Monthly Archives: April 2010

Edible plants no. 2 – Wild garlic

Ramsons

Allium ursinum currently growing in a damp woodland near you. Also known as ramsons. As you can see the flowers still haven’t opened as it’s been a bit dry lately.

Wild garlic as it first appears before flowering

I picked some in the woods yesterday, in my guise as ye olde wise woman of Bristle, and many people stopped and asked if I was picking mushrooms.

‘No my lovers’ said I, ‘Yer be ramsons’.

‘Oh yes we could smell the garlic, but how do you know which one it is?’
In reply ye olde wise one handed them a leaf from her basket and said, ‘Here try for yourself.’

‘What are you going to do with it?’

Treat it like chives or garlic, chop it up, make it into pesto, add it into scrambled eggs. ‘ (For an olde wise one I am not very good at punctuating dialogue, so I’ll stop right there)

Strong while they are raw, the taste is very mild when they are cooked. Pick the small leaves and the flower buds and keep them in a cardboard punnet in the fridge, sprinkled with a bit of water. They should keep a day that way. If you can’t bend down to grab some, then Riverford Organic Vegetable boxes have them too in the next week or so. I bet there are loads of recipes around.

Ulrike and Lynne have both been baking with these: Ulrike made ciabatta rolls and Lynne a country loaf – the ingredient of the day! I joined in the following day : Here are my wild garlic ciabatta buns and the recipe for them courtesy of Baker Süpke in Thuringen, Germany.

Wikipedia says : Ramsons (Allium ursinum) (also known as buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, sremuš or bear’s garlic) is a wild relative of chives. The Latin name owes to the brown bear‘s taste for the bulbs and habit of digging up the ground to get at them; they are also a favorite of wild boar.

They also make a lovely alternative to garlic in many other dishes as here : Potato Masala Dosa with Wild Garlic

Dan Lepard’s Chocolate, Stout and Raisin Slice

[Edited to take out links which are now ‘dead’]

I never hear the call to make things that involve coconut, that’s because I don’t have it in the cupboard. However I do have chocolate, cocoa, flour, golden syrup, vanilla, butter, oats, raisins, egg, soft brown sugar, and one tin of stout left over from bun making – yes, all present – so I don’t have to go shopping for some obscure ingredient.

It’s not that I like chocolate…

This is the first time I have mixed a cake entirely in a saucepan; so the kitchen was disappointingly tidy all the way through, unlike when I make bread.

Mackeson’s stout is a classic, sweet and creamy black beer made with milk lactose and whey. I Googled it to find out what was in it. Wikipedia inform me that is why there is a milk churn on the tin. I never notice things like that unless they are pointed out to me; I thought it was a rook from a chess set.

It feels a bit crazy pouring a can of beer into a saucepan and boiling it up with oats and cocoa as the first stage of a cake – cocoa beer porridge – reminded me of Babette’s Feast where the sister is making ale-bread soup. But I have already used stout in Dan’s new Easter bun recipe so I was on familiar territory. I am quite proud of my home made vanilla essence, something I learnt from Celia at Figjamandlimecordial which also features in this slice.

What’s it like? It is soft and moist with the oats and the stout, not as dense as you might think either, goes very well with a nice cup of tea on a sunny but chilly Friday afternoon. The cake part is chocolatey, juicy with raisins, creamy….and not too sweet – I am not good at describing taste but I am sure you get the idea. The icing is sweeter, as icing should be, but you could always make a different icing if you want less sugar. I am not going to write out the recipe here, it is only a click away after all! [Edit: this recipe is no longer available on the internet as far as I know, if I see it in a new Dan Lepard book I will update again]

Car pollution or volcanic dust?

Bristol City from Ashton Court yesterday

No planes still today…..

We went out this evening to see the sun set. The sky is noticeably empty of contrails, incredible! This is the best my little Lumix can do. We’ll take a bigger camera out tomorrow.