Springtime at The Food Urchin Supper Club - 31st March 2012

By all accounts, Spring starts today. And although sources do vary from one druid to another, I for one, am very grateful of its arrival. For when Spring is here, the world all around us becomes more buoyant, verdant, lustful and free. Finally, we can cast off the dreary shackles of Winter, finally we can strip naked and run like stags through the forest, bare foot, feeling life penetrating back up through the musty, damp soil. However, a even more exciting proposition than that (for I am no longer allowed to actually go running sans apparel these days, court injunction, can't say anymore) is the arrival of wild garlic in our garden. When the ramsons start peeking through, then that is the signal, that Aslan is on his way.

And yet, as the new shoots push their way through, I am curiously minded of death. The death of our cat Dickie who succumbed to diabetes last year, poor thing. He loved roaming around the wild garlic patch, stretching his fluffy white chin over a broad leaf for a tickle, rolling around for a dose of allium scent, perhaps to impress the lady cats in the neighbourhood. On occasion, he also used to like spraying his business over the garlic, which would fill me with rage and I would chase him down the path swinging a rake over my head, screaming. So he didn't do that that often. At least I don't think he did. The children still think Dickie lives out in the garden, living a life, buoyant, lustful and free.

"He's very naughty that Dickie, isn't he Daddy. He never comes when you call him"

I haven't the heart to tell them the truth, to reveal death, to talk of that good night, which one should not go into gently. Not yet....................

I am supposed to be telling you about the next Food Urchin Supper Club which is on March 31st 2012.

Clearly, I have been sniffing too much copydex this morning.

So yes LIFE! FERTILITY! LAMB! FORAGING! RHUBARB! BOOZE! These are just some of the elements that we shall be introducing to our guests and this shall be the very exciting menu:

Nettle and Ham Hock Soup

Fennel Risotto with Pan-Fried Scallops

Wild Garlic and Anchovy Stuffed Lamb with Flageolet Beans, Roast Gnocchi and Spring Vegetables

Buttermilk Pudding with Boozy Rhubarb

All for the respectable donation of £25.00 per head (which includes free Essex tap water, homemade bread and a refreshing granita, of some description).

Vegetarian options available on request.

For more information and to reserve a place, please email me at: foodurchin@yahoo.co.uk

Ordinarily, I like to post menus and supper club musings on Posterous. But as the site has gorn up the wall today, I might concentrate all efforts from one singular blog. Makes sense dunnit (might get my domain name sorted out one of these days too).

Wild Garlic Pesto, Soup, Bread etc etc etc

I got caught up in a verdant frenzy of foraging and cooking yesterday and where it came from I don't precisely know. Perhaps it was the passing of Ostara that got me in the mood, finally throwing off the shackles of a long, dreary, grey winter. Awaking an impetus, a burning desire within my soul to take to the surrounding fields and forests and seek new growth, new life, new beginnings. To dance across streams, to climb trees, to run with the stags, to awake the cuckoo, to rip my shirt off and smear badger shit all over my hairy chest and yell at the top of my lungs, "Aslan is back! Aslan is back!"

Or maybe it was because a lot of people were talking about wild garlic on Twitter (well @audreygillan and @everythingbut mostly) and my garden is teeming with the stuff.

Nevertheless, there is definitely something exciting about spring and when the ramson shoots appear around our cherry tree and start to broaden into pungent leaves of green, I do get slightly hysterical, grabbing fistfuls to smell and shovel in my gob. I kid you not. And this is regardless of the fact that our cats often spray their business in that area. Over the seasons though, I have to say that I don't really utilise our crop as much as I should. In the past I've snipped some into salads, scrambled eggs or steamed and wilted very quickly and used as accompaniment for salmon or chicken but more often than not I've given the stuff away to friends. With the intention of using this alturuistic act to bribe them for goods, services, favours etc at a later date. But like I said I got thoroughly stuck in yesterday making wild garlic pesto, soup (with nettles) and bread so as a further act of goodwill I thought I'd post the recipes. Being the kind of guy I am and all.*

Wild Garlic Pesto

A simple recipe and an absolute humdinger, an assault on the senses and quite frankly one that will make your breath stink so make sure your partner also indulges. My son Fin was watching me with eager eyes whilst I was blitzing this up in the food processor, constantly asking "what was are you doing?" and "can I have some?". I warned him that it might be a bit too strong for a little boy to taste but Fin was insistant. Cue minute tip of teaspoon being placed into his mouth followed by much spitting and wailing and running around. Like I said I did warn him. Strangely enough though when heated through with some pasta, the intensity of the pesto did temper somewhat and Fin managed his bowlful with no qualms at all.

