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If you are interested in writing for Forage Sussex then contact us with your topic idea, a bit about yourself and links to your website, blog and social media accounts. The title of the email should read Article Pitch: followed by your topic idea. We look forward to hearing from you.

Hedgehog Wild Mushroom Risotto - No hedgehogs were harmed!

Hedgehog Fungus Risotto

 

So I hope you’ve had a good read of my previous post on the dangers of mushroom picking now it’s on to the best part, the eating!

 

Whilst out with Archie yesterday I came across a sizable patch of Hedgehog Fungus, immediately recognising the spiny underside of the mushroom and having tried a few before I decided it was time to rustle up a tasty mushroom risotto. I gathered as many of the smaller ones as I could as the larger they are the more bitter they can taste and set off back home to get cooking.

 

Archie overseeing the mushroom collection.

Hedgehog Wild Mushroom Risotto.

 

Serves 2

 

A few knobs of butter
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 small hand full of dried Porcini, soaked in a little boiling water

1 small hand full of dried Horn of plenty, soaked in a little boiling water
300g Hedgehog Fungus, brushed clean and thickly sliced
130g Carnaroli risotto rice
A glass of white wine
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
A small handful Parmesan, grated
A small handful of parsley, chopped

Squeeze of lemon
Salt and pepper

 

Melt a couple of knobs of butter in a heavy bottomed pan and on a low heat soften the chopped shallot adding the garlic after a couple of minutes adding a pinch of salt.

Strain the dried mushrooms adding half the water from each to the stock which should be gently simmering away by now.

 

Add the Porcini, Horn of Plenty and Hedgehogs along with a little salt and pepper to the pan, give them a good stir and continue to cook on a low heat until they have softened a little.

 

Turn up the heat slightly and add the Carnaroli giving it a good stir again, after about a minute add the wine and stir until the rice has absorbed it.

 

Wild Mushroom Risotto the finished article.

Add the first ladle of stock, simmer and stir regularly until almost absorbed then repeat for around 10 minutes. At this point you should see the sauce forming and it a good time to check the seasoning and adjust as you wish. Continue adding the stock and stirring until the rice is cooked to your pleasing, there should still be a little bite in the rice if it is done properly.

 

Add another knob of butter, the Parmesan and chopped the parsley and give it a final big stir.

 

Serve with a little squeeze of lemon over it and there you have it, a gorgeous rich flavourful wild mushroom risotto. Enjoy!

Beginner Level Mushroom Foraging – Hedgehog Fungus

I’ve written this short article because I’m going to post a recipe for a wild mushroom risotto and don’t want anyone to go out and do themselves any harm. Please read it carefully!

I once heard a fellow forager say that in the school of learning wild food, mushrooms are very much in the advanced level, A level if you will. There are literally tens of thousands of types of mushroom and fungus out there with less than 1% being edible. For that reason I would say never eat any mushroom until you are not 100% certain of what it is. With the alternative being death or a life of kidney dialysis I’m sure you can see where I’m coming from. There are horror stories coming out quite regularly about people consuming poisons mushrooms and they never end well.  This article should not be used for identification purposes; a book or app such as Rogers Mushrooms will go along way to helping you with any identification but again I would say be very very careful. 

Archie with a Hedgehog Fungus

 

 If that hasn’t put you off completely then the best one to start with is the Hedgehog Fungus also called the Wood Hedgehog, Sweet Tooth, Pigs Trotter, Wood Urchin, Pied de Mouton (Sheep’s foot) in French or Hydnum repandum by its official name. The reason this is the best one to start with is that it is one of the easiest to identify with spikey tooth like structures where you would expect to find the gills on a normal shop bought mushroom. They are cream white in colour sometimes tan, grow to 5-15cm tall and can usually be found in mixed woodland although I usually find mine in coniferous areas.  They have a nutty flavour and a firm texture even when cooked. Older examples can taste a little bitter but a long cook can usually rid them of this. The only similar non-edible mushroom it could be confused with is the Sarcodon scabrosus so it’s a great one to start with!

