GO WILD

James Wood is a renowned wild food forager running wild food cookery and foraging courses throughout the UK. This month he forages for dandelions

I wake up and go outside and as if overnight, I am met by hundreds of bright yellow dandelion satellites staring up at me from the field edges. They’re literally everywhere I look, bringing a vibrant punch of colour to my local commutes.

These beautiful blooms can be easily added to a whole load of recipes.

Sprinkle on top of salads or even mix them into cookies before baking. Dandelions are easily recognised and through my recipes I will try to entice you to care for them and see them as a vital and exciting food source instead of an invasive weed to be banished from your gardens.

The bright yellow flowers and ‘clock’ seedheads of dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) make them easily recognisable – the flower has a rosette of basal leaves sprouting from a stout root and exudes a milky latex when damaged. The leaves are soft, mid-to-dark green lobed or unlobed with a midrib sometimes pink especially near the base.

The flowerheads are mid-yellow, 2.5cm to 5cm across and the flower stalk is pinkish and hollow. The seedhead is a large conspicuous ‘clock’ composed of cylindrical seeds with a long-stalked pappus or parachute to aid dispersal. The dandelion flowers from March to October and the basal leaves persist all year.

While the dandelion is particularly troublesome in lawns, the flowers have many herbal uses and are a good early source of nectar and pollen for insects.

DANDELION FLOWER DRESSING
This dressing works perfectly when generously drizzled over almost all salads, serve it with chicken or fish with some crunchy croutons or pancetta and enjoy with a glass of chilled sparkling dandelion flower wine.

What you’ll need (to make 300ml):
150ml apple cider vinegar
100g white granulated sugar
100ml boiling water
100g dandelion flower tops, just the petals (a handful)

Method:
Pour your boiling water in to a pan and heat to a rolling boil, turn off the heat and add the dandelion petals. Pop the lid on and leave it all to rest for 10 minutes.
Pour your flavoured water through a sieve to remove the petals, to this liquid add your sugar and stir until dissolved.
Put the pan back on the heat, add the vinegar and bring back up to a rolling boil for 10 minutes, remove and bottle.
When you want to use this dressing simply shake the bottle and pour over your salads to add a taste of the wild.

DANDELION ROOT ROASTED COFFEE
Roasted dandelion root doesn’t have to be described as a coffee substitute as it has many of its own unique qualities which you just don’t get from coffee. Firstly its caffeine free, it doesn’t have that acidic after taste you get from coffee and it also has this lovely velvety chocolate aroma. It is also delicious in a dandelion coffee cake!

Ingredients:
Dandelion roots

Method:
Dig your dandelion roots, the best time for this is late summer when they’ve grown larger. The easiest way to do so is to loosen the soil around the dandelion with a pitch fork before digging out the root – if you don’t there’s a good chance the root will snap.
Wash the roots, removing any dirt and mud.
Chop roughly into about 1cm cubes.
Place on a baking tray and put in a pre-heated oven to 160C for 45 minutes.
The key to doing this right is to leave the oven door open for the first 15 minutes.
Grind in a pestle and mortar or coffee grinder and store in an air tight jar.
In a coffee plunger place your roasted dandelion roots, top up with boiling water and leave to infuse for eight minutes. Serve with full fat milk and birch sap syrup to taste or use in a recipe for dandelion root coffee cake.

‘The Foragers’ Cookbook’ is now available through Amazon

www.totallywilduk.co.uk
twitter@totallywilduk

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