Food from the Wild
Seasonal Menus
Spring
All leaves begin to grow and nettles and stem vegetables are at their peak.
Seaweed regenerates and morel mushrooms appear. Fish return to shores and
rivers after their winter migrations but animals and birds are protected during
their breeding season. It is the time to make flower wines from dandelion,
may and coltsfoot.
Herb Soup
Melt 25g (1 oz) butter in a pan, add 25g (1 oz) flour and cook for 1 minute.
Stir in 550ml (1 pt) chicken stock and bring to the boil. Add 3 tablespoons
herbs-caraway leaves, garlic mustard, mint, whatever is available-cover and
simmer for 20 minutes. Taste, adjust seasoning, stir in 1 tablespoon fresh
or sour cream, sprinkle with herbs and serve.
Mackerel Stuffed with Sorrel
Clean, bone and remove heads of 4 mackerel. Lay them flat on a board, skin
side down. Melt 50g (2oz) butter in a pan and blend with 50g (2oz) fresh white
breadcrumbs and 4 tablespoons chopped sorrel. Divide stuffing between fish
and, starting at the head end, roll them up. Place the rolls close together
in a baking dish, dot with butter and season. Pour over 2 tablespoons lemon
juice, cover and bake in an oven 205°C (400°F) gas mark 6 for 30-35
minutes.
Cream Cheese with Ramsons (eaten with oatcakes)
Make a cream cheese by setting aside some creamy milk until it goes sour
and solid. Then pour into a muslin, hang in a cool place and leave to drip.
When this has ceased, remove curd from muslin and mix with chopped ramson
stalks, salt and pepper. Eat with oatcakes.
Coltsfoot Wine
Dissolve 1.5kg (3½lb) sugar in 4.5l (1 gal) water and bring to the boil.
Simmer for 5 minutes, remove from heat and leave to cool. Add the rinds of
2 oranges and 2 lemons and 4.51 (1 gal) coltsfoot flowers and stir well. Add
previously activated yeast, cover and leave in a warm place to ferment for
7 days. Strain into a fermentation jar and insert an airlock. Leave until
fermentation has ceased, then bottle.
Summer
Green vegetables such as cow parsnip, watercress, yarrow and hedge garlic,
although they have lost their spring tenderness, are there in abundance. Thistles
and samphire reach maturity. Earthnuts and chamomile are in flower as are
elders in late June. Ash keys are ready for collection and pickling in early
summer, oats later. Berries begin with raspberries and strawberries. Molluscs
are in prime condition and fish and meat is in plentiful supply.
Shellfish Soup
Chop 1 large potato and 1 onion and cook gently in 25g (1 oz) butter for a
few minutes. Add 1.1l(2pt) shellfish, 1.4l (2½ pt) fish stock or water,
2 crushed cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, parsley and a bunch of edible seaweed,
fresh or dried. Bring to the boil and simmer until cooked. Remove the fish
from their shells and return to the soup. Reheat, stir in 275ml (½pt)
cream, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.
Jugged Pigeon
Clean and remove the liver of 1 pigeon. Put the liver in cold water, bring
to the boil, remove from the heat immediately and chop finely.
Stuffing : push the yolks of 2 hardboiled eggs through a sieve (reserve the
whites) and add 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs, the chopped liver, 2 tablespoons
mixed herbs and chopped parsley. Bind together with a beaten egg and season
well with salt and pepper.
Stuff the pigeon with this mixture and fasten with
a toothpick. To cook: put the pigeon in a casserole dish with 2 onions finely
sliced and pour over 275ml (½ pt) cider. Add bouquet garni and 275ml
(½pt) stock. Bring to the boil.
Bake in a slow oven for 12-22 hours until
very tender. When cooked, tip off liquid into a saucepan through a sieve.
Make up to 275ml (½pt) with extra stock if necessary. Add a large squeeze
of lemon, thicken with arrowroot and bring to the boil.
Put pigeon in a dish,
pour over the gravy, sprinkle with finely chopped egg white, parsley and deep-fried
croutons of bread.' Suki Kinloch.
Mint Sorbet
Boil 415ml (3/4pt) water with 100g (4oz) sugar and the pared rind of 2 lemons
for 5 minutes. Draw aside and add 1 large handful of mint leaves picked
from their stalks. Leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Add strained lemon juice.
Cool and freeze until firm. Serve covered with chopped mint.
