When the Wild Garlic Comes

Make This, This and This

Feb 11, 2024

It won’t be long now before the wild garlic comes. I’ll have to petition Nancy to drive us to our usual spot (it won’t be hard) to fill our boots, and fill our boots we will. Then there’s always the challenge of what to make. Below is a curation of some of my favourites, plus inspiration from others. Before we get there, if you’re looking for wild garlic and not really sure how or where, the main things to know are:

You will know if it’s wild garlic because it smells like garlic when you tear a leaf.
It tends to grow in damp places - so try river banks, wet woods, and cemeteries. Failing that, if you’re in East Kent, the Goods Shed has a fresh supply most days from mid to late February until the end of the season (around the end of March)
Don’t pick too much! Leave some for others, leave some for nature. It wilts down pretty small but it has some serious flavour.
To keep it fresh, place in the fridge in a plastic bag with a couple of sheets of kitchen roll inside. If you’re like me and don’t use use kitchen roll, eat it quickly, or use some toilet roll, or chop roughly and pack the whole lot into a jar with oil.

Baked Chicken Leg with Wild Garlic Cream

I like to roast chicken legs off until they’re nearly finished and then add them to a pan with shiitake mushrooms cooked in butter, a good splash of white wine, and then plenty of double cream. Towards the end of the cooking process, I add torn handfuls of wild garlic, lemon juice, and plenty of seasoning. This is one to be devoured from the pan with chunks of crusty bread. Don’t forget to save the chicken bones for broth making.

Wild Garlic Parmesan Broth

Speaking of broth, it’s really handy for making this soup. Saute a chopped onion and a couple of chopped potatoes, cover with broth, throw in a parmesan rind, and cook until everything is soft . Add a good handful of wild garlic, remove the parmesan rind (don’t forget to have a nibble of the molten cheese still lurking around the rind) and then blitz to a smooth puree.

Wild Garlic Pesto Whirled Into Things

This one’s a cream of cauliflower soup with a sourdough crouton covered in wild garlic pesto, melted Chaucer’s camembert, a smidge of Theresa’s hot chilli jam and a smattering of smoked almonds and parmesan, with plenty of black pepper. To make pesto simply whirl your wild garlic in a blender adding a little oil at a time, nut of choice (pine nuts are standard but it’s a free country), whatever herbs you think might also add flavour, lemon juice, and parmesan. Taste and season if necessary. Eat with everything.

Gruyere & Wild Garlic Scones

Follow a standard scone recipe but chuck in some chopped wild garlic and plenty of gruyere inside and on top. Serve with tons of butter.

Pan Fried Mackerel, Rhubarb, Wild Garlic

I didn’t make this one but I did take the picture (I take most of the pictures on here). It’s a bowl full of butterfly-fried mackerel, poached rhubarb, and wild garlic. I can’t recall what the liquid is but I’d probably cook the mackerel in oil and deglaze the pan with broth before adding lots of black pepper and lemon zest, the rhubarb and some wild garlic until it just wilts.

This was a long article about an elderberry and pigeon pie that was served with wild garlic mousline. I loosely explain how to make it in the last paragraph. It was really delicious.

For Christmas, my charming new village neighbours gave me a big jar of fermented wild garlic. It was simultaneously a revelation and made my fridge stink, but also really handy to add flavour to things. Chopped into a risotto, added to a toasted sandwich, or thrown into some broth with roasted chicken and noodles (see below). I haven’t made it myself yet, but I definitely will be this year. I will follow this recipe. I LOVE the idea of drinking the fermenting juice once finished with it. I reckon it would be quite nice in a martini?

What do you think? How do you like to enjoy wild garlic?

When the Wild Garlic Comes

Make This, This and This

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