Nature's Secret Larder - Egg & Bittercress Wild Food Sandwich

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Bushcraft Blog

Egg & Bittercress Wild Food Sandwich
19th April 2009

bittercress

Having just got back from a day of recycling cardboard I was pleased to notice a few patches of bittercress growing in my garden, a patch that is a little out of the way so I hadn’t spotted it before.


So, having seen a mass of this common little herb I decided to make an egg and cress sandwich, using wild greens.

This is only a very basic recipe, but one which is quite satisfying to do.

Ingredients
Bread & Butter
Bittercress
Eggs (free range)
Olive oil
Maldon sea salt

First locate some bittercress. I’m using the general name, but you can use any of these...


Large Bittercress  (Cardamine amara)
Wavy Bittercress  (Cardamine flexuosa)
Hairy Bittercress  (Cardamine hirsute)
Shepherd's Purse  (Capsella bursa-pastoris)


These are all plants which have the cress flavour, because they are of the cress family. They are all pretty easy to identify, but as always, be 100% sure before you decide to try any!


Method
Boil an egg or two; please always use either free range or eggs from your own hens. Free range eggs are not much more expensive to buy these days and a few extra pence is well worth it. In my opinion ANY battery eggs should be banned, and anyone buying them should be ashamed! Free range eggs also taste better.


Once boiled chop up, and now add your bitter cress leaves (and flowers if you wish). Add a little salt, I use Maldon sea salt as I think it’s the best, but whatever type you use try and get flakes, as they work best with this.

egg and bittercress in a bowl


Now butter the bread, put your mixture on and add a touch of olive oil.


There you have it! A simple meal. Wild food if often confused as being something to ‘survive’ on, but it also sits quite nicely with our modern day lives. It doesn’t have to be a complete meal, its just as nice to use it as an addition.
Enjoy!

egg and bittercress sandwich

Catch you on the trail
Kris


Comments

Mark Swaim on 16/03/14

I tried a variation of this-just the hard boiled egg and salt & pepper and toast along with the tender pickings of bittercress.
Not bad at all!


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