Wildgarlic season and a Hazelnut Cake
When we moved into the castle two years ago I soon discovered vivid green leaves poking out of the soil under the centenary magnolia tree, thinking at first it would evolve into a carpet of divinely fragrant lily of the valley when, a little after, it dawned on me that the little green leaves were in fact a carpet of stinky fresh wild garlic. Which is a great deal less poetic but then also very practical, for I do not have to venture far to find some for my kitchen.
Wild garlic has a long tradition where I come from, at this time of the year, every inch of my childhood forest was covered in wild garlic. The Forest right behind the farm, across the pasture and its gnarly old walnut tree in the middle, the Forest with its tall beech trees like giant pillars holding the sky. The smell is engraved in my body, alongside the sound of a train approaching and then furiously rushing by, the last rays of the sun shooting like golden arrows through a crack in the rocks high up the mountain beyond the Forest. It is called the Castle Forest and indeed it was my beautiful green vast castle. I remember, when grandfather died I planted lily of the valley in the forest for I knew he would have liked this - alas they didn't stand a chance against the wild garlic.
For me, spring officially begins with wild garlic. First the spicy young leaves, tossed into a salad or cooked into a pesto. Then the more mature leaves for wild garlic gnocchi with the shrivelled potatoes from last year, wild garlic flammkueche, endless possibilities, and then the buds, pickled with cardamom (the recipe is in my cookbook). Come the flowers with their pretty myriad white blooms like stars on a green forest ground, again tossed into a salad.
With a literal fresh spring in my step and a little happy access of nostalgia I decided to bake a cake reminiscent of countless childhood memories, it essentially is a hazelnut cake dotted with chocolate chips, so simple and so delicious, the thing not long ago every grandmother including mine knew how to throw together for afternoon coffee. We did eat it for breakfast though, yet coffee there was, and I'm tempted to make it into a habit, it's so delicious.
The day was promising, and as I opened the back door to the north terrace in my kitchen there was an almost balmy air greeting me. Time to move the hibernating plants outside! By the time I had dragged them out into the shade of the magnolia tree to get accustomed with outdoor life again, I was ravenous. I made us a quick and easy wild garlic pesto with homemade linguine and because it's been the very first alfresco lunch of this year, we made it into a little celebration with a glass of bubbly from Orane Henriot. Absolute Bliss!
I've written up the recipes to both the cake and the pesto for you here. First the pesto:
What you'll need
A portion of homemade linguine
Two good handfuls of freshly foraged wild garlic - if you are not experienced with foraging make sure to get it checked by a knowledgeable person beforehand
Cold pressed quality rapeseed oil
A handful of crushed walnuts
Some aged comté cheese
Fleur de sel and ground black pepper
How you cook it
Heat a very generous dash of oil in a wide pan at medium temperature, chop the wild garlic and fry for one or two minutes, reduce the temperature, add the crushed walnuts and grate in some cheese, season with salt and pepper. Take off the heat.
Cook the linguine. When they're cooked, strain into a separate container keeping some of the cooking water. Transfer to the pan with the pesto and add a little cooking water, heat for two or three minutes and serve.
How you eat it
In case you like us make this your first alfresco lunch experience of the season, I think it's appropriate to have a glass of bubbly along. Enjoy!
And here's the how to for the hazelnut cake:
What you'll need
This is a very old fashioned cake, incredibly simple in ingredients and easy to bake. As what with all traditional recipes, the outcome will taste so much better if you take your time and pamper the ingredients. That's why you may opt for hand chopping the roasted hazelnuts instead of buying a bag of ground ones. The same applies to the chocolate, somehow hand chopped chocolate chips seem to always taste a gazillion times better than store bought chocolate chips.
200g of fresh farm butter
4 eggs from the farm
200g of sugar
A pinch of fleur de sel
150g white flour
Half a bag of baking powder
150g roasted hazelnuts
100 dark chocolate
How you bake it
Melt the butter in a little pan on the stove at the lowest temperature. Chop the hazelnuts and the chocolate into small pieces. Butter a bundt mould and sprinkle with flour. Separate the eggs in two bowls. Pour half the sugar to the egg whites and add a pinch of fleur de sel. Add the rest of the sugar to the yolks and beat for five minutes until foamy and white. Pre heat the oven to 170°C. Add the molten butter to the batter and whisk. Stir in the flour with the baking powder. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff for a couple of minutes. Fold in half the egg whites in the batter, then add the other half and carefully incorporate. Fold in the chopped hazelnuts and chocolate and pour into the mould. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. To check if the cake is done, take a knitting needle and gently stab it in the cake and take it out, if it comes out without dough sticking to it, the cake is done, otherwise give it another couple of minutes and repeat the test.
To get it out the mould alright, let the cake slowly cool until you can touch the mould without burning your hands, that's the moment when it will slip out just like that.
How you eat it
This, my friends, is a classic for afternoon coffee, but then we had it for breakfast and it was a hoot! Just be sure to have a nice pot of freshly brewed coffee along.
