Tuesday 8 April 2008

Day eight-Silver footsteps and Crunchy Thai gorse salad-Dorset

“Does the road wind up-hill, all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day’s journey take the whole day?
From morn to night my friend.”

Christina Rossetti

I went for a stomp today before the rest of the camp site was even stirring. The birds were shouting singing, full gusto. Exalting the day.

Jack frost visited during our wakeful night, and a new carpet of frosty flowers lay under my feet. Jigsaw puzzle footprints tracking my way. Stepping stones on the silver grass.

Our day’s journey may well take us the whole day today as we are venturing forth to rest our weary heads at a B&B in Cornwall tonight. At the start of our journey we decided to spend a night at a B&B once every week so we could all soak our weary toes in a hot bath.
Amazingly for one who was born in the West Country, I’ve never been to Cornwall, yet Jason a London boy has.

He gave me a pocket full of glowing, mustard yellow Gorse flowers last night. A gift more welcome than a dozen red roses. Mainly because they are edible and I’m always considering and relishing my next foodie feast or treat.

Gorse flowers are abundant at the moment and have an extremely surprising fragrance and taste. Seriously similar to green bananas and coconut. This lends themselves to be used in all manner of Thai inspired dishes.

Recipe for Crunchy Thai gorse salad. Adapted from a recipe from Abel and Cole.

Mix 2 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice with 2 teaspoons sugar or honey and 3/4 teaspoon salt, until dissolved. Whisk in 1 tablespoon of salad oil. In a large bowl combine 300g finely shredded cabbage (about 5 handfuls, green or red) with 1 thinly sliced medium red onion, 2 medium grated carrots, 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander leaves. Add a handful of rinsed gorse flowers. Drizzle the vinaigrette over and toss until well combined. Beautiful.

You can adapt this recipe to include more wild greens such as bittercress and that wild salad staple chickweed. Leave a blog comment and share your Chrundy Thai Gorse salad experiments.

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