Edulis : wild food

Nettle and lemon cake (vegan)

Lisa Cutcliffe — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 11:38:30 +0000

What better way to get one of your ‘5 a day’ than in cake form!

Nettles are a superfood, they’re packed with a long list of vitamins and minerals, as well as good fats, high in protein for a green plant and in fact contains all 12 of the essential amino acids we need to intake to make proteins in our own bodies. Nettle is anti-imflammatory and anti-histamine (so it’s good for hayfever and other allergy sufferers), it’s adaptogenic so it’s good for regulating stress hormones such as cortisol in the body, and of course it’s tasty and highly-nutritious! If you put a table of nutrients and benefits for spinach and nettle side by side, nettle will win on every single count.

Carefully harvest just the top few sets of leaves from a good clean nettle patch, away from dog walking areas, paths and roads. I use a glove on one hand and scissors in the other. Trim off any stalks at home, so you just have the fresh young leaves. We only need 85-100g fresh weight of leaves for this recipe.

If you have more nettle leaves you need, you can dry the extras, to use for tea, or to grind to a matcha-like powder or in a host of savoury dishes later. Or you can blanch them in boiling water for 30 seconds, cool rapidly and squeeze the excess water out, then freeze in balled-up portions to use later. Or, you can steep in cold water and fridge overnight to drink the next day for a refreshing vitamin-rich water.

Nettle and lemon cake recipe

Recipe makes one loaf or 12 large cupcakes (using the 2″ deep cases, not the shallow ones).

Cake batter ingredients

85-100g fresh young nettle tops, stalks trimmed away, just leaves
100ml (or 93g) oil (I use veg or sunflower)
170ml (or 170g) water
Zest and juice of of half an unwaxed lemon (apx 1.5 tbsp) (prep & keep other half for the icing)
275g self-raising flour (I used a fine, ‘supreme sponge’ flour)
1 tsp baking powder
200g sugar (I used golden caster but I think any will work as a wet mix)
A pinch of salt
A pinch of mild green unsalty seaweed flakes too e.g. sea lettuce or nori – totally optional

Topping option 1: thin icing

Zest and juice of half an unwaxed lemon (other half of cake mix lemon)
200g icing sugar or powdered sugar
Mix and drizzle over the cooled cakes. Add edible flowers or a dusting of nettle matcha if you like (see note on edible flowers).

Topping option 2: vegan buttercream frosting

150g vegan or plantbased ‘butter’ block – I use Naturli
400g icing sugar or powdered sugar
Zest and juice of half an unwaxed lemon (other half of cake mix lemon)
Whisk butter with icing sugar then add lemon juice. Add extra icing sugar if want it even stiffer (it will harden on the surface though after an hour). Decorate with edible flowers or a dusting of nettle matcha (see note on edible flowers).

Cake method

Zest your lemon whole then halve and juice. Keep half the zest and half the juice aside for the topping. Trim the stalks off your nettle leaves, wash, drain and pat dry. Preheat the oven to 200C, 180C fan, 400F, gas mark 6. Line a loaf tin or put 12 deeper cupcake cases in a muffin tray.

Weigh 85-100g fresh young nettle leaves in to a blender or small food processor, depending on how much you have. Add the oil, water and juice and zest of half the lemon. I’ve put the weights of the oil and water in the recipe as well as the volumes because I found it easier to weigh in into the blender cup, it makes less mess! Zero your scales between each ingredient and pour it in. Lemons vary in size so just use half a lemon but it will be work out at 1tbsp for a small lemon and 1.5 tbsp for a larger one, either is fine. Blitz to a fine green liquid. A high-speed blender gave me best results for a smooth liquid. A stick blender and beaker may work too, though it might remain a little bitty. You could even make a nettle paste using a pestle and mortar if you need to, then add the other liquids and mix well.

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the sugar and salt. Mix up, then add the liquids and mix to a smooth batter. It’s quite a wet batter, no need to whisk loads to get air in or anything. For a single cake, place the mix into the lined loaf tin. For buns, divide the mix equally into the cupcake cases. They will rise a bit so make sure they’re the slightly larger paper cases (about 2″ deep) not the really shallow ones, or they’ll overflow!

Bake for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes, or closer to 30 minutes for a loaf cake (or until a skewer comes out clean for either style). Allow your cakes to cool completely before icing or slicing.

