Wilderness Festival 2014 Hunter Gather Cook

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How to Cook Wild Rabbit with Hunter Gather Cook - Vice Munchies

Fine Wild Food Feast - 22nd March

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Wild Garlic, Smoked Bacon and Parsnip Tagliatelle

So with spring coming round super early this year I thought I’d get the year going with a Wild Garlic recipe. Now the floods have subsided you’ll find it sprouting out beside the riverbanks with abundance. The smell of it in the wild to me is always evocative of the end of winter and start of spring, but be sure not to use too much as the smell on the breath is more evocative of someone with stinky garlic breath!

Wild Garlic sprouting after the floods.

This leads me on to one thing that I’d like to touch on before moving on to the recipe. I think it is important in foraging to only pick what you need. When faced with huge swathes of wild garlic in front of you it would be easy to get carried away and just pick carrier bags full of the stuff, most of which will never get used and will eventually just end up stinking your house out! As a rule of thumb I would say replacing 1 clove of garlic with 4 wild garlic leaves is about right.

Archie the foraging dog finds his target.

On to the recipe! I have been cooking this recipe since around 2001 and as far as I can remember it originated from one of Jamie Olivers early cook books. The addition of wild garlic instead of regular garlic adds an extra depth of flavour and I’d recommend wherever possible buying locally smoked bacon from your nearest farm shop or even direct from the smokery. The bacon I used was from the Wealden Smokery so if you are local to Sussex you won’t find better!

Wild Garlic Shoots

Wild Garlic, Bacon and Parsnip tagliatelle

Serves 4

Foraged:

8 Wild Garlic leaves finely chopped

Ingredients and Prep:

Handful of Rosemary, destalked, leaves finely chopped

100g Butter cut into 4 knobs

600g Parsnips, peeled halved and very thinly sliced lengthways

12 Slices of smoked streaky bacon roughly chopped up

200g Grated parmesan

500g dried tagliatelle

Salt and Pepper

Method:

Fry the bacon and rosemary with one of the knobs of butter in the largest frying pan or wok you have. After 3 or 4 minutes add another knob of butter, the wild garlic and parsnips stirring occasionally to ensure nothing burns in the pan. At the same time put the tagliatelle on as instructed on the packet.

Once the pasta is al dente strain it out reserving a little of the cooking water. Add the pasta, parmesan and rest of the butter to the bacon and parsnips and give it a good stir. If it looks like it’s a little stodgy then loosen with a little of the reserved cooking water. Season and Serve!

Wild Garlic, Smoked Bacon and Parsnip Tagliatelle

Micro Head Torch Shoot-Out: Petzl E+Lite Vs Fenix HL10

 The Stats

	Petzl E+Lite	Fenix HL10
RRP	£24.95	£25.95
Max Output	26 Lumens	70 Lumens
Max Runtime: High	55h	50 mins
Max Runtime: Mid	55h	2h 45mins
Max Runtime: Low	70h	27h
Max Distance	29m	15m
Impact Resistance	1m	1m
Water Resistance	-1m IP67	-2m IPX-8
Weight	26g	58g
Dimensions	L40mm x W32mm x H23mm	L69.5mm x W29.2mm x H28.2mm
Battery	2 x CR2032 (included)	1 x AAA (included)
Guarantee	10 Year Guarantee	24 months free repair, limited lifetime warranty
Degree Tilt	360 degrees	100 degrees
Bulb	4 x LEDs (3 White +1 Red)	1 x Cree XP-E LED
Number of Modes	5	3

First Impressions:

My first impression of the Petzl E+Lite which was purchased from Nightgear.co.uk was “is this some kind of toy!” It’s absolutely tiny only a little bigger than my thumb, at only 26g and almost entirely made of plastic it doesn’t feel in anyway substantial. 

Just a smidge bigger than my thumb!

