Themes of wild garlic pesto

3 weeks back the Chap and I went for our first forage of the year and were pleased to see the wild garlic sprouting already. We’ve been meaning to go back since but have variously been deterred by rain, being busy and watching the opening 2 weekends of the 6 nations rugby. So today, it being reasonably sunny (though very windy) and lacking in rugby fixtures we made the trip and found a lot more of the garlic has come up.
As a contrast this is the same area I pictured last time, you can see many more of the shoots have unfurled properly, and the river has taken its rightful place within it’s banks again! There were also plants all the way along this stretch that weren’t in evidence last visit so we should have plenty to keep us going this year.
So we stocked up and came back with about 300g of the stuff. We’re wild garlic pesto aficionado’s and made a few batches once we got home trying out using hazelnuts as well as the standard pine nuts and adding lemon juice to some. I think the lemon juice really lifts the mix and I’m a big fan of that version. Otherwise I did prefer the pine nut version to the hazelnut one. I also made one batch with half basil and half wild garlic as I had some fresh basil in the fridge to be used up which was lovely. So with this many herbs I’m going to enter this into this month’s Herbs on a Saturday over at Lavender and Lovage. Having just nipped over there I’ve also found that serendipitously this month there is a mini-theme of foraging!  :-)
We’ve adapted our pesto from the HFW recipe in his Hedgerow book which incidentally is a good read as are the seashore and mushroom ones in that series.

Wild garlic pesto and variants thereof - for a small batch that fills a 200g-ish size jar:

50g wild garlic, rinsed well of any mud etc
30g pine nuts / hazelnuts
30g parmesan / veggie version
80ml olive oil + a little extra
S + P
10ml lemon juice – if using

Toast off your nuts gently. Pine nuts I do in a dry pan, for the hazelnuts we added a little oil as they’re less naturally oily than the pine nuts.

Rough grate the parmesan and place it, the nuts, garlic and salt and pepper in your FP and blend.

During blending pour in the olive oil. Taste and adjust, it may need more salt than you think to bring the flavours out but it’s always best to err on the side of caution to begin with.

With the motor running once more add the lemon juice. You can do this in 5ml increments if you want until it’s pleasing to your own taste. I made one batch deliberately more lemony as that’s my favourite.

Pour into a sterilised jar and tap sharply on the counter top to encourage it to settle and remove any air bubbles.

Lastly drizzle a little more oil over the top to ensure it’s sealed from the air then store in the fridge.

For my basil and garlic version I had just over 25g of basil so just made it half and half with the garlic and used pine nuts and the lemon juice. We had some straight away on a hardboiled egg with a little sea salt sprinkled on and it was divine!

This is also very good with cheese and crackers, stirred through pasta or one of my favourites – smeared on top of the cheese on toast before grilling to melt the cheese. I think it could also work with spinach and feta in a pie, drizzled into the top of soup, tossed with new potatoes for a salad; there’s a myriad of uses.

If you have a patch of wild garlic local to you this is well worth making and works out pretty cheap. The garlic is nuppence and although pine nuts and the cheese are more pricy you only use a little of them. Try it and you’ll be a convert too!!

Christmassy foodie things #2 - Preserved Clementines in a spiced ginger syrup

I made this recipe from the Atomic Shrimp website as a last minute foodie type gift for friends and family. They look great and are relatively inexpensive to make as a gift for any time of the year. The small Kilner jars I used were £2 a go from Wilkinsons and are a nice touch I think. I doubled the amounts in the original recipe as clementines were on offer 2 bags for £2 when I bought them. I added a couple of thickly sliced lemons to make up the weight and used Stones Green Ginger Wine in place of the suggested spirits.

1200g fruit - 2 bags of clementine + 2 lemons

1kg Sugar - white granulated

200ml Stones Ginger Wine
900ml Water

5 Cloves

1 stick cinnamon broken into pieces

Heat the water, 100ml of the ginger wine and the spices gently with the sugar until the sugar dissolves.

Meanwhile wash and destalk the fruit.

Thickly slice the lemons discarding the ends that are all rind.

Put 2 cuts in the non-stalk end of the clementines in a cross - Atomic Shrimp says this is to let the juice out and the syrup in.

Once the sugar is dissolved carefully add the fruit and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 1 hour, turning the fruit every 10 mins or so.

10 minutes before the end of the cooking time sterilise your jars.

Remove lid from pan and gently 'squish' the fruit a little against the side or base to release some extra juice. You can see from the picture that the cuts on the fruit will open up as the skins are much softer now.

With a spoon place in jars - the fruit is very soft now and will squash easily so take care.

Add last 100ml Ginger wine to the syrup in the pan and stir. Spoon over to cover fruit in jars and seal.

Adorn with a lovely bow and tag if wanted or keep for yourself and guzzle on top of yoghurt or good quality vanilla ice-cream. Mmmm...