This cake mix could also be used for making a ‘moss’ inspired coating for other cakes! Simply allow to cool and then crumble it up, or pulse briefly in a food processor. Then coat a cake or your choice in buttercream and coat in mossy nettle cake crumbs! It looks absolutely amazing.

Toppings

Thin lemon water icing

Mix together 150g icing sugar and the juice and zest of half a lemon. A teeny-tiny bit of salt may be nice too. This should be thick enough to spread on the cooled cake without it dripping off the sides, using a knife warmed in hot water if needed. Loosen the icing with a little water if you wish to actually drizzle or drip it more. Or stiffen further with more icing sugar, if desired/needed (lemons are different sizes after all, so may produce more juice than my ones did!). Decorate with edible flowers while the icing is still wet, or wait until it’s set and dust with nettle matcha powder. Blackberries are also lovely on top!

Lemon vegan buttercream frosting icing

Cream 150g vegan butter in a mixing bowl (in a block is best rather than spreadable, I use Naturli, but any will do, just room-temp softened but still cool not too warm) and whisk it with 400g icing sugar and the juice and zest of half a lemon. It should be quite thick already, but if you want it thicker, add more icing sugar, or chill it a few minutes then whip again. Decorate with edible flowers while it’s still malleable, or wait until it’s set and dust with nettle matcha powder. Blackberries are also lovely on top.

Edible flowers

Loads of flowers are edible, especially in spring! You can also buy little packs of edible flowers from specialist suppliers, more interesting supermarkets or foodie markets. Some florists might be able to get them too.

Some are mild / flavourless but really pretty, so they’re perfect for cakes, such as violas, pansies, forsythia, dog violets, primroses and primulas, daisy and dandelion petals, green alkanet (blue flowers), forget-me-nots, cherry or plum blossom petals, quince blossom petals (red), aquilegia petals, herb robert flowers, self heal, clover, purple or white deadnettle flowers.

Magnolia petals taste a bit gingery, they would work. Sweet violets taste of parma violet sweets, but would probably pair okay with a nettle cake if not too many of them. Whole cherry or quince blossoms taste of almond. Darwin’s barberry flowers (orange) or mahonia flowers (yellow) are sweet-and-sour in flavour, if fully opened and collected on a sunny dry morning. Flowering current blooms (dark pink) are herby and a little like blackcurrant and can also work on these cakes. Rosemary flowers (baby blue) may work, if only a couple. Mint flowers (pink) might be fun! Elderflowers in small florets could work, just remove as much stem as possible as that’s not nice to eat. I don’t recommend using wild garlic flowers

Nettle matcha powder, nettle latte, cakes and ice cream

This is a wonderful ingredient to make it the spring to use throughout the year. Harvest the young spring tops from nettles while they’re fresh and abundant. Dry them by laying out in a warm room, in a very low oven with the door open, on the radiators, in an airing cupboard or in a food dehydrator until crisp and crumbly. Grind in a pestle and mortar or in a spice grinder or blender until you have a super-fine green powder. The smell is reminiscent of green tea powder called matcha, as is the colour and the way it behaves in cakes and drinks!

You can make a nettle matcha tea using hot water, or why not add your favourite plant milk or dairy milk and make a nettle matcha latte! It’s also great in cakes, mochi sweets and ice cream, substitute into any green tea matcha recipe and it will work just as well with your fine foraged nettle powder too

Inspiration and adapted recipe source/credit
My nettle cake batter recipe is adapted from a basic vegan lemon sponge cake by Kate Siddons on the BBC Good Food site. The frosting proportions came from various sources until I had settled on my favourite combo and adapted timings and so on for cupcakes.

Chicken of the woods Thai green curry

Lisa Cutcliffe — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 10:43:23 +0000

Chicken of the woods Thai green curry

Inspiration and authenticity

On my travels, I try to do a cooking class in every country I visit. There’s nothing like learning about a certain cuisine in the region it comes from! The recipe I use as the basis for my paste in this curry comes from a fabulous cooking class I did in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, probably 15 years ago. Unfortunately I can’t find the school online anywhere (if it’s even still going) so unfortunately I can’t credit them for all the wonderful things they taught me about Thai food (I’ll keep looking though).

Most Thai families’ green curry paste recipes have only about eight ingredients, whereas this one has twice that! This recipe makes one of the best green curries I’ve ever tasted, as long as you can find all the ingredients. I adapted the original recipe to things I can get in Leeds, anyway.

