A sting to the palette - cooking with nettles

Once cooked the sting is destroyed -so you can eat freely. You can serve nettles as you would spinach with fish, chicken etc. Nettles also make a nice omlette.

• The best taste comes from sauteeing:

After washing (as shown previously), still wearing gloves transfer to a cloth to dry. Heat olive oil and saute.

The caramelisation on the nettle leaves is where the amazing taste is. Keep turning over so they all get cooked. After a minute when they are almost cooked add a couple of tablespoons of water and leave to evaporate which finishes the cooking while stopping the nettles turning into nettle crisps. Season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

• Steamed -

Wearing gloves you can transfer the nettles from being washed in the sink to a large pan. There should still be enough water on the leaves to create steam once you put a lid on top. Cook for 3 - 4 minutes till tender. Squeeze off excess water and season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

• Deep frying -

Nettles can be deep fried at about 150 oC as you do with basil leaves and used as a garnish.

Related posts:

1001 kitchen tips #21 - top nettle picking tips
Nettle gluten free soda bread
Irish potato and nettle pancakes for St. Patrick's Day
Sauteed purple sprouting broccoli and courgettes with creamy polenta and nettle vinaigrette

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Sauteed purple sprouting broccoli and courgettes with creamy polenta and nettle vinaigrette

• Creamy polenta - about 50g polenta to 180ml chicken/ vegetable stock and 20ml cream for one rather large appetite or two smaller ones (youcan always re-heat the leftover). Add polenta to hot stock and cream. Add a knob of butter and chopped thyme and cook for a minute.

• Nettle vinaigrette - Squeeze steamed nettles (the water they hold makes the vinaigrette dark). Whizz in the proccessor with vinigrette. Add warm water to thin the vinaigrette down to spooning consistency.

• Sauteed courettes and purple sprouting broccoli - Saute courgettes first. Add PSB after a minute. Leave till well coloured - that's where the flavour is, add a little water at the end to make steam which finishes the cooking. Season with salt, pepper and a little balsamic syrup.

• Sauteed nettles - you can add hese too under the PSB.

Ref: 1001 kitchen tips #21 - top nettle picking tips

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1001 kitchen tips #21 - Top nettle picking tips

Now is the season for nettles - pick them while they are young and tender.




1. Choose your nettle patch carefully. I found mine on the bank of the river Severn. Make sure:

• You are away from dog walking routes (obvious reasons)


• You are away from arable fields (crop sprays/ pesticides)


• The soil isn't sandy - sandy soil gets splashed up all over the nettles when it rains and however much you wash them they will still be gritty.


• There hasn't been recent floods around your nettle patch - the nettles near the bank were covered with sludge.


• Avoid nettles under trees -they suffer from birds and whatever the tree decides to drop.
  

2. Get the marigolds out to avoid the sting.

3. Pick just the tips - they are the most tender part. The bigger the leaves get the more fibrous they are.

4. Wash them well in water when you get back - again use the marigolds.

Related posts:

How to cook nettles
Courgette and nettle fritters with nettle pesto

Open ravioli of cod, asparagus and mozzarella gratinated with parmesan, wild nettle pesto

Pearl barley risotto with wild nettles, roasted purple sprouting broccoli, artichokes and nettle pesto (This was part of a week long event - scroll down to Thursday on this link)

The BNT brioche crown (that's home cured bacon, wild nettles and home grown tomatoes - an epic)

Beef olive with nettle, sun dried tomato and basil stuffing

Beans on toast (or if you prefer: Homemade gluten free nettle bread with beer baked cannellini beans and nettle pesto)

Irish style potato (and nettle) pancakes for BBC Radio Gloucestershire St Patricks Day

Nettle risotto with grilled scallops and nettle pesto

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Wild blackberries

On the way back from a delivery I stopped to pick some blackberries from the fields before it got dark. The flavour is so amazing compared to anything you can buy.

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Elderflowers

Elderflowers - the english hedgrow's strongest perfume.

The months worth of rain would fall in the next 36 hours they said on the radio, so I knew the elderflowers had to picked right then, before the rains came. The trouble with food season is they're so short. Asparagus came and went again so quickly this year - again I picked up the last of the crop from Bangrove Farm near Teddington. A walk down the river from my house confirmed the worst - the elderflowers had all gone over and berries were starting to emerge. That's the problem with microclimates. There was one chance left though - the hills around Snowshill, everything blooms/ fruits later. Here I found laden elderflower trees and picked a bumper crop. Here they are before soaking in cold water in the fridge for a couple of days.

This liquor will then be used to make the elderflower poached chicken photographed in an earlier entry, and also elderflower sorbet, 'champagne' and cordial.

Ref: Chicken poached in wild elderflower

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