Atomic Shrimp - Tag - Highland2023-02-01T12:10:35+00:00urn:md5:c0b98cd55ab1d3c468ecdbd19e8bc1dbDotclearJuniperurn:md5:90d5a8dce9bae2e84250deaa566cd3502010-12-28T19:06:00+00:002015-01-24T19:16:41+00:00MikeFoodForagingHighlandSummer<p><img alt="juniperthumb.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/j/juniperthumb.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="juniperthumb.JPG, Aug 2010" />In the last few days of this year (2010), I decided to make use of some Juniper berries that I picked whilst on holiday in Scotland back in the summer.</p> <h3 class="clearleft">What Is Juniper?</h3>
<p><i>Juniperus communis.</i> A prickly, wiry little coniferous tree or shrub that grows on exposed heaths and hilltops and in open woods in highland regions.</p>
<p><img alt="juniper1.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/j/juniper1.JPG" style="margin: 0 auto; display: block;" title="juniper1.JPG, Aug 2010" /></p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="juniper2.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/j/juniper2.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="juniper2.JPG, Aug 2010" />It's one of only three conifer species truly native to the British Isles, the other two being Yew and Scots Pine.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="juniper3.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/j/juniper3.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="juniper3.JPG, Aug 2010" />The plant is probably most easily recognised by the fruits, which are not true berries by botanical definition, but are fleshy seed cones. I'm not a botanist, so I think I'll carry on calling them berries.</p>
<p>They're about 4 to 10mm in diameter, hard and green while they develop, ripening after about 18 months to dark purple or black, with a waxy bloom that makes them look blue.</p>
<p>This extended ripening period means it is usually possible to find at least some ripe berries at any time of the year, especially as the plant may be found in a number of different local microclimates, such as sheltered hollows and against south-facing rocky outcrops</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="juniper4.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/j/juniper4.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="juniper4.JPG, Aug 2010" />I picked about a handful of berries - they have an aroma that is a blend of resinous, herbal and citrus notes.</p>
<p>They're very easy to preserve - just left alone in a thin layer in an open container like this, they dry out in a week or so, shrivelling a little, but retaining most of their flavour.</p>
<p>Once dried, they can be stored in an airtight jar practically indefinitely.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="juniper5.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/j/juniper5.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="juniper5.JPG, Dec 2010" />The most famous use of juniper berries is in providing the main flavour component of Gin. I don't run a distillery though, and the gin I buy comes already juniper-flavoured, so I'll be using my juniper berries for cooking.</p>
<p>Here, I've used about a dozen of them, crushed, for slow-cooking a piece of post-Christmas gammon - along with water and some leftover Cava.</p>
<p>That might seem like a lot of juniper, but these wild berries are quite small. If I was using the large ones from the shops, I'd probably only put in three or four of them.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="juniper6.JPG" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/j/juniper6.JPG" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="juniper6.JPG, Dec 2010" />After five hours in the slow cooker, I glazed the meat with a mixture of cranberry sauce (another leftover from the Christmas table) and wholegrain mustard.</p>
<p>After half an hour in a moderate oven, the glaze caramelised and reduced to a sweet, sticky and delicious coating. This started out as a very ordinary and cheap bit of gammon, but with a little care and attention, it ends up as something quite special. The juniper aroma is present as a sort of warm, foresty spiciness, which balances the salt meat and sweet glaze quite delightfully.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Picking Juniper Berries</h3>
<p>Let's face it - this is one of those activities where the fingers are going to suffer - just like picking blackberries or gorse flowers,</p>
<p>It's too fiddly to be done with gloves on, and the plants are too prickly, and the berries too closely-borne on the stems to be able to pick any quantity of them in a reasonable time without getting pricked and barbed in the fingertips.</p>
<p>I view this as just something to be embraced. The joy of finding and eating wild foods sometimes comes packaged with a little effort or pain. I'm not a masochist, so I don't enjoy the pain itself, but I do feel that by contrast, it intensifies the pleasure and enjoyment of the wild harvest.</p>
<p>I could just have bought some juniper berries in a shop (and there's nothing wrong with that), but would they have been so special? I doubt it. These were not only suffused with flavour, but also with special memories of my time spent picking them in the Highlands of Scotland.</p>
<h3>Highland Wild Food</h3>