Plan ahead, make the paste in advance

Once I’ve found all the ingredients, I usually spend an evening making loads of paste and then freeze it in ice cube trays, ready to get a couple of blobs out when I feel like a quick dinner! It can take a bit of time so I’d recommend doing it well in advance if you’re having guests over.

The other reason to make loads at once is because you can never get such small quantities of the ingredients in the shops, and as many of them must be fresh they need to be used up within days of purchase, so making a large batch of paste with them is a good idea anyway so as not to waste expensive ingredients.

Once the paste is made, making the curry itself is reasonably quick and easy, 10-15 minutes.

Finding the Thai ingredients

Most good / larger UK supermarkets now stock most of the ingredients fresh. For the more unusual ones, try a south-east-Asian or Chinese supermarket, I use the Sing Kee oriental supermarket we have in Leeds.

On lime leaves

Avoid getting dried makrut lime leaves, they are nothing like the real thing – frozen is good, but many supermarkets do fresh now. Getting those, and the fresh Thai sweet basil, little Thai egg plants and fresh lime leaves is what makes all the difference to the authenticity of the flavour. For me, it’s not a good green curry unless it’s smooth and glossy, and you can clearly taste the zingy lime leaf and the aniseedy basil. Yum yum!!! When I returned from that trip to Thailand I couldn’t get fresh lime leaves anywhere, so I bought a makrut lime tree from a specialist citrus nursery which lives happily in my humid bathroom! I also grew my own sweet basil for years. But now you can get it in most larger supermarkets here.

Another note, in the UK, lime leaves are labelled ‘kaffir’ lime leaves. A South African friend educated me that this term is highly offensive in an African context. The name is not intended to me offensive or derogatory here, but for many around the world, it’s absolutely not a term you use in polite or respectful conversation. The tree is actually called makrut lime, so I use that name. But I include this note because UK readers might not realise makrut lime is the same species as the leaves labelled ‘kaffir’ lime in every single UK supermarket. It’s shocking really, that it’s plastered all over the place here, when you hear what it means in Africa. We need to change this outdated name. Anyway. Makrut it is from here on in! Here’s a bit of background if you’re interested: www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/a-food-has-an-historic-objectionable-name-should-we-change-it

Authentic Thai curries are quite thin

Don’t be alarmed if this recipe turns out more liquidy than you expected. In Thailand, we discovered that curries are really quite thin in texture but massive in multi-layered flavour and aromas. I’ve found that restaurants over here tend make their Thai curries thicker and sweeter than necessary, more appealing to the UK diner perhaps (as often also happens with Indian curries too).

If you add too much coconut milk by mistake, or you’d like your curry just a little bit thicker (as I often do) then you can add a heaped teaspoon of cornflour mixed in a small amount of cold water or coconut milk as it simmers, or use arrowroot in the same way. I find this recipe works best in small batches, I’ve not managed to get it right when for more than two people… I’m still practising. Mmm it’s a sooo good and well worth the effort!

Chicken of the woods

Laetiporus sulphureus, known as chicken of the woods or sulphur shelf, is an amazing fungus for the forager! It tastes of mushroom but has an incredibly meaty texture, perfect for curries! In the UK, it favours oak, followed by cherry and willow (it can help to think ‘C’ cherry, ‘O’ oak and ‘W’ willow!) but people also find it on beech, poplar, larch, pine, and yew. People and books often say avoid on yew, because of toxins in the Taxus species, but there’s no scientific evidence any of us can find to prove this is an issue, in fact an experiment a friend of mine did in the lab suggests there’s nothing extra/toxic present in CotW due to growing on yew wood. But it’s up to you! Regardless of host tree type, you must cook CotW very thoroughly.

If you’ve never had chicken of the woods before, please fry up a small piece, cook it right through, and test your tolerance for it (test it with everyone you’re planning to cook this curry for). Wait 24 hours to check for any gastric upset. If all good (like most people) then you can try more next time. Chicken of the woods *must* be cooked very thoroughly to be safe to eat. Raw or undercooked usually results in a nasty bout of gastric upset for 24-48 hours. This is why we slice it up into small pieces and fry it up in a hot pan before adding to the curry to simmer. I do this to be 100% sure it’s cooked though, as the curry itself never gets vigorously boiled. A very few folk may still not get on with CotW even when cooked properly, so use young fresh fruitbodies and always do a test with a small amount for any new (to you) food.

