This dish of squid dusted in flour and Cornish sea salt, makes for a wondrous taste-tingling experience. Combined with wild edibles such as  rock samphire seeds deep fried in hot sesame oil, and other wild greens, it makes for an epicurean memory filled meal.

Ingredients

• 3 handfuls of finely sliced wild greens (whatever is in season e.g. garlic mustard, ramsons, nettle, nipplewort, hairy bittercress, black mustard etc.)
• 3tbsp rock samphire seeds
• 1/4tsp umami powder
• 1/2tsp ground ginger/fresh grated ginger
• 3tbsp sesame oil
• 1 handful of cashew nuts
• rice vinegar (to taste)
• tamari/soy sauce (to taste)
• 1tbsp honey
• 1 lemon (juiced + lemon zest to taste)

Since Beltane (30th April-1st May) the plants have gone bonkers. I’m harvesting wild edible plants to pickle, ferment, cordial and some-such before they go over and past their prime. You gotta reap while Mama Gaia is giving forth her abundance. For this wild salad recipe, I kidnapped a young local girl and encouraged her to come up with this creation…

…and boy does it work!…

Lucienne (a local disillusioned 30 something chef), was minding her own business having a quiet drink in my local boozer, when in walks this cocky forager in one one of his fancy shirts. Loud and proud as they say (I’ll be damned if I’m giving up the ghost just because I’m touching 50. I’m mean come on guys, get proud of yourselves, most of you middle-aged men look a shambles. Flip your finger at fashion, develop style… there’s a difference!).

Anyway, having wooed her to come out with me to the estuary for some ‘Wild Time’ ( the art of slowing down to sense landscape more acutely in order to create recipe ideas & be inspired. Someone thought it meant a feral bonk in the wilds. Sorry to disappoint.).

We ended up with 9 wild estuary greens:- sea aster, sea purslane, sea arrowgrass, seabeet, sea plantain, alexanders, black mustard, wild fennel, curly dock. Next it was back to the scruffians kitchen to create on the fly wild food recipes. Welcome to Lucienne’s estuary inspired imaginarium… and enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3 large handfuls of very young sea beet (either whole or sliced)
• 2 large handfuls of oxeye daisy leaves (chopped finely)
• 2 ripe avocados (diced)
• 1 tin of green olives stuffed with anchovies (whole)
• 1 lime (scrap the zest off)
• 1/2 pineapple (diced)
• dressed with magnolia vinegar & cold pressed organic rape seed oil.

Rape seed oil “…has a balance of Omega 3,6 and 9 fatty acids, is a good source of Vitamin E and has one of the lowest amounts of saturated fat of any culinary oil. 6 times more Omega 3 fatty acids and more vitamin E than Extra Virgin Olive Oil.” (source: Clearspring)

Suggested Method

1. Wash the seabeet, spin dry and put in large salad bowl.
2. Dice the pineapple, removing any of the outer skin and bristles. Add to salad bowl.
3. Chop or shred the oxeye daisy leaves. Add to salad bowl along with the diced avocado.
4. Add the stuffed olives, then and the lime zest, magnolia vinegar and rapeseed oil.
5. Salt and pepper, then shuffle the salad to mix everything together.
6. Allow to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.

The following garlic mustard recipe was created by Paul Wedgwood of Wedgwood the Restaurant, one of Edinburgh’s leading-edge chefs. It was created after a glorious day of foraging around Edinburgh with a wonderful group of people.

Ingredients

• 75g butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 75g three cornered garlic stems
• 800 ml water
• 1 large potato, peeled, diced and rinsed
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 75g Jack by the hedge/garlic mustard
• 75g goat’s cheese
• 75ml milk for foam
• Pinch cumin
• Pinch white pepper

Suggested Instructions

The bitter-sweet taste of young garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) blends subtly with the herby tastes & textures of cow parsley, to make a fine substantial sauce suitable for pasta or grains. The kind of food I need to eat when I return home, if I’ve been wandering on the road for a week or so…

Ingredients

• 50g garlic mustard tips (shredded & chopped )
• 400g vine ripened cherry tomatoes (chopped)
• 1 red chilli (chopped)
• 50g cow parsley shoots & buds
• 1 banana (chopped)
• 1 tbs honey
• 2tbs tomato purée
• 30g parmesan cheese
• 3tbs oil/butter

I know, sounds daft doesn’t it? Surely everyone knows how to make an omelett? Nope they don’t, and certainly not like this one! Wild garlic is so versatile, and whipping up this quick wild snack can be a breeze. You just need the right pan!

Ingredients

• 1 handful of wild garlic/ramsons leaves and stems (chopped)
• 2tsp ghee
• 3 eggs
• salt & pepper

Suggested Instructions

1. Melt the ghee in a small, 6″ inch high sided cast iron frying pan.
2. While the ghee melts whisk the eggs together for 30 seconds, add salt and pepper.
3. Pour half the egg mix into the frying pan, allow to cook for 30 seconds.
4. Next sprinkle the wild garlic over the egg and then pour over the remaining egg mix.
5. Important: Put a lid on the pan and turn the heat down to low, (this makes the omlette puff up). Keep an eye on it, and when nearly done, flip it over and cook on the other side for a further 30 seconds. Serve.

Serves: 1

I love concocting non-alcoholic drinks, especially when the only drinks foragers are assumed to drink are inebriating beverages made with weird weeds from the hedge. Might I suggest another way…

Wild drinks are one of the most sensual ways to connect to plants. Teas, infusions, syrups, cordials, and other gargalblasters plug us directly in to the plants ‘field of influence’. They are a way to perceive the more subtle uses of plants, for food, medicine & wellbeing.

