The Woodland Trust and Heath Dawson invite you to a wild dinner courtesy of Mother Nature. These are a few examples of simple dishes that utilise the wonderful bounty found on our common land, in hedges and within broadleaf woodland.
Starter
Wildwood fondue
2 handfuls of Chantrelle
1 teaspoon of piquant paprika
3 tablespoon of good soy sauce
2 tablespoons of Tabasco sauce
Black pepper
Handful of sorrel leaves
Fry a couple of handfuls of Chantrelle in copious amounts of good-quality olive oil, add a teaspoon of piquant smoked paprika, three good splashes of tamari or good soy sauce and two good splashes of Tabasco sauce. Transfer into a heated serving dish or fondue and finish with a couple of twists of black pepper and a small handful of Wood Sorrel leaves with stalks removed.
Dip in with thick granary bread cut into soldiers and lift out the melting mushrooms with thin hazelwood chopsticks.
Main
Oak smoked Haloumi cheese with maple syrup, rocket, chickweed and sorrel salad
6 chunky slices of haloumi cheese
1 handful of rocket, chickweed and sorrel leaves
Maple syrup for dressing
Cover the bottom of a smoker or non-galvanised tin with a layer of damp oak sawdust or shavings. Put the containers lid on and put it on a low heat until smoke is generated. Slice a block of haloumi cheese into six chunky slices and put on the rack of the smoker and smoke for about twenty minutes until it takes on colour, turning once. Toss the salad leaves, with a handful of young and tender Common or Sheep’s Sorrel. Fry the smoked haloumi gently in a little oil, careful here as it can burn quickly. When browned both sides drizzle with maple syrup and fry for a minute on a low heat.
Planked Trout with Sorreled new potatoes and Burdock strips.
1 fresh trout
1 root of a first year burdock
New potatoes
1 handful of sorrel leaves
Take a 12 inch long log of Oak or Silver Birch, about 8 inches in diameter and split it in half along the grain. Heat the flat surface up against the campfire or stick it under the grill (If you use Birch remove the silver bark from the split edges as it’s a great fire-starting tinder!)
Cook the plank until it starts to brown (careful holding it by the short ends as hot sap can scald your hands if the wood is unseasoned).
Lay the trout (butterfly fillet) skin side down on the hot surface and put it back under the grill until done, dampening down the edges of the wood if they start to char. For campfire cooking peg the fillet to the ‘plank’ using hard wood pegs driven through the flesh and skin in several places around the edges. This stops the fillet curling and falling in the fire. Prop up the plank by the embers and cook until done.
Peel and wash the root of a first-year Burdock (second-year burdock has the tall stem and characteristic ‘burs’). Slice into long, thin matchsticks and boil, just about covered in water, a little bit of salt and a couple of good splashes of Shoyu, Tamari or Soy sauce in a lidded skillet or frying pan. After about 20 minutes take the lid off and let the liquid evaporate, splash again with sauce, stir and mix in with boiled new potatoes, shredded sorrel leaves and olive oil or butter.
Dessert
Vanilla ice-cream with Elderberry Rob and Blackberry leather laces
5 cups of elderberries
500g blackberries
500g of crab apples and cooking apples (6-8 crab apples with res made up of apples)
Juice of 1 lemon
150g of honey
Strip ripe elderberries from their stalks and wash. Measure out about five cups of berries with a cup of water into a heavy pan and gently bring it all to a simmer, crushing the berries, Press it all through a sieve with the back of a spoon. Measure it back into the pan and for every two and a half cups of liquid add two cups of sugar, bring to a simmer in an uncovered pan until syrupy and thick. Leave it to cool then spoon over Vanilla ice-cream. Drape over a tangle of Blackberry leather bootlaces prepared the day before.
For those take 500g of blackberries and a 500g mixture of 6 or 8 small crab apples, with the rest being cooking apples. Simmer them until pulpy with the juice of one lemon then press the pulp through a sieve, adding to the thick juice 150g of honey. Line two baking trays (24x30cm) with baking parchment or greaseproof paper and divide the mixture twixt the two. Bake in an oven on the lowest setting for a wapping 12 hours or so overnight, (probably a good idea to make double the quantity to make it more economical).
Come the morning peel it away from the paper, roll it into a tube and cut in to thin strips that unravel into purple laces. (With thanks to Pamela Michael and Pam Corbin).
Finish with a palate-cleansing cup of Yarrow leaf tea (best avoided if pregnant), 3 or 4 leaves torn up and steeped in hot water for up to 7 minutes, add honey to sweeten. You could even come full circle with a little shot of ice cold Chantrelle vodka….