Free Food Friday

Give us this day...



...our Garlic Bread.



Wild Garlic. We can't escape the stuff, it surrounds our house, walking releases plumes of scent. It's deliciously intoxicating and now forever linked for me with Full On Springtime. There was nothing for it, we found, but to make friends with the Wild Garlic.



My dh thinks I am obsessed with Wild Garlic. This is what he said when he saw the green butter. I might be. But I think there are worse things to be obsessed by, yeah? For example my friend's son asked me the other day how to make my Wild Garlic soup which he ate last time he visited, after, of course, he heard me talking about Wild Garlic (again). I mean from a nine year old, that is pure compliment. And where obsession meshes snugly with Real Life: meaning if kids don't like your food then something just 'ain't right and a remedy/tweaking/fixing/discarding of recipe is required.



When Isaac came into the kitchen took one look at the green butter and made himself a little oat cracker snack plate with some; no words, just straight in for the kill, I thought - is it his colour blindness? Is this kid just plain hungry? Or is it that this all smells so good and garlicky? Honestly? I think it was a combo of all three. But that is fine. As long as it's eaten, then I don't ask.

The wild garlic is so prolific here - think damp, next to a stream, wooded. That's us. And the garlic loves it. Nearly every day at some meal time I pull my boots on, slot the baby in to the sling and call out to the boys, 'I'm going to get garlic!' Sometimes they come along the few steps to the little waterfall (it's interesting enough that you can go several times a day/week), sometimes I go alone, just me the babe, the garlic and the sound of rushing water (but that's ok, like I said it's within calling distance of my home).

My dh is getting just the *tiniest* bit sick of wild garlic. But not me, my enthusiasm has not waned. We have had - omelette's with leaves used like spinach, sandwiches with shredded leaves; kinda cress-like, in salads raw and salads cooked (in place of spinach or cabbage: fried up with onion and cloves of garlic and other shredded veg), wild garlic pesto, leaves steeped in oil, soups of every description benefit from a handful of leaves..... today I made a pure wild garlic soup and it was the best of the lot. In a tiny voice I might even say I like it more than Nettle Soup. Gasp. It might just be true.



Wild Garlic Butter

~ 1 stick of goat butter (or whatever your preference)
~ 1 large thick handful of wild garlic leaves
~ dash of Worcestershire sauce
~ dash of olive oil
~ salt and pepper
~ clove or two of garlic (if you love garlic)

Blitz until green, smooth and creamy in a Magimix. Or failing that, shred as finely as possible and bash in pestle and mortar until it's all combined. But I can't promise that fabulous COLOUR with the second method!




Wild Garlic Bread

I made molasses bread from the Tassajara Bread book. But any bread recipe would work, just combine the herbs when you would seeds or any other additions. Use a large handful per loaf of chopped shredded garlic leaves. Or more. There can always be more.






Wild Garlic Soup

Because what else would you eat your garlic bread with?



Adapted from the recipe in Seaweed and Eat It.

~ Two red onions, chopped
~ Three largish potatoes, chopped
~ One super big sweet potato or other root veg

Fry above in oil until softening up and then add seasoning and a nice glug of Worcestershire sauce. Add two very large thick handfuls of tender small leaves (smaller the leaves the tastier I have found) and let the heat wilt them. Add two pints of good stock. Let simmer until the veg is tender. Puree with hand held blender. Serve with a scattering of the very edible wild garlic flowers. And garlic Bread. With Garlic Butter.



You can tell our house by the wafts of garlicky breath drifting off outside, escaping through windows... no one dare walk by, the cat has scarpered, it's eerily quiet here....... except for us and the wind swishing between the millions of garlic leaves :)