Lets talk about Wild Garlic!

 

The more I'm trying to figure out what kind of chef I am I see its coming back to basics and keeping food as natural and simple as possible, Great ingredients and doing very little with them. Food shouldn't be complicated in my opinion. The past couple of years I've started to appreciate food a lot more when I began to grown my own vegetables and my dad began to rare pigs. You respect the welfare of the animal , and I think that's just as important as the end product you end up with. Even more so when I find free food that many of us walk by without realising its worth, I myself am guilty of this, a little knowledge about all this great produce around us and your laughing!

Wild garlic being one of those, it grows wild all over Ireland, You will smell it before you see it and its a great product to make soda breads & pesto's with. Here's a simple Wild Garlic pesto recipe which you can keep in the fridge up to a week, its beautiful with pastas, dressing salads with and with fish.

What you will need:

• One large bunch of wild garlic
• 60g of toasted pine nuts
• 60g of parmesan cheese, grated
• 150ml of oil, I like to mix this between a mixture of olive oil and vegetable oil as I find olive oil over powers the flavour of the wild garlic
• Squeeze of some lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

In a dry frying fan over a medium heat toast the pine nuts, Keep a close eye as they can burn quickly. Shake the pan a couple of times to ensure even cooking.
When golden set aside.
In a food processor , Add the toasted pine nuts, parmesan cheese and wild garlic and blend to a smooth paste.
Through the funnel of the food processor slowly add in the oil until it begins to thicken.
Season and add a squeeze of lemon juice.