 

Four Hedgehog Fungus in situ

Beetroot Carpaccio, Sussex Cheese and Hairy Bittercress

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Simple and Seasonal.

Beetroot Carpaccio with Slip Cote Cheese, Hairy bittercress and Lemon Oil Dressing.

Serves 4

3 Small Beetroot or 1 Pack of cooked beetroot

200g of Slip Cote cheese or 200g creamy sheep or goats cheese.

A couple of handfuls of Hairy bittercress, washed.

Zest of one lemon as finely grated as possible

3 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

100ml Cider Vinegar

Combine the olive oil and the zest and leave for an hour or so to get the flavours going. Steam the beetroot adding the vinegar to the water for about 30 minutes until soft and leave to cool. Rub the skin off or peel it if you want to avoid purple hands. Very thinly slice the Beetroot and arrange on the plates, crumble over the cheese, sprinkle over the Hairy bittercress, drizzle the dressing and season with a little salt. Enjoy.

Saltmarsh Lamb, Wild Herbs, Samphire and Purslane

Saltmarsh Lamb, Purslane Crisps and a Samphire Kale and Blue Cheese Rockefeller.

A few months ago I was approached to enter a TV cookery competition the name of which I am currently not allowed to disclose. Having spoken briefly with a researcher about the type of recipe they where after I went off completely half cocked and created this tasty little number only to find out I couldn’t actually make it to the heats in the first place!

I wanted to have as many foraged ingredients in there as possible all within a close locality to one another. The area I had in mind was Alfriston and the tidal area of the Cuckmere river. I’d mulled over using mullet from the river but due to my massive lack of fishing skills I decided to give that a miss.

Whilst out and about collecting some samphire and a purslane, the idea came to me, Saltmarsh Lamb! A Saltmarsh lamb feeds on the purslane and samphire too so the flavours have a natural affinity with each other and having recently used the Hunter Gather Cook recipe for a Wild Herb Rub to make some great tasting lamb things were definitely coming together.

Having decided to do purslane crisps, and a Blue Cheese Rockefeller I started looking for a local blue cheese (to keep it Sussex!) in replacement for the Roquefort I’d initially thought would work best. Turns out this was much harder than I originally thought, even with the help of some of my cheese officiando friends, I was at a loss. But then I stumbled across the High Weald Dairy cheese company only a few miles from me, on the off chance I gave them a call and as it turns out they had a “prototype” Roquefort type Sussex blue in development. Mark at High Weald was nice enough to give me a tester piece to experiment with and this recipe was good to go!

Lamb with a HGC Ground Ivy Rub

2 French trimmed racks of Saltmarsh Lamb

For the Groud Ivy Rub:

• Hand full of Ground ivy (dried)
• Hand full of Mint (dried)
• Hand full of Oxeye daisy leave (dried)
• Pine needles (Fresh and finely chopped)
• 2 cloves of Garlic (finely chopped and briefly oven dried)
• Zest of 3 Lemons (briefly oven dried)
• Salt & Pepper
• Sugar

Remove the stalks, finely chop or blend all the ingredients and combine to make the rub.

Rub the racks of lamb all over with the mixture then place in a ziplock bag pour in a few glugs of olive oil and give it a little shake to get the oil over the lamb. Refrigerate over night or as long as you can. Remove the lamb from the fridge at least 2 hours before cooking.

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4/400 degrees. Score the fat side to the lamb and season, wrap foil around the exposed ribs to stop them burning. Place on a baking tray fat side up.

Roast at Gas Mark 4 for 7 minutes then drop the temperature to Gas Mark 3 for a further 7 -15 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 130 degrees in the thickest park of the meat.

Remove from the oven and rest for 7-10minutes cover with foil. Cut into chops and serve 3-4 a person. 

Samphire and Kale Blue Cheese Rockerfeller.

250g Kale Finely chopped

1 Handful of breadcrumbs

1 Egg Beaten

1 small Onion finely chopped

30g Butter

50g Sussex Blue Cheese from the

1 large tbsp of pickled Samphire roughly chopped.