1 large bunch of wild garlic, washed

1 small bunch of curly parsley, washed

60gms pine nuts, toasted

60gms parmesan cheese

150mls olive oil (I mixed half extra virgin, half normal)

squeeze of lemon juice

salt and pepper

Method

Place all the ingredients into a food processor apart from the olive oil and blitz for a minute or two then slowly pour in the olive oil until blended. Use for pasta, mash, dipping etc etc

Wild Garlic and Nettle Soup

I got the inspiration for this vivid, fresh tasting, vitamin packed soup from the aforementioned @everythingbut (real name Claire) who also runs Shacklewell Nights supper club and writes Green Onions but changed a couple of ingredients with what I had to hand. Interestingly, did you know that after they've been picked, nettles do actually lose their sting before cooking? It's all to do with the fact that the flow of formic acid comes from the main stem of the plant, pluck the leaf off and the 'sting' dries up. So after washing you can use the leaves raw. Best leave the nettles overnight to test this theory though. In fact, don't hold me to this, I am giving you all this guff because some bloke from Cool Earth once told me I could do it. (And I did, just check my reaction on the video in this link). But I don't want to be held responsible for any incidents or get any phone calls from people saying "Dabby, I'th justh sbent ten hoursth upth the hosthpital coth of you, you bathsted".

2 onions, finely sliced

2 stalks of celery, finely sliced

3 potatoes, small dice

1 bay leaf

1 large carrier bag of wild garlic, washed

1 large carrier bag of young nettles, leaves picked and washed (wearing rubber gloves!)

2 litres water

pinch of nutmeg

a dollop or two of mascarpone

salt and pepper

large knob of butter

In a large stock pot, melt the butter and gently fry the onion and celery until soft, then add the potato and bay leaf and continue to heat and stir for a further 10 minutes or so. Pour in the water and bring to the boil and then add the nettle leaves. Bring back to a gentle simmer for 5 more minutes until the nettles have wilted and then throw in the wild garlic, which will wilt almost immediately. Take off the heat and blitz in a blender. Place back in the pot to reheat, stirring though the nutmeg, mascarpone and season to taste. Claire's suggestion of serving with grated boiled egg worked really well with this soup.


Wild Garlic Bread

Very simple. Just follow Dan Lepard's Easy Loaf recipe and at the stage when you have to pat the dough into an oval shape before rolling, just smear some of the wild garlic pesto over the surface. It helps to make some wild garlic pesto before this stage of course but this bread tastes amazing. No more frozen bagettes to be slammed into the oven 10 minutes before serving up your lasagne from now on. Yes this is slow food but also wild food. Luuurve food in fact......grrrowl.

*Obviously you have to find your own wild garlic though. Unless you can offer me a decent price.

Adventures of Dan the Wild Garlic Man

Wild Garlic, also known as Buckrams, Ramsons, Broad-leaved Garlic, Wood Garlic, Sremuš or Bear's Garlic

I've been commuting from my particular train station for 5 years now and over that period of time, have slowly come to recognise some of the other faces who make the daily sheep run into and out of London. As I walk down the platform, sometimes I might exchange a nod, a smile and sometimes but very rarely, a hello before my fellow commuter would bury their heads back into a book or paper, or turn up their iPod. And you know what? That suits me just fine, I mean the last thing you want to do is actually engage with another worker drone, heaven forbid. It can be quite funny though when you actually bump into someone who you once knew at school or college but don't really know any more and have to run that painful gamut of pleasantries. "So what are you doing these days? Where are you working? Where do you live? Are you married?", you say before coming to an uncomfortable pause and shuffle off awkwardly to the other end of the platform. I remember bumping into an old school friend about a year ago and signed off with "well I suppose I'll see you around then" and then continued to sit next to him for the rest of the 20 minute journey, staring blankly out of the window. Quite sad really.

However, after some of my latest adventures, it would be interesting to know what's been going through my fellow passenger's minds as I've walked down the platform, swinging carrier bags filled with pots of wild garlic. Most people have kept their stoic expressions fixed bar a few wondering eyes but once I've boarded the train, the wafts of Allium ursinum wondering throughout the carriage have definitely been drawing attention.

"Wassat mate? Facking stinks"


"Ah it's wild garlic ", I reply.


"You a gardenah?"


"Er, no" I squeak.


"Whassitfor then?"

Good question but really you should be asking who is it for, not what? You see, through the magic of the superinformationhighwayweb, I have been distributing wild garlic plants to members of London's foodie community you prink! (By the way this was not my response as the inquisitive gentleman may well have lifted his knuckle off the floor and brought it down heavily on my head).