Ingredients

• 2″ piece of fresh ginger (grated)
• 1 lemon (juiced)
• 2 blood oranges (whole without skin)
• ½pt of cleavers water
• ½pt water
• 2 large handful of flowering white dead nettle leaves & young tips
• 2 x 5″ lengths of large alexanders stems
• 20g fresh chopped mint
• 2tbsp coconut (fresh or dessicated)
• 2 handfuls of primrose flowers
• sugar (your choice)

 Suggested Instructions

To make cleavers water

Put cleavers in a wooden bowl and gently bash with a rolling bin until the fibres are broken. Now add cold water to cover, place a lid on top to keep the cleavers submerged. Leave overnight, then strain off your first cup. Traditionally used as a spring tonic.

To make herb water

Put all ingredients apart from the mint and primrose flowers into a blender and pulse on low speed for 3 minutes. Leave to sit for 4 hours to allow the flavours to combine. Blend occasionally when the urge stakes you.

To make the herb syrup

Strain herb water through muslin, and collect the liquid in a stainless steel saucepan. For every 500ml of liquid add 500gm of sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add the mint and primrose flowers. Allow to cool and pour into sterilised bottles.

Serve diluted as you would a cordial, or try drizzled over desserts or in salad dressings.

Makes: A small bottle

Vinegars can be made from literally hundreds of different plants. A never ending plethora of culinary delights to tickle and tease your senses. So play away. Indulge. Create wonderment from the simple things in life, and it doesn’t get much easier than this wild garlic vinegar recipe.

Ingredients

• 100g wild garlic leaves (chopped)
• 500ml cider vinegar

Suggested Instructions

1. Wash the wild garlic thoroughly, then spin dry either in a tea towel or salad spinner.
2. Chop the wild garlic leaves, put them into a screw top jar and then add the cider vinegar. Cap and shake the jar once a day for 6 weeks. Strain and bottle.

This Wild Garlic Vinegar Recipe Makes: 500ml

Something to the quality of Land changes when the first shoots of Wild Garlic start sprouting forth. To the novice in the very early stages they can appear indistinguishable from the poisonous Lords and Ladies, also known as Cuckoo-pint….

So gather tenderly, as you would stroke a lover. Stand back, start slowly, do not rush in grabbing as much as you can in your fear of scarcity. Don’t you know Mama Gaia always gives, again and again. Quit the hoarding, start living… This wild garlic pesto recipe will have you humming… literally, so always share some with friends, or friends thou might not have for much longer

Ingredients

• 50g wild garlic leaves (shredded)
• 30g hairy bittercress rosettes
• 20g fresh young nettle tips
• 10g walnuts
• lemon juice (add to taste)
• organic rapeseed oil (add to taste)
• parmesan or a hard goats cheese (add to taste)

Suggested Instructions

1. Put the wild garlic, nettles and hairy bittercress into a food processor and ‘blitz’ until roughly chopped.
2. Next drizzle in the oil add the grated cheese and lemon juice, Use your senses to find out which amounts suit your palette.
3. Serve with oat cakes or crudités, however I just spoon it into my mouth. Something about it  is highly addictive!

This Wild Garlic Pesto Recipe Serves: 4

Lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) is one of the first wild edible greens to emerge in Spring. I simply love it and munch my way through a fair few pounds when its around. Its such a versatile green. But hold your horses…

Contrary to what many foragers recommend, I do not advice that you eat this plant raw. The sap was used by beggars in the Middle Ages to create ‘fake’ sores in order to elicit extra charity. I think that bit of history tells you why eating lesser celandine raw may not be advisable.

Lesser celandine contains protoanemonin, an acrid blistering sap which increases as the plant flows into flower. Cooking destroys protoanemonin.

Warnings aside, this is one of my favourite plants, but these days I eat it only cooked.

Ingredients

• 250g lesser celandine leaves (chopped)
• 100g ground ivy leaves
• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 2 small swede (diced)
• 2 onions (sliced)
• 1 tin tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• oil
• cracked black pepper

Suggested Instructions

1. Wash the lesser celandine and ground ivy leaves, drain and spin dry using a tea-towel or salad spinner.
2. Fry the onion until soft and translucent, add the garlic. Next add the swede, chopped lesser celandine leaves, tin tomato and puree, then stir until well mixed. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit of water or stock to thin. But not too much because we are slow cooking this dish and water will be released from the vegetables.
3. Preheat a slow cooker to high, add the vegetable mixture, then turn down to low and slow cook for 5-6 hours. An hour before the end, stir in the ground ivy leaves.

This Lesser Celandine Recipe Serves: 5

I use the fresh young growth of wild garlic (Allium ursinum). For this recipe I harvested the leaves in the first week of February, when the flavours explode on your tastebuds as the new edible Spring growth starts to emerge from hibernation. A quick, simple wild garlic recipe if ever there was one.

Ingredients

• 150g wild garlic shoots (sliced & chopped)
• 1 tin tomatoes
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• ½ tbsp clear honey
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• parmesan cheese
• oil
• cracked black pepper

Suggested Instructions

1. Wash the wild garlic, drain and spin dry using a tea-towel or salad spinner.
2. Fry the onion until soft and translucent.
3. Add the tin tomatoes, 100g of wild garlic, the Dijon mustard, tomato puree and honey. Stir well in, then simmer until reduced, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 50g of wild garlic, stir and serve with grated Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper.

This Wild Garlic Recipe Serves: 3