Razor clams

This recipe also works fabulously with razor clams (or ‘spoots’ as they’re known in Scotland). I use the ‘foot’ muscle, chopped into 1-inch segments, added right at the end of making the curry, so they aren’t over-cooked. I made a spoot green curry with spignel, dulse seaweed & oysterplant garnish, and it was delicious! The saltmarsh veg added raw at the end is also perfect with this delicate fish dish.

Wild meats

You can of course use this recipe to make a meaty curry too, over the years I’ve made versions of this curry with wild meats such as venison; pheasant; wood pigeon; partridge; grouse; mallard (wild duck); rabbit; and hare; as well as high-welfare/organic chicken or beef. The paste and curry method is the same, either way. In the Thai recipe, they slice the meat very thinly so it cooks easily, keeping the curry quick to make, preserving the aromatic flavours as fresh as possible from not cooking for ages.

Halloumi, tempeh and tofu

For the vegetarians, halloumi works brilliantly also! Grill slices or cubes then add to the curry. For the vegans, tempeh (pressed blocks of fermented soy beans left over from tofu making, nutty delicious and way better than tofu IMO), or solid (not silky) tofu also works in this, fry off first like the chicken of the woods for more flavour, or add in as you cook the sauce.

An authentic Thai green curry paste

Serves 2+ depending on how hot you like your curry!

Tip: I suggest scaling this recipe up though and freezing some paste for later

Note: If you reverse the amount of red and green chillies you can turn your green curry paste recipe into a red paste recipe. Also, if you don’t like your curries too spicy, deseed your chillies, and / or use larger chillies.

Ingredients

1/2 tablespoon cumin seeds, dry roasted in a wok (no oil, low heat)
1/2 tablespoon coriander seeds, dry roasted as above
1 tablespoon lemongrass, only use the fat root part
1 tablespoon fresh galangal root
1 tablespoon lime rind or just zest, grated
2 teaspoons coriander root
2 tablespoons shallots, minced or finely chopped (ideally the tiny thai shallots, but any will do if not)
6 garlic cloves, minced, with hard end, skin and any green bits inside removed
2 centimetres fresh turmeric root (quite different to the dried powder)
6-8 centimetres fresh krachai (or ginza), skin removed (or substitute old dull-skinned ginger)
5 Thai sweet basil leaves (I add the stems too!)
1-2 medium red Thai ‘finger’ chillies (bird’s eye is fine) (I deseed mine, but if you like it hot, leave them in)
10-15 medium green Thai ‘finger’ chillies (bird’s eye is fine) (as above, I deseed mine)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon shrimp paste (will keep for a year in fridge – omit for veggies – or use a mushroom garum/vegan/umami paste etc)

Preparation

Note: I find bashing the ingredients makes a difference, you can always pop it in a food processor afterwards if you like, but I highly recommend pounding by hand in a large heavy pestle & mortar first if you can, rather than just chopping it all in a whizzer, bruising and smooshing releases more flavour

Note: this paste will stain everything wooden or plastic that it touches bright yellow for a while due to the turmeric!

In a pestle and mortar, pound ingredients until paste appears even
This paste is enough to make a generous serving for two people.
You can keep the paste for one week in the fridge, or three to twelve months in the freezer. Make a larger batch and freeze in ice cube trays for easy use (trays you never want back for ice ever again, they will be stained bright yellow by the turmeric!)

Thai green curry with chicken of the woods & saltmarsh greens

Serves 2 when served with rice or flat-breads

Note: This recipe uses ‘cups’ (1 cup = approx 250ml), but I find that for two people, one *unshaken* tin of coconut milk at UK room temperature tends to provide enough solid cream at the top and I later use *nearly* all of the clear milk, saving a little back as it usually goes too thin if I use all of it

Tip: Use a 400ml can of good quality, full-fat coconut milk for this, so you can get the cream off the top, cheap ones are very thin with not much cream

Tip: Don’t shake your can of coconut milk! You need it separate.

