Wild Foraged Haggis

I'm just back from a refreshing few days in Galloway with my mum. I took her foraging every day and we found Porcini (Ceps), Chanterelles (Girolles), Winter Chanterelles (Chanterelles) and Hedgehog Fungus.

My mum has been a vegetarian for all of my adult life and I eat a predominantly vegetarian diet at home. I decided to play about with the old Scottish favourite, Haggis, and utilise my fresh and preserved foraged foods to make it a more local affair.

Here's the result:

Wild Foraged Haggis (vegan) recipe

Ingredients:

25g pickled Marsh Samphire (optional - might be better fresh)
75g pearl barley
100g oats
200g fresh mushrooms, blitzed in the food processor (I used 50g each: Hedgehogs, Porcini, Winter Chanterelles and Chanterelles)
1 tsp dried, powdered Peppery Bolete
2 pickled walnuts
1 large onion
600ml veg stock
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
Neeps (I used Swede)
Tatties

Method:

Boil the barley according to pack instructions (30-45 minutes)/until al dente.

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Brown onion in 1tbsp oil.

Add mushrooms and cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add powdered bolete, samphire, walnuts and oats and stir to combine.

Add 400ml of stock.

Bring to a boil, then turn simmer until the mixture thickens, adding more stock if necessary.

Add the barley and 1tbsp rapeseed oil and mix together.

Taste the mix for seasoning.

Transfer to casserole dish.

Bake for 30 minutes (covered).

Bake for 30 minutes (uncovered).

Serve with neeps and tatties (preferably cooked).

Roughly based on this recipe.

Porcini Tortelloni

Last year I made pasta with dried chanterelles and mused about a future recipe using dried Porcini. Today, I made Porcini Tortelloni. Tomorrow is the taste test.

All the Porcini I used in this recipe were foraged in Fife; some within walking distance of my house.

For the pasta:

Ingredients:

30g dried porcini
170g '00 grade' flour
2 eggs

Method:

Make pasta dough (see my previous post for details).

For the filling:

Mozzarella Pearls
Bresaola

Porcini Tortelloni:

Cut rounds from the freshly made pasta dough (I used a pint glass, as it's what I had to hand).

Wrap each mozzarella pearl in a small strip of Bresaola (just enough to cover once).

Place a Bresaola Pearl in the centre of each round.

Trace the edge of a round with water and fold into a semi-circular parcel.

Pull the edges together around your thumb to make a tortelloni shape. Check out this post by Emma Christensen for a step-by-step guide.

Repeat process for all other rounds and dust each tortelloni with flour.To cook:

Boil in salted water for 5 minutes or until the tortelloni rise to the surface.

I hope they taste as good as they smell (wonderful)!

Update - they were delicious!! So much so, that I now keep a jar of pre-mixed Porcini pasta flour in my cupboard, so that I can whip up these rascals on a whim :D

Until next time, Good Foraging! :)

Porcini Popcorn and Blaeberry Pie

And so here I am again - at the computer, post-foraging/cooking. The recent rainfall and some frantic facebook-inspired mushroom dances have meant that I have been able to forage lots of blaeberries (aka bilberries or whortleberries, depending on where you are from) and some delicious Boletes (the family of mushrooms of which the porcini is part). So here is the outcome of some experimental popcorn-popping and some purple-handed pie-making - enjoy!

Blaeberries

Blaeberry Pie

Ingredients

Filling:

• 4 cups of Blaeberries
• 3/4 cup of sugar (and extra for sprinkling)
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 3 tbsp cornflour
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 tsp mixed spice

Pastry (from first documented forage):

• 500g plain flour
• 100g icing sugar
• 250g cold butter, cut into cubes
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 2 free range eggs - plus extra for egg wash

Method:

1. Make pastry first and let this chill in the fridge - mix flour, sugar and butter to make breadcrumb consistency. Add vanilla and eggs, mix , roll into a ball and flatten.
2. Set oven to 200C.
3. Mix 1 cup of blaeberries with sugar and heat gently until sugar dissolves - stirring as required.
4. Mix cornflour with water and add the heated blaeberries to this, stir and return to heat.
5. Add spice and lemon and heat until sauce thickens (it will look like a purpley-blue version of the sauce on a strawberry tart).
6. Add the rest of the blaeberries and allow to cool.
7. Grease a flan/pie tin.
8. Roll out pastry and use it to line tin - save the offcuts to make a lattice/shaped pattern for the top of the pie.
9. Fill pie base with blaeberry mixture.
10. Top with pastry shapes/lattice and use a pastry brush to egg wash - top with a sprinkling of sugar.
11. Drop oven temperature to 190C and cook pie for 40mins - remove when pastry is golden-brown.
12. Eat and enjoy (don't drop any because it stains!) Now go and look at your tongue in the mirror ;)

Blaeberry Lattice Pie

"Porcini" Popcorn

OK, so I'm slightly cheating at this recipe because I'm using Larch Boletes, Orange Birch Boletes and Bay Boletes, but I haven't found any true porcini yet this season. I will retry this recipe when I find some!

Ingredients:

• 25g dried porcini
• 50g salt
• 25g unsalted butter, melted
• 50g unpopped popcorn
• 2 tbsp oil

Method:

1. Grind porcini in coffee grinder/spice mill - add salt and grind again until powdery.
2. Heat oil in saucepan and add popcorn and get the lid on quick!
3. Heat gently and shoogle the pan every now and again
4. Remove from heat when popping slows
5. Add butter and porcini powder
6. Enjoy?

Porcini Popcorn and Porcini Powder

This recipe turned out quite salty - probably because I didn't use true porcini. I will try it again though!

Until the next forage - happy eating!