Last Updated on May 31, 2024
It’s wild garlic season again. Last year I was lucky enough to be in Boscastle, Cornwall where the wild garlic grows prolifically along the hedgerows and I feasted on wild garlic risotto, pasta dishes with wild garlic pesto and more! I did bring plenty home and filled the freezer with wild garlic pesto and wild garlic butter to use throughout the year. And, I searched online and found that I could buy wild garlic bulbs to plant in the garden. It’s one of those delicious treats that, in London in particular, can be really expensive to buy so I ordered a pack and planted them out.
This year I’ve been rewarded with a little cluster of precious leaves to use and I picked the first batch last weekend along with kale, cavola nero and sprouting broccoli growing further to the rear of the garden. There’s nothing quite like cooking with your own homegrown vegetables and the savings from my pick-your-own efforts let me indulge in special treats like the Chalkfarm trout I used for this recipe for fish in wild garlic.
Chalkstream trout is farmed fish but done so sustainably and ethically. It comes from the Test and Itchen Rivers of Hampshire where the fish is slow grown over a two year period in chalk stream water to produce the finest rainbow trout. It is beautifully complemented by the delicate notes of wild garlic – and really doesn’t need any complicated preparation. You can see from the photo below what beautiful muscle tone the fish has.
That’s the result of careful cultivation – even though the trout is farmed, it is encouraged to swim, just as it would do in the wild. That said, this recipe would work well with salmon or firm white fish (cod, hake, halibut or turbot for instance). Lemon, butter, salt and pepper are the only other ingredients you’ll need.
If you want to try it for yourself, the recipe is below. As I mentioned, you could substitute salmon or any firm white fish if you can’t get hold of Chalkstream trout.
I served my fish in wild garlic on a bed of steamed garden greens and just stirred through the buttery garlicky juices from the foil into the greens. So, although this may seem a little indulgent, the reality is that all I bought was the fish, salt and pepper and a little butter. Everything else was ‘free from the garden’, though I didn’t have enough of any one of the vegetables to cook them alone. I also stirred the wild garlic leaves into the steamed vegetables, though that’s very much a matter of taste and you might find the end result too garlicky!
Fish wrapped in wild garlic
Equipment
- 1 square foil or parchment
- 1 ovenproof baking tray
Ingredients
- 1/4 medium lemon
- 200 g Chalkstream trout or fish of your choice
- 15 g butter
- 8-10 wild garlic leaves
- 1 portion leafy green vegetables of your choice
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 170C (fan) or 180C (conventional)
- Wash and prepare the green vegetables and wild garlic
- Spread half the butter onto the foil
- Season with salt and pepper
- Place half the wild garlic leaves onto the butter, then put the fish on top, service side up
- Butter the fish and season well
- Wrap the leaves around the fish and press into the butter if you can
- Top the fish with the remaining wild garlic leaves
- Crimp the foil to make an airtight parcel. Try to allow a little space so the fish can steam in the oven
- Put the parcel on your baking tray and place in the oven
- Meanwhile bring a little water to the boil in a small pan
- Add the green vegetables and steam for 5 minutes. Drain and cover till the fish is cooked
- Carefully unwrap the fish and tip the juices into the green vegetables. You can add the wild garlic leaves too if you like. Stir to mix
- Put the green vegetables into a shallow bowl and top with the fish and a wedge of lemon
An easy and delicious way to use all that wild garlic!