Sea Kale "Crambe Maritima" Root

Sea Kale is the perfect food plant, every part is edible. It is believed to have been a staple of our Irish ancestors, as they foraged for food along the sea shore.
Having experimented with eating various parts of the plant, the root remained untested. So today, when thinning out the plants and accidentally digging up a large section of tap root, it was time to try it out in the kitchen.

Sea Kale "Crambe Maritima" Root

Knowing that our recipe books were not going to be of assistance, it was to Ray Mears and Gordon Hillman's Wild Food that we turned. They confirmed that that the roots of Crambe Maritima were indeed edible, both when eaten raw and cooked.
Despite Ray Mears' preference for raw seakale root, it was found not to be particularly appetising - faintly remeniscent of raw turnip and quite fibrous, when compared to the more pleasing raw scorzonera root, dug at the same time, for comparison purposes. Next step, was to roast the two roots alongside carrots, onion, celeriac and pumpkin.
The sea kale root was improved by cooking - tasting quite starchy, but unable to compete with the scorzonera and other roots. There is no doubt that it definitely requires some very special culinary expertise, way beyond our capabilities.
Moral of the story: foraged foods may be nutritious and good for you, but there is often a very good reason why they are not more commonly eaten.
If anyone has had a better experience, it would be good to hear about it.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Jerusalem Artichokes - Helianthus tuberosus

Jerusalem Artichokes (not to be confused with Globe Artichokes) are related to the sunflower. They are native to the eastern states of the North American continent and were extensively cultivated by the native peoples living there. The misleading name is believed to refer to Ter Neusen, the location at which they were grown in Holland, following their introduction to Europe, via France. This being only one of many explanations: that when the tubers were first brought to England, they were known as Artischokappeln van Ter Neusen, which became corrupted to Jerusalem Artichoke. 

Freshly dug Jerusalem Artichokes for sale at Glasrai & Goodies, Gowran, Co. Kilkenny

Tighe in his Statisical Survey of Kilkenny, 1801, mentions that they were grown in the county as a fodder crop for sheep. This should not put anyone off cooking them, as they make a delicious soup and the two recipes below, taken from Maura Laverty's Full & Plenty, 1960, are well worth trying.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES

This root vegetable deserves to figure more often on the menu. But it needs care in cooking. If artichokes are allowed to continue cooking after the have become tender, they are liable to become tough again.

Wash and scrub the artichokes and drop them into boiling water. Cook them, covered, until they are tender. After 15 mins. Test with a skewer.

Drain them and keep them in a hot place while you prepare the following dressing: Melt 2 tablespoons butter. Add 1 teaspoon mild white vinegar or dry white wine. Add 2 teaspoons chopped parsley. Pour this dressing over the artichokes and serve at once.

CREAMED JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES

Cook the artichokes as above. Drain them well and pour over enough cream sauce to make a good topping (about ½ pint cream sauce to 1½ lbs artichokes). Sprinkle thickly with chopped parsley.

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Is it a Cabbage or a Turnip? Kohlrabi

Is it a cabbage or is it a turnip?

Kohlrabi is a mysterious vegetable that is a hybrid cross between the two.

The leaves and the swollen stem may both be eaten, but it is grown for its swollen stem.

A popular vegetable in Germany and Italy in the nineteenth century, the Italians ate it before the stem grew any larger than a hen's egg, while the German's preferred it fully grown.

Red Kohlrabi grown in Co. Kilkenny

Kohlrabi can be eaten raw in salads or cooked. There is a school of thought that believes its distinctive flavour is mainly in the skin and near it, so it is probably best steamed intact until tender. Then it can be peeled, if required, and sliced. Also, delicious, when simply roasted - just peel, roughly dice along with other root vegetables, some onion and herbs, mix with olive oil and roast until tender.

The leaves are also good for eating and are best treated like kale. Easily grown in County Kilkenny, so give it a go.

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The Unfashionable Cauliflower

The unfashionable Cauliflowers Brassica oleracea var botrytis have been excellent this year and well behaved. They have had the decency not to produce their white curds all at the same time.

