I spent the weekend with my parents who live in the Country, it’s an idyllic setting – chickens, rolling green fields, log fire, big black dog (louie), slow Saturday afternoons, lovingly prepared home cooked food and you know what crowns it off? It’s the fact that we’re right at the start of wild garlic season. If you’re a bit iffy as to whether or not there is a ‘maker’ up there looking down and fiddling around with stuff then this is what will convert you.

In the wood near my parents is an old colonial mansion, it’s now State owned and acts as a government office but it’s grounds are open to explore and wander through…..and…one part of it’s grounds is almost entirely carpeted with wild garlic! Before you realise it you’re lazily plodding along and you get the most perfumed scent from everywhere, and to the untrained you think ‘hey, my breath is a bit garlicy’ – but this is the vast expanse of wild garlic sprouting up everywhere.

Wild Garlic is a more subtle version of it’s big bulby brother, it’s a leaf and it grows in clumps in damp wooded areas between March and Mid April. Use It as you would any other fresh herb, cultivating the long green leaf. If you are lucky enough to find it then use it straight from the ground, it doesn’t hang around after it’s been picked and has a tendency to really bang up the joint if you don’t use it! I literally just whacked it in at the last minute to the above dish and it gives a great if subtle punch (if that’s not a contradiction in terms?).

Duck roast with wild garlic per due!

2 Duck legs or breast well seasoned
400 grams of waxy suds, sliced into rounds and part cooked
1 whole courgette, sliced in rounds
1 head of asparagus, cleaned, trimmed etc.

Like I say – this is a one pan wonder. Heat some oil in a wide based oven roaster, sling in the duck and cook in the oven at 200 for 40minutes.

Point to note – this is a fatty dish – no getting around it I’m afraid 🙂

When the duck is brown, crisp and cooked remove it and sling in all the veg, swizzle around in the duck fat then back in with the legs and cook for a further 15 minutes or until the courgette and asparagus are just soft.

Finish with chopped wild garlic and serve in the pan it was cooked in.

Another point to note stay away from wild garlic on the sides of roads and especially where dogs have been knockin’ around…no what I mean!

Wild Garlic…but I ain’t telling you where 🙂