<p>This article is one of a series on wild foodstuffs foraged on holiday in the Wester Ross area of the Scottish Highlands in 2010 - click the 'Highland' tag in the side column to see the others...</p>Highland Wild Food Foragingurn:md5:7ad2c8e2f8013e0d93a88181b3e82db02010-08-28T13:53:00+00:002015-03-24T21:29:36+00:00MikeFoodForagingHighlandPlaces<p><img alt="highlandwildfoodthumb.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfoodthumb.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfoodthumb.jpg, Aug 2010" />My partiality for wild foods is especially stimulated when I travel and enjoy the opportunity to find new things to eat. This year, we spent a week in the Highlands of Scotland</p> <h3 class="clearleft">First Things First</h3>
<p>Before we start looking at some of the wild foods I found and ate (or not), I've got to say a few things about the location, and the accommodation.</p>
<p>We stayed in a sensitively-modernised crofters cottage, right on the shore of Loch Ewe, on the Gairloch Peninsula. That's pretty much the northwest corner of Scotland - a bit of a trek to get there, but as we hoped, very much worth the trip. The landscape and scenery in the area is breathtakingly beautiful in a way that's hard to describe or capture in photographs.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="highlandwildfood1.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood1.jpg" style="margin: 0 auto; display: block;" title="highlandwildfood1.jpg, Aug 2010" /></p>
<p>The cottage itself was quite perfect - cosy, with an honest traditional feel, but with ample room and modern comforts, including (big win, for me) a very well equipped, spacious kitchen. Situated on a croft with direct access to the rocky seashore - a perfect base for my favourite kinds of interesting exploration.</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Coille Bheag</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/.highlandwildfood2_m.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2.jpg, Aug 2010" />The place is called <a href="http://www.coillebheag.com/">Coille Bheag</a> - and I highly recommend it (I promise they're not paying me to say so) - check out the link above for more pictures and details of this excellent self-catering holiday accomodation and more about the surrounding location.</p>
<h3>For The Wild Food Fanatic</h3>
<p>The Wester Ross area is a great destination for the wild food fan - the ratio of people to land area is small - so there's no fierce competition with other foragers for precious finds such as wild mushrooms.</p>
<p>There's no shortage of rainfall and fresh water, which helps to ensure abundant pickings of berries and wild greens.</p>
<p>And the beaches are clean and the seas unpolluted - so finding safe shellfish and other marine wildfoods isn't a matter of pot luck.</p>
<p>Of course, as well as the wild foods that the individual enthusiast can forage, commercially-caught local wild fish and shellfish, great fresh local produce and Scottish speciality foods are all readily available.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Weather Worries</h3>
<p>The weather is pretty unpredictable across the whole of the British Isles - and Scotland is no exception - on top of that, weather in the Highlands can be extreme. With that in mind, we prepared ourselves to get out and about even if it was wet and windy - but as it turned out, most days of our holiday were mild and dry with sunny spells - with a real scorcher in the middle of the week.</p>
<h3>What About The Midges?</h3>
<p>Whenever we told anyone we were going to the north west of Scotland, they mentioned the midges - and as I understand it, the Highland Midge is indeed troublesome in some areas - we only had one damp, windless day when we noticed them biting a lot - and that only lasted five minutes until we wiped ourselves with cheap insect repellant.</p>
<p>It probably helped that we were on a sea loch, but even when we went inland into the woods and glens, we didn't really have much trouble with the midges. And even when they do bite, it's a momentary and minor irritation, not at all like the bite of a mosquito.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">On With The Show</h3>
<p>Anyway - most of the wild food items I enjoyed are written up in their own articles - click the 'Highland' tag in the right column to see them all or follow the links below</p>
<h2>Winkles</h2>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="highlandwildfood2_1.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_1.jpg, Aug 2010" />Abundant, large winkles can be found all around the coast - especially on the very rocky bits.</p>
<p>I gathered and cooked a few handfuls of these for a lunchtime starter and ate them with vinegar and pepper - they were great.</p>
<p>For a bit more detail on this once-popular mollusc, <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/06/12/Winkles">here's a link</a> to a previous page on the subject (when I ate them at Lulworth Cove).</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Mussels</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_2.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_2.jpg, Aug 2010" />Huge clusters of mussels were in evidence on the rocks well below the tideline, including some really big ones.</p>
<p>I gathered a big pile of these and they were good - although there was an interesting surprise in store - details <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/08/22/Mussels">here</a>.</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Wild Mushrooms</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_3.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_3.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_3.jpg, Aug 2010" />The damp forest floors were great for wild mushrooms, like this excellent Chanterelle.</p>
