Fresh and Wild Cookbook: A Real Food Adventure

There are loads of wild blackberries in some areas of the UK, so if there seem to be tons in your area this autumn, just waiting to be picked, then get picking. Watch out for the prickles and make sure that you only pick those growing away from roads, so they’re not high in pollutants from car fumes. And don’t pick them in an area specifically high in special wild birds, as they’ll want to eat them, too. Soak the freshly picked blackberries in a deep bowl of salt water for an hour or so, by which time any grubs and bugs will have risen to the surface, then rinse the berries well in fresh water.

If blackberries are out of season when you make these blintzes, use a preserved summer fruit, like Biona’s blueberries in a jar.

They’re stored in syrup, so simply squash the entire contents of the jar into the yogurt, but skip the malt syrup and lemon so that the sauce isn’t too sweet.

This is a breakfast treat to give you zing all day long.

BUCKWHEAT BLINTZES

with Creamy Blackberry and Barley Malt Sauce

TO SERVE 5 PEOPLE WITH 2 PANCAKES EACH:

100g buckwheat flour

¼ of a nutmeg, grated

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

150ml semi-skimmed or soy milk

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

FOR THE SAUCE:

100g punnet of blackberries, squashed with a fork

250g goat’s yogurt

Juice of ½ a lemon

2 tablespoons barley malt syrup

Mix the flour, spices and baking powder in a big mixing bowl, then make a hollow in the middle. With a wooden spoon, mix in the egg and then the milk, slowly and a bit at a time, to make a thick batter.

Put the squashed berries in separate bowl and add the yogurt, lemon juice and malt syrup, mixing well to make a sauce. Leave it to one side so the juices can mingle.

Heat half the oil in a frying pan, then drop the batter in, one rounded tablespoon at a time for each blintz. Spread the blob out a bit with the back of the metal spoon so that each blintz is about 6–7cm wide. Add the rest of the oil after you’ve fried about half the blintzes. Fry for 1–2 minutes until brown, then turn each one over to cook the other side for a few more minutes.

Serve immediately, drizzled in the blackberry sauce.

PARSES PARSLEY POTATOES ‘N’ EGGS (#ulink_b5ee355e-cfc3-5c4e-8def-fd4397a44d16)

Let’s widen the palette of flavours that your breakfast can include. Why not add some chilli and fragrant spices to kick-start your day this morning? In many countries all over the world, people get busy with strong flavours first thing. On a visit to New Mexico, I was regularly asked by waitresses in breakfast diners ‘do you want that with red, green or Christmas?’ – meaning, red chilli salsa, green chilli salsa, or both. Wakey, wakey!

The inspiration for this poached egg recipe is an ancient Parsee recipe taught to me by Cyrus Todiwala, an extraordinary chef who founded the Asian and Oriental School of Cookery in Hoxton, London. The school teaches disadvantaged local kids how to cook traditional recipes and then places them into good culinary jobs (deservedly Cyrus received an MBE in recognition of the skill he has in motivating and inspiring the students to flourish).

I’ve expanded the original recipe to include celeriac and kohlrabi, because I like them, plus I’ve added some different spices and European flavours like olive oil and parsley. It’s a mix between a Parsee dish and a French dauphinoise dish, but quicker, lighter and made on the hob instead of in the oven. I love it, especially the morning after the night before.

PARSES PARSLEY POTATOES ‘N’ EGGS

BREAKFAST FOR 4 NORMAL PEOPLE, OR 2 GREEDY ONES:

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon cumin seeds, pounded with a pestle

½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds, pounded with a pestle

½ teaspoon mustard seeds, pounded with a pestle

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 fresh green chilli, seeds and membrane removed, and crushed

1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced

1 small potato, scrubbed and thinly sliced

1 small kohlrabi, washed and thinly sliced

⅔ celeriac, scrubbed and thinly sliced

A pinch of salt

4 eggs, 1 of which is washed thoroughly and dried

A handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan, over a medium heat, and add the pounded spice seeds when it’s hot. Saute for a minute, stirring with a wooden spatula, and then add the garlic and chilli. Stir this about for another minute, then add the onion and keep frying for a few minutes until it’s going opaque. Add the potato, kohlrabi and celeriac, fry for a few minutes and then pour in enough water to nearly cover the vegetables. Throw in a pinch of salt, cover the pan, lower the heat, and leave to slowly simmer for about 10 minutes.

Check if the vegetables are cooked; if not, leave it to simmer for a couple more minutes. When they’re tender, sprinkle in the parsley and turn the mixture slowly with the spatula, taking care not to break the vegetables up too much. Level the vegetables out again, then take the clean egg and use the outside of the shell to make four dips in the mixture at regularly spaced intervals. Crack all of the eggs, putting one into each dip.

Put the lid back on the pan and slowly cook over a low heat until the egg yolks are poached to your liking. Cut into quarters with the edge of a fish slice and serve up with crusty bread and butter.

GRANOLA (#ulink_e0782869-3167-5835-9bf4-e22f0be366d1)

Everybody in America knows about this stuff, but it’s not often made in the UK. I don’t know why – it’s so quick and easy, perfumes your kitchen with a sweet home-baking smell, is deliriously good for you and saves a fortune on decent muesli. Before preparing the granola, make sure you have a big re-usable plastic container to store it in.

Granola can be served with any kind of milk. All organic cow’s milk is good quality milk, scientifically proven to contain at least 60 per cent more alpha-linoleic acids (which help to keep your heart healthy) than nonorganic milk. I make a point of buying Manor Farm milk. Pam and Will Best, the couple whose cows produce it, have been dedicated dairy farmers for over 35 years and their experience and care is reflected not only in the texture and creaminess of the milk but in its sweet, clean taste.

Part of the reason Manor Farm’s milk tastes so sweet is that the cows munch on clover, chicory, alfalfa and other sweet-tasting salad crops. These are planted for practical cow-welfare and soil-enriching reasons, but they also add a back note to the final pint. Or maybe their cows are just particularly content. However, the main difference between Manor Farm’s milk and almost every other organic cow’s milk is that it’s not been homogenized.

Homogenization is a mechanical process that became widespread with the demise of the milkman and the rise of the supermarket. When we were kids, we shook a recyclable glass milk bottle every morning before pouring the milk. Or, if we were feeling naughty, we’d have the top of the milk when our mums weren’t looking. When everyone started buying milk in those plastic bottle-like containers that now inhabit every fridge door, the marketing men decided that the cream floating on top of our pints was an unsightly blemish. Something had to be done, and that something was homogenization.