Cooking with Wild Garlic leaves and flowers
Wild garlic is available from March to April. Its leaves are broad and spinach-like and convey an ideal subtle garlic flavour when wrapped around chicken and fish. Wild garlic will be coming into season soon and with it brings a subtle aroma with which you can make some great dishes. Garnish with tender stem broccoli for extra nutrition; 100g of tender stem can provide you with your full daily amount of vitamin C.
Garlic cod loin with chorizo and root vegetable broth Serves 2
You will need…
2x 5oz Cod Loin fillets
15g chorizo slices
Bunch of fresh garlic leaves and flowers
Thyme
Rosemary
2 carrots
½ swede
1 turnip
½ celeriac
Tender stem broccoli to garnish.
Method.
To start place a pan of boiling water on the stove to bring to the boil and add a hand full of table salt. Pre-heat your oven to 200c
Peel all your root vegetables however, don’t throw the peelings away or off cuts as we will use these later.
Now carefully dice your vegetables into 1cm squares trying to make them as even as possible.
When your pan of water has boiled, firstly place the diced swede in, boil for around 5-6 minutes follow this same process for the celeriac, turnip and carrot respectively. Lastly blanch off your tenderstem broccoli for about 4 minutes. Whilst this is happening take your vegetable peelings and off cuts. Place in a baking tray with olive oil, rosemary and thyme and roast for 15 minutes.
With your cod loins, season with pepper and lemon juice and then get your garlic leaves and chorizo and wrap around the skin side of the cod loin with the chorizo inside the leaves tightly. You can use butchers string to help keep it together if you have some.
When your peelings are roasted off place them, in a pan with 750ml of hot water, leave to simmer for 30 minutes, however if you can do this for longer, the better as you can really bring out those flavours.
Now it is time to roast your cod loin. Firstly, turn the oven down to 180c, then with a frying pan, seal off the exposed sides of the cod for two minutes each side and then cook for a further 13 minutes in the oven. During this time the chorizo and garlic should infuse the fish with all those delicious flavours.
Lastly when your cod is coming to the end of its cooking time; in a pasta bowl or something similar place your diced vegetables in the bowl first, followed by some of the vegetable stock you have made with the peelings. Garnish this with tender stem broccoli and wild garlic flowers then place the fish on top and you’re ready to dig in!
Recipe courtesy of Jake Westlake, Head Chef, Moorland Garden Hotel