Allotment Dinners ON TOUR

I believe the usual adage is something akin to ‘WHAT GOES ON TOUR STAYS ON TOUR’. Not in our case. That would be highly frustrating and this post would end here.  So for the purposes of public interest, I will cast that age old instruction aside and divulge every gory detail of our latest adventure in the world of outside dining. 

You may remember a chap called Dave who visited our allotment dinners patch a couple of months ago and generously wrote us a guest post of his experience with us – well this is where the favour is gladly re-payed.  Dave lives in a lovely spot in Ardingly in a house built by his great grandfather’s very own hands using the scraps left over from constructing the beautiful Nymans in Handcross.  I love this story.  I oft romanticise over the notion of building ones own house.  I love that he also built lots of the other houses in the lane and his son, Dave’s Grandfather, built another house just next to his using the skills passed down to him but in a completely different style.  I love I was told this story in a construction Dave had created, to suit his own needs of being outside.  It’s a lovely wooden structure comprised of sturdy stone posts and a roof of  mainly hazel.  Generations of building skill on one parcel of land, each so different but each so wonderful. 

 

We sat happily on benches beneath the snow melting drips of the roof in front of a roaring fire – all welcome comforts after James had told me on route there was nowhere for us to sit and did I have a carrier bag he could borrow so his bum didn’t get wet when sitting on the floor. 

Dave had stoked up the clay oven a fair few hours before our arrival to get the heat up to optimum cooking temperature and had prepared the starter some days earlier I believe.  He’s so Blue Peter, we were already miles apart from mine and James’ usual last minute cobbling together of dinners. 

So, first up: Potted shrimp with lightly toasted ciabatta.  A previously unknown delicacy to my taste buds but what a happy new entrant it was.  This dish is served in small pots, the type you’d serve dry roasted peanuts in for nibbles in the 90’s.  The paprika flavoured shrimp is packed into the bottom of the dish and topped with clarified butter which has set to quite a mean consistency.  Sealing dishes in this way was one of the few methods our pre freezer ancestors had of enabling the preservation of meats and fish for many weeks.  Clarifying – the heating and filtering of butter – removes the proteins which could potentially go rancid and creates a thicker set seal.  Well, there was nothing rancid about this.  It was devoured in moments, much to the disappointment of the two canine guests.   

 

A pause between courses and time then to introduce all of the guests present that evening. Me and James you know, Dave and his lovely girlfriend Alice and two dogs Archie - alice’s mums, and Hattie – my mum’s puppy.  Whenever dogs are present conversation tends to centre round them, how old they are, japes they may get up to, how muddy they are, how they’re not usually this mental.  Not unlike parents with kids I should imagine, just with leads.  James did manage to steer conversation away with a long tale of a known fraudster getting into a right pickle with his company and how he was managing the situation without giving on that he'd read the Daily Mail and knew exactly who she was and no she was not going to get the better of him, so there.  Interesting yarn but after a short silence – ‘so where do you walk him?’   

Next course:  Wildfood Pizza’s.  These home made pizza’s were topped with pigeon, pheasant (some roadkill defrosted from james’ freezer) and bacon alongside the usual suspects, mozzarella and tomato.  Bacon often features alongside these two meats to provide some much needed fat.  They were all lightly fried off together on James’ skillet over the fire and added to the pizzas for a last minute firing.  Absolutely glorious.  To accompany was Hairy Bittercress pesto and a wild rocket salad.  Alice, not a meat eater, joined us with her many cheese pizza and helpfully held my dog whilst I ate.   

