Edible Leeds - Wild Food Foraging Courses and 4 Wild Seasons Pop Up Dining Events

A young and still forming Hen of the Woods. Hen Of The Woods aka Grifola frondosa, is a late summer to autumn featuring fungus generally found growing at the base of mature Oak trees and less frequently so, with Beech. It's made up of numerous tiered brackets ranging in colour from dark grey/black/purple, to chestnut brown on the topside of the bracket and consisting of white/cream coloured undersides sporting firm sponge-like pores. These brackets hide the more bulky base and central section which is firm, solid and white, this too makes good eating and preserving. It has a desirable aroma of mild mushroom, nuttiness & earthiness, taste wise it rocks! Hen of the Woods is also known for its medicinal qualities, reportedly attracting, binding to and removing heavy metals from the human body. In Japan they go by the name of Maitake and you may hear them referred to as such even in the UK and the Japanese rate them very highly and even make a herbal mushroom tea from the fre...

The versatility of wild mushrooms astounds  me!  There are so many ways to make use of the seemingly vast array that grow in the UK. Freshly cooked, dehydrated, powdered, added to desserts, candied, infused in booze, fermented into wine, eaten raw in the woods as you gently amble along searching for your intended & unintended fungal quarry. Medicinal applications too, are another aspect of wild fungi, species such as Chaga, Turkey Tail, Reishi, Hen of the Woods & Jelly Ear are all well documented for their medicinal qualities (oh how we are kept in the dark on this by the authorities & health services): food is medicine, medicine is food.  This post isn't about delving into all of the above but is about a fantastic boozy infusion, created using 4 specific species (research, knowledge & experience will provide you with alternatives to this recipe).  I'm upping this recipe due to various online requests in response to my recent post. The followin...

I love Mackerel! It's a much under-rated fish except by those who have sampled its excellent culinary qualities. Mackerel are members of the tuna family and are always present in UK waters. Summer is the best time to fish for these oceanic beauties when they congregate in great shoals lured closer to shore by the warmer waters. They are tastiest when freshly caught - I find they don't respond well to long term storage - and given how easy they are to catch, you'd be crazy to miss out on the fun and fine feasting they offer. Mackerel will eat just about any bait you offer them and you only need 1 large or 2 small fish per person to satisfy appetites. It's very easy to get carried away when fishing for them due to their ravenous appetites, so adhering to a strict mindful, ethical code of practice is essential - I've caught a full-house on many an occasion and quite often after my first cast: a full-house is when you are using mackerel feathers as bait, these feathe...

Prepping the Pollack While exploring and playing on a delightful beach on Islay I managed to catch this lovely Pollack, total fluke catch really, was doing a demo cast for Liz of https://foragefinefoods.com  when it took the lure. It weighed approx 1.5 - 1.75lb. I'd been thinking (and hoping) of catching and cooking a fair decent fish using this method for a while and I'm really glad I got to do so while on Islay and in such grand company . After dispatching the fish at the beach, gutting and cleaning - all parts discarded became food for other creatures - it felt only fitting to clean it in the very waters it had come from. Ingredients: Pollack (or Pollock) Wild Thyme Wild garlic Sweet Cicely Sorrel Seaweed:  Pepper dulse Carrageen Sea lettuce Sea spaghetti Kelp Poaching liquor: Plum Liquer Alexander root tincture 5 Carrot bitters Method:  1) On returning to the hoose, 5 incisions were made on both sides of the fishes flanks an...

I recently spent a fantastic 3 days on Islay, Scotland, courtesy of Bruichladdich & The Botanist Gin, as part of their International Foragers Summit. This gathering brought foragers from afar including; South Africa, Germany, US & the UK. We foraged, explored, drank, laughed, cooked, ate, discussed, felt and sensed this beautiful isle as much as we could in the time allocated - we did pretty well too! Here's a dish I created using mackerel caught by us all literally hours before, the cockles were foraged the previous day and the dish, as with everything else that wee, was shared by all that evening as we got merrily blotted. Dehydrated Velvet Horn accompanied this - imagine the most amazing 'wotsit' you've ever tasted yet oceanic flavoured.... Ingredients: Fresh Mackerel (filleted/de-boned) Fresh Cockles (cooked/shells removed), 5 mins in a hot pan will cook them. Pickling Liquor: Apple Cider Vinegar, Onion, Sweet Cicely, Ground Ivy, Carrageen, E...

This recipe culminated after a days foraging with friends on Anglesey 2015. I'd never made a ceviche before and after finding myself with the perfect ingredients; seaweed, coastal greens, fish, I did :) Ingredients:  1 fresh Mackerel, filleted, de-boned and skinned        Sea Noodles Juice of 1/2 a Lime/Lemon/Orange (depending on fish size/quantity you may need to up this citrus juice amount) Sea Arrow Grass Sea Purslane Pepper Dulse Red Chilli Hogweed Pinch of Sugar (optional) Method: 1) Put the prepared Mackerel into a bowl with the all the other ingredients except the Thongweed. Stir & place in fridge for 20 minutes. 2) Plate the thongweed, spoon on the ceviche mix, add a little fresh chopped pepper dulse & extra sea purslane (I let the natural pepperiness & saltiness provide the seasoning). S 3) Serve with some fresh, gently steamed, buttered sea beet shoots/flowering shoots. Feel free to play with other ingre...