A freshly harvested Kilkenny Cauliflower

According to Sir Ghillean Prance and Mark Nesbitt in the "Cultural History of Plants", 2005, the Cauliflower probably originated in Cyprus and was cultivated in Italy in the 15th century. By the end of the eighteenth century, it was a popular vegetable. It was one of the vegetables that John M'Craith, nursery and seedsman, was offering for sale in Kilkenny in 1827 and it is fair to assume that it has been grown and eaten in Kilkenny since then.
Vilmorin-Andrieux and Robinson list 18 different varieties in 1920, including dwarf, giant and purple varieties. These days, the popularity of cauliflower (easily grown in Co. Kilkenny), is waning in favour of imported vegetables.
Best eaten as soon as it is harvested, delicious raw or gently steamed. It makes great purees and soups; the possibilities are endless. A fresh, lightly cooked Cauliflower needs little seasoning, just a bit of grated nutmeg will compliment it. When buying Cauliflowers, look out for ones with good, long crisp green leaves and cook these along with the florets, to enhance your dish.
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Nettle Soup

Irish Restaurants seldom serve Irish food, so your only hope is to make it yourself. Nettle Soup is a classic, traditional and delicious dish, cheap and easy to make. Young nettles are plentiful and easily found by even the most reticent of foragers.

Wild Nettles (Urtica Doica) growing in County Kilkenny

Pick young nettle tops, using rubber gloves, you can pick them without gloves if you know how to grab the stems and leaves, without getting stung.

Apologies to Darina Allen for corrupting her recipe.

RECIPE
Large bunch nettles
Tablespoon of butter
3 shallots or 1 onion or leeks
1 medium Golden Wonder Potato
1 litre good quality homemade chicken stock

Freshly picked Nettles (Urtica Doica)

Melt the butter until bubbling, add finely chopped shallots and well diced Golden Wonder potato, add a little salt and pepper. Cover and cook over a low heat until the potato is soft. Add the stock and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the chopped nettles, cook for another couple of minutes.

Nettle Soup

Puree the mixture in a blender until smooth (originally, it would have put through a hair sieve) and reheat before serving. A delicious Irish country soup, the traditional recipe would not have used potato, an introduced species - oatmeal or some other cereal would have been used instead.

According to Ray Mears and Gordon Hillman, Stinging Nettles (Urtica Doica) are a very good source of protein, as well as vitamins C & B, calcium, potassium iron, phosphorous, magnesium etc. So, give it a go...

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Sea Kale in Season

SEA KALE (Crambe Maritima). 
Available from Glasrai and Goodies in Gowran.

A native Irish plant that grows on shingle beaches - so not to be found in County Kilkenny. It has become quite rare in the wild, so be sure to use only cultivated plants.

Sea Kale ready to be picked.

In prehistoric times, before the domestication of cereal crops, the root was an important source of carbohydrates, for the hunter-gatherer. The whole plant can be eaten, but usually it is the blanched young shoots, with their slightly nut like flavour, that are most sought after. In the past, shingle was heaped up around wild plants, growing along the edges of such beaches. This had the effect of blanching the plants.

Peron, J.Y., Gouget, M., Declercq, B., 1991 in their Composition nutritionnelle du Crambe Maritime reveal that Sea Kale not only tastes great but has a high protein and fibre content, a high quantity of potassium/low sodium and excellent calcium/phosphorus ratio, and contains good vitamins such as thiamine (Vitamin B1).

Freshly picked Sea Kale, showing blanched shoots and unblanched leaves.

In 1827, John M'Craith, a Kilkenny nurseryman, advertised Sea Kale plants for sale, alongside "Stove and Greenhouse Exotics". In 1834, specimens were successfully exhibited, from the Bishop of Ossory's gardens, by Mr. Monk (who, presumably, was the Bishop's head gardener), at the Kilkenny Horticultural Society's show.

It was a great favourite of the Victorians and Edwardians, but the vogue for Sea Kale declined with the demise of the walled vegetable garden.

Cooked blanched Sea Kale (top) and cooked unblanched Sea Kale leaves (below).

HOW TO COOK

Drop into boiling salted water and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until just tender. Drain pour melted butter over and sprinkle a little chopped parsley and serve. 

Young, unblanched leaves are pleasant to eat, if cooked in a similar manner, but lack the subtle nuances of the paler shoots.

Such a delicious vegetable deserves greater recognition, easily cooked, is worthy of further culinary exploration. 

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Chervil Soup

CHERVIL SOUP, WITH LEEKS & POTATOES
Chervil (Anthriscus Cerefolium). An easily grown, aromatic, spring herb with a subtle aniseed flavour. Delicious with eggs, ham and in soups, at a time of year when other fragrant herbs, like tarragon, are out of season. 

Chervil, a cousin of the carrot and of parsley, probably introduced from
south west Russia and/or south eastern Europe.

INGREDIENTS FOR CHERVIL SOUP

Leeks, sliced potatoes, homemade stock and a large fistful of Chervil.

