Wild Garlic
It’s a bit of a secret but there is plenty of wild garlic to be foraged in the woods around Harpenden. In the woods near my home the long tulip-like leaves are up and covering the woodland floor but the tiny, white, starry flowers are yet to show.
You can use the leaves raw in salads or cook lightly – try shredding and adding to soups, risottos or omelettes, always towards the end of cooking, to preserve the delicate flavour of the leaves. Alternatively, use the leaves raw in a pesto such as the one below.
Preserved lemons
Preserved lemons are a key ingredient in many Moroccan dishes. They have a distinctive tart but intensely lemony flavour.
This recipe for a slow cooked fragrant beef stew from Morocco is traditionally prepared in a clay pot called a tangia. The tangia, packed full of ingredients, is taken to the local Hamman to cook slowly in the low heat of the smouldering the ashes of the fire used to heat the bath house so that the meat becomes confit. If worry if you don't have a tanjia, you can recreate the dish using another oven-proof clay pot, or a deep casserole.