2 Gloves of Garlic Finely chopped

2 Sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 Tsp dried thyme

Salt and ground pepper to season.

Couple of pinches of garlic salt

1 Beef tomato sliced in 2 cm thick.

Directions:

1. Boil the Kale for a few minutes and strain thoroughly.

2. Place the breadcrumbs, kale, onion, eggs, melted butter, blue cheese, pickled samphire, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and stir well to blend the ingredients.

3. In a buttered ramekin (1 per person) place one slice of tomato and sprinkle a little garlic salt.  Spoon in the Kale mixture to fill the ramekins.

Bake at Gas Mark 4/ 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Purslane Crisps :

2 Handfuls of Purslane leaves, stalks removed

100g of Bread crumbs well seasoned with salt and pepper

1 egg beaten

1 small amount of flour

Vegetable oil.

Dip each leaf in the flour then egg then breadcrumbs and fry in the vegetable oil for a few seconds until golden, remove from pan and on to some kitchen towel to get rid of any excess oil.

Put it all together and there you go! Sorry there's no pictures of the actual dish, hope you like the others. Enjoy!

Douglas Fir Vinegar - Better than balsamic I hear!

Just a quick post from me today. At Hunter Gather Cook we are always after the best in wild food ingredients and after reading some great posts by my friend Nick Weston, and foraging compatriots Eatweeds and The Cottage Smallholder I decided to have a test of different Douglas Fir Vinegars.

Douglas Fir as an ingredient has been a favorite of many up market restaurants and chefs including the likes of Heston Blumenthal. It is also high in Vitamin C so good for the immune system too. I would suggest reading the other blogs mentioned in this article if you'd like to learn more or get the recipes as I am yet to try the fruits of my labors. In six weeks time I will be able to try my pine concoction based around three different vinegars (Red Wine, White Wine and Cider) and will let you know how it goes.

In the mean time I hope you will all enjoy this little timelapse / stopmotion video I made whilst creating these.

Potted Rabbit

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Potted Rabbit

Preserving protein for the cold winter months has a long tradition in the UK as well as Europe. In Europe and especially France the favoured technique is a Rillette, however in the UK potting is the technique of choice.

Although these days with 24 hour supermarkets, freezers, an endless supply of fresh food from all over the globe this way of preserving is no longer a requirement of your average household and seems for be slipping out of the publics psyche. It is none the less a delicious way to serve rabbit and can add some much needed moisture and richness to what can often be quite a dry meat.

At Hunter Gather Cook we always have access to the best and freshest local game through our contacts with game keepers and local farms. This can sometimes be too much of a good thing and when I was presented with three tasty little critters and a freezer already stuffed to the nines other gamey bits and pieces I decided it was time to get potting!

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

In a little oil brown the rabbit pieces and then cook bacon in a frying pan. Set the bacon to one side.

Put the browned rabbit along with the trotters, chopped veg, thyme, bay, ground ivy, and wine into a large casserole dish (two if need be). Top up with water so everything is just covered.

Bring to the boil, cover, put into the oven and cook until the meat flakes off the bone. About 1 hour 45 minutes should do it.

Strain off the liquor into another pan and reduce to around a quarter of the original liquid. This will take a little while so in the mean time its back to the rabbit.

Once the rabbit has cooled slightly shred all meat off of the bones being careful to ensure no small bones make it in there, they can be an unwelcome addition to an otherwise amazing dish. Place the shredded rabbit into a large bowl, add the mustard, parsley, bacon and season to taste. Give it all a good stir to work the flavours in.

Next loosely pack the rabbit mixture into your chosen vessels (Kilner jars are best for this). Pour over the reduced liquor almost to the top of the jar.

Leave the full jars to cool slightly then put into the fridge to chill overnight. By the morning the gelatine extracted from the trotters should have done its magic and set over the top.

I served mine on wholemeal toast with lightly fried Ceps and Wood Sorrel to Garnish. Went down a treat!

My Top 10 Favourite Venison Dishes

My beer can heal you

The history behind my ale.  