<p>I found many other species, including <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2008/09/14/Amethyst-Deceiver">Amethyst Deceivers</a> (link to previous article).</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Berries</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_4.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_4.jpg, Aug 2010" />Bilberries (known in Scotland as Blaeberries) were mostly finished by the time of our visit, but I managed to find a few handfuls on a rocky ledge by a waterfall.</p>
<p>In the woods, <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/08/20/Raspberries">raspberries</a> were everywhere and to my surprise and delight I also found some wild <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/08/25/Wild-Blackcurrants">blackcurrant plants</a> with lots of ripe fruit on them.</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Cockles</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_5.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_5.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_5.jpg, Aug 2010" />My son, David, was digging in the sand and came across a couple of these completely by accident - enormous, fat <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/08/26/Cockles">cockles</a>.</p>
<p>We rummaged about nearby and in no time, had gathered enough for a hearty meal.</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Seaweed</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_6.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_6.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_6.jpg, Aug 2010" />It may look pretty unpromising - and the common name ('floating gutweed') even worse, but this common <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/08/27/Seaweed-Enteromorpha-Intestinalis">seaweed </a>- found mainly in rock pools toward the high tide mark - is edible and tasty.</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Juniper</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_7.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_7.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_7.jpg, Aug 2010" />On a rocky hilltop in woodland near the shores of Loch Maree, I found some juniper trees - one with lots of ripe berries on it.</p>
<p>I didn't eat these during the holiday, as they are a spice more than a wild food, but I brought a handful home - where I dried them and later used some of them to flavour a piece of <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/12/28/Juniper">Christmas gammon</a>.</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Razor Clams</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_9.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_9.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_9.jpg, Aug 2010" />I'd love to be able to report that I found and ate some of these highly-prized molluscs - I know they were there, because I found a lot of their shells.</p>
<p>I looked long and hard for them in the fine sand at low tide, but came up empty-handed.</p>
<p>Maybe the tide wasn't quite low enough, or maybe I wasn't looking in quite the right places - but sadly, I didn't get to eat any of these.</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Pine Needles</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_10.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_10.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_10.jpg, Aug 2010" />I've long known that pine needles could be crushed and steeped in hot water to make a refreshing drink.</p>
<p>In Scotland, pine trees (Scots Pine) were everywhere - I picked some needles from a tree near Flowerdale Falls to make pine needle tea. (Sorry, there's no separate article to link to about this).</p>
<h2 class="clearleft">Limpets</h2>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_11.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_11.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_11.jpg, Aug 2010" />There were lots of limpets on the rocks on every beach - I've eaten these before (tasty, but very chewy).</p>
<p>I took this opportunity to experiment with tenderising them by long slow cooking - the details and results are <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/08/25/Limpets-Another-Try">here</a>.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Fortune Favours The Prepared</h3>
<p><img alt="highlandwildfood2_8.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/h/highlandwildfood2_8.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="highlandwildfood2_8.jpg, Aug 2010" />On previous holidays, I've been caught out by lack of proper ingredients and seasonings for my wild food ventures - so this time I decided to take a kit containing salt, pepper, spices, stock cubes, herbs, seasonings, mustard, honey, cornflour, soy sauce, vinegar and a few other things - as well as larger amounts of butter, flour and sugar.</p>
<p>(As you can see, I took my own advice on the choice of containers - and used some of the little plastic pods from inside <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2009/08/31/A-Dozen-Uses-For-Kinder-Surprise-Egg-Prize-Pods">Kinder eggs</a>).</p>
<p>Not knowing what would be available at the cottage, I also took my largest saucepan and my cast iron skillet - this turned out to be mostly unnecessary, as the kitchen was very well equipped - although the skillet was useful as I took it out with me to cook my wild mushrooms over a portable stove, straight after gathering them.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Only Scratching The Surface</h3>