Ingredients

1/2 cup thick coconut cream (usually solid at UK room temperature, so you can get it from top of your coconut milk can if you don’t shake it)
1/2-1 tablespoon green curry paste (see recipe above, break it up and allow to defrost if frozen, better at room temperature but not essential)
200g fresh chicken of the woods mushroom chopped to bite-size pieces (or you can use pheasant, venison, pigeon, other meaty mushrooms, spoots/razorclams, limpets, mussels, scallops, langoustines, lobster, tempeh, whatever ‘protein’ you like! – see more notes in intro)
(Up to) 2 cups thin coconut milk (or, most of the rest of a UK can after solid the cream is skimmed off, not quite all of it… add in dribbles and see how it looks)
2 makrut lime leaves (or ‘kaffir’ in UK, see name note in intro), sliced as thinly as possible in strips (roll up tightly then chop finely)
1/2 tablespoon of coconut sugar (you can substitute golden or soft brown sugar)
2 tablespoons fish sauce ‘nam pla’ (or to taste, they vary, do a bit at a time and taste) (substitute 1 tablespoon soy sauce, umami sauce, or mushroom garum / shoyu / ketchup for vegetarians – I used my homemade koji cep shoyu)
1 large red chilli (not as hot as the small ones!), thinly sliced
20 leaves Thai sweet basil & chopped stems (smells of aniseed – not to be confused with Thai holy basil or European basil – you could use sweet cicely, tarragon or fennel leaves, but not quite the same kind of aniseed!)
1 tablespoon sweet cicely pods, young, flexible, green
A handful of pignuts, washed, papery skin removed & chopped into bite-size pieces
100g fresh saltmarsh greens and sea veg (you can easily buy samphire in the supermarket these days, but I used wild foraged goodies in mine: marsh samphire; sea arrowgrass/coriander grass; sea aster leaves; sea kale leaves; sea beet leaves & tips; wild garlic leaves, stems & green pods… but use whatever you have and like!)
Flowers for decoration (I used: sea campion flowers; common mallow flowers, pink sorrel leaves & flowers; coriander grass unopened flowers buds; pignut flowers & sea radish, which is just what I had that day, use whatever you have & like!)

Preparation

Note: Always cook your curry uncovered and stir it constantly while cooking. This goes for any dish made with coconut milk or cream as the coconut fat can separate from the water appearing to have curdled. So just relax and take it slow!

Put your rice on to cook (follow whatever instructions your type of rice needs).
Cook your chicken of the woods first. Use oil and a high heat, making sure it is *cooked thoroughly* (under-cooked CotW can cause gastric upset).When the CotW is cooked, remove from the pan & set aside
Turn to a medium heat, add a splash of water to the hot pan and add the sweet cicely pods, and anything like sea kale and sea beet, that needs cooking through. Sauté until veg is bright green and soft enough to easily bite through. Set aside and wipe out the wok or pan.
Turn stove to a low heat and put the thick coconut cream into the clean wok. Stir gently.
When you can see oil droplets starting to appear in the cream, add the curry paste and mix well, watching for when you can smell the aromas coming out. This will take longer if your paste is cold or frozen as it will cool the cream again. You get better results and flavour if the paste is not cold.
When you can smell the aromas in the paste, add the chicken of the woods and turn gas to a medium heat (still taking care against curdling). Your CotW is already cooked so just warm it through again, until your curry is starting to simmer nicely. (If using any thinly-sliced meat e.g. pheasant, duck, pigeon or venison, or actual chicken, medium-heat fry longer at this stage until the meat changes colour and texture).
Then add the thin coconut milk, makrut lime leaves, coconut sugar and fish sauce (or shoyu/substitute salty umami sauce).
Stir constantly for ten minutes. When the curry boils and foams up at the edges, turn the gas to low so that the curry is left to simmer for the remainder of the ten minutes.
After ten minutes, stir in the cooked sweet cicely pods, sea beet, sea kale, thai basil leaves, red chilli & pignuts. Switch off the gas immediately.
Whilst still hot, top with the raw saltmarsh veg such as samphire, sea aster, sea purslane, sea arrowgrass etc. You just want these to just warm through with the residual heat in the curry, not really to cook much.
Right before serving, garnish with the foraged flowers etc if you have any.
Serve fairly immediately with steamed Thai jasmine rice or Thai red rice (or whatever rice you have/ like). Flatbreads are also nice with it, we had stone-baked flatties with nettle seed and seaweed powders on. Great just with rice too though!

PICKLED CHANTERELLES IN OIL Whilst in…

Lisa Cutcliffe — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 11:24:50 +0000

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? PICKLED CHANTERELLES IN OIL ?

