Issue #06 April 2023
Hello & happy April!
This issue is a special one for me, because it marks a whole six months of A Bit More Seasoning! Thank you so much for sticking around & hiiiii to everyone who has joined in the past month.
I’m going to jump straight into the food rather than ramble on because there is a cheeky little bonus recipe included this month for my go to rhubarb compote for you to enjoy.
A bonus recipe!
In issue #04 you heard me go on about Yorkshire forced rhubarb, which is grown by candlelight for extra sweetness & has a super short season from beginning of Feb to the end of March, however April brings the beginning of the non-forced, traditional British rhubarb season that will run until July.
Rhubarb Compote
Ingredients
3 stalks of rhubarb, sliced into 1cm chunks (discard the green tops)
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 orange. 1 strip of peel & juiced
Method
Add the rhubarb, sugar, orange peel & juice to a large saucepan. Add 50ml of water to the pan & then bring to a gentle boil & simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the rhubarb has softened. Keep an eye on it & add more liquid if it is sticking or looking dry.
Taste as you go & add more sugar whilst cooking if the compote is too bitter.
Cool & transfer to an airtight container.
What’s at its best this month…
Hero Ingredient Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum)
If you follow anyone who is remotely into food on social media then I am pretty certain you will have seen them talking about wild garlic in the past few weeks!
To me, wild garlic is a sign that spring is well on its way. The season can start as early as February but wild garlic is at its best from late March onwards & can be harvested up until June.
Native to the UK, wild garlic tends to grow in shady woodlands & is an ancient-woodland-indicator plant, so if you are lucky enough to have your own secret foraging spot, you’re likely standing in an Ancient woodland.
Check out Woodland Trust to learn more about what we need to do to protect these vital habitats.
Wild garlic is an important species as it blooms early, meaning it’s great for bees & other pollinators when there isn’t much else around.
Having grown up in the countryside, I am no stranger to picking & eating wild food but I am no expert forager, so if you want to go out & pick your own wild garlic, I highly suggest doing some research first.
Wild garlic is relatively easy to identify, however there are a few poisonous look alikes so just be super careful & if you’re not sure, don’t risk it!
Also, make sure you stick to the rules…
Legislation under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) makes it illegal “to uproot any wild plant without permission from the landowner or occupier” in Britain. The term ‘uproot’ is defined as “to dig up or otherwise remove the plant from the land on which it is growing”. Picking parts of a plant (leaves, flower stems, fruit and seed) is therefore OK, as long as you don’t remove or uproot the whole plant.
Recipe 01
Wild Garlic Chicken Kyiv (or just a wild garlic butter to put on everything!)
I wondered how long it would be before I managed to get a Chicken Kyiv into one of these issues!
They are my ultimate guilty pleasure, I love them so much that for valentine’s day this year, my boyfriend made them from scratch for me!
However, if your love for the Kyiv doesn’t run as deep as mine, worry not because this is basically a wild garlic butter recipe that I happen to have stuffed in a chicken Kyiv. The wild garlic butter has many, many uses.
Given the fleeting nature of wild garlic, this is a great recipe to still enjoy the flavour further into the year, as the butter needs to be frozen, so you can keep cutting off slices to top fish, veggies, roasted or BBQ meats or dollop on a jacket potato.
Ingredients
Makes 2 Kyivs with leftover butter.
For the butter
100g wild garlic, finely chopped
Large handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
250g unsalted butter, softened
½ tbsp sea salt
For the chicken
2 large higher welfare chicken breasts
100g plain flour, seasoned with salt & pepper
2 eggs, beaten
100g breadcrumbs
Method
Start by making the butter. Add the finely chopped wild garlic, parsley, butter & sea salt in a large bowl & mix well. Transfer the mixture to a sheet of clingfilm & roll into a long sausage shape. Put in the freezer for at least 1.5 hours.
Put the flour, beaten egg & breadcrumbs into three separate shallow bowls.
Take a chicken breast & make a little pocket for the wild garlic butter by inserting a sharp knife into the thicker end of the breast, being really careful not to pierce the top or bottom of the breast, otherwise the butter will leak out during cooking. Repeat on the other chicken breast.
Take the butter out of the freezer & slice off four pieces about ½ cm thick each & push them into the pockets you just created in the chicken.
Now you’re ready to coat the chicken. To do this, first place the chicken in the flour bowl & ensure the whole breast is covered in a thin layer of flour, shake off the excess, then place the chicken into the bowl of beaten egg & again, make sure everything is coated. Then go straight into the bowl of breadcrumbs & you guessed it, make sure the whole breast is coated. Place on a baking tray & repeat the process for the second breast.
Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
In a large frying pan, heat 5 tbsp oil to medium high. Carefully place the chicken in the oil & cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until the breadcrumbs start to turn golden brown.
Transfer the chicken to a baking tray & cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
If the butter escapes during cooking, pour this back over the Kyiv to serve or heat a little of the leftover butter from the freezer & spoon over.
Recipe 02
Wild Garlic Pesto
Probably not one for the fainthearted, this delicious but pretty pungent pesto will knock your socks off!
The garlic definitely mellows out once cooked, so stir through hot pasta or top some baked salmon or roasted veggies, if the raw pesto is a bit too much for you.
To preserve the flavour of spring for many months, you can portion the pesto up into an ice cube tray and freeze.
Ingredients
Makes around 250g or 1 jar
80g wild garlic
40g Parmesan
50g pine nuts, toasted
90ml Extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
Salt & pepper to taste
Method
Thoroughly clean the wild garlic. Start by picking through the shoots & discarding anything that you are not 100% certain is wild garlic, like stems or flowers from other plants, then wash the wild garlic really well & pat dry.
Add the wild garlic to a food processor & blitz for a few seconds to break it down.
Add the toasted pine nuts, parmesan, juice of ½ a lemon & the olive oil to the food processor & blend again to your desired consistency.
Season with salt & pepper to taste & add more lemon if needed.
If you make any of the recipes from this issue, or any other issue of A Bit More Seasoning, please let me know, it makes my day to see people cooking my food.
Thank you so much for reading & see you in May!
Emma x