Scottish Hazelnut Shortbread

Today I made some truly Scottish Hazelnut Shortbread, with Hazelnuts I foraged in Fife last week.

This recipe makes about 40 small shortbread bites - enough to feed my colleagues and give me the option to snack on dairy-free treats at work.

Ingredients:

100g Hazelnuts (out of their shells)
100g sugar
225g plain flour
200g dairy-free spread (or butter)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Toast Hazelnuts for 10 minutes.

Rub hazelnuts in a clean tea towel/muslin/between your fingers to rub off their skins (the hazelnuts, not your fingers).

Leave to cool.

Grind hazelnuts to a powder.

Mix together hazelnuts, flour and sugar.

Mix in dairy-free spread until it makes a soft dough.

Dust work surface with a mixture of flour and sugar.

Roll/flatten dough to 1cm thickness.

Cut out shapes.

Dip in sugar (optional).

Bake, one tray at a time, for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool.

Eat.

Until next time... Good Foraging! :)

Death by Gin? (Bird Cherry Gin)

This morning I took an amble around Gartmorn Reservoir (my favourite local foraging location).

I saw apples, plums and hazelnuts and picked some Scotch Burnet Rose Hips. I also picked some Bird Cherries and thought I would take a wee gamble on them.

Bird cherries are small and incredibly bitter. Try biting into one and you'll see what I mean; first you get the juicy cherriness and then your entire mouth becomes instantly dry - hardly a thirst-quencher. Nevertheless, I thought I would try to make them palatable.

I thought it might be possible to use them to flavour gin. My only concern is that the seeds are said to be toxic. I'm thinking that this is the same toxicity that applies to all prunus seeds and that the small quantity I have used is unlikely to cause any harm. Any volunteers to taste my recipe?!

Bird Cherry Gin

177g bird cherries, washed and de-stemmed
100g granulated sugar
350ml gin

I'll shake this every day or so, to macerate the fruit. It should be ready for winter.

Until next time, Good (non-toxic) Foraging.

Forager's Chicken

Yesterday I took the dog for a walk in Tulliallan woods and neither of us were disappointed. 2 hours later we returned home with a bag of ceps, a bag of chanterelles and big smiles on both of our faces.

I've dried the ceps for a future recipe and I decided to do my own take on Hunter's Chicken (chicken in bbq sauce and cheese) - Forager's Chicken.

For the BBQ Sauce:

300ml tomato ketchup (or a can of passata/tomatoes)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Freshly ground pepper

Method:

Fry onion until it softens.

Grind mustard seeds and chilli flakes to a powder (or use mustard and chilli powder).

Add powder to onion and fry for a minute or two.

Add all remaining ingredients and bring to the boil.

Reduce to simmer for 90 minutes.

For the Chanterelle sauce:

200g fresh Chanterelles, chopped
Milk
30g Butter
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
Seasoning

Method:

Fry chanterelles in butter for 5 minutes.

Add flour, stir and cook for 2 minutes.

Add milk a little at a time and stir to combine.

Aim for a white/cheese sauce consistency.

Season to taste, bearing in mind that the bbq sauce will have a kick.

Forager's Chicken:
I adapted this recipe from Amy Jones

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
5-6 rashers smoked bacon
BBQ Sauce
Chanterelle Sauce
30g cheese - I used mature cheddar as it was what I had, but I think parmesan would work well here.

Method:

Preheat oven to 200°C

Slice a pocket in each chicken breast and place them in an ovenproof dish.

Cover with BBQ sauce and top with bacon.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Top with Chanterelle sauce and grated cheese.

Increase oven temperature to 220°C.

Bake for a further 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Good Foraging.

Wild Gooseberry Crumble

I'm staying up in Falkland for a couple of nights and I found a wild gooseberry patch on my wanders.

It's quite late in the season for gooseberries but that didn't stop me foraging enough to make a crumble.

I'm staying in unfamiliar surroundings, so this recipe was made without scales - crumble is pretty forgiving though.

Wild Gooseberry Crumble

Ingredients:

2 handfuls wild gooseberries
2 handfuls of plain flour
1 handful of caster sugar
1 handful of demerara sugar
1 (estimated) handful of butter
Pinch of salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C

Wash, top & tail gooseberries.

Place gooseberries in an ovenproof dish and sprinkle with the caster sugar.

Rub butter, salt and flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in demerara sugar.

Top gooseberries with crumble mix.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top and bubbling from beneath.

Until next time, Good Foraging!

Bramble and Apple Strudel (Virgin Strudel)

Low-mileage Fruit

October is upon us and that means that my driving is rather more erratic than usual, as I swerve to investigate apple trees.

In the spring, I made a mental note of the locations of apple blossom and went back to check them last month. I was rewarded with some beautiful wild cooking apples. And what better to pair with them than Brambles (Blackberries to non-Scots).

I am very proud to say that both the apples and the brambles came from patches within 10 minutes walk of my house, so probably the lowest mileage of any foraged fruits I've ever used.

I made an apple and bramble strudel. This was my first ever attempt at making a Strudel, hence the Virginal aspect of the name. My name was also once misheard as Virgin Strudel, so it seemed particularly appropriate.

I used this recipe, although I found the dough very wet and added about 100g of flour whilst kneading it.

Another word of warning would be not to fold the ends of the pastry over the top, as this means the pastry underneath will be undercooked (if you'll pardon the pun).

I ate too much raw pastry while making this, so I don't think I'll be able to sample the cooked product until tomorrow. It does, however, smell delicious.