Agrimony.  Latin name: Agrimonia eupatoria

History:

Agrimony (Agrimonia Eupatoria) was named after Mithradates Eupator, King of Pontus, 134 BC – 63 BC.   He is credited for discovering many of the medicinal remedies we still use today.  The legend goes that the King would test poisons and their antidotes on his unfortunate prisoners.  After much trial and error with his expendable captives, he then began daily poisoning and curing himself, with his newly discovered antidotes, he hoped to build an immunity in a bid to make himself invincible from a death by poisoning – as was the fate of his father.

This backfired fired on him rather spectacularly, when his army was defeated by Pompey and he faced imminent capture by Rome, which was to him a fate worse than death.  He lovingly dispatched of his family by poisoning the lot of them and then attempted to poison himself - only to find that he had strengthened his constitution rather too efficiently.   Now merely weakened by the poison, he attempted to kill himself using a sword but when he also failed in this endeavour he was forced to request that his closest bodyguard finish him off properly.

Despite his rather extreme drug trialling methods, Mithradates did a lot for the progression of medicine.  Agrimony was just one of the plants he apparently used in his experiments and was used globally by Native Americans, ancient Greeks, Anglo Saxons and many more.  

Below is a list of ailments Nicholas Culpeper, a 16^th century herbalist, believed would be benefitted by Agrimony.

Dropsy

Jaundice

Skin Sores

Cleanser of the liver, gall bladder and kidneys

Beneficial to the bowels and for chesty coughs and colic

Antidote to snake bites

Beneficial to cold sores, cancers and ulcers

Draws out splinters or anything that has got into the flesh

Helps with hearing and the treatment of tinnitus

Diarrhoea

Healing wounds

Purifier of the blood

As you can see Agrimony was historically used in the treatment of numerous illnesses but modern research would disregard it as useful for most of these ailments! 

More recently Agrimony has been prescribed as a cure for athlete’s foot and in herbal medicine is used for its’ mild astringent properties- useful in the treatment of coughs and as a natural diuretic.

Meadowsweet. Latin Name: Previously Spirea ulmaria, Now Filipendula ulmaria. Other Names: Dolloff, Meadsweet, Lady of the Meadow, Queen of the Meadow, and Bridewort.

 History:

  

It is believed that Meadowsweet was a highly sacred plant to the druids.  Meadowsweet pollen has been found in graves and barrows dating back 4000+ years – potentially given as a burial offering.  According to druid lore, King Arthur’s lady of the lake taught the early healers of Meadowsweets medicinal properties.

Unlike Agrimony, many of the historical medicinal uses of Meadowsweet remain the same today.  It’s use in pain relief has long been understood.  It contains salicylic acid – which has now been synthesised to create aspirin and other painkillers.  The latin name for Meadowsweet was previously Spirea ulmaria (now Filipendula ulmaria) which is where ‘a-spirin’ derived from.

Unfortunately, the way modern Aspirin has been produced – extracting only the salicylic acid - has neglected the natural tannins and astringent properties of Meadowsweet, meaning that it can have an adverse affect on the stomach lining. So from now on I plant to munch on some Meadowsweet when I’ve got a headache.

Meadowsweet is also used in other medicine, which thins the blood, and in antacids.  I would check with your doctor before tucking into Meadowsweet yourself, as it may not mix well with other medicines.   

Having read about all the positive properties of both Meadowsweet and Agrimony (not to mention their fascinating histories and taste!), I decided to make an ale to cure EVERYTHING and possibly drink myself under the table in the process. 

500g white granulated sugar

250g Meadowsweet leaf and flower

250g Agrimony leaf and flower

40 pts water

1 teaspoon champagne yeast

Firstly boil the water and add the leaves and flowers and boil for half an hour - you can do this in batches if needed, I did.  Allow to cool, then strain out the plant matter, stir in the sugar until fully dissolved allow to cool to blood temperature and then add the yeast – allow this to sit on the surface of the water (wort) for 15 minutes and then stir in.  Loosely cover and allow to stand for 12 hours in a warm place.

