Rose Hips for Food

In my quest to find and collect a new wild food each and every weekend in September and October I've come to a little bit of an Impasse. So far I've had blackberries (link), elderberries (link), ash keys and haws.

The past few weeks have been so wet that I've not had much of an opportunity. But yesterday was a very fine day. However, guelder roses aren't quite ripe yet and the same is true of rowan berries.

That really only leaves rose hips. Now, I've nibbled on these in passing several times in the past and I really like the taste. But they do strike me as being just a bit of a faff to prepare, as you have to remove each and every seed.



But, needs must... and as there was nothing else to pick (at least not properly) I decided to harvest the rose hips instead (of course I picked more elderberries and haws as well). Admittedly it's still a little early for the rose hips to be fully ripe (the dog rose ones at least), but the wild Rosa rugosa hips were nice and dark and there were quite a few bushes growing on waste ground so I harvested those and will pick the dog rose Rosa canina hips later this month.

Having picked the rose hips I needed to find things to do with them and it's only when searching the web that I found out just how versatile this food could be. So here are a couple of recipes that I've been able to try out for myself.

First we'll start with a classic method of air drying rose hips for later use:

Dried Rose Hips

Ingredients:
600g rose hips

Like many late autumn fruit it's best to pick rose hips after the first frost when they are fully ripe. Snap off the tails of the hips as close to the fruit as possible then spread the hips out on a clean surface (I tend to spread newspaper on a table and spread them out there). Allow to dry partially (when the skins begin to wrinkle) then split the hips and remove all the seeds with a small spoon or a pointed knife (be certain to remove all the seeds, as these can catch in the throat).

Return the hips to your drying surface and allow to dry our completely (they must be completely dry, or they will not store) then either freeze in bags (they will keep indefinitely) or place in a clean jar and store in the refrigerator (they will keep for several months).

As well as being used as replacement for fruit you can add these to trail mixes, eat them as snacks or use as toppings for salads. Rose hips are very high in vitamin C and make an excellent winter supplement.

Of course, one of the classic ways of using rose hips is to make rose hip soup. There are classic recipes for this from Sweden (Nyponsoppa) and Germany (Hagebuttem Soup) but the recipe given below is a classic British recipe:

Rose Hip Soup

Ingredients:
1l rose hip purée (or rose hip juice)
3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp water
6 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt

Method:
Combine the rose hip purée, honey and lemon juice in a pan. Bring to a simmer then whisk together the cornflour and water to a slurry. Add to the soup and whisk to combine. Continue cooking until the soup thickens then ladle into warmed soup bowls, garnish with a spoonful of yoghurt and serve.

(This recipe is reproduced, with thanks, from the Celtnet British Recipes collection.)


If you want many more rose hip recipes then check out the Rose hips recipes collecton.

For all the wild food recipes on this blog, see the wild food recipes page.

Making Use of Wild Foods

A wet and miserable August in the UK has made this month pretty bad for wild foragers. Wild blackberries, which you would expect in profusion really aren't lasting on the briars so it might take a few trips to get enough to be useful.

Indeed, I left much of my standard harvesting until far too late. Normally I pick Ash Keys early in August. It wasn't until this weekend that I picked them this year though. These you have to pick whilst young and green and you have maybe a week left now before they start drying out. This late in the season you will need to look for small ash trees in deep shade. This way you can still find younger, less mature keys.

Whether Ash keys are really worth picking is another rather vexed question. They're quite bitter and you will need to boil them through at least 3 changes of water to make them palatable (and to soften them). Once you've done this take about 400g Ash keys, add 300ml vinegar, your favourite pickling spices, 1 tsp paprika and 1 tbsp salt and bring to a boil. Bottle in sterilized jars and store. You will get something that tastes rather like bitter capers.

What I did discover, however, is that ash keys make a very acceptable substitute for a number of biter spices normally found in West African cookery. So this year my wife and I have developed a recipe for a Spiced Ash Key Pickle that works very well in West African soups and stews.

Just to show how this works, here's a link to a Kale and Ash Key Stew that's based on the classic Liberian dish of Cassava Leaf Stew. (You can find many more classic Liberian Recipes at the Celtnet Liberian Reicpes page which has the web's most extensive collection of these recipes.

Finding this use for Ash Keys really has changed my view of this wild food and I now have several large jars of pickled ash keys ready for use well into next year. It's amazing what you miss if you limit yourself to one type of cuisine.

This weekend I also picked my first elderberries. They're just beginning to ripen now and I had just enough to make an elderberry and blackberry roly poly (recipe below). It will probably be another 10 days before the elderberries are properly ripe, but you will have to be quick this year to get them as the birds are already stripping ripe elderberries from the trees. Pick them as soon as you see ripe ones (cut the whole spray of fruit from the elder tree and when you get home use the tines of a fork to strip the berries from the stalks).

