I stole the idea for this combination of steamed cod and ramsons from the Restaurant l'Image, around the corner from where we live, and modified their method.
Ramsons Allium ursinum (Fr. ail des ours) is a wild garlic leaf, in season in the forests of the Touraine in April. On Friday I went to the 'secret' (not very...) location in the Forest of Preuilly where I imagine half the village goes foraging. You can also buy it sometimes at farm produce markets and fresh foods stores such as Grand Frais. If you are foraging your own, please make sure you are certain you can distinguish it from lily of the valley (Fr. muguet), lords and ladies/wild arum (Fr. gouet tacheté) and autumn crocus (Fr. colchique), all of which look remarkably similar to Ramsons at their stage of growth in April, all of which grow in the same habitat, and all of which are toxic. Please also adhere to foraging best practice and take no more than 10% of the leaves at a site, and no more than you need for your own personal consumption. Ramsons really pongs when you are handling the leaves or standing amongst the plants, but its flavour once cooked is quite delicate.
Ramsons growing in the Forest of Preuilly. You can see where someone before me harvested a few leaves.
Ingredients
2 fillets of cod (or similar white fish)
15-20 young ramsons leaves
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp Szechuan pepper, ground
Method
- Arrange the ramsons leaves on one of the cod fillets.
- Lay the second cod fillet on top.
- Season the cod with the salt and Szechuan pepper.
- Cut the cod into bite sized squares.
- Place into a bamboo steamer.
- Steam for 5 minutes.
1 comment:
That dish looks very tasty.
Wild garlic grows prolifically near to our UK home but I have never seen any here. I imagine I need to visit the right bit of woodland.
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