While filming Simone, we made a truly scrumptious broad-leaved dock recipe, consisting of wilted dock leaves, rice, feta and seaweed parcels.
Many people will turn their noses up at this recipe, because traditionally, Dock in the UK tastes rather bitter.
However there is a secret to removing the bitterness, and it isn’t boiling the poor old plant in multiple changes of water. Oh no. Curious? Well you’re going to have to wait for another article, where all will be revealed, and I explode the fallacy that if a plant is bitter it must therefore taste horrible, and isn’t worthy of your attention.
Go on, step outside the box, and explore this delicious wild food recipe.
Hint: For best results cook over an open fire!
- 2 largish young dock leaves per person
- dulse seaweed
- crumbled feta cheese
- cooked brown rice
- sunflower oil
Step 1
Put your freshly harvested Dock leaves into a just boiled pan of water, until they have wilted.
Step 2
Dry your Dock leaves in a towel.
Step 3
Brush sunflower oil on both sides of your Dock leaves.
Step 4
With rib-side up, put a small amount of rice onto the Dock leaf, and sprinkle crumbled feta cheese and chopped Dulse seaweed onto the mix.
Step 5
Fold into parcels, by folding over the sides first, and then finishing by folding over the ends of the Dock leaf.
Step 6
Heat your frying pan using a small amount of oil until hot, then pop in your Dock parcels and fry gently until browned and cooked through. Don’t forget to regularly turn them to avoid burning!
Step 7
Serve as is on a plate, shells or even newspaper. Eat with hands. Repeat, eat with hands!
Share & Bookmark This Story!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
wow, this is a very simple thing, even for a city dweller like me to do the only problem would be the sea weed, is there anything i could subsitute it with that i can find in the parks or garden’s of birmingham???
fyi, this will be my first wild food recepie an cant realy identify many plants so plz, pictures are helpful!!?!
thank you!
Dan: The recipes are really just ideas for you to explore wild food. You do not need to slavishly follow the recipes. Try and come up with your own alternatives. That being said seaweed is salty, so you could simply replace it with a few dashes of Tamari or soya sauce. No its not wild, but then neither is short grain rice
Hi there, did you ever follow this article up by explaining how to remove the bitterness from wild plants? If not could you briefly explain it now please? I expect the same method could be used with Jack by the hedge and other bitter leaves. What is your secret bro?
Cheers in advance!
Hi, thanks for the recipe ideas. I also have a good deal of broad leaf dock on my property which I use small amounts in salads and wilted with beets or cabbage etc. I would definatly be able to put more dock to use if I could reduce the bitterness. Have you followed up this article with the tips on removing the bitterness dock?
Greg: Bitter leaves are far less bitter when picked in shade on moisture rich soil. You can also soak leaves in boiling water for about 15 minutes. Also every plant community will have different levels of bitterness, so it is up to you to map to local landbase to find the less bitter plant communities.