Blackberry and Elderberry Steamed Roly Poly

Ingredients:
300g blackberries, washed and cleande
100g elderberries, de-stalked and washed
5 tbsp soft brown sugar
450g plain flour
180g vegetable suet
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Place the elderberries in a bowl and scatter 1 tbsp of the sugar over the top. Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt into a bowl and stir-in the suet. Mix together before adding just sufficient water to form a stiff dough. Cut 1/3 of the dough off and set aside. Roll the remaining dough on a lightly-floured surface until large enough to cover the base and sides of a 1l pudding basin. Combine the fruit, mix add the sugar then tip the fruit mixture into the pudding basin. Roll out the remaining dough and place over the top of the pudding to form a lid. Allow enough room for expansion and crimp the lid to the pastry lining the sides.

Either cover with a lid or a circle of greaseproof paper then cover the entire pudding in a double layer of kitchen foil and tie securely with string. Place in a steamer (or on top of an inverted saucer in a large saucepan) and boil for 2 hours.

When ready, remove from the pot an allow to cool for a few minutes before carefully removing the foil and lid. Invert a serving plate over the bowl then turn everything over so the pudding slides out of the bowl and onto the plate. Slice and serve hot with ice-cold milk.

This recipe is based on my mother's traditional family recipe for Blackberry Roly Poly, a dish that, in our family always marked the end of harvest time and the beginning of autumn.

I have to say that I was so delighted at getting a decent collection of elderberries on my first forage that I decided to create a whole new dish to use them: Chicken Thighs with Chickpeas in a Tomato, Chilli and Elderberry Sauce! Over the next few weeks, as my freezer begins to fill with fruit, be ready for recipes for Elderberry ice cream, elderberry sorbets, sauces, preserves and jams.

For all the wild food recipes on this blog, see the wild food recipes page.

Linden Leaf Pap (Porridge)

An African porridge with an European twist.


The use of dried leaves and mucilaginous greens to thicken stews and porridges is a well known tradition in African (particularly West African) cookery. Indeed, this is one of the many ways that the leaves of the Baobab tree are used in northern West Africa. Baobab is very versatile, with the dry pulp of the fruit being made into a drink that's very high in vitamin C. Indeed, the vitamin C content of baobab leaves is very high and the young leaves can be eaten as a vegetable. The older leaves are dried and pounded to a paste or shredded and are made into tea or are used in soups, stews and porridges as a thickener (the tree is grown commercially in Senegal for this very purpose).

What might be surprising to many people is that there is an European tree, the leaves of which have been used for a very similar purpose (and which were commonly used for these purposes in France as recently as 60 years ago). This is the Linden or Lime tree and there's a cognate species in North America.

During the Second World War, when supplies were getting scarce and even grain was a rare commodity, the French returned to a Medieval method for making flour go further. They began collecting linden (European lime) leaves which were dried in ovens before being pounded to a powder and sifted. This 'linden leaf flour' as it was commonly called was added to wheat flour to make it go further.

Linden leaves contain a mucilaginous substance which acts as a thickener. As a result linden flour was also added to stews to thicken them (useful if little meat and few vegetables are available) and it was also added to oats and wheat to make a porridge.

It's this porridge that's re-created here. I've based the recipe on one from West Africa, but linden leaf flour is substituted for Baobab leaf powder (the two dried leaf products have very similar culinary properties). It should be noted that 'pap' is actually an Afrikaans word meaning 'porridge' or 'gruel' but it's a word that's come into common currency in most English-speaking African countries.


300g maize meal (or polenta)

60g linden leaf flour

300ml water

Bring the water to a boil and add the polenta until a stiff mixture is attained then stir-in the linden leaf flour. Leave to simmer for 25 minutes, stirring every five minutes to prevent burning. Serve with a stew or a sauce.

You could make a version of this with porridge oats and that could be served as a breakfast.


As it turns out, recent research has revealed that linden leaves may even be beneficial when added to flour as they contain a high percentage of invert sugars. As a result they are readily metabolized by those suffering from diabetes and can be an useful addition to diabetic recipes. Thus this porridge makes an excellent start to the day for diabetics (or anyone else, come to that!).


If you are interested in the parallels between the use of linden leaves in African and Louisiana Creole cookery then read this article on Clues to lost recipes with Linden.

For more information about the European lime, linden, see the Celtnet Wild Food Guide to Linden and Linden recipes page.

If the use of linden leaves has piqued your curiosity, then you can find many more linden (and other wild food) recipes on the Celtnet Wild Foods Recipes pages.

For all the wild food recipes on this blog, see the wild food recipes page.

Recipes for Spring Wild Mushrooms

Though almost everyone thinks of mushrooms as being autumnal in their bounty there are a few species that fruit very early in the spring and these are well worth hunting out and trying. Because they fruit so early they are also difficult to confuse with poisonous species and, as long as you take a few precautions they are safe to go an hut for and to pick.

