Food: Green day

Bring the flavour of hedgerow Scotland to the table by using early season nettles, sorrel and wild garlic

Young, green and wild. I'm certainly not talking about me (though possibly I'm a bit wild...). I'm referring to the spring growth of nettles, sorrel and wild garlic. Late summer and early autumn are prime times for picking wild food, but spring offers green delicacies for soups, sauces and salads. Within a month, the nettles and sorrel will be a bit tougher, darker, and, in the case of the wild garlic, with the white flower heads gone, all that will be left will be a lingering whiff of garlic, and within two months, not even that.

Young nettles are similar in flavour to young spinach, but with a less pronounced iron taste. Use thick gloves when collecting them and remember, like spinach, they wilt right down when heated so pick a big basketful. Nettles make the most delicious soup. Sorrel, with its long pointy leaves, has an almost astringent flavour and it, too, makes good soups. A few sorrel leaves torn and mixed with other salad leaves adds interest to a salad; however, I chiefly use sorrel in sauces. Wild garlic may smell of garlic, but its flavour is much more gentle than that of the larger bulbs that we buy. You will find wild garlic bulbs at the end of their stems – I use both stems and small bulbs in soups, salads and sauces.

NETTLE SOUP

This is very good hot or cold, depending on the weather. Always wash nettles under running cold water, shaking off the excess water.

SERVES 6

3 tablespoons olive oil
a handful of wild garlic, stalks and bulbs, rinsed to remove any earth and chopped – or you can use 2 medium-sized onions, skinned and chopped
3 potatoes, weighing in total about 1lb/450g, peeled and finely diced
11/2 pints/850ml stock, either fresh or made up with a good stock powder, such as Marigold
approx 8oz/225g nettles (a big basketful), washed
1/2 teaspoon salt
about 15 grinds of black pepper
a good grating of nutmeg
1/4 pint/140ml crème fraîche to swirl on top of each serving

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan which has a lid. Fry the wild garlic for a couple of minutes (if using onions, fry them for about 5 minutes or until they are completely soft and transparent). Add the diced potatoes, stir them in well and cook for a further 2 to 3 minutes. Then pour in the stock and bring to simmering point. Simmer, with the pan covered with its lid to prevent evaporation, for about 5 minutes, or until when you squish some potato against the side of the pan it is very soft. Then lift the lid from the pan and plunge in the nettles, carefully pushing them down into the hot liquid. Cram the lid on top of the pan – the nettles will soon wilt. Simmer for 2 minutes, cool the contents of the pan before liquidising to a smooth texture. Taste, and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Either reheat to serve, adding a spoonful of crème fraîche in a swirl on top of each serving, or serve the soup cold – not chilled from the fridge, because that deadens the flavour – also with a swirl of crème fraîche to decorate each serving.

WILD GARLIC AND LEMON BUTTER

This is good served on grilled meats or fish. It is better with fish than bought garlic, because of its more gentle taste.

SERVES 6

approx 2oz/55g wild garlic, stems and bulbs, washed and patted dry with kitchen paper
8oz/225g best butter, unsalted or slightly salted, softened
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
about 20 turns of the peppermill, preferably white peppercorns, though black will do

On a board and using a large and very sharp knife, chop the wild garlic bulbs and stems to a very fine, almost minced texture.

In a bowl, beat the softened butter with the salt, pepper and grated lemon rind. Then beat in the chopped wild garlic. Set a sheet of baking parchment on a work surface. Cover this with clingfilm. Spoon the garlic butter down the middle of the clingfilm in a line. Wrap the clingfilm around this and, using your hands, mould it into a fat sausage shape.

Put this into the fridge and, when cold and firmed up, wrap the clingfilmed butter in the baking parchment. To serve, unwrap the parchment, and slice the butter through the clingfilm into even-sized slices.

Peel off the clingfilm and put a slice or two of the flavoured butter on each piece of grilled meat, chicken or fish.

SORREL HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

This is particularly good with rich fish, such as salmon.

SERVES 6

To make the vinegar infusion:

1/2 pint/285ml white wine vinegar
a few black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon salt
about 3in/7cm celery or the leaves from a head of celery
a couple of stems and bulbs of wild garlic, washed and patted dry, or a slice of raw onion

To make the Hollandaise sauce:

approx 3oz/85g wild sorrel leaves, well washed in a colander under running cold water and patted dry with kitchen paper
1 tablespoon infused vinegar
6 large egg yolks
8oz/225g butter, cut into about 8 bits

Start by putting the vinegar into a saucepan with the peppercorns, salt, celery and wild garlic or onion and simmer till the vinegar is reduced by half. Cool, then strain the infused vinegar into a jar with a screwtop lid.

Steam the sorrel briefly, to wilt it. Cool, then chop the sorrel finely.

Make the sauce by putting a Pyrex bowl over a saucepan containing simmering water – not fast-boiling. Beat the yolks well with 1 tablespoon of infused vinegar and add this mixture to the Pyrex bowl on the pan. With a small whisk, stir continuously and add a bit of butter, stirring with the whisk until it is melted and absorbed by the yolks before adding the next bit. As you cook this sauce, it will thicken and turn paler in colour. When all the butter is added, take the bowl off the saucepan – carefully, so as not to send a whoosh of steam up your arm – and set the bowl on the work surface.

Add the chopped sorrel to the sauce and mix it in thoroughly. Rinse out a vacuum flask with hot – not boiling – water and store the sauce in this. It will keep hot – crucially, without curdling – allowing you to wash up the bowl and whisk before a special occasion lunch or dinner. The sauce keeps for a couple of hours in the flask.