Next, strain the liquid into a pressure barrel, if you’re brave you can use bottles but I wouldn’t advise it, these can be rather explosive! Keep in a cool dark place and leave for 14 days and then taste. In the end I left mine for a full 6 weeks, this was partly because I forgot about it and partly because when I got round to trying it was a little sweet and needed more time.  You may wish to leave it longer too, depending on your sweet tooth!

A lovely bunch of Meadosweet and Agrimony

The finished article

Hedgerow Booze

The finished articles

And as a reward for my dedicated foragers... a little boat trip.

Wild Swimming, or swimming as I like to call it

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DAY THREE: Seven-mile river swim

On a hot day in August I set out to swim down a stretch of the Ouse.  We began our journey at the same spot where I slacklined across the river a couple of days earlier.  It was the hottest day of the year so far with promised highs of 32c so the time was ripe to carry out this plan.

I have been following the adventures of David Cornthwaite for some time.  I can only dream of the endeavours he’s undertaken, he always completes a journey of a thousand miles in various forms of self propelled transportation, but of most interest to me is the thousand mile swim he began on the 10 August 2012 down the Missouri river.  As Britain is only 600 miles in length I can’t really compete with the amazing adventures he’s had but I had some fun pretending on a 7 mile swim down the Ouse. 

Neither my girlfriend, Alice or I boast to be strong swimmers – in fact Alice decided to sail the river on a rubber ring.  I had done a couple of mile long practice swims in the weeks before and had found it pretty tough, especially as I had pulled the tendons in my hand falling off the slackline a couple of days before, but I was up for the challenge - safe in the knowledge I could use Alice as a life raft when necessary.   

We slipped ungracefully down the muddy banks into the water and were greeted by dozens of bright blue Damselflies flitting about on the surface of the water, in a courtship dance, which was a nice distraction from the Baltic temperature of the river.   It was quite shallow at this point, so Alice had the advantage, floating off on her rubber ring.  I tripped and stumbled in an ungainly fashion through the knee-deep water, trying to avoid submerged tree trunks.

Eventually, the river deepened and I got to do some proper swimming.  We were treated to the sight of hunting kingfishers and a swooping buzzard along the way but despite this I couldn’t distract myself from the fact that I would have been much more comfortable in a wet suit.  Several times we hauled ourselves out onto the bank to warm up in a patch of sunlight, once disturbing a herd of Roe Deer, before plunging back into the icy depths.

The hardest obstacle to overcome was a complete blockage of the river from a fallen down tree, this had amassed a twiggy scum and was impassable.  We were forced to swim back up river and clamber up the bow of a tree straight into a bramble bush to circumnavigate the blockage.

We completed the swim in six hours and the last of the 7 miles was spent with me lying across Alice on the rubber ring for warmth.  We were greeted by our one-man rescue party at the pub, who had a jug of Pimms and bowl of chips at the ready. 

Whilst we enjoyed our swim and like to think of it as an epic adventure ,we can only dream of completing the amazing journeys undertaken by David Cornthwaite.  David and us started our swims around the same time, but the difference is that he’s still swimming a month later and is aiming to raise a million pounds for charity in the process.  If you would like to find out more about him and donate to a worthy cause visit www.davecornthwaite.com.

Kayaking

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                                         DAY TWO: Kayaking on the reservoir

Slacklining

Oak smoked venison Jerky

Going Paleo...

Traditionally used technique used to dry meat to extend its shelf life.   The exact origin of this technique isn’t known but it would have been obvious to early humans that the smoked meat lasted a lot longer than raw and that may have been discovered due to the meat being kept in a smoky environment  to keep the flys away.  Europeans came across the technique on their first trips to the Americas.  It is also very good for travelling, long hikes, mountain climbing due to the high protein content and also the fact that the equivalent weight of fresh meat would be 6 times heavier.

A friend recently donated a large bag of venison to me, aware of how sick I’m getting of fish.  The best method I could think of to preserve such a large amount of meat was to smoke it.  It was also a good opportunity to practice a recently acquired skill.

Before I got started though, I had to build the smoker...