Below are recipes including three of the commonest spring mushrooms and I include a link to an identification guide for each.

1: St George's Mushrooms

You can find an identification guide for St George's Mushrooms here. This is one of the earliest of all field mushrooms and is a wonderful-tasting mushroom well worth the hunt.

The recipe follows:

St George's Mushroom Croustade

Ingredients:
150g breadcrumbs (preferably wholemeal)
150g plain flour
100g mixed nuts, chopped
1 tsp basil leaves, chopped
75g butter, softened
1 large egg
500g St George's Mushroom, cleaned and sliced
75g butter
450ml milk
1 tbsp flour
3 tomatoes, finely sliced
6 asparagus spears, cooked
salt and black pepper, to taste

Method:
For the base, add the breadcrumbs, flour and nuts to a bowl. Rub-in the butter with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and mix to a dough. Use this to line a well-greased 22cm flan tin. Press down with the back of your hand or a wooden spoon to compact the mixture to about 1.5cm thick.

Place in an oven pre-heated to 200°C and bake for about 14 minutes, or until set.

Meanwhile, fry the mushrooms, onion and garlic in the remaining butter for about 2 minutes before stirring-in the flour and adding the milk. Stir well to combine then cook until thickened. Adjust the seasoning then spoon the mixture into the prepared base. Decorate the top with the tomatoes and asparagus, cover lightly with foil and return to the oven. Turn down to 170°C and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve warm.

2: Morel Mushrooms

The morels are some of the more regonizable of the Spring wild mushrooms (you can find an identification guide for morels here). Note that morels contain a mild toxin which is rendered inert by cooking and they should always be cooked before eating. For gourmands this is definitely one of the most sought-after of the spring fungi.

The recipe follows:

Asparagus and Morel Bread Pudding


Ingredients:
8 cloves garlic, peeled and halved lengthways
750ml whole milk
450g loaf of firm white bread cut into thick slices (slightly stale bread is best)
700g peeled asparagus cut at a diagonal into 1cm lengths
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large shallot, finely diced
300g morel mushrooms (chanterelles also work) cleaned and coarsely chopped
4 large eggs
50g frehshly-chopped parsley
3 tbsp finely-chopped tarragon (or marjoram) leaves
350g freshly-grated Gruyère cheese
sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Method:
Add the garlic and milk to a pan, bring slowly to a boil then remove from the heat and set aside to cool and steep. Break the bread into chunks (much easier to do if it's stale) and pour the milk (through a strainer) over the top. Set the dish aside (but return to turn the bread every so often so that it absorbs as much of the milk as possible.

Meanwhile fill a large, deep, frying pan with water, bring to a boil the salt lightly and add the asparagus pieces. Cook for 3 minutes then drain and refresh under cold water to stop the cooking.

Melt half the butter in a non-stick pan, add the shallots and cook for 1 minute before adding the mushrooms. Increase the heat and cook for about 8 minutes, or until the mushrooms begin to brown and release their liquid, Remove from the heat, season and set aside.

Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk until smooth then add the parsley, tarragon or marjoram, 1 tsp salt and black pepper to taste. Add the soaked bread and the asparagus and mushroom mixture (along with any liquids). Add 2/3 of the cheese and mix to combine thoroughly. Pour into a gratin dish and spread out with the back of a large spoon or spatula. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and dot with the remaining butter.

Place in an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for about 50 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Allow to cool a little before serving.

3: Fairy Ring Champignon

The fairy fing chanpignon is not the prettiest of mushrooms, but it is tasty and very common (an identification guide for fairy ring champignons can be found here.

The recipe follows:

Fairy Ring Champignon Omelette

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp water
Salt and Black pepper, to taste
3 tbsp chopped onions
90g Fairy Ring Champignon caps, sliced 1 tbsp clarified butter (or oil)

Method:
Mix together all ingredients except the butter, onions and mushrooms. Put half of the butter in a skillet heated to medium and cook the onions in this until softened (about 4 minutes) then add the mushrooms and cook until the onion browns (about 5 minutes). Remove the onion and mushroom mixture and set aside then add then remaining butter and the egg mixture. Using a small spatula run around the edges of the pan, tipping the frying pan so the uncooked egg from the center of the pan can run under the bottom of the cooked egg. Continue to do this until the egg in the center is still just a little moist. Sprinkle the fried onions and mushrooms on the egg then roll the omelette with three folds as you turn it onto the plate.

You can find a wild greens and a wild mushroom recipe at: Wild Food as a Way of Saving Money.

I hope that these recipes have raised your interest in wild foods and you can find far more information on the Edible Wild Foods Guide. There are also several hunderd recipes incorporating wild foods in the Wild Food Recipes guide and for mushrooms at the Mushroom Recipes page.

For all the wild food recipes on this blog, see the wild food recipes page.