This month, we have rediscovered the stinging nettle. It seemed that everything we read of Urtica dioica left us marvelling at how such a useful plant could be so overlooked. At points, we of the shelf-preservation society kitchen were verging on evangelical in our enthusiasm. One of their manifold nutritional, tasty and medicinal uses (not to mention their value as a raw material for textile and as a vegetable dye) is flavouring for cordial. So, we went forth and foraged a carrier-bag full.
When picking nettles, obviously gloves are pretty handy! Pick just the top shoots when the nettles are young and green, or new growth after they have been cut, as they become bitter and gritty when they are older. We foraged some nettles from alongside paths and hedgerows in Edinburgh, being careful to avoid nettles that were growing right beside where dogs are regularly walked, but for the cordial we found our backgreen was the most productive and convenient site.
First, we combined 500ml boiling water, 1kg sugar and 40g citric acid in a large saucepan and mixed together until all the sugar had dissolved. We brought this to the boil and boiled rapidly for a few minutes. Then we chopped 100g of nettle tips and added these to the pan, which we removed immediately from the heat.
All that was left to do then was to leave this concoction in a cool, dark place for a week (the recipe advises 5-7 days), stirring now and then. I loved getting a whiff of the fragrant nettles when I checked on its progress. We were surprised at how reminiscent the scent is of gooseberries, while being unmistakably nettles, which to me evokes summer like little else.
Then we just strained it all through a jeely bag or muslin cloth and poured into sterilised bottles. The colour of this also surprised us - it's a gorgeous, jewelled orange colour in the bottle. More importantly, it tastes delicious, a little like gooseberry wine and a fantastic summer thirst-quencher, I'll wager.
What's more, the anti-inflammatory properties of nettles mean that the cordial is good for alleviating hay-fever symptoms - just what's needed after a hard day's foraging. All this, and we didn't have to spend any extra money because the nettles are wild and we had all the other ingredients in the store cupboard - I'd call that a resounding success!
The Sting in the Tale
We have also been enjoying eating nettles this month. They are great in soup, risotto, gnocchi and steamed like spinach. We also have a recipe to make nettle haggis. THey contain large amounts of iron, vitamins a and c and protein, as well as chemicals which aid the body's absorption of iron and other nutrients. Apparently they also make good beer, which sounds like it'd be worth a go.
Nettles are also really good for the garden (in fact we put the leftover leaves as a mulch on some of the garden plants).
Another use for nettles is as a vegetable dye, giving an orange colour, or they can be spun into fibre for cloth as well.
Not bad for a widely-hated, ubiquitous "weed"!
