March and April see many leaves unfurling here in the wilds of the UK and one of the most abundant wild super foods available at this time is the trusty stinging nettle. These chaps (not to be confused with the dead nettle - from the mint family) are a great wild alternative to spinach and other iron rich green leafed veggies. I am on a daily forage for these easy pickings as my narrowboat is currently moored up on the river lea in the lea valley park so its one hop and a skip away with scissors and rubber gloves. When collecting just pick the tips - thats the top 4 to 6 leaves and with so many about you can be fussy with what you collect. April is great as the nettles as ferocious growers and you will see they are young, fresh, green and unfurling daily but be aware as summer comes they flower and go to seed they are well past their best before date. note: I choose my nettles wisely ensuring the ground they grow on is free from dogs, rubbish and the soil they grow on is unspoilt.
Back in the kitchen I will soak them in cold water and give then a good shake to clean and decide whether to use them with a sting or without! The only time I do not blanch them (to remove the sting) is to make nettle kraut. My other staples are a vegan nettle pesto or i will keep a bag in the fridge to pan fry with whatever takes your fancy and add to pasta or a pizza topping. Wild garlic, lemon zest, dijon mustard, toasted walnuts etc etc - you get my gist.
For the nettle kraut, I will take 1kg of good white cabbage (shredded) 200 gm of washed and chopped (gloves on) nettle leaves, 25 grams of Maldon salt, a table spoon of fennel seeds and massage together as you would any kraut and keep going until you get a brine. With Kraut the world of flavour is your oyster, experiment away ! Turmeric, mustard seed, ginger, coriander leaf, radish and google will give you many alternatives. The 3 important factors to me are 1. Salt (quality and amount) Use the most natural salt available and work on 2% salt weight to veg. 1kg veg = 20gram salt. 2. Time. I love this part - the longer you leave your prepared kraut at an ambient temp the more the flavour develops (I suggest 10 days works best) 3. Cut. If you cut the cabbage too thin is will go to mush and if too thick it will take longer for the fermentation to occur, a shred on a mandolin or a fine hand cut works best for me.
Once you are done, the ingredients are well massaged and mixed and you have the brine pack tightly into a glass jar ensuring you plug the top (lemon, cabbage end, glass weight) leaving no veg above the brine line. One word of advise, do not use or store in anything metal - it doesn’t react well. After 10 days in a dark and cool cupboard and a little ‘burping’ refrigerate and use at will. (note: do keep a tray under the kraut when fermenting as it will leak!)
Nettle pesto is such an easy win and great with pasta, potatoes and on toasted sourdough to name 3 of many uses. I make mine and keep in the fridge for up to a month unless it has all gone by then. Ok, For this i would pick a tote bag full of nettle tops, wash well and blanch in salted water at a rolling boil for 1 min stirring through. Plunge into iced water and then drain and squeeze well. You will have around 250g of cooked nettle tops, my recipe includes chopped toasted walnuts, raw chopped garlic, a couple of teaspoons of Dijon or German mustard and Maldon salt to flavour. Put this into a blender and drizzle some good quality cold pressed rapeseed oil into the blender and pulse and taste until you have your perfect consistency and flavour. You could add the leaves from wild garlic or 3 cornered leek (March and April), or some preserved lemon or zested orange rind, I always avoid adding hard cheese but thats your call.
Finally - Is it a myth dock leaves cure nettle stings - i’ll leave it to you to find out.