[Bonjoy]

The idea for this thread will cover some of the same ground as the recent wildlife one, the mushroom picking one, some fishing threads and some of the foody ones, but I think it’s a worthy topic in itself.
What I’m after is reports and pictures of your wild food foraging exploits here and abroad. This could be anything from dandelions out of the back garden to Swordfish off a boat in the tropics.
It’d also be good to hear (and see pics) what you did with your harvest back in the kitchen.
I’ll kick off with some recent ones from the past few weeks:

Got a load of Cofe’s favour leafy veg Good King Henry at Harborough Rocks and used it instead of Spinach in a Prawn Saag. Worked really well, flavour much like spinach but better in texture less mushy/slippery.
Wednesday I found two good sized Field Mushrooms in the back garden. Had them that night along with normal mushrooms in a pasta sauce.





Cornwall last week:
 Caught some Mackerel which we had grilled plain with a homemade Thai dipping Sauce on the side (galangal, coriander leaf, fish sauce, chilli, garlic, lime juice) and some raw as sashimi with soy and wasabi. Both really good, the uber fresh sashimi was a revelation, best taste and texture of any I’ve had.
 Foraged a couple of good sized spider crabs and one brown crab at low tide. Found these in a round steep sided rockpool which was obviously acting as a natural lobster pot, letting the crabs in but proving difficult for them to escape from. The brown crab we had as a classic open sandwich, the brown and white meat mixed with mayo, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. The spiders were made into Maryland crab cakes from a Rick Stein recipe, amazing. The local fishermen seemed to be catching loads of spider crabs but we never saw any on sale. Seems they all get shipped abroad. Damn shame as they taste fantastic, better than lobster I reckon. Worth asking for a couple off the boatsmen when they come in to shore.
Also had some steamed Seabeet leaves served with poached eggs on toast. Nice but not as good as King Henry as Spinach type greens go.

[Johnny Brown]

We've got one of those little smoker units down in wales, works on meths with oak sawdust. Fresh smoked Mackerel is amazing.

[Sloper]

I've mentioned this before but dandelions and wild garlic make for a good salad,
later in the year there's cobnuts and fresh walnuts
ohh and of course berries

but the real thing is does anyone have a licence for crayfish?

I want some and I want some soon.

I'm also keen on some muntjak dear spit roasted and served with a good rhone I think

[slackline]

No piccies, but some oak-smoked trout lagers gave me t'other week was gorgeous.

On the foraging front I have these (most years).  I'm sure most can work out what happened to them 

[underground]

I go catching spider crabs on the drying rocks off the 'beach proper' at Porth Ysgo - you just have to don a mask & snorkel and dive like a bastard- then grab it by the carapace and it'll curl all it's legs under and hide while you bring it out of the sea like Neptune...

[andy popp]

I remember eating wild Samphire once, beautiful flavour. And a wildfood cliche, but nettle soup (eaten in a travellers' bender- cue Sloper rant) was also very good.

[underground]

Can you describe the flavour of the wild Samphire Andy?

I'm sure I've found it and it was almost Lemongrass -y in aroma, and a lovely flavour - and given where I found it, I must deduce it to be Rock Samphire, Crithmum maritimum

However I get the impression that whenever it's mentioned in general culinary terms they mean Marsh Samphire, generally. I had that at the inlaws not too long ago, purchased in a plastic box from Waitrose, and found it rather lacking. Someway between cabbage and asparagus, with the quality of neither.

[Paul B]

I had that at the inlaws not too long ago, purchased in a plastic box from Waitrose, and found it rather lacking. Someway between cabbage and asparagus, with the quality of neither.

They have it in two places in store I believe, with the greens then some other stuff that is kept on the ice with all the fresh fish. Thats about as far as foraging goes for me 

[andy popp]

It was a long time ago but I think a delicate lemon flavour is right. I didn't forage it but it someone else had. I think it had come from somewhere on the east coast, Suffolk maybe? A quick look on Wiki suggest 'Samphire' covers a wide range of presumably related plants.

[Bonjoy]

Here’s a pic of some recently deceased crayfish. Really tasty, right up there with crab and lobster, infinitely better than the watery tasteless crayfish you get in shop bought sandwiches.

