Lemon balm pesto

April 23, 20201 Comment

Well I don’t know how lockdown is going for you but times are pretty tough financially speaking here at Wyldelight Cottage, with just half a wage coming in to support two people. It means I’m having to be pretty creative in the kitchen and so more and more I find myself using whatever is growing in the garden to add extra flavour to the pulses and grains that we have come to rely upon. I have plenty of nettles, cleavers, dandelions and wild garlic growing alongside a huge amount of lemon balm. These greens have been an absolute saviour for adding in extra vitamins and minerals and also colour to what I’m cooking.

Lemon balm is really invasive and will take over your garden if you let it (as I have done, more through laziness than desire!), but it’s such a gorgeous plant. Great for making a tea or infusing in a jug of water on the table in the garden for a refreshing drink, popping in your G&T and oh my days THIS PESTO!

I’ve been dunking homemade focaccia in it, I topped a smoky chorizo and chickpea stew with it last night and it would be brilliant with grilled fish or chicken or just smothering new potatoes.

I have no oil but I save the oil from jars of sun-dried tomatoes/roasted red peppers etc and use that, it’s brilliant for making dressings and works incredibly well in this but use whatever you have.

Ingredients:

Large handful of lemon balm, mine is quite young so was I able to use leaves from all over the plant.
handful of whole mixed nut (brazils, hazelnuts, cashew, almond, walnut etc)
3 large gloves of garlic
1 heaped teaspoon dried chilli flakes
squeeze of orange
about 100ml sun-dried tomato oil left from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes (or any oil)
pinch of salt

Put everything in a Nutribullet or processor and blitz. It’s that easy. If you don’t have a processor or blender then you can do it in a mortar and pestle, it will just take a little longer. You could add parmesan if you have it, that would be lovely too 🙂

Ink cap mushroom pasta with pesto and kale and pistachio pangrattato

October 7, 2013Leave a comment

It’s my favourite time of the year, mushrooms, fruits and berries are plentiful around our countryside and for the happy forager it’s most definitely a bountiful harvest this year.

When it comes to mushroom foraging you really do need to know what you are doing as it can be a dangerous game of fungi roulette if you don’t. This is why I really love the ink cap mushroom as it’s so distinct in its appearance. The only thing you need to be careful with when eating ink caps is not to consume alcohol with them as sometimes they can have quite an extreme and vomity effect. I’ve gotten away with adding sherry to mine on a few occasions but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it just to be on the safe side.

I’ve also got hugely into roasting kale recently and sprinkling it with homemade dukkah and basically just munching away on it or its also really kickass when combined with green tomatoes and a duck egg.

I’ve been away for a few days working on some pieces for Metro down in Cornwall and Somerset so didn’t have much in the cupboards upon my return. I found some ink caps growing near my sister’s house so picked them before heading home and this is the resulting dish:

Ink cap rigatoni with pesto and kale and pistachio pangrattato

For the pesto:

4 cloves garlic
50g fresh basil plus stalks
50g shelled pistachios
50 grana padano cheese, finely grated
few good glugs extra virgin rapeseed oil
salt and pepper to taste

For the pasta:

1 aubergine, chopped into bite sized pieces
8 ink caps, brushed to remove dirt and checked for slugs (they like to crawl inside them)
1 red chilli, finely chopped
drizzle of oil
rigatoni pasta

For the Pangrattato

few handfuls chopped kale
2 cloves garlic
two handfuls of chunks of stale sourdough bread
50g shelled pistachios
seasoning if it needs it
glug of oil for frying

Method:

Whizz up all your pesto ingredients in a food processor, loosen with oil until you are happy with the consistency and seasoning. Set aside (This will keep happily in the fridge beneath a layer of oil for at least a week).
Put your aubergines and mushrooms on a roasting tray, scatter with the cilli and roast in a hot oven until cooked them remove and set aside.
Make sure the kale is bone dry then roast in the oven for a few minutes until the edges are crispy but there is still a bit of softness in the centre.
Blitz the pangrattato ingredients together until it is like breadcrumbs then heat some oil in a frying pan and fry until crunchy.
To assemble simply stir the aubergine, mushroom and pest into the drained rigatoni and to with some of the pangrattato.
Cook your rigatoni in salted boiling water until al dente.

Wild garlic, hazelnut and smoky chipotle “pesto”

April 19, 2013Leave a comment

I don’t think that there is any season that I look forward to more than wild garlic season, and this year’s bitterly cold weather and delayed arrival has made it all the more eagerly awaited and welcomed with pretty much fanatic gusto.

This wild garlic recipe is not only a brilliant way to celebrate it’s arrival but it also freezes really well so I make plenty and divide it between freezer bags and lie them on top of one another in the freezer so I can defrost a portion at a time.

You could add some hard cheese to this if you fancy, a good hard British goat’s cheese finely grated in would be delicious but I like to keep it very simple and then I can always grate some over the finished dish. I had a big bunch of parsley so threw some of that in too, it’s said that eating parsley after garlic kills and bad breath but I happily honked of garlic for the rest of the evening.

Use this stirred into pasta, smear all over the inside of a joint of pork belly and roll and roast, stir it through some creme fraiche or mayo for a dip or just eat it with a spoon, this is in your face ace.

wild garlic chipotle homemade pappardelle

Stirred through homemade duck egg pappardelle and garnished with the petals from violas I was dead-heading in the garden

Ingredients:

200g wild garlic leaves, washed
100g parsley (mellows the garlic slightly)
100g hazelnuts
3 chipotle chillies (Edible Ornamentals are British grown and kick ass)
big pinch sea salt flakes
big pinch freshly ground black pepper
enough good oil to get a good consistency (around 100ml ish, I use Cotswold Gold E.V rapeseed oil as it’s wonderfully nutty

Method:

Just put everything in a food processor except the oil and blitz, as the machine goes drizzle in the oil until you are happy with the consistency, taste and adjust seasoning if need be. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes before using so that the flavours develop.