Day 17: Nettle seed in milk chocolate

 Nettle, Urtica dioica


So much can be said about the stinging nettle - it is one of the most useful plants out there - both ecologically (soil fertility, home for insects, food for so many) and as a food and medicine for humans, as fibre for cloth and string, as a dye.  No wonder it has to defend itself a little!  Even its sting though can be put to good use - some say it treats arthritic pain - but sounds like a harsh treatment

It is a handsome plant as well - lovely lush early growth, then tall and statuesque with elegant arrangements of its small intricate flowers and seeds.  It is a dioecious plant - meaning that separate plants are male and female;  there is a lovely post here about the male and female flowers, as well as pictures of the seeds which tells you more about it, and links to recipes.

Use nettle as you would spinach in savoury pies, make nettle teas, nettle crisps - so many ways to enjoy this flavourful and nutritious plant.  Use the young nettle tops for cooking - wear rubber gloves or gardening gloves to pick; and to cook, just scald quickly to stop the sting, and use as you would blanched spinach.  It does settle down and shrink in size (not quite so much as spinach does) on blanching, but after that tends to hold some crunch and texture through further cooking (unlike spinach).

My favourite way is to combine them in chocolate is to use the seeds; these are tiny and are difficult to separate out from the bracts holding them on the plant, but that doesn't matter.  They don't taste that strong or indeed exciting - but they don't sting - and they add a lovely texture and crunch to the chocolate.  The seeds are really good for you - so coating them in chocolate could be argued makes for a healthy (ish) snack!  Better to gather them and sprinkle over other food, or into breads and cakes.

To gather the seeds, cut the stems once the seeds have formed: I then lay them out over paper as they dry, and the seeds fall onto the paper.  Every few days pat them down to release more, until no more come; then gather and sieve out the larger bracts! 

The chocolate we have used is Menakao's milk chocolate from Madgascar - a creamy milk chocolate that works nicely with the earthy taste of the nettle


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