Now this is where things got hairy – and I’m not talking about the pesto.  The perils of bringing two dogs together in the night, surrounding them with nice smells and expecting them to behave came very suddenly to light.  One moment we were appreciating a gobful of game, the next a ferocious roar (well, I say ferocious - he’s a jack Russell) and the yelps of the cheeky pup who ordained to go near his eagerly awaited food scraps.  It was horrendous.  A full blown dog attack/mild scuffle (depending on your experience of these events, mine is none so i’m opting for the former) happening right under our feet.  I have never had that happen before and for the entire time I was looking after my mums dog, was the thing I had dreaded happening most.  For Archie, it was completely out of character, it is normally him getting mauled by his long term dog wife Matilda.  I’m still not entirely sure how it ended, I'd leaped up shouting Oh my God, and couldn’t bare to look – not massively helpful.  What I do know is that I got Hattie’s lead back in my hands and after a horrible moment of thinking the mud she was covered in was blood, managed to sit back down and get my shaking hands back on another slice of pizza.  Archie had been unceremoniously removed from the scene, disgraced and no doubt still a bit peckish.  Now this is what I’d call awkward.  When neither of you actually owns either dog, and then one has a go at the other, well there's not much you can say other than profusely apologise and hope no-one sues.  But then that’s dogs isn’t it.  Not really much like kids at all actually. 

By the third and final course my dog had been put in the van and Archie had returned, although still spurned, to witness us scoff down Honey Buns which I had made the night before.  They’re lovely little things and very easy to make. The recipe is Stephen Fry’s and found in the ‘Essential Scout campfire cook book’ tweaked only slightly by me with the addition of cinnamon.  I’d recommend seeking it out, there are many great recipes in there for the outdoor inclined cook. 

The evening, cut slightly shorter than it may have naturally ended due to fears of dog welfare, was overall, a grand evening.  It was such a treat to do ‘our thing’ somewhere else and be so wonderfully welcomed.  And what’s an evening without a spot of drama anyway. 

Thank you to Dave, Alice and Archie (hopefully now allowed back in the house), we’d love to come back please.  Without the dog. 

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!

My Top 10 Favourite Venison Dishes

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

Fillets De Perche A La Puree D' Orties ....

 ...Or fillets of Perch in a Nettle Puree, sometimes it just sounds better in French.

Below is the recipe I made from the lovely fish Rick caught me.  It was sods law that the  camera ran out of battery just as I plated it up, so you'll have to use your imagination.  I can assure you it looked and tasted great though!  I plan to make it again soon and will put up a picture but will definitely use more Perch fillets next time as it wasn't big enough to share.  

Fishing for Perch in the Ouse

01.09.12

Fishy Business

I’ve never been much of a fisherman; in fact, I’ve never caught a single fish.  In theory, I’m all for sitting quietly by a river or lake with a rod and line with only my thoughts for company, but in practice, I find my limited patience is not well suited for the sport.

Fortunately for me, my good friend Rick is very patient and a seasoned fisherman to boot.  Rick graciously agreed to help me catch some fish from a stretch of Ouse not far from my house.  I was the one tasked with dispatching the fish as Rick is more of traditionalist when it comes to fishing and usually puts them back.

Below, is a timelpase of Rick expertly catching 3 Perch for my dinner, whilst I tried to entertain myself as best I could.

Nature's Aspirin

Wild garlic pesto

The wild garlic season may have come to an end (April-June) - but I found myself with a craving for it  so got out some Wild Garlic I froze a couple of weeks ago to use with lunch...

Welcome to foragesussex

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As I have recently joined the growing ranks of the unemployed I thought I would spend some time (which is something I now have rather a lot of!) doing something I really enjoy and share what I learn along the way in a blog.  Foraging in the Sussex countryside certainly beats my desk job in the city and also means I can eat well on a budget, which is obviously rather important in my current situation...

I have always enjoyed the outdoors, but I have never before appreciated the abundance of wonderful things that grow right on my doorstep.  Even the humble nettle has pushed me to try a whole new raft of recipes – with some very satisfying results.  The High Weald has some great foraging opportunities being ideally located with access to great coastlines and woodlands.  

                                                                                                 

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My girlfriend’s dog, Archie, loves joining me for a good ramble in the countryside.