Pickled Wild Garlic Buds
If you’ve ever had the luxury of eating wild garlic buds then you’ll know what I mean when I say they taste like sugar snap peas with a hefty dose of garlicky spice (but no stronger than wild garlic leaf). When pickled, they gain an acidic dimension that lends itself beautifully to garnishes and salads, extending the availability of this highly seasonal and prized ingredient.
For this recipe, you will need some means to weigh down the flower buds as they are highly buoyant and need to be kept below the surface of the liquid. You can manage this in a number of ways but my favourites include: a very very clean, smooth rock from the beach (no cracks), a clean bag of water to fit in the top of the jar (which create a seal against the surface of the liquor), or simply lay cling film across the top of the liquid, pushing any bubbles to the edge before you close the lid. If using cling film you will need to open the jar after a couple of days and carefully release a build up of bubbles as the flowers settle. Each of these work well at keeping the flowers in the liquor where they’re safe from unwanted contamination.
For this recipe I decided to play with liquor flavours that reflect those of the flowers. I used mustard seeds and black peppercorns to compliment the spicy bite of garlic, and a vanilla pod to compliment their sweetness. When following this recipe you can scale up or down to whatever suits your needs as you will require the same weight of liquor as your weight in buds.
Foraging
By now you’ll be more than familiar with what I’m about to say. I should probably write up a default page on the rules, etiquette and laws around the world of foraging and wild foods, then link to it every time we feature a foraged ingredient in a recipe… I think I will! But for now I’ll keep it short and sweet.
Never take more than you need, never pick a protected species, never trespass, and always respect the natural habitat. It’s important to leave enough for everyone as well as not to damage the plants by removing too much. It is good practice to cleanly cut a plant you forage and not tug at it, this way you don’t damage the roots and allow it to recover for the following season.
One of the main attractions in foraging is the wonderful flavours we find in plants and fungi that have grown in their natural habitat and far from the destructive and artificial environments of conventional agriculture. Having said this, harmful chemicals can still find their way into faragable ingredients that grow close to roads. For this reason, I tend to leave anything growing at the side of the road or footpath alone in favour of that which grows in the heart of a habitat.
Lastly, be mindful of dangerous lookalikes. In the case of wild garlic, you need be aware of Lily of the Valley. This highly poisonous plant shares a lot of characteristics with wild garlic but flowers differently and doesn’t have any of wild garlic’s beautiful aromatic qualities.
Pickled Wild Garlic Buds Recipe
200g wild garlic flower buds
40g sugar
80g white wine vinegar
80g water
1 vanilla pod / 0.5tsp vanilla paste
0.5tsp black peppercorns
0.5tsp yellow mustard seeds
A pinch of salt
Step 1.
Mix your water and vinegar into a saucepan with the sugar, salt and spices. Split the vanilla pod down the length with the tip of a knife and add it to the liquor. Gently heat it over a low temperature and stir until the sugar is dissolved, then remove it from the heat and allow it to cool completely.
Step 2.
Sterilize a jar and gently clean the wild garlic buds in a bowl of clean water. Add the flowers to the jar and pour the cooled liquor over them until it reaches the top of the jar. Weigh down the flowers to keep them under the liquid and seal the lid. Place them in a refrigerator for 3 days minimum before they’re ready to eat, then consume within 6 months.