Foraging in the UK (& wild garlic pesto)

Foraging has a trendy edge to it in the UK, where I am currently. It is the act of picking leaves, fruits and fungi from the wild to eat. These are often also ingredients you wouldn't normally find in supermarkets.

Tbh I have a friend in Hokkaido, Japan, who forages while hiking and cooks her finds. And during my rural UK childhood, it was very normal to collect things like wild blackberries from local hedgerows to make jam or a pie at home. It's an old practice worldwide.

In fact there is legislation around UK foraging, and you need permission from the landlowner to do it. Some of this is to do with tresspassing laws, plus there is a long list of wild plants and fungi which have been protected by law since 1981. So get an OK from the farmer, wildlife trust, or whoever else owns the land before you start! (This also applies to digging up wild plants to use in a garden etc.) Most sites do not allow commercial foraging, for obvious reasons of scale and unfair profit.

In the past couple of decades (one of which I was overseas for) organic and natural foods have become much more desirable to Brits. This is due to concerns over pesticides harming both humans and our ecosystems, and the environmental impacts of large-scale agriculture in general. I've mentioned before the complex class systems of the UK. And the popularity of organic foods is seen as a fairly middle-class thing. Not least because they are so much more expensive to buy.

What could (in theory) be more organic than foraged things growing wild? AND (in theory) they're also free! UK celebrity chefs like Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall have also popularised unusual, local, responsibly foraged ingredients at home. So you can see how the trend has grown from just something country people did occasionally to make pie. 

The number of foraging Brits also spiked further over the pandemic - as people spent more time outdoors, and in their kitchens.

There are of course, other concerns for foraging besides the law - not least that you need to be a real expert on plants and fungi! Many items look very similar to the untrained eye - but some can be highly  poisonous to eat. There are also some ingredients which must be prepared properly for safe eating (even our common potato is incredibly toxic, unless cooked and used in the right way - not that potatoes grow wild here!) 

Wild garlic growing

The Pesto

ANYWAY. I got gifted a bunch of wild garlic from our local woodland. They have strict rules on foraging, which is allowed to a certain weight per home individual after permission. There's a £5000 fine if you forage without a permit! One experienced forager had overpicked, and so handed the surplus back to the park. And since I volunteer there sometimes, I was offered some. 

I had never clapped eyes on wild garlic before, tbch, but was advised that pesto was an easy and tasty recipe for it. (I had not made pesto before, either).

Foraged

I improvised, due to affordable ingredients I could find in our local supermarket, and looked up a few pesto recipes to get a vague idea of what to do - the rest was a 'taste as you go' experiment!  Here is what I did:

Very carefully washed each garlic leaf separately! I might have been being paranoid here, but was thinking dogs and foxes, and the fact garlic grows on the ground! Laid the leaves out to dry (I have reused the paper towels, of course). 

I separated out the buds with stalks for salads.

Ingredients: wild garlic leaves/stalks, crushed walnuts, grated parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice. 

Wanged amounts in a blender until I got the texture and taste I wanted. (FYI the leaves break down to a much smaller volume).

The flavour: a cross between garlic and watercress, I think. The pesto is quite subtle, but with a garlic undertone. And ideally would be best married with homemade or fresh pasta to showcase this. Freezes well in individual portions, though try to defrost overnight in the fridge (microwaving will totally wilt the leaf content). 

The raw buds in salad are really delicious - slightly creamy flavoured even, but with a mild garlic kick. 

Here's the final dish made with cheapo pasta - will try to source a more upmarket carb for the next portion!

 

 

Matcha Addict - Jenki, London

Oh my! 

Jenki is a hipster 'matcha bar' in London's touristy Spitalfields Market. But it's one of maybe three (?) matcha outlets in the entire city, so I felt I had to give it a go. 

I excitedly ordered an iced matcha latte, which cost me £4. (S$8 / US$5)

Sadly the go-to (again!) for this was soy or oat milk (which are trendy in the UK) and I had to specify cow's milk. But OK.

The Verdict: It tastes just like iced milk! I could not detect any matcha at all in this drink and had to add sugar just to get some flavour from it. I mean it looks great. Nice colour green (usually a sign of quality) and gradient. Plus it sounded great on the website. But I have no idea why people would purchase this stuff, when you can have a very nice cup of milk and ice at home! 

Tbh a spectacular case of style over substance (plus what I find a depressing acceptance by Europeans for inauthentic Japanese things as the 'real deal'!) Am not surprised this place was full (not of Asians!) given its design and location. But really, avoid and take your cash elsewhere!

 

 

Jenki: https://www.jenki.co.uk/

Matcha Addict - DIY Matcha Latte in London!

In an endless quest to get my fix of the excellent Green, I purchased this affordable matcha powder in an Asian food store in London. 

Two things to note here: 

1) There are different grades of matcha powder, ranging from high-end (usually bright green) delicious, to low-end (often a sludgier brown) which might be more suited for cooking. Yes matcha biscuits, pastries, puddings, cakes and all sorts exist too! Generally you get what you pay for.

2) A lot of 'Japanese' and 'Korean' things sold in the UK are actually Chinese. This applies to almost everything, including restaurants. And most times UK people don't know the difference. This especially applies if the Asian product is affordable or on the high street. 

You can buy reasonably authentic matcha powder in London. But it will cost you! Usually you're looking at around £8-10 for 100g. Which I haven't been able to justify budget-wise yet, especially as I'm not very expert at making the tea myself. So when I saw this on sale for £1.98 it seemed stupid not to try it. 

It's Chinese. And I was not expecting great quality for the price! 

