WILD FOOD RECIPES

Autumn wild foods with roadkill squirrel

Autumn wild foods with roadkill squirrel

For me, one of the greatest pleasures of eating wild food is that you never quite know what you are going to come home with and which new flavour combinations may present themselves. As a result, using wild ingredients requires a fair amount of pragmatism and the courage to try something new. Through my #DailyWilds project I have discovered (sometimes through bitter mistakes) some pleasing new combinations of ingredients and have rarely eaten the same recipe twice. But just because they work for me, doesn’t mean to say it will work for others. I believe that not only taste, but the actual way we detect flavour can vary greatly between individuals. So, while I have provided here some recipes and descriptions that work well for me, I urge you to tread the untrodden path and find what suits you.

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And to wholly contradict that last paragraph, I should also say that some combinations are tried and tested winners – gooseberries and elderflower, chanterelles and eggs, cep and parmesan – spring to mind! Quite a few are country classics (sloe gin, elderflower champagne etc) I have adapted  from classics like Food For Free by Richard Mabey or Wild Food by Roger Phillips, running forward with a few new twists.

My general advice to any aspiring wild food cook is to keep things simple until you really get to know a new ingredient. Unfussy steaming, sautéing, pickling or just eating raw with a sympathetic dressing is often the best way to get intimate with the pure flavours and striking textures of wild plants and fungi before finding ways to combine them with other flavours.

fungi in oils and vinegars

Many of the dishes described below don’t have an accompanying recipe. This is often because I can’t actually remember what I did, and partly because I would rather suggest ideas than prescribe recipes. The exception is my wild mushroom risotto, which is perfect! ;).

Where there is a recipe, please treat weights and measures as indications of proportions rather than strict forlmulae – cooking is an art, not a science. I would be delighted to hear of any improvements or new ideas in the comments box below.

I post most of my writing on drinks uses of wild plants on The Botanist website – see here.

 

Galloway bloosom mead

How to make mead easily with wild plants

 

Foraged dashi with reedmace and clams

Foraged dashi broth, with reedmace and spoot clams

 

mile-high wild pie

Mile High Wild Pie

 

Foraged cocktail – Wild Whisky Sour With sea buckthorn and birch syrup

 

Sweet cicelys ruin

“Sweet Cicely’s Ruin” foraged cocktail

 

Islay Spring Cocktail

“Islay Spring” foraged cocktail – including how to make wild amaro and ground ivy shrub

 

ferment jar from above

How to lacto-ferment wild greens

 

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Dock, dandelion and nettle spring puddings

 

Wild fruit leathers

Super Simple Wild Fruit Leathers

 

 

 

wild sushi

Wild Sushi Rolls

 

Pickled fish with pink purslane

Herring pickled 3 ways with pink purslane, beetroot, pumpernickel, smoked egg, creamed roe, preserved chanterelles, hedgehog fungi & jelly ear, sweet elderberry vinegar and gorse flowers.

 

Elderberry vinegar (and other fruit vinegars)

 

Ultimate wild mushroom risotto – with ceps, puffballs and chanterelles

 

Horse mushrooms stuffed with sweet cicely

served on seared puffball steaks with summer foliage (ground elder, wood sorrel, hogweed buds, self heal, bush vetch)

 

Wild watercress and parmesan tart

 

Amanitas, decievers, girolle with meu and self heal.

 

Braised pheasant with winter chanterelles and root vegetables.

 

Spring weed salad

 

Seared scallops with spring foliage: wilted ramsons, nettle tops, reedmace, sweet cicely puree, wood sorrel, saxifrage

 

Char-grilled pheasant in pitta bread with sea radish and yogurt

 

Elderflower champagne

 

Reedmace flour

 

 

 

 

 

Spoots stir-fried with sea radish pods, wild garlic and sorrel

 

 

 

 

 

Steamed marsh samphire with poached egg and langoustine

 

 

 

 

 

Chanterelle and spring onion tart

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet pickled marsh samphire

 

 

 

 

 

Cep and bacon tart

 

 

 

 

 

Raw cep, parmesan, wild herbs

 

 

 

 

 

Wild fennel, broad bean and colrabi salad

 

 

 

 

 

Roast guinea fowl with japanese knotweed sauce and steamed sea kale

 

 

 

 

 

Seared venison liver, battered parasol mushrooms, beetroot and sweet ciceley compote

 

 

 

 

Giant puffball steaks, roasted with bacon, tomato and cheese

 

 

 

 

Smoked haddock and orache tart

 

 

 

 

 

Spoots marinated with wood sorrel, ramsons and sweet ciceley

 

 

 

 

 

Roe deer fillet with chanterelles and pickled walnuts

 

 

 

 

 

Elderflower turkish delight

 

 

 

 

 

Wild watercress, nettle and ramson soup

 

 

 

 

 

Elderflower and gooseberry fool

 

 

 

 

 

Spring stir-fry

Japanese knotweed, elderflower and sweet ciceley puree – for fool, sorbet or with yogurt

Japanese knotweed savoury sauce for game

Sea bass stuffed with sweet ciceley and sorrel

Stargazy Pie – langoustine, rabbit, and chicken of the woods

Meadowsweet ice cream

Sloe and meadowsweet gin

Watercress and nettle soup

Samphire, reedmace and pignut stirfry

Mussels with ground elder and ramson

Salt marsh lamb with samphire salt, anchovies, rosemary, garlic and steamed marsh samphire

Sweet pickled marsh samphire

 

8 Comments

  • chris says:

    Hi mark I make sloe gin every year but have never put meadowsweet in
    Could you please tell me how much meadowsweet you put in

    Thank you
    Chris

    • mark says:

      Hi Chris. Its quite subtle, so make sure you get the flowers at their aromatic prime (ususally a sunny july morning) and put lots in – I try to add at least a quarter by volume. Sometimes its almost imperceptable, others it gives a lovely sweet bouqet. You can also cheat and add few drops of almond extract!

      • chris says:

        thanks i already add almond extract to my sloe gin cant wait to give medowsweet a try. great web site for formative
        thank again

        chris

  • Claire P says:

    I am glad that I came across such a good website for different kinds of recipes. And pictures too are looking amazing. Got a website worth a follow! I would love to try that horse mushrooms. It’s really mouth-watering.

  • Wendy Szczepanik says:

    Hello Mark,
    Once again thank you for including my daughter and I in the mushroom foraging course this past October in the Lake District. Beth would really like to have the recipe for the cake that you had. We have looked on your website and cannot find it.
    Thank you in advance,
    Wendy (from Canada)

  • Lucy says:

    Hi
    I was wondering if you can cook pignuts? I heard they taste a little like chestnuts and wanted to use them as chestnut substitute in mushroom and chestnut stuffing.
    Thanks

    • Mark Williams says:

      Yes, that sounds good. Though I think their crunchy texture wouldn’t be as soft as chestnuts. They maybe lend themselves a bit more towards stir fry.

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