OK, so this recipe is a show off dish, Its a dinner party dish, and it's a look what I can do with wild food dish! It's not a recipe of my own, but a recipe I have made a little more simple, a recipe created by a fantastic chef called David Everitt-Matthias. It combines the best ingredients of Spring and makes them into a jaw dropping starter!
It also includes one of the most common and yummy wild herbs called Jack by the Hedge or Hedge Garlic.
As you would imagine any recipe created by a Michelin star chef is a little complicated so I will treat each element (much the same as David does in his book) as an individual stage, this simplifies the recipe into manageable portions (serves 6).
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Hedge Garlic Panna Cotta
100ml milk
400ml double cream
2g powdered agar agar (or equivalent volume of gelatine)
200g hedge garlic
Firstly in a pan bring the cream and milk to the boil, when boiling whisk in the agar agar (or gelatine) and season generously. Add the chopped hedge garlic and then quickly place the whole mixture into a blender and blend. Check your seasoning and then pour into ramekins (makes 6). Chill until set.
Pea Cream
250g Fresh Peas
Splash of Milk
Easiest part of the recipe!! Simply blanch the peas for 15 seconds and then place in a blender with a splash of milk and a little seasoning and blend until no lumps remain. Place in a bowl until ready to use.
The Garnish
12 asparagus spears
200g fresh peas
6 rashers of bacon
100g pea shoots
18 cleaver tips
The garnish is all about quick cooking and keeping the ingredients fresh. Cook the asparagus in boiling water for 1 1/2 minutes then remove from the water and set aside. Then place the peas in the boiling water and cook for just 15 seconds and remove, this light blanching keeps the peas raw but improves the flavour by taking away that rawness. Then fry then bacon until crispy. The pea shoots and cleavers will remain raw and act as a salad ingredient.
The Dressing
50ml Hazlenut Oil
Juice of half a Lemon
½ a Tsp of Sugar
Spoonful of the Bacon fat
Simply combine the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until combined, season to taste.
Then to serve, love this bit! ! This is the opportunity to look real chef’y and seriously impress your friends! On a white plate (repeat the process on all of the plates) and using a teaspoon, spoon a line of the pea cream, then take a rasher of the warm crispy bacon and place it across the pea cream in the shape of a cross. Next in the top part of the cross, turn out your hedge garlic panna cotta . In a separate bowl dress your asparagus spears (chopped into sections), pea shoots, blanched peas and cleaver tips in your dressing. Now its just a matter of delicately placing the dressed vegetables on the plates stacking them on top of the panna cotta, bacon and pea cream. The finished plate should have a criss cross of the sweet pea cream and warm crispy bacon with a soft pale green panna cotta at the top of the plate adorned with brilliant green sweet spring vegetables. What a treat and a great way to start a meal!
Oh, and if in season use the delicate white flowers as an extra garnish too! Stunning.
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