Sticky weed noodles with wild garlic and nettle pesto...

[JayOram]

Had a great evening last week with my Explorer Scouts experimenting with Nettles (We had a 'Nettle appreciation' evening).

As a group we made Nettle cordage and Nettle tea, but the best bit was the Nettle, Garlic, Pine Nut and Parmesan pesto. We cooked up some normal pasta noodles and had a little taster and it was great. It got me thinking about a foraged meal, so after reading up a bit more and a trip to Snowdonia (so much wild garlic!!), an idea was hatched.

I had in the back of my head 'sticky weed' (Goose Grass, 'Galium aparine, or that sticky stuff you threw at your mates in the playground) was edible. Turns out I was right.

Ingredients:

Foraged:
Sticky Weed (two good handfuls washed)
Wild Garlic (10-15 leaves + some flowers)
Nettle leaves (A good bunch!)

Take with:
Cheese (I used the parmesan you get in a pot)
Oil (just a little)
Pine nuts (you could forage some kind of nut I guess?)

Method -

1 - Strip the sticky weed of leaves, give a good wash and steam/boil until soft (about 5-10mins)

Separately -

2 - Wash all foraged ingredients - Using a Pestle, or a big stone, grind nettles, wild garlic leaves and pine nuts together.
3 - Add cheese and oil to mixture gradually to make the pesto.

Combine the sticky weed noodles with the pesto, add the garlic flowers to the top as dressing and hey presto!

I have added chorizo, or just had plain and it is very nice. I like Garlic so make it strong, but you can adjust to taste.

Any other mainly foraged meals to have in the UK now?

 

[ValeTudoGuy]

Pignuts or Cobnuts could stand in for the Pine Nuts. Add a bit of fried squirrel or pigeon inland or some Razor clams and Limpets at the sea.

I could go for that! Thanks for the tip on the sticky bud stems being edible.

Edit: The Wiki for the stuff suggest that the sticky balls can be dried and made into coffee!?!?! Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Janne]

Make Nettle soup.
Check out the Vegan Thread!

 

[Toddy]

Pignuts or Cobnuts could stand in for the Pine Nuts. Add a bit of fried squirrel or pigeon inland or some Razor clams and Limpets at the sea.

I could go for that! Thanks for the tip on the sticky bud stems being edible.

Edit: The Wiki for the stuff suggest that the sticky balls can be dried and made into coffee!?!?! Can anyone confirm this?

If you gather them very young, they're good on a sandwich..kind of cressy/mustard green sort of thing.
The little seeds can be roasted and ground, but it's more akin to dandelion coffee, and you need an awful lot of them.
They were the original blackheads for pins. Simply stab onto the end of a blank pin shaft and leave aside to dry. They shrink and fit tightly.

The OP's recipe sounds good, walnuts work well and since they're oily they don't need extra if you're doing a quick green mash up paste between a couple of stones when out. Add some salt, and use to stuff a naan or pitta.
If you've foraged some mushrooms, and are prepared to do a quick stir fry, those added to the pesto make the filling a filling meal, iimmc

M

 

[Tonyuk]

Sounds good i might give that a try at the weekend.

Tonyuk

 

[JayOram]

Loving all the options for foraged nuts - will have to keep an eye out for some cob nuts or pig nuts.

Had a less foraged and more 'fun' cooking task last night with my explorers, organised by another leader:

Damper twists! Self raising flour, butter, milk, sugar. Make into a dough - one cup flour, big nob of butter, half to 1 cup of milk and two teaspoons of sugar.

Make the butter and flour into a crumble like consistency, add the sugar, then add the milk until you have a firm not sticky dough.

Roll out into long thin rolls and then wrap around a freshly cut green stick. Toast over the fire until golden brown. We then added jam or chcocolate spread - but was just like a sweet dough so go crazy with it. Would be good with soup or well anything.

Have made it less luxuriously with just flour and water, but this version was very tasty!

Will keep coming back to the 'lovely' grub section I think!

 

[Tommyd345]

Love this idea!