A foragers cookbook

[possum]

suggest we start one here, I will happily format it into a printable version if there are enough contributors

so go on give us you best recipes

I would help if you could give the country or area the recipe is from if it isn't a common one.
Rule is that the main ingredient has to be foraged. And you must have cooked the dish yourself, not just thought it might be a good idea.

Classic Nettle Soup
Spring nettles
1 Carrot
1 Onion
2 small potatoes
2 tables spoons cream
chicken stock.
Salt and Pepper to taste
Chopped fresh parsely

You can adjust the amount of nettles, depending on the time of year (not so good a flavour later in the year) and also adjust the amount of stock depending on how thick you want your soup

Boil all ingredients for half an hour
Add cream
liquidise or rub through a seive
serve with a sprinkle of fresh parsely

[Silver Ether]

Sloe gin ....
I suggest that you use wide necked jars in the first instance then decant later into nice bottles.

Cut or prick the sloes and drop into a jar. Fill ½ or just over with berries then add sugar around I table sppon per bottle/jar.. All you have to do now is turn or agitate the bottle daily for a week, then weekly for a month or two ... by which time it will be ready to drink, but it is really best kept until the next winter fat chance. I suggest that you then decant into bottles at this stage or as soon as you see the fruit starting to break up.
...................

Sloe and Apple Jelly
Stew equal quantities of ripe sloes and green apples (skins and cores included) until soft, barely covering the fruit in the stew-pan with water. Strain through a jelly-bag. To each pint of juice add 1lb of sugar. Bring to the boil and boil until a little sets when tested. This jelly has a flavor of its own and is delicious with mutton, hare or rabbit or like me …strong cheeses
....................................
Sloe Jelly
3lb sloes (very ripe)
Sugar
1lb apples

Cover sloes and apples with water. Bring to boil and boil until fruit is soft. Strain. To every pint of liquid add 1 1/2 lbs sugar. Bring to boil. Boil gently until a trial sample skins over. Be careful not to boil too long, as the extra sugar may make the jelly sugary.

[Silver Ether]

Wild Ransoms...........

Fish Dish
100ml fish stock
3 shallots , finely chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
4x175g sea bass fillets Your choice of fish really
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
100g sliced button mushrooms
200g chopped wild garlic leaves
100g crème fraîche
salt and pepper
For the fish, heat the stock and shallots in a saucepan, over a high heat, until shallots soft.Then add mushrooms for a few mins.
Dust the sea bass fillets with flour on the skin side only. Heat olive oil and butter.in a pan that can be used in the oven. Put fish into the pan and into the oven around 180 gas. Cook for 6/7 mins just undercooked . then add onions with stock, mushrooms, garlic leaves and cook until the fish is cooked as you like it .


Pesto
Handful Garlic leaves.
Handful pine nuts… I use pine nuts because less folks are allergic to them and they are very good for you. You can use walnuts.
5-6 tbsp olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
Put all dry ingredients into blender of hand blender dish … add some oil and blend. Keep adding oil until the correct consistency is reached.

[Silver Ether]

Blueberries
Gluten Free Muffins

175g/6oz rice flour
50g/2oz tapioca flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp gluten-free baking powder
1 rounded tsp xanthan gum
¼ tsp salt
150g/5oz caster sugar
60g/2½oz butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, preferably free-range, beaten
60g/2½oz buttermilk
150g/5oz fresh blueberries
12-hole muffin tin lined with paper cases

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/35F/Gas 4.
2. Sift together the rice flour, tapioca flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and xanthan gum in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and sugar and mix well.
3. Whisk together the cooled melted butter, egg and buttermilk in another large bowl. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the butter, egg and buttermilk mixture. Stir gently with a wooden spoon to combine and finally gently fold in the blueberries.
4. Divide the batter equally between the 12 muffin cases and bake in the oven for approximately 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out cleanly. They are nicest served warm.

Blueberry preserve

Ingredients
1kg/2.2lbs Blueberries, washed
6 Large Sprigs Fresh Mint, tied together
The Juice of 1 lemon
1.3kg/3lb Sugar with Pectin
25g/1oz Butter I dont add butter because of vegans ...

Instructions

1. Prepare the jars and place a small plate or saucer in the fridge to get very cold.

2. Meanwhile, place the blueberries, mint, lemon juice and 150ml water in a large wide saucepan. Bring to the boil then simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes or until it begins to collapse, stirring from time to time.

3. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar until it has dissolved. Add the butter and return to a high heat. Bring to the boil then continue to boil vigorously for 3 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat and test for a set (see notes below).

5. Allow the jam cool a little, so that the fruit doesn’t float to the surface. Remove the mint, skim any scum off the surface, pour into warm jars, cover and label

[hmk]

Once you've made sloe gin, you can make the sloes into chocolates...

Stone as many of the drained sloes as you can- you can bash or cut them to do it. Chop if necessary and mix the mushy sloes with some dark chocolate in a pan, until the chocolate has melted. Put small spoonfuls into petit four cases and leave to set.

Gorgeous, but probably don't drive after eating them...

Will think of some other recipes.

Hazel

[possum]

Dandelion quiche

Make as you would a spinach and cheese quiche, but use dandlions

[Eigon]

Is that the flowers, or the leaves?

[w.f.specialist]

Hello,
/i cannot give too much away here as i am currently writing a wild food cook book from a chefs point of view but here is one i regularly do at home.
Cured Wood pidgeon
cut out breasts of wood pidgeon and skin making sure to remove all.
Use legs for confit and carcase for stock.
Lay breasts flat on a board and slice each into two horizontally.
With each breast place into a plastic bag or two pieces of cling film and carefully bat out using the end of a rolling pin, until twice the size and very thin.
Repeat untill all done.

Make the cure by mixing maldon sea salt and sugar at a ration of 2-1 also adding the leaves of thyme or rosemary and milled black pepper

Place a layer of this mixture in the bottom of a plastic container. Lay the breasts on top very gently as thin and fragile. Follow up with another layer of mixzture.
Leave for at least 14 hours.
rinse under cold water and pat dry.
Now ready to eat
In a plastic container

[Silver Ether]

Once you've made sloe gin, you can make the sloes into chocolates...

Stone as many of the drained sloes as you can- you can bash or cut them to do it. Chop if necessary and mix the mushy sloes with some dark chocolate in a pan, until the chocolate has melted. Put small spoonfuls into petit four cases and leave to set.

Gorgeous, but probably don't drive after eating them...

Will think of some other recipes.

Hazel

oooooh I like this one ...

[possum]

Is that the flowers, or the leaves?

the leaves

[mrsflibble]

Fruit vodka Liquor- also known round here as "flibblehooch"

half a carrierbag of whatever fruit you can find. my last lot had windfall pears (peeled, cored and diced), blackberries, sloes and half a tin of strawberries in juice (without the juice!! i had them in the fridge. if they'd been peaches i would have still used them)

1 bottle cheap (but not too cheap) vodka. i recommend lidl's rachmaninoff blue. hooch also works with gin, but you lose so much of the juniper flavour it's almost not worth it.

half weight to fruit of brown sugar....a mix of dark and light muscavado is nice as you want the treacle-toffee flavour.
i mean if you had 1lb of fruit, measure 1/2 lb of sugar. making sense? hope so. i don't measure anything unless I'm making a cake.

rind of one lemon

firstly, shove half the fruit in the freezer. you'll need it in 3 months time. make sure that in 3 months time you have more sugar.

wash and pick over the rest.
pour out about a quarter of the vodka if it's a new bottle. i recommend pouring it into two glasses and adding some lemonade and ice.
pok all the fruit into the bottle of vodka, then pour in the sugar and poke in the lemon rind pieces.
shake well and leave in a dark place for 3 months. shake every two weeks.

3 months later
remove fruit from freezer and allow to defrost iovernight. buy more sugar or find the old bag.

strain the vodka into a jug through a sieve and a clean j-cloth/muslin etc. if you have a jellybag, iuse that. i just use whatever i have to hand.

pour back into bottle after sampling.

add fruit and sugar, shake and put back into the dark hole. shake every two weeks if you remember.

3 months later still
strain again. it should now be thick and dark and should smell of autumn; fruit, toffee and a slight hint of bonfires.

pour back in bottle. sample. if it's too thick or sweet for you, get more vodka and top up.

this takes a long time but it's well worth it. good as shots, in lemonade, great as a change to standard vodka in a martini-esque thing but me and the hubby like it over ice cream like the italians have limoncello.

i have my batch for late 2008 on the go as we speak under my sink. I've just finished the stuff started in 2006.