Wild Food Night - October

Numbers have been dwindling for Wild Food Night over the past few months - a real shame if you ask me. If you know anyone foraging- or homegrowing-minded in the Hertfordshire area, let them know what they're missing! We were still there on Wednesday night to see what October had to offer...

Canapes were all things we'd had before, but new and improved! First was a wild garlic crispbread, made with the bulbs rather than the more commonly picked leaves. I didn't know that the bulbs could be harvested too - they're quite small, sort of similar to the white shafts of spring onions, and they take up to three years to develop; internet sources say they're only worth harvesting when the patch needs thinning out (and remember, kids, it's illegal to uproot any plant without the permission of the landowner). Next, a pigeon mousse with a red onion and truffle oil vinaigrette - delicious. And finally a haw berry shot, which tasted nice and syrupy, but I still couldn't tell you what haws taste like. I'm quite curious about these as I'm seeing loads in our area at the moment - I'll have to look them up and see what can be done with them.

The starter was a lovely rich wild duck and "not-so-wild" orange pate, served with crispbreads, and a peppery nettle soup. I love nettle soup - I must make it more often! Apparently new growth nettles in autumn have a deeper, richer flavour. The nettles I pass on my walks seem to be dying off slowly now or even still showing their flowers or seeds, with no signs of new shoots, but I've noticed a few new ones popping up on the allotment so that's where I'll go...

The main was named 'Peasant Pheasant'; pheasant breast cooked with garlic, onion, lemon juice and rosemary, served with creamy mash, buttery carrot puree and some tasty green beans. Sadly I'm not so keen on the taste of pheasant - it has a livery flavour much like the pigeon we sampled some months ago - but everyone else at the table enjoyed it, and the vegetable accompaniments were lovely.

For dessert, this fabulously rich chestnut chocolate torte and very creamy wild berry ice cream (made with bramble, haw and damson syrups) were incredible! More please!

I was very glad there were chestnuts on October's menu, especially since my own chestnut-gathering attempts were frustrated last week when I found I'd missed them all already! 'Food for Free' clearly says they start to ripen around the end of October, but by mid-October every single one had gone from the trees near me! And I was even more shocked to see them going for £4 per small bag in the supermarket yesterday (twice the price of the prepared chestnuts sold by Merchant Gourmet all year round - it's amazing how much Christmas packaging can cost...) I haven't really cooked with chestnuts before but I do like them. Foraged or not, I am determined to use them more this winter...