Food from the wild– nature’s own larder

In English

Common chickweed – Stellaria mediaChickweed salad (2 portions)

1 large bunch chickweed

3 tablespoons French dressing

3 teaspoons sweet cicely, chopped

2 juicy apples, diced

Rinse the chickweed and mix with the

apple. Mix the sweet cicely and French

dressing. Pour the dressing over the salad

and toss. Ready to serve!

Chickweed soup (6 portions)

1½ litres chicken stock

6 spring onions, finely sliced

1 large potato, peeled and diced

2 bunches chickweed, chopped (save a

few sprigs for garnish)

salt

freshly ground pepper

300 ml cream

Bring the stock to the boil in a large pan.

Reduce the heat and add the onion,

potato and chickweed. Simmer for 10-15

minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Whizz everything except the cream in the

blender. Return to the pan and add the

cream. Heat through. Garnish with a few

sprigs of chickweed.

Chickweed is mainly

used as a salad, but

also in soups and it is an

excellent substitute for

spinach. The best way to

pick it is to cut off the up-

permost, younger parts

of the plant.

Chickweed is something that many people curse in

their gardens. It is an annual and is easy to remove

but, if left alone, it spreads easily, producing many

seeds that are quick to germinate. The stem can

form roots, and this also helps the plant to spread

and form large mats of foliage. Common chickweed

can be recognised by the fine hairs on only one side

of the stalk. Chickweed appears early in the spring,

remaining green until the snow arrives. It contains all

the vital amino acids, making it an excellent source

of protein.

Stinging nettle – Urtica dioica

Nettle soup (4 portions)

2 litres fresh nettles

butter

2 tbsp flour

1 litre water

2 vegetable stock cubes

salt and white pepper

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, chopped

2 potatoes

150 ml single cream

Rinse the nettles in several changes of water

and cut the leaves away from the stalks.

Place the leaves in boiling, salted water.

Boil for 5 minutes and discard the water.

Fry the onion and garlic in the butter. Boil

the water in a pan with the stock cubes.

Add the nettles, onion and potato. Simmer

for about 15 minutes or until the potato is

cooked. Whizz in a blender and season

as required. Add the cream and serve hot,

together with newly baked bread.

The most common use

for the stinging nettle is

for soup, but the plant

can also be dried,

powdered and used in

bread, or used as a green

vegetable in other dishes

such as pies and soufflés.

Most people probably have a special relationship with

nettles on account of their stinging hairs. Pick nettles

early in the spring, but use gloves to avoid being

stung. The plant contains a number of important

mineral substances such as iron. New plants grow

up quickly where nettles have been picked, so young

nettles can be enjoyed all summer. But they are

nevertheless best in the spring.

Stinging nettles can be mistaken for white dead-

nettles. They, however, do not sting, and there is no

problem if they are mistaken for each other as the

white dead-nettle is edible too. It has white flowers

that have a sweet taste and which attract bees, so it

is sometimes called the bee nettle.

Garlic mustard – Alliaria petiolata

Dip

300 ml crème fraiche, sour cream or

Turkish yoghurt

100 ml finely chopped garlic mustard

½ tsp salt

white pepper

Try adding other herbs such as basil, chilli

or paprika.

Mix crème fraiche with the garlic mustard.

Add other herbs as desired, and season to

taste. Serve with sticks of carrot, cucum-

ber and peppers, crisps or cheese-grilled

nachos.

The leaves of garlic mustard should be picked and

used before the plant blooms. If a leaf is rubbed

between the fingers, it can be recognised by its cha-

racteristic oniony smell. Justice is best done to the

taste if used fresh in, for instance, a tomato salad,

with salted fish and smoked or salted meat. If it is to

be used in hot dishes such as flavouring in a soup,

it should be added at as late a stage as possible so

that the special oniony taste does not disappear.

Common sorrel – Rumex acetosaSorrel and currant pie

Pastry

125 g butter

300 ml flour

100 ml sugar

1 tbsp water

Filling

20 fresh sorrel leaves

400 ml redcurrants or blackcurrants

200 ml sugar

Mix the ingredients for the pastry and use

it to line a pie dish. Bake for about 10

minutes at 225o. Add the filling. Put back

in the oven for another 20 minutes.

