In article ,
"Christina Websell" writes:
|
| I will definitely try ground elder. I have a recipe that uses split yellow
| peas and spinach that I used indian spices in and was delicious. I might try
| it in that instead of spinach
| Although ground elder does have a smell about it that I am not sure about.

Its taste echoes that - neither of us found the taste particularly
pleasant. I would eat it again, but she really didn't like it.

| I am not against wild food. Chickweed is quite good in salads and very
| young dandelion leaves. I think we should all try them. There are an
| amazing amount of plants that grow in the countryside that we can eat
| without buying lettuce from the supermarket.

I have tried chickweed, and find it tasteless and stringy, but would
eat it in default of anything else - I felt much the same about nettle
tops and clover. Even very young dandelions are as bitter as hell;
OK for people who like that, but I don't.

I have also tried young bramble shoots and beech leaves. I mean to
make a noyeau from the latter someday, but they are more chewy than
delicious on their own.

I can strongly recommend goosefoot, though. It has the taste of old
fashioned spinach, without either its bitterness or its wateriness.
Modern supermarket spinach is NBG in most recipes, because it tastes
of nothing and is almost entirely water. Goosefoot actually makes
BETTER flans and other dishes than spinach! And we have fed it to
guests, who were appreciative.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.