I love the idea of foraging in the countryside for ingredients to use in the kitchen, even if the bravest we get at the moment is blackberrying and then making jam and crumbles with the fruits of our labours, but these highly original recipes may inspire you (or even us !) to get a bit more adventurous.
These recipes were created at The Fat Hen, West Cornwall using Unearthed products. I'll be back with a review of some of their products and some more recipes for you to try shortly.
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Canapé: unearthed® Chorizo, scallop and wood sorrel
Ingredients:
Knob of butter, to fry
8 pieces of unearthed® Cooking Chorizo cut into rounds the same size as the scallops
8 scallops, roe removed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Dash of olive oil
Method:
1. For the chorizo: melt the butter in a frying pan and then add the unearthed® Cooking Chorizo to the pan. Fry on both sides until crisp, then transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper and keep warm
2. Season the scallops with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat the pan used to cook the chorizo until smoking, rub the scallops with olive oil and fry in the pan for one minute on each side. Pat the scallops dry on kitchen paper
3. To serve, place the scallop on the plate followed by the chorizo, garnish with wood sorrel and a sprinkle of Cornish sea salt. These can be served on a toasted crouton if they are being served as a canapé.
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Soda Bread with wild herbs and seaweeds
Makes 3 medium sized loaves
Ingredients:
1.5kg white bread flour or a mix of white and wholemeal
2 pints of buttermilk
40g salt
32g bicarbonate of soda
Handful of oats
Mix of fresh seaweeds and/or wild garlic leaves or mugwort or wild fennel
Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C
2. Sift flour into a wide basin like bowl, sift in salt and bicarbonate of soda and mix thoroughly
3. Make a well in the centre of your mix and ready with claw like hand, begin by pouring the buttermilk in a
steady stream, ensuring your fingers scoop and catch as much of the un-buttermilked flour in as little as time as possible
4. The trick of good soda bread is to not mix it too much, but to mix it enough so as the mixture forms a nice pillowy synchronised mass in the centre of your bowl. You need to be confident to mix it enough to form a dough, but not too much for it to become stodgy. A wet dough gives the best results
5. Add your seaweeds and wild herbs at this point
6. When you have the dough right, lightly flour your work surface and tip your dough onto it. Separate the dough into three equal pieces and ever so gently make them into a round-ish form. Slash the top of each as if it were a hot cross bun and place on a lightly floured baking sheet. Sprinkle liberally with oats
7. Bake for 35 - 45 minutes. The loaves should look tawny brown and knobbly
8. Tap the underside of each loaf - it should sound hollow. Cool on wire racks and eat just warm with plenty of butter.
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Pudding: unearthed® Panettone and elderflower bread and butter pudding with elderflower ice cream and elderflower fritter
Serves 8
Ingredients:
6 classic unearthed® Panettone, sliced
50g unsalted butter
4 large organic eggs, lightly beaten
450ml double cream
225ml milk
175g caster sugar
4 elderflower heads
Method:
1. Heat the milk and cream with the elderflower heads in a saucepan until boiling point is reached. Do not boil but remove from the heat, cover and leave to infuse for 30 minutes
2. Whilst the elderflowers are infusing, slice the unearthed® Panettone and butter one side and place the slices butter side down in an earthenware baking dish
3. Arrange another layer on top and keep layering until all the Panettone has been used up
4. Sieve the milk and cream mixture into a large bowl removing the elderflowers
5. Add the lightly beaten eggs and sugar and whisk the ingredients together
6. Pour this mixture over the Panettone and sprinkle some granulated sugar on top
7. Leave to stand at room temperature for 1 hour or in the fridge overnight
8. Preheat the oven to 180°C
9. Place in a bain-marie – the water should go half way up the sides of the baking dish and bake in the middle of the oven for about 1 hour until the top is crisp and golden
Elderflower ice cream:
Ingredients:
300ml whole milk, preferably Channel Island
6 medium organic egg yolks
100g caster sugar
300ml double cream
200ml elderflower cordial
Method:
1. Bring the milk to the boil in a heavy-based saucepan, then remove from the heat
2. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl, pour in the milk and whisk well
3. Return to the pan and cook over a low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Do not boil.
4. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream and elderflower cordial
5. Leave to cool, then churn in an ice cream machine until thickened
6. Decant into a clean container and place in the freezer
Elderflower fritters:
Ingredients:
8 elderflower heads
Sunflower oil for frying
115g plain flour
250 ml cold sparkling mineral water or soda water
1 organic egg
Pinch of sea salt
Icing sugar, to serve
Inspect the elderflowers for insects and other nasties and remove
Method:
1. Mix ingredients together until you get a batter with the consistency of double cream.
2. Heat up sunflower oil in a pan up to 180°C
3. Dip the elderflower into batter, holding it by the stalk upside down. Move it up and down a few times and lift out of the batter allowing excess to drip back into the batter bowl
4. Put into pan of hot oil, flower side down, still holding it by the stalk and lift it up and down a few times
5. Now leave until cooked to a golden brown colour
6. Drain with a slotted spoon and put on kitchen paper to drain
7. Place in bowl and sprinkle caster or icing sugar
8. Snip off the stalks and serve flower side up with the bread and butter pudding and elderflower ice cream
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for more information : http://www.discoverunearthed.com/
Other blogposts you may be interested in :
Unusal recipes not sure I would try them but do like picking blackberries for apple and blackberry pie!
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