Chervil, Leeks & Pink, Fir Apple Potatoes

CHERVIL SOUP RECIPE

To make Chervil Soup, sweat sliced leeks until soft, then add sliced potatoes (in this case, Pink Fir Apple potatoes were used, no need to peel them). Add stock and cook until the potatoes are soft, then add a large handful of chopped, bruised chervil. 

Cook for a couple of minutes, then whizz to the desired consistency and correct the seasoning.

Chervil Soup

Serve in warmed bowls with a little organic Irish yogurt and a sprinkle of chopped chervil. If bruised before use, it will release its flavour more readily, makes an interesting replacement for parsley. 

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Eating Brussels Spouts in County Kilkenny, in February

It is time to think about sowing next year's vegetables. Time to check out last year's seeds, some of which were saved and others bought. Not all were put away properly and some have not survived the winter months as well as they should have. Last year's Brussels Sprouts were planted late in June which was a little late. So, to avoid forgetting about them, the Brussels Sprouts seeds have already been sown.

Brussels Sprouts ready for picking

An interesting vegetable, descended from the wild cabbage, Brussels Sprouts were cultivated in Belgium, probably improving an older variety, which may have been known by the Romans. When introduced to Ireland, it was found that they grew well here. Just 8-10 plants will yield more than enough for a small family.

Meanwhile, we are eating our current crop. For those who claim to have an intense dislike of Brussels Sprouts, try growing your own, pick them when they are young and small. Cook them whole (immediately after picking), in fast boiling water, for not more than five minutes.

Freshly picked Brussels Sprouts, briefly cooked and ready for eating

Drain, add a small amount of good quality locally made butter and eat at once.

They will be very far removed from the soggy, smelly, yellowing vegetable that so often passes as Brussels Sprouts. Try finely grating raw Brussels Sprouts into a salad for a novel addition. The leaves and plant tops also make great eating, at a time when there is a limited choice of vegetables in the garden. Stir fry the shredded shoots and/or leaves or be brave and try Darina Allen's recommendation: peel the stalk and dice it up before cooking. There will not be much of the plant left, to go onto the compost heap…
So waste not, want not....

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

A Kilkenny February Salad

With a little care and protection salad leaves can easily be grown in Kilkenny, at all times of the year. This February Salad is made up of the thinings from Cos lettuce plants, young sprigs of watercress and blanched chicons.

A freshly picked Kilkenny February Salad

The dressing consists of Irish rape seed oil, homemade verjus, honey from the bees in the yard and a small amount of finely chopped fresh parsley, fresh thyme, fresh sage and fresh rosemary. All the ingredients originated within a few square yards of each other in rural Kilkenny, with the exception of the oil.

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Chicory, Radicchio and Chicons

The blanched Chicons are now ready to eat, they were dug and lifted late in November, placed upright in pots with compost and kept in the dark in a cool dry place, since. Sliced from their roots at the base and then cut into small pieces, with some dressing and they make a refreshing winter salad at a time, when there are fewer salad leaves available.

Witloof Chicons

To my surprise the mild winter has allowed the non-forcing Chicory or Radicchio varieties to survive continuous cropping and they are still providing us with welcome fresh green and red leaves.

Chicory Salad Leaves

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Kilkenny Salsify

SALSIFY

An under rated old fashioned vegetable once grown in Irish Victorian kitchen gardens. Like sea kale, it became unfashionable and forgotten. Look out for the seeds, it is well worth growing and you will find the tender roots a welcome addition to your autumn meals.

Leave a few plants to over winter and if you leave them until they flower, they will seed freely. You can eat the young shoots in salads. The purple flowers are an added attraction.

Dig roots carefully, they are brittle and will easily snap. Dig them while they are still young. 

RECIPE: Gently wash and remove long green leaves. Scrap off skin, chop into one inch long pieces, place in salted boiling water that has some lemon juice added to it, until they are just beginning to soften. Drain.

Roll in a little butter, with chopped parsley and a little lemon zest and enjoy their beautiful delicate flavor.


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Sea Kale in Autumn

The Sea Kale has done well over the summer months, recovering fully after all its spring shoots were cut for eating. Despite the bad summer, it has built up its reserves for the winter and now looks like some nobbly monster.

Sea Kale in the Autumn

Today, it was mulched with three year old well rotted horse manure and once the final leaves have fallen off, it will be covered with earthenware pots and tucked away until the spring, when there should be a mass of lucious, blanched shoots - a great delicacy.

Sea Kale ready to be covered

It was nurtured in this manner in Victorian and Edwardian kitchen gardens, but has subsequently grown out of favour with diners.
Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com