<p>Our week in the Highlands was highly enjoyable, but it was all over too fast - we've brought back lots of memories and photos from our holiday, but I know we've hardly scratched the surface of what this beautiful place has to offer - both in terms of wild food and general holiday enjoyment.</p>
<p>I guess we'll just have to go back sometime...</p>
<p class="clearleft"> </p>Cocklesurn:md5:2c3f8ef96d37c1ce019b0372d97d4e2e2010-08-26T23:47:00+00:002015-01-21T21:25:12+00:00MikeFoodForagingHighlandInvertebratesSeashore<p><img alt="cocklesthumb.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/c/cocklesthumb.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="cocklesthumb.jpg, Aug 2010" />While enjoying a sunny day on the beach at a sandy bay in Gairloch, on holiday in the Highlands of Scotland, we stumbled upon some cockles completely by accident.</p> <p class="clearleft"><i>Cerastoderma edule</i> - the Common Cockle is a small bivalve mollusc that lives shallowly buried in sand, mud or gravel throughout most of Northern Europe - certainly all around the UK.</p>
<p>They feed by extending tube-like siphons to the surface of the sand and filtering suspended particles of food (such as plankton) from the water in which they live - for this reason, they are prone to accumulating toxins and pollutants - so they should only be gathered from clean, unpolluted waters, away from outfalls and densely populated areas.</p>
<p><img alt="cockles0.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/c/cockles0.jpg" style="margin: 0 auto; display: block;" title="cockles0.jpg, Aug 2010" /></p>
<p>The shell is radially ridged - and I believe the darker circular bands on the shells may be annual growth marks - perhaps representing a period of slow shell deposition in winter. They have a muscular foot which they can extend from the shell to move themselves around in the substrate, or to dig themselves back in if they are uncovered by waves.</p>
<p><img alt="cockles1.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/c/cockles1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="cockles1.jpg, Aug 2010" />The location was a beautiful, clean, unspoilt sandy beach at Gairloch, Wester Ross.</p>
<p>This is what it looks like, on a busy day.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="cockles2.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/c/cockles2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="cockles2.jpg, Aug 2010" />I wasn't looking for cockles at all - I was picking some mussels off the rocks (the larger ones I'd eaten a day or two before had mussel pearls in them - I wanted to see if the smaller ones were better for the table).</p>
<p>My son, David, was rummaging about in the sand - as boys do - and suddenly exclaimed "Hey Dad! Look at this!"</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="cockles3.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/c/cockles3.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="cockles3.jpg, Aug 2010" />In his hand, he was holding a quite large and obviously live and healthy cockle.</p>
<p>He dug again and straight away, came up with a couple more. I stopped what I was doing and joined him - just combing through the sand at the water's edge as the tide came in.</p>
<p>In the space of ten minutes, we had gathered several kilos of the shellfish - including some quite large ones.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="cockles4.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/c/cockles4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="cockles4.jpg, Aug 2010" />Staying in a holiday cottage right on the shore of a sea loch was perfect here - when we returned home, I filled a bucket with clear seawater and put the cockles in it to rest - they opened up and started siphoning - expelling some grit and sand in the process.</p>
<p>I left them in there overnight, then changed the water in the morning and left them in the shade until lunchtime.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="cockles5.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/c/cockles5.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="cockles5.jpg, Aug 2010" />I drained the cockles and rinsed them under the tap.</p>
<p>These were gathered from a really clean beach, so unlike the cockles back at home, should not require unreasonably extended cooking (a good thing too, as it renders them worthless for the table).</p>
<p>I cooked an onion with some paprika and herbs in a big stockpot, then turned up the heat and added the cockles and a splash of dry cider.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="cockles6.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/c/cockles6.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="cockles6.jpg, Aug 2010" />In a few minutes, they were done - the shells popped open and some of the cockle meats inside came loose and fell out.</p>
<p>They're certainly not going to win any beauty contests, but what they lack in appeal to the eye, they more than make up for in flavour and tenderness - I ate them with a few little splashes of vinegar and some pepper - they were fat, succulent and tender - sweet and delicious - with a flavour to rival the mussels I ate along with them.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Highland Wild Food</h3>
