the wild garlic season, elderflowers need to be picked immediately... and get ready for the berries!
There are considerable health benefits to foraging, by walking and stretching to reach the best berries and leaves, as well as bending to pick ground plants, while vitamin D from the sun builds us up against winter colds. There are vitamins and minerals in every plant and even omega 3 fatty acids in some, so, as long as we don’t eat too much of anything and choose plants that are not poisonous, we can’t lose. To avoid dangerous species, bring a handful of plants home and check online or in books before tasting.
While quite a few leaves and many flowers have little flavour and often a slightly odd texture compared to what we know in cultivated fruit and vegetables, my solution is to incorporate them instead of making them the main part of a dish. Try to include as many as possible in salads with tastier leaves. One often brings out the flavour of another and the mix of textures can be exciting. Blitz leaves in a soup or hummus style dip with pulses such as chickpeas and broadbeans or root vegetables, such as carrots and sweet potatoes, or add to stir-fries just before serving.
GO FRUITY
The cultivated versions we find in supermarkets are not a patch on wild blackberries for flavour. Add fresh blackberries to porridge or muesli, to cream in a sponge, at the end of a pork stir-fry with a chopped apple. Blackberry jam is hard to beat, and the addition of apple helps it to set, or simply juice a lemon. I often strain it through muslin or a fine sieve to make a jelly as it’s more versatile when the seeds are gone. It’s delicious with savoury dishes such as pork and duck. If you find the fruit season arrives and you don’t have time to make preserves, bag the berries and keep in the freezer until you are ready. Defrost enough to make a potful of jam or jelly at a time and take the chore out of it. Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall has an appetising recipe for Blackberry whiskey in his book Fruit.
I often pick up the windfalls of crab apples on the roads which is very satisfying — tidying and foraging! They are small compared to sweet apples and if you bite into them, will be too sour to eat. I make loads of jelly and flavour it with whatever is to hand. Best of all you don’t have to peel or core the apples, just quarter them. I have put a recipe on my blog at rozcrowley.com.
These will be obvious to the eye as they look like small, round, dark blue/black plums. Stew them as you would garden plums, with water and add some spices such as a cinnamon stick if serving with game and duck.
Rosehip syrup — add to ice-cream, drizzle on cakes, including pavlova, make into a sorbet. Keep the sugar amount to a minimum to retain a little tartness.
(bilberries) taste great raw and can be added to cupcake mixes.
I saw a great recipe for ‘Haw’sin sauce’ in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s book, Fruit. They make good jelly too.
LEAVES
We have long appreciated the health benefits of nettles for their high iron content. I had the courage once to grasp the nettle with my fingers (you have to close in tight) but got stung by the nettles around them, so my advice is to wear rubber gloves.
Add nettles to an omelette with feta or Parmesan cheese, or steam in a few teaspoons of water as you would spinach. The sting disappears once heated.
Nettles are delicious cooked with parsley and made into a purée to drizzle over soups and salads or, as Relae chef Christian Puglisi suggested, over whipped goats cheese.
Dandelion leaves have more taste than many wild leaves, but use in small quantities. They are not called ‘pis-en-lit’ in France for nothing. Pick just before using as they wilt quickly. Dandelion root is considered a good diuretic too and can be made into a tea or dried as a substitute for coffee. Dandelion flowers can be soaked overnight in water with honey and lemon. Strain and add ice for a summer drink.
Pick pennywort off walls and between paving slabs and add to salads. The leaves are circular and have a frilly edge. They feel a little puffy and fleshy.
With its succulent leaves and stems purslane has a sour and salty flavour and is high in Omega 3 fatty acids, so useful for non-fish eaters.
Plentiful, there are few types some with pointed leaves and can be treated like dandelion.
WILD FLOWERS
I make syrup from the white heads and dilute it with sparkling water to make a summer drink with mint leaves and lemon. Gautham Iyers of Iyer’s café on Pope’s Quay soaks the flowers in warm cream before making delicious ice-cream and for serving clotted with scones. He picks them while still white.
When they turn a creamy colour they have more pollen. Keep them chilled before use. After the blossoms, next come the elderberries and Iyers makes chutney and a slightly sweet/tart relish. I make elderflower jelly (below) from the berries, adding a large squeeze of lemon to help it to set.
This is one of chef Gautham Iyer’s highly recommended wild flowers. A nourishing and cleansing tonic when made into a tea. Pick and tie into bundles ready for use.
AND DON’T FORGET ...
A field nearby has superb flat mushrooms. I once picked a huge one from the centre of a cow pat. Delicious! Any other type needs careful consultation.
Pine needles can be added to a bag of caster sugar to absorb their flavour for sprinkling on cakes or making into ice-cream.
Samphire’s (fleshy) stems are delicious steamed and served with fish and in omelettes. There are plenty of websites and books to learn about the benefits of seaweed and how it can be prepared. Kelp seems to be the richest in nutrients. Watch out for cockles, scallops and tiny mussels too.
CHECK IT OUT!
The slowfood website slowfoodireland.com has recipes each season for foraged foods.
Wayne Dunlea, known as Wayne the Forager, collects wild plants for himself and if he has any leftovers supplies small restaurants. Follow him on Twitter @glut_cork.
Cordial cupboard filling up nicely,now with added wild cherry and meadowsweet vodka! pic.twitter.com/ahpd379nHK
— Glut (@Glut_cork) July 19, 2015
Kevin O’Connell is a chef with a catering business and supplies his foraged produce to delis under his Forage & Find label. Based in Ballinspittle Co Cork, he does guided foraging walks too. www.forageandfind.ie.
Tweet @NadurCollective with a photograph to identify a wild plant.
Hard day training in the next generation of wildfood gatherers #foraging pic.twitter.com/Yp7BPvrc5K
— Nádúr Collective (@NadurCollective) July 14, 2015
Other sites include www.Visitdublin.com/foraging-in-dublin, www.Ediblewildfood.com/foraging-for-food and www.Facebook.com/Iyerscafe
The Organic Centre in Rossinver, Co Leitrim gives courses on foraging and converting weeds to food www.theorganiccentre.ie Ballymaloe runs courses in foraging www.cookingisfun.ie.
Longueville House has mushroom hunts every year. www.longuevillehouse.ie
Books for recipes and identification: Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills, Biddy White Lennon Wild Food and Relae: A book of ideas by Christian Puglisi. He gave a superb demonstration at the Ballymaloe Lit Fest this year, using a mix of foraged and cultivated leaves.
