Recipe: Wild Nettle soup

Nettles can be found from spring to early summer, they are a great source of calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, cobalt, copper, potassium, trace minerals, chlorophyll, the B-complex vitamins, and more.

Not only do they benifit your health they are also good fun to harvest and cook with. Ensure you follow two simple rules when harvesting, only pick the tender tops of the nettles and more importantly ensure you wear gloves, the nettles will carry the sting until cooked, remember this when you go to chop them for the following recipe.

Ingredients
1 200g packet of smoked Pancetta
1 white onion diced
4 leaves wild garlic
4 handfuls nettles (remove all stems)
600ml vegetable stock
4 small potatoes diced
2 TBSP double cream

Method
In a little oil pan fry the Pancetta
Add the onion and fry until tender
Add the potato and garlic and cook slowly
Chop the nettles and add to the pan, add the stock also
Bring to the boil and simmer for 8 minutes
Blend with a stick blender, Sieve the soup
Add the cream and serve.

Recipe: Scallops with tomato salad

Ingredients
One Mango
200g Diced Pancetta
150g Salad leaves
12 cherry plum tomatoes
12 Scallops
1 Tablespoon sesame seed oil
1 Small diced chilli
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
Juice and Zest one lemon
Seasoning

Method
Peel the mango and dice
Shallow fry the Pancetta until crisp, drain on kitchen towel to remove excess fat
In a bowl mix the salad leaves, tomatoes and Pancetta
Season the salad remebering the Pancetta is salty already
Pan fry the scallops in the sesame oil
Add the chilli, juice and zest of the lemon and fish sauce
Remove the scallops from the pan
Bring the cooking juices to the boil
Place your salad on a plate and top with the scallops, dress with the cooking juices.

Recipe: My beef stock

For the stock
Two carrots chopped
Two sticks of celery chopped
Two cloves of garlic peeled
Two onions chopped
One leek washed and chopped
100g parsley
25g thyme
25g rosemary
1.5kg beef bones
3 tablespoons of tomato purée
300ml red wine
Cold water
25g pancetta rind chopped
Vegetable oil

Method
Place the bones into a roasting tin and brown in a preheated oven at 250c until coloured but not burnt. Meanwhile, in a large pan, colour the vegetables, herbs and pancetta in a little oil. When the bones are ready, remove them from the roasting tin, shake off any excess oil and add them to the vegetables.
Stir in the tomato purée , add the red wine and water, use enough to cover the bones. Bring to the boil, turn down to a rolling boil and reduce by two- thirds, skim the stock every 20 minutes. Once reduced pass the stock through a fine sieve, allow to cool and store in a fridge until required.
The stock can be kept for up to five days, you can freeze the stock if you wish to keep it longer, freeze it in ice-cube trays for easy portion control.