<p style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">This article is one of a series on wild foodstuffs foraged on holiday in the Wester Ross area of the Scottish Highlands in 2010 - click the 'Highland' tag in the side column to see others in the series.</p>Limpets - Another Tryurn:md5:65531338a12e70b8b7cda0e84537bf252010-08-25T22:31:00+00:002015-01-12T22:46:52+00:00MikeFoodForagingHighlandSeashoreSummer<p><img alt="limpets2thumb.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/l/.limpets2thumb_t.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="limpets2thumb.jpg, Aug 2010" />In a previous article, I speculated that it might be possible to cook limpets long and slow, to tenderise them - my holiday in the Highlands of Scotland in August 2010 offered the perfect opportunity to test this hypothesis.</p> <p class="clearleft">On the rocks at Firemore Sands on the Gairloch Peninsula, I found some large specimens.</p>
<p><img alt="limpets2_1.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/l/limpets2_1.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="limpets2_1.jpg, Aug 2010" />Clearly these molluscs are a few years old, as some of them were heavily encrusted with barnacles - others had long strands of seaweed anchored to their deeply conical shells.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="limpets2_2.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/l/limpets2_2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="limpets2_2.jpg, Aug 2010" />I gathered a few limpets in a flexible plastic box.</p>
<p>(If you put them in a rigid bucket, they can clamp onto the inside surfaces and may be very difficult to dislodge).</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="limpets2_3.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/l/limpets2_3.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="limpets2_3.jpg, Aug 2010" />I boiled the limpets to remove them from their shells, then trimmed away the muscular foot from the sac containing the internal organs</p>
<p>in most of the limpets, as well as the dark-coloured gut, there was a large creamy-orange organ with a spongy texture like chicken liver.</p>
<p>I assume this must be a gonad - and would probably be very good eating (but that experiment can wait until another occasion).</p>
<p>I also sliced open the heads of the limpets and removed radulae(tongues), as they are gristly and the ends are tipped with gritty scales - I can't imagine them being pleasant to eat.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="limpets2_4.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/l/limpets2_4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="limpets2_4.jpg, Aug 2010" />I simmered the prepared limpets in the slow cooker along with some onions, garlic, herbs, paprika, tomato paste, stock and dry cider (I'd have used wine, but had none to hand).</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="limpets2_5.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/l/limpets2_5.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="limpets2_5.jpg, Aug 2010" />About 6 or 7 hours later, the dish smelled really rather tasty, but sadly, the limpets were still really tough.</p>
<p>They had become noticeably more meaty and less rubbery, but they were still very chewy to eat - with a texture like cheap, badly-cooked steak.</p>
<p>The flavour had suffered in the long cooking and was pretty ordinary (although the cooking liquor would probably now make a fine stock for Paella or something.</p>
<p>So... I've still yet to find a way to make limpets truly palatable - it has been suggested that I mince them finely, but I can't help thinking that's going to be like eating that rubbery tarmac substitute they put down at children's playgrounds.</p>
<p>Maybe the par-boiled limpets can be ground very finely and then brought back together like surimi ('crab sticks'), but maybe it's all just too much effort. Limpets spend nearly all their lives clamped hard onto rocks - I think that muscle is just too well-toned to be cooked tender.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Highland Wild Food</h3>
<p>This article is one of a series on wild foodstuffs foraged on holiday in the Wester Ross area of the Scottish Highlands in 2010 - click the 'Highland' tag in the side column to see others in the series.</p>Wild Blackcurrantsurn:md5:6af6579303edf93c82360873d261ac9d2010-08-25T22:31:00+00:002015-01-28T22:40:24+00:00MikeBerriesFoodForagingHighlandSummer<p><img alt="blackcurrantsthumb.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/b/blackcurrantsthumb.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="blackcurrantsthumb.jpg, Aug 2010" />During a very productive foraging walk in Flowerdale Forest, Wester Ross, in a damp and shady wooded area, we came across a number of blackcurrant bushes in full fruit.</p> <h3 class="clearleft">What Are Blackcurrants?</h3>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="blackcurrants1.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/b/blackcurrants1.jpg" style="margin: 0 auto; display: block;" title="blackcurrants1.jpg, Aug 2010" /></p>
<p><i>Ribes nigrum</i> - a shrubby plant of wooded places, hedges and thickets, with tough wiry stems and downy or bristly light green leaves that may be slightly sticky or clammy to touch, with a resinous, musky aroma.</p>
<p>The berries, which may be glossy purple-black or covered in blue-white waxy bloom, are borne on long stalks that hang straight down from the stems - so they're not always immediately visible without rummaging a bit amongst the leaves.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="blackcurrants2.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/b/blackcurrants2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="blackcurrants2.jpg, Aug 2010" />When the berries are fully ripe, they should be very slightly yielding to the touch and should detach from the stalks easily.</p>
