food for free

I am quite a fan of foraging and quite a fan of hugh fearnley whittingstall - i admire what he has done in taking on the supermarkets with his 'chicken out' campaign (there really is no excuse for the supermarkets to be selling battery eggs). Anyway it was HFW who first got me into the idea of foraging with the river cottage series which i watched back to back while struggling unsuccessfully with trying to feed my first baby). Anyway I am a bit of namby pamby whimp in some areas and wouldn't go scraping up roadkill, however there is some excitement in our house when the wild garlic starts to sprout!

Mr H is a big fan of wild garlic flower fritters so I am giving you the recipe, with the idea that they are sort of crdit crunch nibbles. In fact we have got friends coming for dinner on friday and these will be on the menu!

first gather your flowers - pick from an area not too close to a tree - you don't want dog pee on them!

make a batter from equal quantities of cornflour and plain flour - i usually use an american 1/3 cup measure, and do a measure of each.
Add a biggish pinch of salt.
Heat a small deep saucepan with about an inch of sunflower or vegetable oil, get the oil nice and hot.
mix ice cold lager into the flours to get the consistency of paint or double cream. (it needs to be ice cold)
give the garlic heads a shake to dislodge any wildlife and dip in the batter. deep fry a few at time till puffed and golden (only takes about 30 seconds) take them out of the oil with tongues and drain on kitchen paper. sprinle with a bit more salt (this is not one for people with heart problems!!) and scoff while hot.

I also make a nice sage/ anchovy combo using the same batter, sandwich half an anchovy fillet in between 2 large sage leaves and do the same as above. mmmmmm eat with large glass of wine before dinner!