The Ways in Which to “Wild Garlic”

I can recall hearing about “wild garlic season” through a friend who was an outdoor foraging enthusiast when I first moved to England.  I had this distinct fantasised picture in my mind of it being a hunting-like occasion. Men dawned in some sort of posh hybrid mix of flat caps, tweed and Barbour jackets out in the woods…their Jack Russel’s descending upon wild looking garlic bulbs, plucking them out of the ground like truffle hunting pigs. Being American, where wild garlic does not grow, I just obviously had no clue as to what it actually was or looked like. But as a cook it sounded enticingly delicious and extremely special.

A couple of years later I was walking in the back area of Moseley Park and this woman with wild looking hair seemed to just appear before me from the woods. She walked up to me and whispered out of the side of her mouth as if this was a planned informational exchange out of a Jonathan Grisham novel….. “ Just so you know, there is a TON of wild garlic down that path”. She then pointed over to a bunch of weed-y looking greens and disappeared like some sort of fading apparition.  There was so much of it! If the wild garlic woman was going to give me such sacred intel I was going to “carpe diem” these plants straight on into my life.  I immediately looked around to see if I was being watched then started plucking, smelling and stuffing as much of it as I could into whatever bag I had on me.

Now I must say that I am a total and utter allium fiend. I am a true-blue lover for a pungent bulb. In my opinion, a burger or hot dog should not ever exist without an onion…. and even when a pasta sauce doesn’t traditionally call for garlic- when I am cooking it, a clove or two will “accidentally” find its’ way in there. But this leafy plant in all its’ beautiful subtlety is not just for the lovers, it is very much so for everyone.

So, what is it and how do I find it? It is an allium flowering plant that grows in the woodlands of Europe and Asia and it is the true sign of warmer weather as it shoots up from the ground right when the first Spring buds start to expose themselves to the world. Foodies (not posh hunters) creep out of the wintry darkness and into the light like struggling vampires to forage it. For those of you who have not found it... just take a walk and a whiff.  You will detect a pungent smelling plant when you happen upon wild garlic. Then it will just click, "It's, garlicky, it's wild…it's wild garlic!".  

Now that I have lived in the UK for many years, I have come to realise that stumbling upon it is not all that difficult, having come across it on many a country walk. But nevertheless, I have literally thought about that wild garlic woman in Moseley Park at each and every season ever since.  She passed on a knowledge for something that I look forward to every year and that I continue to pass onto others. Wild garlic may not be so rare in reality- on the web you will see recipe posts from pesto to chimichurri, pickling and pasta…but it sure is special.

And given what we’ve been restricted to the past year, where there aren’t too many places to turn, we are turning to the earth, to the gems, to a walk and a whiff of spring in the woods.

So to celebrate it, here is one of my ways in which to “wild garlic” with a gorgeous, creamy woodland risotto:

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the risotto:

330 grams (1 1/2 cups) arborio rice
1 litre (5 cups) hot chicken stock
230 ml (1 cup) dry white wine
60 ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil plus more for garnish
56g cold butter cut into cubes
1 shallot minced
1 small white onion minced
90 grams wild garlic finely chopped; 80 grams for the rice, 10 for garnish
90 grams (1/2 cup) finely grated parmesan plus more for garnish

For the mushrooms:
100 grams mushrooms (such as shitake, chestnut or oyster) halved lengthwise

1 Tablespoon vegetable or rapeseed oil

Instructions:

Keep the stock warm.

In a large sauté pan heat the oil on medium and cook the shallot and onion for about 5 minutes until translucent but not browned.

Add the rice and cook until it starts to lightly toast, about 2 minutes.

Add half the wine and quickly stir and scrape letting the alcohol burn off.

Now methodically ladle in stock, one to two ladles at a time whilst stirring at a slow pace until the rice nearly absorbs it and then repeat.

Every so often stir in a splash of the remaining white wine until it’s gone.

Do this continuously until the rice absorbs all the liquid and test a grain for doneness, about 15-20 min.

You don't want the risotto to be stiff so add more stock if need be.

In a separate pan, heat the oil until very hot and quickly fry the mushrooms tossing until nice and brown. Set aside.

Turn the heat off, add the cubes of butter and the grated parmesan and quickly beat it into the rice.

Immediately mix in the wild garlic so that it par cooks into the hot rice but maintains it’s beautiful green colour.

Salt to taste.

Plate the rice, sprinkle with some more wild garlic, add the crispy mushrooms, more parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

Jenny is “The Salty Chilli” an obsessive cook and food writer who lives in Moseley.

To read more check out her Instagram @thesaltychilli, her blog www.thesaltychilli.com .