<p>There is usually a brownish tuft at the blossom end - this is the remains of the flower, and is best removed before cooking/eating them - it's easy to just pluck off using the fingernails.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="blackcurrants3.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/b/blackcurrants3.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="blackcurrants3.jpg, Aug 2010" />I picked a mixture of raspberries, bilberries (locally known as blaeberries) and blackcurrants.</p>
<p>Ideally, I'd have picked the different types of fruit into separate containers, but I only had one with me on the walk, so I had to sort out the blackcurrants from the mixture on returning back to the holiday cottage.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="blackcurrants4.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/b/blackcurrants4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="blackcurrants4.jpg, Aug 2010" />Adding just a tiny splash of water and some sugar (about half the weight of the berries) to a pan, I simmered the berries gently.</p>
<p>About five minutes later, the berries had softened, burst and released lots of deep purple juice, which had formed a light syrup with the sugar. I took the pan off the heat before the blackcurrants completely broke down to pulp.</p>
<p>I made some scones (recipe <a href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/08/25/st/content/scones">here</a>).</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="blackcurrants5.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/b/blackcurrants5.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="blackcurrants5.jpg, Aug 2010" />I served the raspberries and bilberries fresh and raw on whipped double cream on the oven-fresh scone, with the warm blackcurrant compote spooned over the top.</p>
<p>In case it isn't abundantly obvious... this was remarkably good to eat. A Wild food triumph!</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Highland Wild Food</h3>
<p>This article is one of a series on wild foodstuffs foraged on holiday in the Wester Ross area of the Scottish Highlands in 2010 - click the 'Highland' tag in the side column to see some of the others.</p>Musselsurn:md5:f8606ea85fd671d36a3038bc5ad020af2010-08-22T15:01:00+00:002015-01-31T15:13:01+00:00MikeFoodForagingHighlandSeashore<p><img alt="musselsthumb.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/m/musselsthumb.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="musselsthumb.jpg, Aug 2010" />On my holiday in the Highlands of Scotland, I found huge clusters of mussels on the rocks well below the tideline, including some really big ones.</p> <h3 class="clearleft">What Are Mussels?</h3>
<p><img alt="mussels1.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/m/mussels1.jpg" style="margin: 0 auto; display: block;" title="mussels1.jpg, Aug 2010" /></p>
<p class="clearleft"><i>Mytilus edulis</i> - the common or blue mussel is a bivalve mollusc that is found most commonly attached to rocks or other objects well below the tideline.</p>
<p>They feed by filtering suspended particles of food (such as plankton) from the water in which they live - for this reason, they are prone to accumulating toxins and pollutants - so they should only be gathered from clean, unpolluted waters, away from outfalls and densely populated areas.</p>
<p><img alt="mussels2.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/m/mussels2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="mussels2.jpg, Aug 2010" />I gathered a couple of kilos of mussels - I went for the really big ones (which turned out to be a mistake - but an interesting one - read on).</p>
<p>They were heavily encrusted with barnacles, which I scraped off with my oyster knife, which has a really stout blade that isn't so razor sharp as to present a hazard to the fingers.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Muscular</h3>
<p><img alt="mussels3.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/m/mussels3.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="mussels3.jpg, Aug 2010" />These are the biggest, strongest-looking mussels I've ever seen.</p>
<p>Now to cook them...</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="mussels4.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/m/mussels4.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="mussels4.jpg, Aug 2010" />I finely diced a small onion, some red pepper and a couple of cloves of garlic, then gently simmered this with a little oil and some herbs in a large pan.</p>
<p>Once the onion had softened, I turned the heat right up, tipped in the mussels and added some dry cider and put the lid on (white wine would have been my preference, but I had none to hand).</p>
<p>I gave the pan a shake every minute or so to make sure they all got evenly cooked.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="mussels5.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/m/mussels5.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="mussels5.jpg, Aug 2010" />In just a few minutes, they were done - evidenced by the shells all popping open.</p>
<p>And they were delicious. The traditional way to eat them is to use an empty pair of shells like tweezers to pick the meat out of the others.</p>
<p>They need little or no additional seasoning - as they contain quite a bit of salty juice when cooked - this combines with the other ingredients to make a tasty broth which is good mopped up with crusty bread.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">A Surprise</h3>
