Nettles
Submitted by Peter Macfadyen on Fri, 28/03/2008 - 09:51.
....as well as Food Frome, Frome has enjoyed the Frome and Selwood Slower Food Convivium for many years now. [We used to be in SlowFood, but we got thrown out for being too small and in many ways too slow......]
Last night's monthly meeting had a topic of nettles and we sat down to nettle and celariac salad; nettle soup and nettle buns; nettle and wild garlic "pesto" with nettle bread; nettle and nettle cheese pie; nettle dauphinoise spuds; and (a different) nettle cheese....followed by puddings. We'd have had nettle beer but the off licence had run out. With only one exception, DELICIOUS...... so much for the "hungry gap" of late march when new veg. hasn't started......
Peter
Nettle Risotto
Another nettle article from the old website.
Nettles are one of the few edible green things growing in the garden in April (in the so-called 'hungry gap'). Nettle risotto is one way of using them, the recipe is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in 'The River Cottage Year'. It's good to mix some sorrel with the nettles but I couldn't find any wild sorrel and our garden sorrel isn't well enough established yet so I used some lemon zest instead. I wonder if there is a suitable Somerset cheese I could have used instead of Parmesan?
Nettle Spelt Risotto
Yesterday I made a Nettle "risotto" with spelt instead of rice. The spelt came from Sharpham Park near Glastonbury and is organically grown. It worked well, the result was not as creamy as with risotto rice but the spelt has a nice slightly chewy texture. I also added some home grown leeks and sorrel for extra flavour. The nettles were home grown too!
Nettle Soup
John Payne sent me this article about nettles last year.
This is what Jason Hill, Peter Macfadyen’s maternal grandfather, has to say about nettles in his book ‘Wild Foods of Britain’ (1939).
The young shoots of the Stinging Nettle (not the white flowered Dead Nettle) gathered in spring have a delicate, slightly earthy flavour when treated like spinach, and are strongly recommended; they may be mixed with a little sorrel. They are equally good in soup. With gloves, a pair of scissors and a large basket they are quite easy to pick; boiling water takes the sting out of them at once.
Jason Hill was a nom-de–plume – writing books about ‘food for free’ was not considered quite respectable for a country doctor.
Peter’s family cook and eat them like spinach.
A more complicated way of using them (for meat-eaters) is to make an Irish Broth with a piece of meat (we used brisket from Cate Mack’s Norwood Farm stall on Frome Farmers’ Market), a few chopped spring onions and carrots, and pearl barley (from Frome Wholefoods shop).