Serve warm, with whipped cream or vanilla

ice cream.

Sauce 1

Bring cream to the boil, whisk in fish stock

and add knobs of cold butter. Add roughly

chopped, blanched sorrel leaves. Season

with salt, pepper and a touch of saffron.

Sorrel can be recognised by its

sharp taste and by the arrow-shaped

leaves that have two small lobes at

the base. The plant should be eaten

in moderation as it contains oxalic

acid, which can damage the kidneys

in large doses. Sorrel can be used in

many dishes and is particularly good

with different types of fish. It can also

be used to flavour sauces and in

salads and sandwiches.

Sauces for salmonSauce 2

100 ml single cream

100 ml crème fraiche

sorrel leaves according to taste

salt, pepper, lemon

Mix all the ingredients in a blender.

Sweet cicely – Myrrhis odorata

Sweet cicely soup (4 portions)

2 litres sweet cicely leaves

20 leaves of wild garlic or 1 large onion,

chopped

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1.25 litres stock

salt and pepper

100 ml whipping cream

Blanch the sweet cicely leaves. Save the

water. Whizz the leaves in a blender. Melt

the butter in a pan. Add the wild garlic or

onion to the butter and soften. Add the

sweet cicely and the stock. Simmer for a

few minutes. Thicken with the flour mixed

in a little water. Season and add

the cream.

At first sight, sweet cicely looks like a particularly

coarse, bushy wild chervil, but the strong scent of

aniseed or liquorice and the light green, hairy leaves

give it away.

Sweet cicely is a species that was introduced for

cultivation and has then become wild. It has grown

in Sweden since the 17th century at least. Don’t

mistake it for the extremely poisonous hemlock,

which you can see in Fredriksdal’s garden of bene-

ficial plants, in plot 4B. It does not smell of liquorice

and it has red markings on the stalk, unlike sweet

cicely. Hemlock is well known as an ingredient in the

poisonous draught that killed Socrates.

Sweet cicely can also

be used to make a

delicious green snapps

with a pleasant liquo-

rice flavour. Put the

plant into unflavoured

snaps (32%) and allow

to stand in daylight for

about one week.

Ground elder is a plant that is both loved and loat-

hed. It is an invasive weed but also a delicious edible

plant. It likes well nourished soil and, since it spreads

with rootsuckers, it is difficult to eliminate. The large

size of the clumps make it easy to get at and to

pick. The young leaves can replace spinach in many

dishes. In the Middle Ages, up until the 1700s, it

was popular to cultivate ground elder and, apart

from being a food, it was used medicinally since it

was thought to cure a particular type of gout called

podagra or “port wine toe”.

Ground elder pie (4 portions)

Pastry

300 ml flour

125 g butter

4 tbsp water

Filling

2 litres ground elder leaves

1 large onion

vegetable stock

Egg batter

3 eggs

300 ml milk

200-300 ml grated cheese

black pepper

Mix the ingredients for the pastry and use

it to line a pie dish. Bake at 250° for 10

minutes until the pastry is biscuit-coloured.

Chop the onion and fry until soft. Blanch

the ground elder for 10 minutes. Discard

the water and chop the leaves finely. Mix

with the onion and add the stock. Put the

mixture in the pastry case. Whisk the eggs

and milk together. Add the cheese and

season with black pepper. Pour onto the

filling and bake for 30 minutes.

Ground elder - Aegopodium podagraria

Water mint – Mentha aquatica

Water mint muffins (12)

2 tbsp dried water mint leaves, or 4 tbsp

fresh leaves

50g butter

125 ml milk

2 eggs

200 ml sugar

300 ml flour

1½ tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla sugar

Heat the oven to 175°. Put muffin cases

onto a baking sheet. Melt the butter and

pour in the milk. The mixture should be

tepid. Whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy

and add the mint. If fresh mint is used,

this can be liquidised into the egg mixture.

Add the milk and butter mixture. Mix the

flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar and

add to the mixture. Spoon into the muffin

cases. Bake in the middle of the oven for

about 30 minutes.

Water mint grows in wet meadows, along streams

and on lake shores. It is easily recognisable from the

smell of mint that is released if you rub the leaves

between your fingers.