<p><img alt="mussels6.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/m/mussels6.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="mussels6.jpg, Aug 2010" />They were somewhat gritty to eat though.</p>
<p>At first, I thought this must just be pieces of environmental grit they had accumulated, but it wasn't.</p>
<p>It was mussel pearls. Loads of them.</p>
<p>Oh, they're worthless, of course. The largest of them is maybe 4mm across and they're not as lustrous (nor, I suspect, as durable) as oyster pearls, but still, they're quite pretty and interesting.</p>
<h3 class="clearleft">Mussel Pearls</h3>
<p>The pearls were all found embedded in the mantle of the mussels (the bit that appears as an orange outer covering when you're eating them.</p>
<p>They're formed when the mantle is injured or invaded by a microscopic parasite, or (only occasionally, contrary to popular belief) when a grain of sand or grit gets stuck. The animal responds by secreting layers of shell or shell lining material and these build up to form the rounded shape of the pearl.</p>
<p>It stands to reason that the longer the mussel lives, the more likely it is that this will occur - so the huge specimens I gathered were probably not the best candidates for the pot - I verified this by picking some smaller, younger mussels later in the week - and I found these to be almost completely free of grit.</p>
<h3>Highland Wild Food</h3>
<p>This article is one of a series on wild foodstuffs foraged on holiday in the Wester Ross area of the Scottish Highlands in 2010 - click on the Highland tag in the side column to see others in the series.</p>Raspberriesurn:md5:90a57ef372adf66da9c3135e61dcb3782010-08-20T15:00:00+00:002015-03-24T21:18:54+00:00MikeBerriesFoodForagingHedgerowsHighlandSummer<p><img alt="raspberriesthumb.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/r/raspberriesthumb.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="raspberriesthumb.jpg, Aug 2010" />Our holiday in the Highlands of Scotland in August 2010 was very productive time for foraging - one of the most plentiful wild food resources was raspberries.</p> <h3 class="clearleft">What Are Raspberries?</h3>
<p><i>Rubus idaeus</i> - common in woodland, hedges and riverbanks, especially in mountainous and moorland regions, this plant is a close enough relative of the <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2007/08/05/Blackberries">blackberry</a> and <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2009/07/26/Dewberries">dewberry</a> to be able to crossbreed with them - in cultivation, these unions gave rise to the Loganberry, Tayberry and many other hybrids. Crossbreed plants can occasionally be found in the wild, but are uncommon because the habitats and flowering seasons of the different species only partly overlap.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="raspberries1.jpg" class="media" src="http://gurman.co.uk/public/r/raspberries1.jpg" style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px; margin: 0px auto; display: block;" title="raspberries1.jpg, Aug 2010" /></p>
<p>Unlike blackberries, the fruits are highly delicate when picked - because the red, juicy drupelets detach from the fruit core and come away on their own - for this reason, raspberries can't really be washed, transported or stored for long - but that's not a bad thing, because they are fantastic to eat fresh straight away.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="raspberries2.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/r/raspberries2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="raspberries2.jpg, Aug 2010" />As is often the case, some of the best fruits are hidden under leaves, within the plant or are slighty out of reach.</p>
<p>However, the raspberry is not a thorny plant - the stems are sparsely clothed with stiff bristles - so it doesn't hurt to wade in to reach the best pickings.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="raspberries3.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/r/raspberries3.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="raspberries3.jpg, Aug 2010" />These are probably the best raspberries I've ever picked in the wild - fat, juicy and in great condition.</p>
<p>Eaten straight from the hand, they feel ever so slightly downy when they first hit the tongue, but they are so soft and juicy that the delicate fragrant flavour soon bursts through.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="blackcurrants3.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/b/blackcurrants3.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="blackcurrants3.jpg, Aug 2010" />I picked a mixture of raspberries, bilberries (locally known as blaeberries) and <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2010/08/25/Wild-Blackcurrants">blackcurrants</a>.</p>
<p>Ideally, I'd have picked the different types of fruit into separate containers, but I only had one with me on the walk, so I had to pick out the blackcurrants from the mixture on returning back to the holiday cottage, so I could cook them with sugar.</p>
<p class="clearleft"><img alt="blackcurrants5.jpg" class="media" src="https://atomicshrimp.com/public/b/blackcurrants5.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0 1em 1em 0;" title="blackcurrants5.jpg, Aug 2010" />I made some scones (recipe <a class="ref-post" href="https://atomicshrimp.com/post/2009/06/25/Fruited-Scones">here</a>).</p>
<p>I served the raspberries and bilberries fresh and raw on whipped double cream on the scone, with the warm blackcurrant compote spooned over the top.</p>
<p>In case it isn't immediately obvious... this was remarkably good to eat.</p>
<p class="clearleft"> </p>