Sweet Wild Garlic Sauce, Made in D.I.Y Land

Wild Garlic gets stuck with the 'pesto' label in odd shaped jars and sold on farmers market stalls up and down the country, there's nothing wrong with it,, I sell it on the menu because it well,sells.
Bored with the usual, I've looked further East to Thailand, and copied their notes on dipping sauces.
This recipe reverses the chili dominance, ramps up the garlic and sticks sweet and trippy on barbecued and grilled meats or fish.
I've two methods for finishing this one using Raw leaves the other Cooked leaves, the taste testers were split down the middle, I've included both methods as both taste good.

Sweet Wild Garlic and Chili Sauce.
Ingredients.
100 gm Wild garlic  'ramps' leaves, washed and dried.
200gm Sugar
100 ml Water
1 medium red Chili (1/2 tspn chopped)
100 ml Cider Vinegar
1 tspn Cracked black pepper
Salt to taste
1 tspn cornflour

Methods ( A + B )
Put the vinegar and 1/2 the water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, add the sugar, chili, the black peppercorns and a pinch of  salt. Reduce heat and cook,until the chili softens.
Meanwhile mix, the cornflour and remaining water, stir into the hot liquid and cook,for a further 2mins, the sauce should thicken and be clear, pour into bowl leave to go cold.You can place it in the freezer to chill.

To finish the sauce Method A
Chop the garlic leaves very finely,then finish them in a food processor just to cut finely. Nb we don't want to puree it.
Remove and place in a sieve and squeeze off any excess juice with the back of a spoon.
When sugar liquid is cold stir in the chopped garlic leaves and hey presto you have a sauce, do a final taste check for seasoning.

To finish the Sauce Method B
 Blanch the leaves for 1 min in boiling water, then refresh them in ice-cold water, dry well before chopping very finely.
The resulting sauce will be duller in colour the taste less pronounced at first, before coming through.

Make; your decision.
Take a taste test, cook the sugar chili liquid, divide into two bowls.
Use both methods to prepare the garlic. then decide which is best for you.
Put into a jar and keep for up to 3 or 4 days in the fridge.

Potato Bread Fadge or Farls for Eileen.

Recipe for Eileen, Philadelphia, Eileen I enjoyed meeting you at the Tourism Ireland stand at The Flower Show and hopefully you get a visit to Ireland someday, happy cooking, pat.

Potato Bread, Farl or Fadge call it as you will.
What it is, mashed potato mixed with flour into a workable light dough, flattened into a round, quartered and cooked on a griddle pan.
One very popular use is as the cornerstone of the Ulster Fry, the Northern version of the famous Irish Breakfast.
The potato+flour formula makes dough and is in play in most food cultures in one form or the other, for example as we discussed 'Gnocchi' with egg in the mix, it's lovingly rolled,cut and delicately indented with a fork,popped into boiling water to set,removed when they float,and browned in hot butter, it's used as the conveyor of a thousand sauces, restaurants like it as it's easy to make and cheap to produce.
  Potato Bread is every bit as versatile and interesting with many variations in the recipe, I hope this one works for you and have suggested some other ways to enjoy it.

3 ways I enjoy eating Potato Bread

Hot potato bread with thinly sliced mature farmhouse cheddar or goats cheese,teamed up with some salad leaves from the garden, and a little chutney or relish,makes for a nice light lunch.

Cut into strips and fried crisp in wild garlic butter and used to prize out some potted crab, makes for good fingerfood.

Warmed and lightly buttered with a thin slice of Irish Smoked Organic Salmon laid on, a few fresh picked sorrel leaves garnishing a soft boiled quails egg and a spoon of 'Goatsbridge' Trout Caviar,all piqued with a twist of 'dulse'. great for a delicate starter.

Ingredients.
1lb rooster/idaho potatoes boiled in their skins once cooked, drain let them steam out, then skin them, mash them either with a hand masher or ricer/mouli we don't want any lumps.
you should have
3/4 lb of hot mashed potato
2oz plain flour
a pinch of sea salt
extra flour for dusting and shaping.
Method.
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until you have a dough.
divide the mix in two, on a floured board shape into rounds about 1/6'' thick. dust with a liitle flour.
Cook on a warm griddle or a heavy pan until light brown.
Cool on a wire rack, or eat straight away with a little butter.

As ever a little trial and error may be involved, then you'll be to develop your own favourite combinations using local foods. regards Pat.
nb. Look out for 'Sunburst' Trout Caviar in the United States.

Joe's garden, Spring Cleaning and Nettle Soup.

Joe's garden and the memory of it, well worked and bountiful, is a reminder of where food comes from, and steels me in the spring dig of my comparatively small allotment.
Inherited by my father from my uncle Eddie, it was a 1/2 acre plot of land that lay fallow behind a tin roofed cottage and small outhouse in the town land of 'Carmegrim' on the Largy road,that runs parallel to the river Bann and overlooking south Derry, the Sperrin mountain range and the continuum of setting suns.
The cottage had been lived in by an old couple to me, Joe and Mary Mc Goldrick but who would have been good life long friends to my father and later my mother when they married and we lived just down road from them.Later we moved into a new council house near to town,with running water and electricity.
I can't remember Mary but do remember Joe as he too moved and lived with friends of ours down the town and would toddle up for a visit, usually bringing a bag of ice lollies.Later we'd visit him and bring a plug or two of tobacco for his pipe when he moved to a nursing home near Carrickfergus by the sea.
Of Mary i do remember my mother telling us she'd kept an area fenced off for the nettles (probably to protect them from a rooting pig) to make nettle soup in spring as it was great as a blood cleanser and tonic.
Mary, Joe and my parents are all now gone,the cottage and land sold and living a new history.However they left enough seeds and grains to inspire me in my spring dig and to appreciate the sense of learning, the labour of love and the role of tradition in the year my dad brought Joe's garden back to life for one glorious season.
We ate well from his joy, i don't think anything failed on him, and the potatoes were stored in a pit to last through winter, a method of storage that had largely died out,(unless well constructed and looked after you can loose a good few spuds to natures toll), but proves sensible for those without enough indoor storage space.
The greens didn't need much to help them on the plate,carrots awed forked, twisted and straight,peas were picked popped and ate on the spot, all vegetables grown well able to befit any harvest festival.
Relations, friends and old neighbours took time to help or stop for a chat, it's amazing the sense of community a garden brings.
We'd happily pile into the car and be transported into a new world, spilling out for a planting, weeding or thinning session, doing our best as teenagers and young ones at various ages do.
Green fingers are nurtured, a simple plant will do, time and space needn't be great, a windowsill box or a pot on the step is a start and is bigger and better than nothing.
Nb. When collecting nettles forget the bravado and use a gloved hand, pluck the top few leaves, wash before use, after cooking they won't sting.

Nettle soup.
Ingredients.
Two good handfuls of nettle tops
1lb 454gms potatoes, peeled and diced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 leek chopped finely
1 stick celery chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic, or if you forage a    few leaves of wild garlic/ ramps
1 1/2 pts, 800ml chicken or veg      stock
2oz, 50gm butter
salt and pepper.
Method
Melt the butter fry the onion leek and garlic until soft, add the potatoes and stock,season with salt and pepper,bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and cook until the potatoes are soft about 20 Min's, add the nettle tops and cook for further 5mins, check the seasoning again and adjust, remove from the heat either liquidise or eat as a broth.