Foraging

Recently i helped cook at a Permaculture event hosted by Miles Irving, master forager. I haven't got much experience foraging and learnt about some interesting ingredients that grow unbeknown in urban oasis's around London. My favourite was the Blackthorn syrup, which had a subtle almond-like flavour with a touch of orange and cinnamon.

Heres some photo's and recipe's from the night:

Wild food Festival Recipes

Dandilion Pie:

Pastry

250g fine plain flour

50g Chestnut flour

200g Unsalted butter in small cubes

Pinch of salt

4-6 tablespoons of water

1 egg yolk for glazing

Filing

500g dandelion leaves

Bicarb of soda

6 tbsp of olive oil

3 garlic cloves finely chopped

1 fresh red chilly, finely chopped

3 pickled walnuts finely chopped

3 tbsp raisins roughly chopped

1 tbsp of capers roughly chopped

200g feta

Blend dandelions as finely as possible with 500mls of water and ¼ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. Simmer for 15 mins and then strain through sieve or muslin squeezing out as much liquid as possible. Fry with other ingredients until some of the moisture is removed. 

Roll out pastry to 3mm thickness. Line pie dish. Add mixture and top with 200g of crumbled feta, put lip on and pinch together with base then glaze with 1 egg yolk.

Cook 200degrees, gas mark 6 for 25-30mins

Wild autumn salad

Wild sorrel and wild baby yarrow leaves from hamstead heath

Chickweed from organic lea

Wild girolles mushrooms

Dressing

Meadowsweet vinager

Olive oil 

Baked beetroot with Mellilot

Batches of 500g of beetroot, cut into sizes of smallest beet, on tinfoil large enough to make an airtight parcel. Add splash of vinager, salt, pepper and rounded desert spoon of melilot. Seal parcels and place in oven 150degrees for 1 hour. Peel once cool.

Boiled eggs with drizzled nettle

Blitz tender tips of raw nettles with garlic, salt pepper and olive oil – to taste.

Peel boiled eggs, cut in half and drizzle nettle dressing  

Fruit fool

Bake 500g blackberries with the juice and zest of 2 lemons and of 50ml of blackthorn syrup.

Cook 750g of damsons with 50ml of blackthorn syrup and a little sugar to taste. Combine the two and reduce until thick.

Spoon into a glass and top with whipped double cream, reduced blackthorn syrup and a wild fennel biscuit.

Fennel tartlets

55g fennel seeds

500kg plain flour

15g baking yeast

125g softened unsalted butter

100g icing sugar

125ml olive oil

50ml Sambuca liquor

100ml milk

2 egg yolks beaten

100g granulated sugar

55g chopped almonds

Mix flour, yeast, butter and icing sugar. Add olive oil, milk and stir into a smooth dough. Add the Sambuca and fennel seeds and knead well together. Allow to rest for 30mins.

On floured surface, roll out the dough into 3mm thickness, and then cut out 10cm circles. Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with sugar and almonds and bake in preheated oven for 8-9mins till golden.

Circles

Its my mums birthday, she teaches book arts so i've made a card, Zucca as well.

Mounting

Saturday Morning

Um Hum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKPiBeZOkxg&feature=related

Apple, Date and Cardamom Buns

On to the second in my trilogy, and my favourite. Apple, date and cardamom buns. I love the sweet/sour taste of cooking apples so decided to add them to my bun recipe. Cardamom is a seriously underrated spice with a fragrant kick. These are perfect for rainy nights in London.

Ingredients

60g chopped dates

140g cubed Bramley apple (sprinkled with lemon juice and caster sugar)

2 tbsp dark muscavado sugar

1 tbsp mollasses sugar

1 cinnamon stick

300ml almond milk

1 beaten egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

55g butter 

1 tsp Cardamom

pinch of salt

10 wheatgerm

250g Spelt flour

300g Strong white flour

11/2 tsp fast rising yeast

Glaze

250ml cider

1/4 tsp ginger

3 tbsp apricot jam

Directions

**1**

Gently heat the almond milk, sugar, cinnamon stick and vanilla. Turn the heat off once the sugar has dissolved. Meanwhile rub the butter into the flour and wheatgerm in a large bowl, adding the cardamom and salt.

**2**

Add the yeast to the cooling milk and pour into the flour bowl. Add the egg and mix lightly with your hands - keep the four handy incase you need more. Kneed energetically for ten minutes then add the chopped apple and date and kneed until incorporated into the dough. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place covered by a wet tea cloth for 1 hour.

**3**

Knock the dough down by patting it lightly, then tear off small (between a golf and tennis ball) pieces and shape into rough buns before laying them out onto greaseproof paper. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour. Meanwhile put the glaze ingredients into a pan and reduce until syrup thick. 

**4**

Glaze the buns with a brush and bake for around 14-16 mins (until golden) at 190 degrees centigrade. Re-glaze the buns and allow them to cool. Serve sliced in half with butter.

Brains

This is speech and language therapisst inspired.

FUR Real

Throwing around some print ideas for FUR a London based hiphop, West African Mbalax, ethio-jazz, dub influenced band: http://fur-real.bandcamp.com/track/bamako. I've toned it down and gone for an abstract fur with two tone lino inks to give a slight African vibe.