Being as small at it is has some pluses and some minuses for me. On the plus side I always like to pack light but try to cover as many eventualities as possible so the e+lite is great in that respect. On the minus side being that small means I will undoubted at some point in the torches life lose it, probably somewhere at the bottom of my bag but if it drop on to the forest floor even a small leaf could hide it from my sight forever more. The other thing I noticed is that is doesn’t appear to have the usual headband you expect with most head torches, this has been replaced with a retractable reel of what looks basically like cheese wire,  but on closer inspection seems pretty strong  and not uncomfortable to wear,  when you consider this torch is designed to be mainly used as an emergency head lamp its fine. All the 5 functions are easy to see immediately on the front of the torch, it has a low, high and strobing white beam and a solid and strobing red beam too. As well as the off setting it also has
a lock setting to ensure it doesn’t turn on whilst sitting lost at the bottom of your rucksack. The tilt function on it is the best I’ve seem with a little ball joint at the bottom giving the torch the possibility of pointing it in any angle or direction needed.

On to the Fenix HL10 which I got from Outdoorfusion.co.uk, first impressions are this is a much meatier torch and although still pretty tiny it weighs in at twice that of the e+lite. It has a “normal” style elastic headband that is as comfortable as you’d expect and is easily adjusted by a toggle at the back.  The torch itself sits in a plastic case attached to the headband, this case pops open and allows you to remove the lamp section and use it as a stand-alone normal flashlight which is pretty smart. 

The Fenix out of is casing

The flashlight section is made of adonsied aluminium and feels very rugged despite its diminutive size. It can also stand up on it end on a flat surface which I’m sure I’ll find a use for, just not sure what yet! Once clipped back in to the plastic case it is able to rotate 100 degrees up and down, which is all you would really hope for in a head torch. The button set up on the Fenix isn’t as immediately as obvious as the Petzl, it has one rubber button on the top of the lamp which you need to hold down for two to three seconds before the torch will turn on after that tapping the button with cycle through it’s low, medium and high settings. Holding the button for a further few seconds will turn it off.

The Field Test

For this test I worked two consecutive days at the Hunter Gather Cook School, both days run in almost exactly the same format  (stag dos) and both days will require me to work for around 3 hours in our off grid kitchen in the dark. Rather than using the Oil Lamps I usually work by I just used one of the head torches each day.

Standard start to the day at HGC

The first torch up was the Petzel which fared pretty well, the red light setting is great to switch to if you are having a conversation with someone you don’t want to blind, the main and even the economy settings worked well for the sort of jobs I was getting up to in the kitchen but were perhaps a little lacking when it came to foraging for ingredients out in the woods. Comfort wise my initial scepticism about the cheese cutter style head band were unfounded and once on the torch was so light and comfortable I found myself forgetting it was even there! Also the retractable style of the band meant that it could be warn on the wrist, which adds some extra versatility. Towards the end of the day there was a noticeable drain on the battery with there being little difference to the eco and standard modes. I’d say overall it performed excellently and for most people who will only be requiring a little time and light to set up camp until their fires are going it will be perfect. Considering that this head torch is designed to be an emergency back up, it actually out performs what it says it can do on the tin.

Getting down to some serious Fallow Carpaccio

The second day was a chance for the Fenix HL10 to shine and it really did! The initial 70 Lumens were just what I needed to badger away in the kitchen and woods to my hearts content. The lamp has an auto dim function when on high power and dims after a few minutes on full power.  I think if it had been left on full for the whole period perhaps the batteries might not have made it all the way through the day. Like the Petzl it did dim as the day came to a close but this is a fairly long test for a micro head torch so to be expected. The dimmest setting was fine to switch to when talking to our guests but I found the way the button set up worked to be a little less simple that the petzl although perfectly usable.  Overall it performed excellently which leaves me with a pretty close call as to which one I would choose as the winner……

Manning the kettles

The Results

And the winner is…...The Petzl E+Lite. The Petzl just scrapes the win due to it’s tiny size and massive versatility. It’s a great little all rounder and as I said previously it out performs expectations of just an emergency back up. This would be great for anyone who expects light weight and medium to light use. Only thing I will say for both of these torch is that carrying a spare set of batteries would be a good idea should you have to use them for an extended period.

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!