Whilst in the highlands of Scotland recently I gathered some beautiful wild chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) & pickled them in the woods up a mountain… (as y’ do!) ♡

You’ll need chanterelles totalling about twice the volume of the jar you’re using, as they reduce to about half size when cooked – this recipe is for a 500ml jar

300g fresh chanterelles (approx)
350ml organic cider vinegar
350ml water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar (or to your taste)
350-400ml good olive oil (approx)
Spices of your choice (see below)

Spices – I used:
Alexander seeds, common hogweed seeds, spignel seeds, wild fennel seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, smoky chipotle chilli flakes – but use whatever you have to hand – a few fresh thyme leaves are nice too

Trim, scrape or brush your chanterelles clean (ideally don’t wash or they’ll be watery) & gently pull them apart into bitesize pieces unless tiny

Toast the spices in a pan until fragrant, add the vinegar, water, salt & sugar, simmer on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved, then add the chanterelle pieces & simmer until soft & cooked right through (about 5-10 minutes). Keep the spiced chanterelle vinegar for salad dressings etc it’s yummy, put it back in the bottle.

Optional stage: lay the chanterelle pieces out on a rack to dry out a bit or blot them on thick kitchen paper (not wholly necessary & I didn’t bother in the forest)

Pack the mushrooms into your clean sterilised glass jar & cover completely with good extra virgin olive oil & seal – you can use immediately but better if you wait at least a couple of weeks, they’ll last a year or so on the shelf unopened but suggest eating within a week or two once reopened & keep in the fridge – once the mushrooms are finished, keep & used that beautiful oil for salads or pasta ♡

If you don’t have chanterelles you can use shop-bought mushroom for this method too, e.g. oysters, enoki, baby portobello etc. Specialist suppliers offer chanterelles & some posh supermarkets too in autumn.

Do let me know how you get on!

As always, if you’re going to forage wild food please sure your ID is 100% correct, research it first including lookalikes – “if in doubt leave it out” – go on courses, get books, learn the habitat, trees & timings for chanterelles ♡

Screen size was designed for Instagram so apologies its bit cut off top & bottom d’oh haha!

More recipes: www.eduliswildfood.co.uk
Music: ‘All I love’ Musician: Philip E Morris

#picklewithpride #pickled #chanterelles #foraging #wildfood #fungi #eduliswildwood
Kilner Aspall Maldon Sea Salt Edulis : wild food[fb_vid id=”354751952398655″]
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Carpaccio di funghi porcini • this sim…

Lisa Cutcliffe — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 14:57:08 +0000

♡ Carpaccio di funghi porcini ♡ • this simple cep salad is an Italian classic & my favourite way to enjoy the tightest penny bun caps while they’re crunchy-fresh! ♡

Slice the firmest cep caps, with tubes what are still white, drizzle with good extra virgin olive oil (or good cold-pressed oil of your choice but test a bit first to make sure the flavours won’t clash), you can even mix in a tiny bit of wild/garlic-infused oil too (but just a touch) a sprinkle of crushed sea salt flakes, grate over some parmesan or vegan alternative hard cheeze, a crack of pepper & a suitable herb of your choice… my favourite is wild thyme (or gorgeous frondy umbellifer spignel like @markwildfood uses – v jealous lol – but it’s hard to find that outside of wildest Scotland!) or you can use normal thyme/flowers, oregano/flowers, basil… just go easy on those more pungent flavours so they don’t overwhelm the delicate ceps… in fact it’s so delicious you don’t even need herbs for it to be deelish, the cheese & salty oil make it amazing as it is, the slices are nutty, mushroomy & slightly crunchy, I adore it! ♡

I made this for my Dad who was picking pears with a grabber thing from a very tall tree in their garden in the boiling sun, I thought a light snack & a cheeky glass of chilled white wine was just the ticket for such warm work ♡

And don’t waste those stems… dry or powder then for later, or even pickle or oil-preserve them, yumm!! ♡

#foraging #wildfood #wildfoodlove #fungi #mushrooms #wildmushrooms #boletusedulis #porcini #ceps #cepes #steinpilze #funghiporcini #carpaccio #cepsalad #simplethings #food #mmmcheese #foodforfree #antipasti

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Mid-morning on BBC Radio Sheffield – With Paulette Edwards – BBC Sounds

Lisa Cutcliffe — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 06:02:24 +0000

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I enjoyed a little foraging chat with BBC Radio Sheffield presenter Paulette Edwards this week, which aired yesterday morning on her show ♡

If you’d like to listen, the feature starts about 38 mins into the show, within an article about walking & getting outside, which you know I’m also all about!

