Wild about garlic

We popped to see a friend earlier this week, for a quick catch up. She was working in her garden, so we didn’t stay long. She has a beautiful little cottage garden and potager, nestled underneath some fruit trees - a peach, plum and apple - in a quiet oasis in the middle of Essoyes. If you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t give it a second glance, but we were passing, and her gate was open, so we popped our heads in to say ‘bonjour’.

It was lovely to see her, and as we were leaving she asked “Would you like some salad?”. Never one to say no, I nodded appreciatively, “Oui, merci”. She headed off to her little greenhouse on the side to cut me a couple of lettuces. “How about some parsley?” She asked, “Yes please”. “And sorrel, you can have it with fish, I also have some wild garlic, it makes a great pesto”. She quickly gathered me up a bag of delicious freshly grown goodies. My mind was now working overtime on what could I make with them.

We were having pan fried salmon for dinner, so I decided to make a salsa verde, as the ingredients were just perfect.

Wild garlic (150g)

12 leaves of sorrel

2 handfuls of parsley

1 jar of capers (drained)

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

a good few glugs of olive oil, and

Salt to taste.

I whizzed it all together, and put half in the freezer (I want to see if it will freeze), the rest I will serve tonight for our guests. I will add a bit of lemon zest before serving for an extra little zing.

It went very well with the poached salmon and fresh asparagus.