Lime Blossom Wine
Dry 1.71 (3pt) lime blossom in the sun to bring out the flavour, then boil
them in 4.5l (1 gal) water for 30 minutes. When cool, add 450g (1 Ib) clean
wheat, 450g (1 Ib) chopped raisins and 1.5kg (3½lb) sugar. Stir until
sugar dissolves. Add some previously activated yeast, cover and leave to ferment
for 3 weeks, strain and bottle. Keep, if possible, for 1 year before drinking.
Autumn
Nuts are ready for picking and storing. Fungi are at their best. Animals
are fat from summer herbage and game-birds are in season. There are berries
in abundance: blackberries, rowanberries, and elderberries. For vegetables,
wood sorrel, ground elder and chickweed are still growing.
Mushrooms in Parsley and Garlic
Sprinkle a little olive oil oversome mushrooms and leave to marinateslice
if large. Drain off any juice which has accumulated and fry them in fresh
oil. After 5 minutes, add to every 225g (½lb) mushrooms 2 tablespoons
parsley chopped with a little garlic and 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs. Stir.
When the juices have absorbed the mixture, serve.
Rabbit Pie
Joint rabbit and fry floured in a little butter. Remove and keep warm. Fry
2 rashers of bacon and 1 small onion in remaining fat. Add 1 dessertspoon
flour, 275ml (2pt) stock, salt and pepper. Return joints to pan and cook
gently for 1 hour. Put in a pie-dish and cover with shortcrust pastry made
in the proportions of 100g (4oz) butter to 225g (8oz) flour. Bake for 2
hour or until nicely brown on top.' Pamela Urquhart.
Bilberry Sweet with Nuts
Cream 50g (2oz) butter with 2 egg yolks and 3-4 tablespoons sugar. Add 75-100g
(3-4oz) wholemeal bread previously soaked in milk and 90g (3½-oz) milled
nuts. Add 250g (9oz) bilberries or any other berry of your choice. Fold in
2 whites of egg stiffly beaten. Butter a fireproof dish and bake in a medium
oven for 30-40 minutes at 180°C (350°F) gas mark 4.
Blackberry Wine
Put 4.5l (1 gal) blackberries in a large bowl and pour over 4.5l (1 gal) boiling
.eater. Cover and leave to stand for 7 days stirring daily. Strain through
a muslin on to 1.8kg (4lb) sugar, stir well and add some previously activated
yeast. Put into a fermentation jar and insert an airlock if possible, otherwise
plug top with cotton wool. Leave to ferment to a finish. Bottle. Keep for
at least 6 months before using.
Winter
Sloes and hawthorn have been tenderised by a few frosts and are ready for
picking. Fungi last until December with the right weather. The seaweed laver
is in season and there are root vegetables to be dug. Game-birds are in season
until around Christmas. After this, there is a lean period during which time
pickles, preserves, potted or salted meat are very welcome, until the first
spring leaves start to appear in late February or early March, earlier in
the very south.
Potted Eel
Remove skins, heads, tails and fins and open at the belly from the head down
to the tail. Wash well, clean in salt water, and dry. Dust with flour. For
4.5kg (10lb) eel, prepare pickle of 35g (1½oz) bayleaves, 50g (2oz) marjoram,
25g (1 oz) thyme, 675g (1½lb) baysalt, 225g (½lb) coarse sugar,
275ml (½ pt) porter or beer. Cut up fish and lay in a deep dish with
alternate layers of seasoning. Cover and leave for 24 hours, longer if the
slices are thick. When thoroughly pickled, wash with salt water, dry, and
dust with flour. Fry in hot oil until brown, drain and cool.
The next day, lay in pots and cover with clarified butter.
Wild Duck with Thyme Stuffing
Stuffing : mix together with 1 egg 225g (½lb) sausage meat, 1 finely
chopped onion, 1 tablespoon chopped thyme, 2 tablespoons chopped parsley,
salt and pepper. Stuff bird and cover with bacon and a buttery paper. Roast
until cooked to your preference, about 1 hour.
Buttery Apple Crumble
Smear the bottom of a small pie-dish with butter. Slice apples and place
in layers with more butter, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Make a crumble with
100g (4oz) butter, 100g(4oz) sugar and 150g (6oz) flour. Put on top of apples
and bake until the crumble is brown.
Sloe Wine
Pour 1.1l (2pt) boiling water over 1.1l (2pt) sloes and leave to stand for
4 days, stirring at least once every day. Strain and add to each 1.1l (2pt)
liquid, 450g (1lb) sugar. Leave for another 4 days, stirring each day. Bottle
after it has settled but do not cork tightly until it has finished working.