The powder is a sludgy olive green. Low grade! (And does resemble green paint pigment, which I hope it's not.) And the flavour is very bitter, without creaminess. It took me several tries to get the balance of milk, powder, sugar, water optimised for a latte. And I don't have a fancy frother or whisk. But then it was perfectly drinkable in small doses! I say small doses because more than 1 cup gave me headaches, as coffee would. (High quality matcha does not.) Or could it be the paint powder aspect kicking in...?

The verdict: really not bad. Probably meant for cooking, not drinking. But a reasonable 1 cup/day fix if you're desperate - for a very good price. And tbh I suspect this is what many London cafes use when they serve matcha. 

Not sure I'd buy it again because of the headache factor, but it gave me a good chance to experiment with DIY matcha lattes. I might lash out on a better quality, Japanese, powder now I know how. It would still be considerably cheaper than the whopping prices London cafes charge for matcha drinks!

 

Looks a little more minty here than irl!

Matcha Addict - Japan House, London

Well, I've been generally uninspired living in London (over a pandemic) so not been blogging about cultural things much. 

As things vaguely reopen here, I have managed to pop out and try occasional matcha drinks, though. So here to follow is a possible slew of drink reviews! 

First up is first-drunk. The hot matcha latte from London's (overrated) Japan House. I visited for the first time, to see an exhibition, and maybe get some authentic Japanese inspo in Europe. The space is basically an expensively-priced, sparse, retail outlet of Japanese things for tourists, and some un-cosy seating. Even London's Japan Centre is exciting by comparison! (And it's not exciting.) Plus the JH exhibition was meh. But they DO have a drinks bar serving matcha and occasional Japanese sweets.

This mid-sized latte came in at around £4 (S$8 / US$5) No pretentious 'coconut rice milk' etc mucking around, just regular cow's milk = good (I guess you can ask for alternatives if you're vegan, lactose intolerant blah blah). 

The verdict: Drinkable. Tastes like decent matcha as-made-in-the-UK (not creamy bitter like the Asian offerings, but a passable tea). I wouldn't go back to pay this price for it. 

Japan House, London: https://www.japanhouselondon.uk/

 

A Proper Job - local dialect

Here's a quickie - prompted by the consumption of this very nice beer in the UK (if you can find it, try it!) 

The phrase 'proper job' comes from the West Country (the SW region of England). It means 'very good' or 'job well done'. And it's not used like this more nationally. 

Examples: 

You "I got an A in my exam!". Local: "Proper job!"

Local finishes a pint of good lager, smacks their lips and says "Proper job!". 

Bye.

 

Kolhrabi!

So, we went to Hampton Court Palace recently (a revisit for me - but after a long time!) And they have carts in the grounds where you can purchase fruit, veg and plants from the gardens. There is no charge, and no attendant - you just donate what you can, if you want to. It's a bit like the concept of a hotel Honesty Bar. But with produce. 

And amongst the vegetables was this weird thing: a kohlrabi. OK, I've been outside Europe for a while, but I'd never seen it before. So I bought one to experiment with. 

This guy is a brassica - related to cabbages and cauliflowers. The bit I got - the 'bulb' - actually grows above ground as a fat stem, as this is not a root vegetable. The leaves can also be eaten, apparently. The bulbs come in white or purple varieties, and the name is German meaning 'cabbage turnip' - which I guess describes its looks! (It does also somewhat resemble a dragon fruit imho... )

I roasted the first half (it requires peeling and chopping, plus steaming first, to soften it up) and the outcome and general review was 'so so'. It's not sweet or flavoursome like a parsnip when roasted, or crispy like a potato. Fairly bland tbch!

Then a Greek friend suggested trying slices raw, dipped in lemon juice. And this was absolutely delicious! Raw, this vegetable is sort of like a cross between a radish and a carrot in texture - crunchy, mild and very refreshing. It would definiately work nicely in salads I think. And I will try it again if I can find one! 

 

Britain: the National Dunk

Oh look, I have been absent from Blogger for a while, and all the formatting has broken! ANYWAY, until I have time to fix it, this: 

Unlike East and Southeast Asians*, Brits traditionally drink tea with milk (and sometimes sugar). I don't think milky tea is popular in other European countries. Italy, France, Spain are definitely more into coffee as their national beverages. 

In the UK we also have a habit of dunking sweet biscuits into the tea, and then nibbling on the soaked biscuit. In the modern day, this has an effect of part-melting and warming chocolate biscuits, and softening others. (The duration of your dunk is important for this - too long and whole confection just collapses into your drink..)

Dunking also happens in other Western cultures, but perhaps with coffee and/or more specific biscuit types (biscotti in Italy, for example, or stroopwafels in the Netherlands).

History

Apparently the ancient Romans used to dunk hard, crunchy bread into wine. And more recently in Europe, 16th century sailors would dip their rock-hard biscuit rations into hot drinks, simply to make them edible. When British Victorians invented the formal 'afternoon tea' and Queen Victoria herself was seen to dunk her biscuits, the trend caught on, and was thereafter exported to countries such as the US and Australia. 

 

In Britain, most cookie types can be dipped, and we just do it with tea. Click here for the Wheel of Dunkability and find out which UK biscuit you are! (The chocolate digestive is apparenty the national favourite.) 

 

* The exception might be modern 'dessert-style' teas such as Taiwanese bubble tea, or matcha and houjicha drinks from Japan. 

** English learners: sweet, crunchy confections are known as 'biscuits' in the UK, and 'cookies' in America. Though we do also understand the term 'cookie' in the UK. 

 

 Also on this blog:

Biscuits and some issues with US & UK English