After seeing post after post of people finding wild garlic and doing a huge nuber of tasty recipes with it, I finally found a patch of the stuff in an nearby village. My excitement got the better of me and I gathered much more than I could possibly eat in one go, and as many foragers know, wild garlic is delicate and doesn’t hold very well as it wilts quickly after it is cut.
So in the past I have experimented with several recipes in order to make it last longer. I have dehydrated it to make into a powder (the smell and taste fade upon drying unfortunately). I have made into a pesto but it doesn’t last very long. You can keep it in oil in the fridge but that results in very oily wild garlic.
And then…I decided to lactoferment it. Yes. Lactofermented wild garlic is absolutely phenomenal. The garlicky smell and taste is preserved perfectly, the colour goes a bit darker but the thing will last in the fridge for at least 1,5 years (I ve never managed to keep more than that because it is just too delicious).
So in order to lactoferment a large mason jar of wild garlic you will need
- 1 bag of wild garlic leaves, washed
- 2 tablespoons of salt
- 1 clean jar
- 2 thumb sized pieces of ginger, sliced (optional)
- 1 chilly pepper, sliced (optional)
- fish sauce to taste (optional)
As you can see above the basic recipe for lactofermented garlic only calls for salt and wild garlic leaves. After you wash and drain the leaves, you layer them in a tub with just a small sprinkle of salt in between. You can also massage the leaves to hep the salt get in all of them and wilt them.
Leave the leaves in the tub overnight and by the morning they should have wilted enough to allow you to pack them into a jar. Cover with the liquid that is left in the tub and leave in room temperature for about a week. Then move to the fridge and enjoy lactofermented wild garlic in soups, sandwiches and stir fries!
Although just by itself it is great, if you play around with it a bit and add ginger, chilly pepper and fish sauce it becomes truly phenomenal. You can of course try other condiments such as soy sauce, oyster sauce and spices.
Enjoy!
(Fer)mental Greens 