A friend recommended this plant to me last spring, and in May I found a plant in my garden that looked very much like the picture in my book...
Looking similar
... but the leaves didn't taste of anything very much.
The other day I noticed these plants coming up again...
Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), also called Jack-by-the-hedge
... and tasted a leaf (note: This method of plant identification is not recommended). This time I could taste both garlic and mustard quite distinctly, though neither was very strong. I wonder if the older plant I tried last year was just so much milder that I couldn't detect the distinctive flavours.
Having positively identified the plant, I picked a handful of leaves yesterday and added them to leftover soup (the leftovers being mostly mashed potato and gravy) along with nettles, celandine and a little ground elder, just because there's so much of it around at the moment. The soup was nice, though I can't say I particularly tasted garlic and mustard, but then if I'd added those two spices separately, I wouldn't expect the flavours to stand out in a soup like that.
I think this one's a useful herb.
Also harvesting this week:
Nettles
Celandine
Ground elder
Leek (just one, so small that I previously mistook it for grass)
Also drinking this week:
Blackberry wine
Foraged food challenge summary page here.
I think I saw a G. Mustard (I call them Jack by the Hedge) coming up recently but I have another plant which is quite similar so I usually wait until I see a load of the plants all starting to leaf up until I know for sure. I'm 50/50 on whether I like this one. I like the garlicy taste but not the bitterness. But I do chuck a few leaves in a salad sometimes. And by the way I did look at your nettle post but do you know I have still never, ever tried nettles? I'm too much of a wuss. lol
ReplyDeleteSee you found another leek to stave off your hunger ;-)
I'm thinking of trying this in mayonnaise - Delia's recipe, at least, includes both garlic and mustard, so this might work well.
DeleteYou really should try nettles. Not that they're a great delicacy or anything, but they're so abundant! You can always poke the cooked leaves with a finger to prove they're not going to sting you (and when you see them well cooked, I don't think you'll even be worried any more).
Jack by the Hedge is taking over my garden, but it's a good food plant for Orange Tip butterflies, so I feel I'm helping them a bit, and anyway I weed it out by eating it.
ReplyDeleteI find the flavour doesn't survive heating all that well, so I tend to use a few leaves in salads and sandwiches. It makes a reasonably garlicky pesto, though it can be quite bitter, so mixing it with another green is probably a good idea, or use in in something with a definite flavour/creaminess like soft cheese rather than something as bland a pasta.
I tried ground almonds this time as it's what I had, but it had a slightly marzipan flavour which was a bit peculiar!
I made pasta pesto with it, which didn't all get eaten, so I recycled it as a frittata, with a bit of mint and a few chives for good measure and that was much more successful, as was adding it to (broad bean)humus or cream cheese wraps.