Good to get positive foraging stories on the airwaves again as autumn soon begins ♡

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08lyvkt

Mid-morning on BBC Radio Sheffield – With Paulette Edwards – BBC Sounds

Stories to make you smile and Make A Difference.
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Foraging for gin botanticals on’t telly …

Lisa Cutcliffe — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 07:25:45 +0000

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?Foraging for gin botanticals on’t telly?

I had a great morning showing these guys around a Yorkshire beauty spot foraging for botanicals to put in their very own gin creations back @cannonhallfarm later on (links further down)?

If you’ve been watching ‘This Week on the Farm’ during lockdown you’ll know Rob & Dave and their competitive brotherly antics well… so this ‘gin-off’ was no exception!?

With a united base of vodka, juniper berries, hogweed seed & angelica root, Rob ended up with an impressive 28 different botanticals in his ruby-coloured wild raspberry gin (including herb robert which he was tickled pink about!) whilst Dave went down a fruity route with orange zest amongst the wild botanticals, pineapppeweed & citrusy evergreens?

It was an absolute pleasure showing you guys some new flavours & even some tasty edibles you’d previously only known as weeds around the farm, fab! Thanks for having me along :)♡

If you’d like to see the show, do go to episode 8 of series on My5 (channel 5’s on demand site) and I’m on in the last quarter of the prog ?

www.channel5.com/show/this-week-on-the-farm

OR: here’s just the bit I was in ??

www.facebook.com/channel5uk/videos/302508564423813

Happy foraging & wild gin-making folks! Xx

#gin #botanticals #foraging #wildfood #wildgin #ginliqueur #craftgin #homemadegin #foragedgin #wildbooze #thisweekonthefarm #robanddave #cannonhallfarm #foragingonTV #TV #agranddayout #farming #yorkshire #channel5

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Wild Cordyceps militaris! ? #fungi #m…

Lisa Cutcliffe — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:06:47 +0000

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Wild Cordyceps militaris! ????

#fungi #mycology #foraging #natureisamazing #scarletcaterpillarclubfungus #cordyceps #medicinalmushrooms #lochawe #scotland[fb_vid id=”292646558721846″]
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Lemon cep! Unbelievably excited to me…

Lisa Cutcliffe — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 11:52:20 +0000

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?? Lemon cep! ??

Unbelievably excited to meet a brand new (to me!) mushroom… I present… Boletus venturii, also known as Boletus edulis var citrinus ?

Leanne @wildfoodstories and I were in a fairly typical highland pine patch and this beauty was buried deep in moss right beside the path, just peeping through… we honestly thought it was a yellow brittlegill button (which is common) but once in my hand it was clearly a cep-style bolete… in fact *exactly* like a true cep, just with a bright yellow cap… curiouser and curiouser! ?

We couldn’t find anything with this description online so I enlisted the help of my excellent fungi-knowledge trufflehound friend @jesperlaunder & he came up with this awesome ID (thanks Jesper!) listed as a variant of B. edulis in Geoffrey Kibby’s latest fabulous fungi guides, indicating it’s debated as to whether it’s a variant of B. edulis or it is a discrete species… more reading needed! ?

There is of course info about this species online now that I have the name to search for, the sites just aren’t in English… this is a super-rare find in the UK so we’re geekily chuffed to bits! ?

We’ll get it genetically confirmed & recorded. They were only just emerging so Leanne can keep an eye on that spot and see how large the patch really is. And, as I had a nibble to explore the flavour whilst trying to ID it (tastes just like cep) I can totally add this to my personal ‘edible fungi: found, tried & not died’ list ?

#wellchuffed #lemoncep #citrinecep #boletusventurii #boletusedulisvarcitrinus #foraging #wildfood #fungi #mycology #geeky

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www.podbean.com/eu/pb-sd2ja-e2a601 New …

Lisa Cutcliffe — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 17:22:18 +0000

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? www.podbean.com/eu/pb-sd2ja-e2a601
New podcast ? I had a very enjoyable blether with Devon chef Tim Maddams the other week, do have a listen as we chat about food, foraging, family & a few silly things too. Cheers for having me on the Maddams Cast! ??

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New live forage recording from yesterday…

Lisa Cutcliffe — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 10:07:31 +0000

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New live forage recording from yesterday’s rainy session in the great outdoors ?

https://youtu.be/ZZpcAZwHuwA

If you enjoy the video please subscribe to my YT channel for more in future! ??[fb_vid id=”2679547975697169″]
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