Yesterday, we decided to make the most of a sunny day and spend an afternoon doing one of the most exciting things you can do in spring: foraging!
Something that is growing everywhere at the moment and in full bloom is gorse. Its bright yellow flowers have a delicate coconut smell (as one of our friends once said: “it smells like coconut sun tan cream!”).
We hopped on our bikes, cycled down to the woods and started collecting the little yellow flowers. On the way we encountered some wild fennel growing on the side of the bike path- there’s dinner’s inspiration sorted!
When we decided we had enough, we returned home to start making our gorse cordial. It’s so simple! Just put the flowers in water with sugar and lemon juice, bring if to the boil then remove from the head and then leave it to infuse for 5-10min. Strain and bottle.
Later on that evening we couldn’t help but combine it with cocktail hour: gorse cordial, lemon juice and xoriquer gin. One wasn’t quite enough!
Dinner with the fennel we picked was fantastic. The wild fennel gives such a strong, fresh flavour to the dish.
Tomatoes, samphire, prawns and wild fennel in prawn bisque with roasted new potatoes and hot smoked mackerel
Oystercatcher Catering 