Thursday 5 May 2011

Ramsons Pesto

Ramsons is a type of green leaf wild garlic, related to chives. It's generally found throughout the Northern half of Europe. It's first evidence of human use is from a mesolithic settlement in Jutland. You generally have to go foraging for it yourself if you want it fresh as it's just started to undergo a revival in recent years, but I have seen it for sale in Føtex this week.

I've heard Claus Meyer call rapeseed oil the olive oil of the North - Yes, I do know he's somewhat of a pretentious git. I don't know how much he is aware that rapeseed oil, better known as canola oil to most English speakers, is actually a Canadian product. Wild rapeseed contains the toxin erucic acid and experimentation in Canada in the 1970s produced a rapeseed that was safe for human consumption. The name Canola comes from Canadian oil, low acid. It also sounds nicer than rapeseed oil.

Tusind tak for ramsløg, Rasmus!



Ramsons Pesto
makes about 100ml

40g fresh ramsons leaves
zest of 1/2 lemon
15 whole almonds
3 tbsp/60ml rapeseed oil
sea salt
black pepper

Wash ramsons well.
Process almonds until roughly ground.
Add zest, ramsons.
Process until roughly chopped.
Add oil little by little until desired consistency.
Season with salt and pepper.

5 comments:

  1. Brilliant, so glad you have posted a recipe for this! I saw loads of it when we were out for a walk the other day, and I wondered what you could do with it! I also saw it in the shops, why would you buy it when you can just pick it?!? Emma :)

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  2. I think some people might be scared because there's at least 2 other poisonous, sometimes fatally, plants that look scarily similar or they just don't have any luck! Also there's the 'convenience' thing.

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  3. Hey there!
    Tell me if I am losing my mind, but didn't you move out of DK for a while?? Or did I dream that? :-) Saw your comment today and wondered if that meant you were back??

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  4. Kelli, I didn't move out of Denmark, I was kicked out. I had no choice but to go to the UK for several months. I couldn't afford to go to Australia with 2 weeks notice, and especially not if I wanted to be together with my husband. I came back to Denmark when I could under the Schengen Convention, after that I had no choice but to apply under EU rules because there is no way that I could ever be allowed to stay in Denmark under Danish rules. Before we left the only problem was my age and when we got back the points system had come in. I'm 23. I don't have a university education - I finished high school and didn't know what I wanted to do so I decided to just work and go travelling until I figured it out. My French language skills are too poor to be able to have them count as extra points. I don't have any money. I don't speak enough Danish - the whole time I was here I wasn't eligible for classes so I've been having to teach myself by immersion and that certainly doesn't happen overnight.

    In short, yes and I've been back for almost 6 months now.

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  5. Kære Amagervegetar,

    Jeg beklager, at jeg skriver det her som en kommentar: Jeg har forsøgt at kontakte dig, men har ikke kunnet finde kontaktoplysninger her på bloggen. Du er blevet nomineret til FDB's konkurrence, Danmarks bedste madblogger. Den kan du læse mere om her: www.viskalspise.dk/madblogger

    Jeg ville gerne kontakte dig for at høre, om du vil være med i konkurrencen. Du kan læse det brev, jeg gerne ville have sendt dig her: http://www.fdb.dk/Medieliste/Download/Dokumenter/nominering.pdf

    Du må endelig slette kommentaren, hvis du har lyst.

    Mvh
    Henrik Harder, FDB

    ReplyDelete