Herbal tea

Try making a delicious tea

with a few stalks of fresh

mint. Put them into boiling

water, remove the pan

from the heat and allow to

infuse for 5 minutes. The

tea is good for digestion

and soothing if you have

a cold.

Look at the square-shaped stalk

and opposite leaves in pairs. The

plant is mainly used as a flavou-

ring but also as an ingredient in

many dishes.

Fat hen is an annual weed that is common in

gardens and fields. The colour of the leaf varies

from light green to dark grey-green, but the leaves

always have a whitish undercoating. The flowers

mature quickly and form small seeds that can be

used as flour.

Fat hen in peppers (4 portions)

4 large peppers

2 litres fresh leaves of fat hen

200 ml brown rice

100 ml thinly sliced leek

1 clove of garlic

black pepper

herbs

100 ml grated cheese

Cook the rice. Halve the peppers length-

wise and remove the seeds. Fry the leek

and garlic. Blanch the fat hen. Mix the

onion with the rice and add the fat hen.

Season to taste. Fill the peppers with the

mixture. Sprinkle the cheese on top and

cook at 250° for 15 minutes or until the

cheese has melted.

Fat hen – Chenopodium album

There are many different

types of chenopodium.

All are edible and have

been used as food for

at least 2,000 years. Fat

hen has been found in

the stomach of 2,000-

year old human remains.

The leaves can be used

as spinach but, histori-

cally, the plant has been

used mainly as a flour

substitute, with bread

being baked from milled

seeds. Fat hen has a high

nutritional value. It has a

high level of carbohydra-

tes and protein and also

contains iron, calcium and

vitamin C.

Wild garlic – Allium ursinumWild garlic soup (4 portions)

1 litre vegetable or chicken stock

200 ml cream

40 wild garlic leaves

some spinach leaves

salt and pepper

150 g bacon, diced

6 tbsp whipped cream

juice of half a lemon

a little salt

Bring the stock to the boil with the cream.

Add the spinach and wild garlic leaves

and whizz in the blender. Season with salt

and pepper. Fry the bacon and season

the whipped cream with salt and lemon.

Pour the soup into bowls and add a little

whipped cream. Sprinkle the diced bacon

on top.

Wild garlic grows in deciduous woodlands in the

southern part of Sweden. The flowers have six

petals and resemble white stars. The leaves of wild

garlic resemble those of lily-of-the-valley, but they

are not likely to be mistaken for each other. Wild gar-

lic can be recognised by its strong smell and taste of

onion and garlic.

Even if wild garlic is relatively uncommon, it can be

found in very large clumps where conditions are

right. When dried or cooked, it loses much of its

taste and should therefore be as fresh as possible

when used. It is delicious in tomato salad.

Wild garlic pesto

1 bunch wild garlic

25 g pine nuts

salt

freshly milled black

pepper

100 ml olive oil

boiling water

50 g Parmesan cheese

Put the wild garlic leaves in the blender

together with the pine nuts and salt and

pepper to taste. Add the olive oil. Blend

until smooth. If necessary, add a little

boiling water to get the right consistency.

Add 50 g grated Parmesan cheese.

Large bittercress is a pretty

plant that grows in damp

ground such as marshes or

along streams. The leaves

have a pronounced taste of

cress that is well suited to

salads, especially tomatoes,

but they are also excellent

in sandwiches.

Bittercress sandwich

large bunch of fresh large bittercress

leaves

a large slice of bread

1-2 large slices smoked salmon

lettuce leaves

mayonnaise

lumpfish roe

Butter the bread and add the ingredients

according to taste.

Large bittercress – Cardamine amara

To make dishes visually appetising, we could use flowers a lot more than we do in

our cooking. It is mainly salads and gateaux that can be made even more tempting by

garnishing them with edible flowers. Ten wild plants are growing in the border, and their

flowers are all ideal for decoration; bitter vetch, sweet violet, red clover, alkanet, roses,

viper’s bugloss, woodruff, chicory, white dead-nettle, yellow archangel.

Flowers in our food

Copy:

Karin Hjelmér

Hans Lindqwist

Illustrations:

Tryggve Edevik

Design & layout:

Caroline Flindt

Fredriksdal museum and gardens

Gisela Trapps väg 1, 254 37 Helsingborg • Info phone: +46 (42) 10 45 00 • www.fredriksdal.se