Wild garlic and nettle (or spinach) fritters

The wild garlic is already abundant here in an ancient, sheltered wood near where I live.  At this time of year I pick it a couple of times of week, incorporate it into my food, and also preserve it (link to a blog with some other wild garlic recipes) .  Today I made some wild garlic and nettle fritters to have for our breakfast.  I will often make them with spinach if there are no young nettles around yet.  By foraging these plants I add nutrition to my food for free.  It also feels good eating things from the wild that have not had preservatives or sprays used on them.  I will not put quantities in the recipe as I use what I have at the time.

Ingredients.

Washed and chopped wild garlic leaves (I used about 4 handfuls)

Chopped nettles or spinach (I use one third of the quantity of nettles/spinach to wild garlic leaves)

Plain flour

Salt

Pepper (optional)

garlic salt or other herbs or spices (optional)

Oil or lard to cook

Method

1.  In a saucepan boil the nettles/spinach and wild garlic together for 6 minutes.
2.  Sieve the water into a bowl but do not squeeze all of the water out of the plants.
3.  Save the water for gravy, or use to water plants.
4. In a separate bowl put the wild garlic and nettles/spinach.
5. Add salt to season and flour, a bit at a time.
6. I also added garlic powder for extra flavour (a chopped onion or spring onions might be nice).
7. The dampness from the leaves should help form a kind of batter.  I made my fritters quite stiff.
8.  Add as much flour or a bit extra water to make the consistency that you want.  Too much flour might make them taste a bit doughy, though.
9. Heat a frying pan and add some lard or oil.
10.  Brown on both sides.  You can squash them with a spatula if you want, but I didn’t need to.
11. Mine took about 4 minutes.  I tested them with my meat thermometer.
12. 

We had ours with some left over baked beans today, but they are nice with a fried egg on top.  We have eaten them with a yoghurt type dipping sauce in the past or home made sweet chilli at lunch time.  They were also nice paired with sausages and ratatouille for a main meal.  I cooked a big batch of the nettle and wild garlic and kept it in a glass sealed container for a couple of days so that we could have these fresh over a couple of days for a few meals.