Uist Wholefoods Co-operative

More experiments with lovage. I had seen it written that lovage went well with chicken, so I adapted this recipe from the Waitrose website.

Ingredients:

• One Organic free-range chicken, jointed (easy to do this yourself)
• 500ml good cider
• 2 tsps ground allspice (from the wholefood co-op)
• 40g organic butter
• 2 crisp desert apples, sliced into wedges
• 250g mushrooms, sliced
• 2 good sprigs of lovage; use the leaves very finely chopped. (from the garden)
• 4 tbsp double cream

Method:

• Put the cider in a large pan and simmer until reduced by half
• Put the chicken joints in a plastic bag with the allspice and a little salt and rub the spice into the chicken. The bag stops me making a big mess
• Melt half the butter in a deep-sided frying pan, and fry the mushrooms and apples until golden. Lift out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
• Melt the rest of the butter in the same pan and add the chicken pieces until lightly browned.
• Stir in the reduced cider, and bring to the boil, then turn down to simmer for 20 minutes to cook the chicken
• Add the mushrooms and apples along with the very finely chopped lovage and the cream. Season to taste and heat for a further five minutes.

We had this with mashed potatoes and peas. It was good, but the lovage did tend to turn into clots of leafy stuff. Maybe I didn’t chop it finely enough. If you like a thicker gravy, I would suggest mashing 20g of flour into 20g of butter and adding that instead of the cream.

I have been continuing my adventures with wild food, and finally overcame my anxiety about trying orache. I am not 100% sure which variety I picked in the end; it was not exactly like the pictures in any of my wild food books. For reference I looked at ‘Food for Free’ by Richard Mabey, Prehistoric cooking by Jacqui Wood, and ‘Edible Seashore’ by John Wright. This last book is one of the River Cottage Handbooks, reviewed elsewhere on this site. All three books recommend orache as a wild food, similar to spinach but not producing as many leaves per plant. The Orache plant family is related to ‘Fat Hen’, an edible weed that I find on my compost heap, and plants in the goosefoot family.

This was also the first road test of the Richard Mabey book, and it let me down by not discussing or referring to the huge range of orache plants. The Prehistoric cookery book also hints at the possibilities, but it was the Edible seashore book and google that were the most helpful.

 Anyway, off we set with our bucket, across the dunes and down to the shore to see what we could find. We found a lot of orache, several varieties, growing in the dune grasses, on the edge of the machair, and then on the higher parts of the shore. We found a whole area of frosted orache (Atriplex laciniata), good big plants with lots of shoots. The plans were low, lying, growing straight out of the sand. The leaves were frosted and rough, and there were clusters of small buds towards the tips, arising in the joints where the leaves leave the stem. I took one shoot of each plant we saw, and ended up with about three good bunches. This was enough to feed three people; like spinach, it cooks down a lot.

When I got home, I rinsed it off to remove the sand, and then cooked it in garlic butter for about three minutes. It was very good indeed, better than spinach, and a good side dish. Next time I see it growing well, no worries, I would pick it again.

In terms of nutrition, it was extremely fresh and extremely local, so there was minimal wastage of nutrients. It was better cooked, and the books agreed with me on that one. It is hard to get data on the nutritional value of Orache, but it is reputed to be rich in calcium, vitamin c, vitamin b1, and iron.

Similar to the last recipe. Child no 2 said she liked it and then had more. This is a big result. We served this with asparagus as a starter, and then with roast potatoes and beans.

Ingredients:

Method:

I took an Italian recipe for stracotto, and substituted to try and use more local seasonal ingredients. This is really tasty.

Ingredients:

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Method:

More on the theme of eating locally. Scots Lovage is a seaside plant, whcih can be found growing wild mostly in Scotland. I have only seen it grown in gardens as a large and ungainly perennial. In fact, it was already in our garden when I moved in. It is incredibly tough, and had stood up to years of neglect and the attentions of sheep. It is described in ‘Food for Free’ (Richard Mabey) as a stocky umbelifer growing wild in Scotland, and useful for treating scurvy.

Garden lovage prefers a fairly good soil, not too dry, and some shade. It copes well with being planted close to the sea in salty soil. It dies right back in winter, only the tops of the roots showing. In spring, reddish green foliage spikes come up in April, and by June, the plant is nearly six feet tall. The leaves are divided, and a clear green,with hollow stems. The flowers are an unappealing cluster of little yellowy green florets, usually beset with flies on still days. The cultivated variety is somewhat larger, with while flowers.