This years batch of Elderflower champagne (it’s more like non alc fizzy pop) is now ready and seems nice for the use of palm sugar rather than caster sugar.
Also had a go at making a sort of homemade pastis by steeping green seeded sprigs of sweet cicely in gin for a couple of weeks. Worked well but would probably taste more like pastis if vodka used instead of gin.

[cofe]

they look like you. weird.

[Bonjoy]

Sez you

[cofe]

so's your face.

[Johnny Brown]

Where'd you get 'em yoot?

[Bonjoy]

The stream twixt hathersage and north lees. It's rife with them

[Johnny Brown]

Wow - White-clawed or Signal? Have you got a trap?

[lagerstarfish]

Here’s a pic of some recently deceased crayfish.

Look like our native white-claw crayfish (rough claws)... not sure you should tell anyone that you've been killing them

possible large fine

A man from Leeds was recently ordered by a court in Kendal, Cumbria to pay £4,000 in fines after catching and eating about 40 creatures he thought were American signal crayfish, but were actually the white-clawed species.

with the evidence already eaten, only the photo can link you to the crime now - get it deleted ASAP (unless I'm wrong about the ID of the deceased)

[AndyR]

Cornwall last week:
 Caught some Mackerel which we had grilled plain with a homemade Thai dipping Sauce on the side (galangal, coriander leaf, fish sauce, chilli, garlic, lime juice) and some raw as sashimi with soy and wasabi. Both really good, the uber fresh sashimi was a revelation, best taste and texture of any I’ve had.

Have been catching mackerel in Connemara for many years and cooking fresh in various ways. A few years ago made some friends (Japanese/ Irish couple) there who used to eat it raw ... but my wife (also Japanese so she should know and isn't usually coy about raw stuff ... sea urchin ripped straight off a rock for example) reckons there are some known issues: some kind of micro-worms or something? Maybe worth researching before you sashimi your mackerel again anyway.

Possibly similar to what they do here - for pacific salmon, they flash freeze at point of catching to kill parasites before thawing and turning into sashimi/sushi. If done properly, texture etc is unaffected.

[Bonjoy]

Get a grip, as if I’m going to go round slaying the native and highly endangered white-clawed crayfish! Do I have ‘clueless fucker’ written across my bearded face?
Before any panic ensues I can assure folk, I don’t have a problem identifying different species of crustacea (unlike lager it would seem, call yourself a fisherman  ), I know the sensitivities regarding cross contamination of waterways with eggs or disease and acted accordingly with regard to transport, footwear and timely and thorough destruction (on toast with lemon mayo). I don’t hold the naïve view that my consumption will in anyway help to eradicate the species and I know that the peddling of this myth on cooking programs possibly increases the risks to white claws.

[Johnny Brown]

I knew you'd know, I just couldn't remember which was which!

[dave]

Get a grip, as if I’m going to go round slaying the native and highly endangered white-clawed crayfish!

I recon they would have gone down well with a bowl of corncrakes though.

[lagerstarfish]

Do I have ‘clueless fucker’ written across my bearded face?

I must be thinking of someone else; or is that what the beard hides?

 

Didn't mean to dis you, just concerned for your well being.

It is 10 years since I have handled either species and all I can remember is the difference in size (couldn't tell from pic), colour before cooking, something about ridges on their heads and the rough/smooth claws difference.

To my shame I slaughtered hundreds of the native crays when I was a kid. I'm just looking for someone to share the guilt.

PS
I do know a man with "cunt" tattooed on his forehead. He has a beard.
 (yes really)

[lagerstarfish]

It's that second ridge/lump behind the eye that proves its a signal, isn't it?

Just about to start googling to educate myself properly...

[Houdini]

http://141207.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog

Water Lines

[grumpycrumpy]

It's that second ridge/lump behind the eye that proves its a signal, isn't it?

Just about to start googling to educate myself properly...

Not sure about the lump lagers ...... Easiest way to tell them apart is if they're big (15cms+) then they're Signals ..... Also the underside of a Signal's claws are bright red ..... Hard to tell after they've been cooked though .....