Saturday, March 22, 2008

I tried nettles yesterday


sauteed in olive oil with a crushed garlic clove.

They were great.

Tomorrow I'm going to try Vicountess Ridely's nettle soup recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb potatoes
½ lb young nettles
2 oz butter
1½ pts chicken or vegetable stock
sea salt & black pepper
4 tablespoons sour cream

Method:

Cook the peeled, chopped potatoes for 10 mins in salted water. Drain.

Wash & chop coarsely the nettles (Only pick the new, young tops,using gloves!)

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the nettles and stew gently for a few minutes. Add the potatoes and heated stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender.

When all is soft, cool slightly & purée in a blender, adding seasoning and the sour cream.

I hope you enjoy the nettle soup. The hardest work is picking the nettles. Half a pound is a lot of small leaves, but it is fun to do, in season, once a year.
The Viscountess Ridley

4 comments:

bernard said...

Where do you get nettles at this time of year?
Are they tinned?

Hilary Jane Margaret White said...

They're everywhere. Go outside.

Anonymous said...

Don't nettles sting? Or is that only whilst raw?

Hilary Jane Margaret White said...

they lose their nasty when wilted, dried or cooked. But you have to remember that while working with them in the kitchen. I tend to do things without thinking and when one of them jumped out of the collander, I nearly forgot several times that these are not spinnach.

Touche pas!