When it comes to eating lovage, I take the leaves and stems, particularly in spring, and use it in place of celery. The seeds can also be used like fennel or caraway, although I have never tried them. The leaves taste curiously of strong celery, but with a twist of lemon and salt. It goes very well indeed with beef in a casserole, and removes the need to add salt to the stew.  It also goes well with chicken, and I use a very small amount chopped finely to add to tomato salad.

I have been developing my ideas on eating locally, and started looking into what was around, uncultivated and free. Several late night conversations later, I have a few leads. One of these discussions has led me to researching the subject of wild food by reading books. The most entertaining, relevant and helpful has been ‘Edible Seashore’ by John Wright. This book is number 5 in the River Cottage Handbook series. If they are all as good as this, I think I shall be buying more. Why is it so good?

Information: Everything in the book that I know about seems correct, and with more detail on the subject than I was aware of. He also discusses common problems and pitfalls of identification very clearly. For example, he has a great chapter on finding, cutting, cooking and eating ‘Alexanders’. At one point he covers which plants look similar, with a very clear photograph right next to the text. His description on the taste leads me to believe that he has eaten ‘Alexanders’, and also convinced me that I have other things to try first. He also describes how to get winkles and razors, and his descriptions are spot-on.

Illustrations: The photographs are clear as could be. Even the photographs of edible seaweeds are clear enough for an amateur to recognise dulse, or gutweed. I haven’t taken to book with me to the beach yet, but it will be happening.

Facinating detail: The description of the mating habits of lobsters, or his observations on the popularity of winkles in Victorian London, both good examples of why I was reading this book from cover to cover, instead of just using it for reference.

Wit: I have never laughed before at a chapter on legal pitfalls.

The only weakness was perhaps a few gaps in the list of what could be gathered. That said, it is a worthy and inspiring starting point for wild food.  I commmend this book to you.

I am trying to get organised to write a series of articles on eating wild in the Hebrides. This is , in part, born from the eating locally articles. I have sketchced out three pieces on plants, seafood, and other things. Struggling a bit, as usual, to decide when to get started. I was delighted to hear that two friends of the woman who is behind the Fathen website  are coming up to the Hebrides. Please get in touch if you have any ideas about foraging for wild food locally. I know I have been going on about eating rabbit, and we sometimes eat cockles and mussels and watercress, but we need to know more. Let me know if you’d like to be involved:

This is not a book about games, nor does it imply that the cook is game for a laugh. The subtitle gives us more information; these are recipes inspired by a conversation in a butcher’s shop, about the cheapness and flavour of game, and the fact that most epople don’t know how to cook it. The surprise author of the Game Cook Book is one Rt. Hon. Norman Tebbit, a keen amateur cook. Now, while not signing up to Mr Tebbit’s political views, I think on the whole he is not a man who would misinform his readers. The book was a present from our neighbours and friend, perhaps to help us explore the cookery of the various creatures that can be shot and eaten locally. This is, perhaps, an extreme version of being a locavore. The helpful introductory paragraph adds more detail. Mr Tebbit was always interested in cooking. When his wife was injured and crippled in an IRA bomb attack, he became the main cook. He lists many of my favourite recipe books as his inspirations.

In recent years, Britain’s attitude to food has changed. In a world that is becoming more eco-aware, ‘organic’ and ‘corn fed’ meat is gaining popularity at the expense of immoral, processed food. And yet strangely, ‘game’ - strictly speaking any bird or animal living wild, which is hunted for food - remains on the fringes on many people’s diet. Many people would rather pay twice the price at a supermarket for a comparatively tasteless chicken. Tebbit, a keen amateur chef, uses The Game Cookbook to showcase his favourite game recipes featuring pheasant, partridge, duck, grouse, woodpigeon, woodcock, deer, rabbit, hare and more. Whether the recipe is a relatively simple casserole or a more challenging creation such as pheasant with apples and cream or rabbit with white wine and mushroom, Tebbit’s easy to follow style produces consistent results. The book also includes a concise guide to game, advice on kitchen equipment, handy conversion charts and individual hints on the various game included.

We have now tried a couple of recipes from the book, including a fine recipe for pigeon with cabbage and wine. I think it would also work well with goose, so we have to test that as well before I log it on this website. Having this book, I feel prepared for whatever should be brought home late at night by amateur hunters. I have to add that this is mostly rabbits and geese, and while to book has many recipes for rabbit, the goose has been ignored. I am going to try some of the other pigeon recipes with goose before I report back.

Final Score: Highly commended.