It all started with our visit to the Underground Restaurant back in March. In the days running up to our Astrological feast in Kilburn, I got wind from MsMarmitelover's blog that she was on the lookout for some wild garlic. As I had plenty of the stuff growing in my garden I emailed her with the offer of a plant and with the response of "oooh yes please", duly lumped a pot over to her place on the night of our dinner date. Making the handover was amusing as I thrust the bag into the front of house's hands saying "this is a gift for the chef from me, Food Urchin". The bewildered stare he gave back suggested that he thought I was quite mad or had hippy parents at the very least but it provided a great ice-breaker as MsMarmitelover came out from her kitchen to see us, busy as she was, to have a quick chat.

I felt like a did a good deed that night but didn't really give it any more thought until about a month later when Niamh from the very excellent Eat Like A Girl tweeted me on Twitter. I'm still trying to figure exactly what purpose Twitter serves, I mean why would anyone in their right mind want to keep updating the minutiae of their lives online every 10 minutes using only 140 characters? Never mind the fact that this is exactly what I've been doing for the past few weeks, I am still trying to figure its purpose out. But anyway, Niamh was enquiring as to where I got my garlic from as she was having trouble finding some. So in the spirit of altruism I said that she was more than welcome to one of my plants and arranged to meet her at Borough Market. Again it was a pleasure to meet another foodie and have a natter before skipping off having done a good turn for the day. I was starting to feel like Haley Joel Osment but I didn't care.

Since then via the magic of Twitter, I have also met Linda of With Knife and Fork and Helen of Food Stories, who both write equally excellent food blogs . The homemade sloe vodka that Linda gave me was delicious and Helen sprung a photo shoot with Mario Cacciottolo of SOTM fame on me, all elements which make for memorable moments and stories and all for the exchange of an invasive but tasty herb.

So what to make of my adventures so far? Well first and foremost it has been refreshing to engage with fellow foodies both online and in the flesh. I must say here hats off to my lovely wife, as not many spouses would approve of their husbands meeting strange women of the net baring gifts of flowering plants but she's been pretty cool about it all. Maybe if it had been someone that I had met on the train then she would have been really worried. On a second point though, some friends and family members have suggested that I should start to sell the stuff, which is an attractive idea, it's always nice to earn extra cash but it wouldn't be the same somehow. It's just my personal opinion but I believe a love of food with all it's entities, is closely connected to the act of giving. When I cook a big meal, say a dinner party for instance, I want to give people a good time and have them enjoy the dishes I make. When giving away pots of wild garlic, its just the same, I want people to enjoy it. It's a simple philosophy really although I couldn't tell you where it came from. Maybe it was from those hippy parents of mine.

All this generosity has cost me a facking fork

Take a walk on the wild side

At present, our garden looks like a bomb has hit it. What am I talking about? Our garden has always looked like a bomb has hit it but this is not down to a lack of care or attention. It's more a case of lack of time as the house that we live in has taken the best part of 5 years to renovate, clean up and turn into a family home. It seemed that the previous owners had dropped "Little Boy" when we first moved in you see. So the next big plans are to concentrate on creating a little oasis out yonder, complete with raised patio area, raised flower beds, raised plot for salads and herbs and if I get my own way, a raised clay oven. If Jamie can have one, then so can I. "Yes I bet he uses his all the time" is often my wife's response to such a brilliant and fantastic idea but I will build one, oh yes. Well at least try to.

One thing that we do both agree on is to keep and cultivate some of the wilder parts of the garden, particularly the area under the cherry tree where we are lucky enough to have wild garlic growing. How it got there is anybody's business and we didn't really have a clue if it actually was wild garlic until my brother-in-law grabbed a bunch of the leaves last year, shoved them in his mouth and confirmed our suspicions ("bloody hell that's garlicky" he said). I didn't have the heart to tell him that the cats often spray around that tree but it was his endeavour that opened my eyes to the notion of foraging wild foods and that's something that I am keen to explore so watch this space.

At this time of year, the wild garlic really starts to flourish and this time around I have been determined to use it when cooking. Despite my brother-in-law's outburst, wild garlic is slightly mellower, giving a more subtle flavour and you can use any part of the plant but up till now I have only been using the leaves to pep up scrambled eggs and omelettes. So I thought about using it in a risotto, just a basic one to see how it would fair, I didn't add the garlic at stage one, I threw in the chopped leaves right at the end instead. I also threw in some mushrooms for good measure and pan-fried some salmon fillets to place on top of the risotto but I think I made the mistake of using some old vermouth bianco that I found at the back of the cupboard. The result was nice and creamy but overall the risotto was just too sweet. If I hadn't been greedy and used a glass of the Sauvignon Blanc that I was drinking, then perhaps the wild garlic would have come through more. The salmon however was gorgeous, I normally cook it en papillote, but quick frying is the way forward for me, sod the calories, I can chew on wild garlic leaves for the rest of the week.