Wild Garlic Pesto for 70

I have just returned from a camp with 78 people of all ages from 7 months to 70 years. The camp was in a beautiful oak wood with bluebells and large patches of wild garlic.

I carefully picked a large carrier bag full of leaves and flowers, taking care to pick clean and undamaged leaves, taking only a few from each plant.

I washed everything in clean water with six tablespoons of salt, leaving it to soak for 15 minutes, I was told this was Kosher Washing, but it seems that that involves soap.

I was told by Julie Gritten that my plan to use stalks and flowers in the pesto was a bad one, as they are very fibrous, she was right.

We set to separating the leaves from stalks and flowers, much thanks to Morgan who carried on even when it started to rain.

We rough chopped the leaves.

Put the stalks and flowers to one side.

The camp caterer had a Zyliss Pull vegetable chopper with insanely sharp blades.

A succession of children pulled the cord while I held the lid on with oil covered hands.

After the first chop we added sunflower oil (olive oil is sour when emulsified), a tablespoon of salt, 300 grams of toasted sliced almonds, juice of one lemon, a little ground pepper, and whizzed it again.

Served with a flower decoration.

The stalks were cooked separately, they were very stringy and should have been cut into 1 inch lengths.

On the last day I picked a smaller bunch, from a ride where they were at the limit of their range, and brought it home.

Cleaning and separating leaves from stalks is still hard work, even in a kitchen.

My beloved Coffret was not really up to the task. I added four tablespoons of powdered almonds.

Served with fresh pasta, steak and mushrooms.

I kept the stalks and flowers in the fridge overnight and used a soup blender to completely pulverise them with rapeseed oil, salt, lemon and walnuts.

The result was three jars of white pesto paste. I gave two away as it needs to be eaten fresh. I kept a small number of bulbs to plant in the garden.

We even microwaved a few stems.

Whilst there was a lot of preparation work the result was really good, both on camp with almonds and at home wit walnuts.

It was lovely to prepare such good food from scratch for so many people.

Fallow Venison Rump

A 0.39kg rump of wild Chiltern fallow from Sandy Lane Farm.

This was a pyrex and microwave triumph.

In largst pyrex season with salt (half teaspoon), pepper, sage, rosemary and marjoram, (forgot thyme), two crushed cloves of garlic and three tablespoons of virgin olive oil, juice of half a lemon. Marinated for an hour. Meat already defrosted and at room temperature.

Boiled nice potatoes, decanted to pyrex and added butter.

Microwaved chestnut mushrooms with butter.

Sear joint in hot sunflower oil.

Next time put pyrex into oven at this point.

Put seared joint into pyrex, with lid on, at 200°C for 20 minutes.

Microwaved chopped carrots with butter.

Microwaved half a conical cabbage, cur longitudinally into three sixths.

Microwaved sweet stemmed broccoli with butter.

Ensure everything is hot by reheating as necessary.