The Garlic Invasion of Earth

One of the features of late Spring is the abundance of plants and flowers of all colours, sizes and smells. Among these is Wild Garlic. This plant often grows by streams and rivers in damp, wooded areas. It has thick, pointed leaves and blooms cascades of white flowers. The leaves can be harvested for a range of uses in recipes. A note of caution however, Wild Garlic looks very similar to the plant known as Lily of the Valley. This is poisonous and so should be avoided. The best way to tell is when harvesting the leaves, smell them and if they wreak of garlic you are safe to conclude that you have picked the right plant for your recipe. 

Wild Garlic has a range of uses in cooking such as roasted with chicken and cut up to be made into Pesto. Another recipe, and the one I'm going to follow in this blog, is Wild Garlic Scones. 

On the player, when I put this recipe together on a bright Friday Night, was Dutch Band Focus' confident and memorable debut album "In and Out of Focus". It contains many stand out tracks such as the reflective "Focus" , the Gregorian Chant meets Boy Scouts singing round the campfire vocal delivery of "Black Beauty" and the piquant "House of the King" which was recently used to great effect on the hit comedy show "Saxondale". If you fancy a listen then click on the link  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o34Hftlard4

The ingredients of the Scones are:

200 grams of Self-Raising Flour.
40 grams of Margarine. 
100 grams of Wild Garlic,sliced into strips around five centimetres long and one centimetre wide. 
60 grams of Wensleydale Cheese crumbled into small pieces. 
1 teaspoon of Chilli Powder.
1 teaspoon of White Pepper. 
0.075 litres of unsweetened Soya Milk. 

The method to follow is:

1. In a mixing bowl rub in the Flour and Margarine until you have a mixture that resembles powdered breadcrumbs. 

2. Stir in the Chilli Powder, White Pepper and Wild Garlic.

3. Add the Wensleydale Pieces and stir in. 

4. Slowly add the Soya Milk and stir in gradually until you create a moist dough.

5. Knead the dough and then roll it out into a flat rectangle or rhombus around one centimetre deep. 

6. Use a cookie cutter or the top of a jar to cut circles out of the dough.

7. Arrange the circles on a greased baking tray and cook on Gas Mark 5 for 25 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack until they are ready to eat.

There's something strangely satisfying and almost life-affirming about cooking a recipe that contains ingredients that have been foraged. This is especially true in the totalitarian times we live in that have brought dystopian fiction jumping off the pages of novels and into our reality. 

Wild Garlic has as stronger taste and smell as its bulb counterpart with a more crunchier texture. In this recipe it offset well the mild taste of the Wensleydale while the scone dough was a gold colour with a crumbly texture. 

Before Cooking and After