Early Spring 2018 - New projects - An exciting beginning.

“In Like A Lion, Out Like a Lamb”...?

A happy mothers day to all the wonderful mum's out there.

Spring is quickly moving in, and the weather at the beginning of the month has been very cold and theres obviously been plenty of snow across the U.K.

Let's hope things get better weather wise here on in, the water temperature will soon start to rise and it will be great to see my guests playing and releasing nice bass like this very soon

Early spring is the time for me to get out and start gathering. I love this time of year and theres always plenty going on, even the small things like toads pairing up are lovely to see.

The wild garlic shoots have been up for a while and I started to preserve these wonderful little shoots in the middle of January. "Failure to prepare is preparing to fail" has never been so true a word in my field. When creating and serving food which is so close to the importance of the seasons and mother nature you have absolutely no choice. I have to stay one step ahead, theres no other way.

In the last few days the first of the gorse flowers are starting to arrive.

Gorse flowers are one of the best wild edibles, if of course you know what to do with them.

The humble gorse flower is as important to me as something like vanilla is to the mainstream commercial chef. You can impart that wonderful fresh coconut scent into all manner of things, custards, ice creams, mousses. With a little creativity and imagination then its surprising what you can come up with.

I am also toying with the idea that the coconut flavour and scent could actually go with fish quite well or indeed lamb, especially milk fed lamb. I will keep you posted on these findings in the near future.

Coming to that point "the near future", I have two pop up events coming very soon.

One will be at Wrights food emporium on the 25th of March, the other one will be at the Salt Cellar in Tenby on the 19th of April.

It's really a great privilege to be doing these nights and it gives me a chance to get across a sample of what I am doing to a bigger audience. I can't thank the great people at both venues enough for letting me do this. Spaces are limited and there probably a few gone already. So please get in touch with either myself or either of the venues above if you want to join us.

It's a bit of a bargain really with the both nights being around fifty pounds per head.

Theres not many places you can go these days and eat six or seven courses for that price. You can expect dishes of the standard below.

Above - "Egg in the hedgerow"

Slow cooked and charred beet - Beetroot pickled in dulse vinegar - Beetroot sauce.

OK so maybe "The lobster and the shoreline" won't be making an appearance on the nights, but we will have a shin of Pembrokeshire beef on there.

Above "Fresh cheese - preserved blackberry - Sorrel

Above - "Stack rocks" - Gorse flower custard - Birch and ash meringue.

Again a short blog post but I hope I can tempt you into coming to one of the nights at either venue in the upcoming spring calendar, or if you fancy a real experience here on the Pembrokeshire coast please do get in touch.

There will probably be more collaborations in the pipe line as well throughout the year and definitely more in 2019 so do stay posted.

Thanks for reading.

Email - matt@fishingandforagingwales.co.uk

Telephone - 07515380169