A NEARLY FREE MEAL!!!!!!! (rabbit recipe)

[fishfish]

here's a recipe that's all but free,all the main ingredients can be found free in the hedgerows and woods at this time of year.

You will need:

2 fresh rabbits

4 good hand fulls of fresh nettle tops

a good sized bunch of wild garlic:

a small handful of wild violet leaves:

a little seasoned flour
a little cooking oil or lard
2 pints of chicken stock or 4 oxo's.


prepare yer rabbits and joint them:

then toss them in the seasoned flour til browning,place them in a casserole dish,now deglase the pan with the stock and set to oneside.wash and chop the nettlesand violet leaves,(violet leaves will thicken the stock as arrow root or cornflour would) add to the casserole dish,chop the whites of the wild garlic and then add too including the garlic flowers.
now pour the stock over and place in a moderate oven for 2 1/2 hours.
serve with a salad of young primrose leaves , cowslip leaves , dandelion leaves and hawthorn shoots,some boiled bull rush roots would be a free potato substitute. its a good free meal!
as with all wild gathered foods be sure you know that you have gathered the correct plants.

 

[fishy1]

Poor fishfish, can't even count.

 

[spamel]

Poor fishfish, can't even count.

I thought that at first and then realised there is one rabbit and a set of conjoined rabbits. The conjoined rabbits count as one!

 

[tomtom]

Moved to Fair Game.

Good thread FishFish, thanks for posting I may have to try it next weekend.

 

[fishfish]

Poor fishfish, can't even count.

the one far left isnt fresh!

 

[fishy1]

Fair point fish fish, how did you catch them?

 

[locum76]

what do the nettles add to the dish? in my experience nettles are pretty tasteless... they're good for you right enough.

 

[fishfish]

Fair point fish fish, how did you catch them?

ferreted! best way realy as their not full of shot!

 

[fishfish]

what do the nettles add to the dish? in my experience nettles are pretty tasteless... they're good for you right enough.

bulk and tonnes of nutrients,my family eat nettles all year round,theyre free and they grow more prolifically on my allotments than my veg!

 

[Toddy]

Nice one Hadn't tried the violet leaves in a stew.

If your allotment will gorw nettles, try redding some of them out and sowing Fat hen, it's a beautifully tasty and exceptionally nourishing native.
Fat-hen was commonly eaten as a vegetable from Neolithic times until the 16th century when it was replaced in the diet by spinach and cabbage. It is very rich in vitamin C. The seeds can be ground into flour, I usually eat it before it's produced enough.
It can become a *weed*, but if you find weeds to be useful plants and control them by using them, it's a good addition to the diet.
cheers,
Toddy

 

[fishfish]

Nice one Hadn't tried the violet leaves in a stew.

If your allotment will gorw nettles, try redding some of them out and sowing Fat hen, it's a beautifully tasty and exceptionally nourishing native.
Fat-hen was commonly eaten as a vegetable from Neolithic times until the 16th century when it was replaced in the diet by spinach and cabbage. It is very rich in vitamin C. The seeds can be ground into flour, I usually eat it before it's produced enough.
It can become a *weed*, but if you find weeds to be useful plants and control them by using them, it's a good addition to the diet.
cheers,
Toddy

whats it look like?

 

[Toddy]

It's kind of variable.....mine grow about 60cms high, with softly toothed edged green leaves, whitish underneath, stiff stemmed like kale and broccoli. It's supposed to be better for you if cooked but I eat it raw too and it's good. Cook it with beans and it kind of stops the wind
Farmyard birds, and pigeons, get very well fed looking on it
I can only find a photo of it on a weeding site

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/fathen.htm

cheers,
Toddy

 

[fishfish]

It's kind of variable.....mine grow about 60cms high, with softly toothed edged green leaves, whitish underneath, stiff stemmed like kale and broccoli. It's supposed to be better for you if cooked but I eat it raw too and it's good. Cook it with beans and it kind of stops the wind
Farmyard birds, and pigeons, get very well fed looking on it
I can only find a photo of it on a weeding site

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/fathen.htm

cheers,
Toddy

when yours seeds this year would you send me some seeds?

 

[Toddy]

I can, and will, but they'll be too late for a crop this year.
One of my friends bought some from an organic seeds site and Iknwo she didn't sow them all....I'll be in touch.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Toddy]

Interesting website for what ethnobotanists in the UK call famine foods, basically stuffs that are good to eat but their use memory only really survives as known to be edible when folks were really hungry. Silly too, they're very good food, but you won't find them in the supermarket, just mentioned in the weedkiller lists

http://www.primalseeds.org/OTHERSTUFF/new/grain.htm

We probably need to start a new thread on this sort of stuff...sorry fishfish, I've taken your thread off topic

cheers,
Toddy

 

[fishy1]

The nettles where I am are only just starting to grow, they are all about 1" high, but give them a month and it'll be easy to get lots.

I have a plan to get a longnet built, then I should be able to get more rabbits quicker.

 

[locum76]

bulk and tonnes of nutrients,my family eat nettles all year round,theyre free and they grow more prolifically on my allotments than my veg!

hadn't thought of the bulk thing. i do like a nettle and tattier soup it has to be said.

toddy, fat hen's a great munch when you're doing the weeding, my current snack is the bitter cress.

i'd say you'd be on for a good crop of fat hen yet though if you can get it in quick enough...