Simon King is chef/proprietor at restaurant 1861 near Abergavenny. He talks to us about foraging, and shares his recipe for Wild Mushroom Ravioli.
I am a keen forager, and you can find me out and about at all times of the year looking for delicious hedgerow goodies. Our customers love our wild food dinners too, and we often have five-course surprise taster menus based on foraged foods. As summer draws to a close we have fungi in abundance.
Also, thanks to the hot weather, the blackberries are early and before long there’ll be elderberries and crab apples.
The elder is a tree that foragers should hold in esteem. It might not be as magnificent as a mighty oak or a graceful beech, but it is a fabulous wild foodstore. Throughout the year, it provides us with a fantastic range of different ingredients:
- The young shoots of the tree, when new and young, are pale and green, rather like asparagus. Just peel and trim them, and boil them in lightly salted water. Serve with a little butter and a dash of lemon.
- The flower buds can be pickled and used rather like capers. They go very well with fish and a cream sauce. When pickling them, use a white wine or cider vinegar rather than malt, unless you want an especially powerful taste. As with any other pickles, you can add flavourings such as lemon peel, chilli and garlic, depending on your taste.
- The flowers have myriad uses, the most popular being a flavouring for cordial. The blooms have a lovely fresh, summery aromatic taste. The cordial is very refreshing when topped up with some sparkling water. I use the flowers for lots of other things in the restaurant too – to infuse a custard, in creme brulee and pannacotta. You can drop them into jams such as strawberry, gooseberry or rhubarb to give a delicate flavour. They also look very pretty.
- Elderflower fritters are delicious. I make a tempura batter, which is very light, then deep fry them quickly.
- The berries, which will be here soon, are excellent infused in vinegar using the same technique as you would with raspberries or walnuts.
- You can use the berries in jam, along with apple – this is an excellent combination as they are rich and intense, and have a deep, jewel colour, and compliment the apple well.They are also good infused in sauces and served with game.
- The elder tree hosts a mushroom called Tree Ear that actually looks like an ear in shape. It¹s brown in colour and can be dried successfully – in fact drying improves the flavour and texture. I have also had them deep fried, and they are very good.
