Wild garlic risotto

I've just come back from a whirlwind weekend in Vienna... it's now almost eight years since we left the Austrian capital to move to London and the last few days was the first time I felt some sort of home-sickness. I am not sure I want to move back there right now, but I just wish I'd had a few more days or could go there more often - not only to visit friends and see family, but because there's so much to see and do... and eat!
One thing I noticed was that even though Austrian cuisine is quite heavy and meat-based, the trends is more and more to heavily rely on seasonal produce. We've always had dishes that were traditional at a certain time of year, like Martinigansl, the goose with red cabbage you see on every menu in the month of November, and also white asparagus, with stalks at least 3 cm thick, in June. This year being incredibly warm, I saw white asparagus already appearing on the menus on my visit and another regular feature was wild garlic - soups, savarins, salads... nothing is complete without it at the moment.
When I grew up, my parents would always take us for early spring adventures in the countryside. Still in scarves and hats, and our winter boots, most likely, we'd run around looking for the first signs of spring: snowdrops and narcissus were the easiest to spot, but what we were really after was the wild garlic leaves. Also known as ramsons in English and Bärlauch in German, they are easily mistaken for lilies of the valley, a poisonous plant which sends dozens of foragers to hospital every spring.
These leaves are very versatile in the kitchen, I have used them in soups before, but also like them simply chopped, on a piece of rye bread and salted butter... such a simple treat, and so delicious! They also made an appearance as an accompaniment to our lamb shoulder we had a Petersham Nurseries the other day and a salad of white and green asparagus at the Schwarzes Kameel in Vienna.
When we recently met for the first round of our "CookBookCookClub", I asked Jennifer to bring along some wild garlic from the Borough Market for me - she was helping out at Booth's the day before, which came in handy. Since its shelf life is very limited, I had to use it up quite quickly and there's only so much you can consume on buttered bread if you still want to be sociable (garlic breath is not conducive to making new friends), so I decided to stir them into a simple, creamy risotto.
If you can still get your hands on some of those precious leaves, I recommend that you buy a handful or two, as their season will be over shortly! And you don't need to go out of your way to savour it, either, with flavours as delicate as wild garlic or truffles, the simplest preparations are the best: bread & butter, scrambled eggs, pasta & cream or a basic risotto will let the flavours shine like nothing else!

(And if that's not enough inspiration, you could also have a go at the wild garlic gnocci I made last year!)

Wild garlic risotto
(with or without cornfed chicken breasts)
(serves 3)

2 shallots (finely chopped)
30 g butter
300 g risotto rice (I like to use Vialone Nano or Arborio)
100 ml Noilly Prat (you can also use dry white wine)
700 ml vegetable stock
100 g wild garlic leaves
100 g parmesan (finely grated)

Optional:
3 breasts of cornfed chicken (skin on)
smoked paprika, salt, pepper
20 g olive oil

Melt the butter in a thick-based, non-stick pot and fry the shallots until softened, but not browning. Add the rice, cook for 2 minutes, constantly stirring.
Deglaze with the Noilly Prat, letting it reduce almost completely.
Pour in 200 ml of the stock, let simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated. Repeat twice.
Stir in the wild garlic, parmesan and remaining (100 ml) stock, stir through until the garlic leaves are wilted. Adjust the consistency to your liking (I am happy with the consistency you see in the picture, not completely dry, but not too runny, other people prefer it to be more of a soup) by adding more stock or reducing it further.
The rice should be al dente: soft, but retaining a bit of bite.

If you are serving this with the chicken breasts, start cooking them when you add the first batch of stock.
Season them generously with salt, pepper and smoked paprika, then fry in a pan over medium heat until they're cooked through. The skin should become nice and crispy and is perfectly good to eat.

Comments

[Freya]

Must go foraging for some wild garlic. Living out in the 'sticks' there must be tonnes around here! I love the idea of wild garlic in risotto. Perfect coupling!

[Toby]

Yum - that is a great risotto recipe. I haven't made risotto in so long - I need to set aside a night to do that this week.

Have you ever done a search for risotto on the Better Homes & Gardens website? They have, like, a 1000 variations. I figured you might like some of them:

http://recipes.bhg.com/recipes/searchResults.jsp?start=1&searchType=text&resultsType=recipe&resultCategory=kitchen&_requestid=66740

[Pamela]

I'm completely nuts about Wild Garlic and this sounds truly delicious!! I'll definitely be giving this a try, thanks for sharing this recipe!

[thistle]

Is there any chance that your wild garlic is the same as what we in New England call "Ramps"? Your description (looking like lily of the valley) sounds like it...

[Ash]

We have a whole field of these outside our apartment - they are all over Holland!

[johanna]

wild garlic is allium ursinum, whereas the latin classification for ramps is allium tricoccum. they look very similar, though, even though the ramps i see on wikipedia look stronger/thicker than the very tebder leaves of wild garlic and might require more cooking, rather than just stirring into the risotto as i did with my leaves.
but, being from the same family, they should taste just as nice in a risotto!

[Andrew]

I've been rummaging around the hedgerows/woods this weekend looking for wild garlic - with zero success I might add.

[peabody]

I'm jealous of your travel and your garlic.

[johanna]

well, andrew, at least you can be certain you didn't pick anything poisonous ;-)
peabody, i will be writing down some of my experiences soon, so in case you happen to go to vienna, you have some tips!

[Pille]

Delicious!! I'm torn here. Wild garlic (known as 'karulauk' or bear's garlic here) is a protected species here, and you're not supposed to pick them in the wild. My seeds didn't germinate, unfortunately. Yet apparently there's a forest near our house where you can find some... Oh well, I should check the local market these days to see if they've got some cultivated wild garlic there...

[Marona]

¡Fantástico!
¿Y cuando cueces el "bärlauch" sigue teniendo sabor a ajo? Yo solo he conseguido mantenerle el sabor a ajo cuando lo hago crudo...
¿Cual es el secreto?
Saludos.

[johanna]

marona, si mantiene su sabor a ajo, pero es muy delicado. si lo utilizo en sopa, le pongo una papa nada mas y un monton de baerlauch al final... en este caso con el risotto, como se lo pones al final, en realidad no cuece, asi que guarda su aroma. pero es bastante sutil en esta receta, eso si.

[David]

Love that wild garlic too!

[thistle]

Thanks for the botanical classification! I will try it with ramps if I can find any.

[Susan from Food "Blogga"]

Ah, the famous white asparagus, hey? I still haven't seen it at my farmers' market, but I'm eagerly waiting. We do have a nice variety of garlic though, which would be great for your risotto. I especially like your addition of the smoked paprika, which must add complexity to it. Lovely post and recipe.

[sandi @ the whistlestop cafe]

I love white asparagus- but can rarely find it in Alabama. The risotto looks perfect!

[johanna]

yes, the famous white asparagus. i've seen some on the borough market already, but it's the french variety, which isn't quite as tasty as what i grew up with. but i will, of course, buy it... cannot resist the temptation. smothered with butter, then sprinkled with parmesan, there's hardly anything simpler or better. except fresh crusty baguette (still warm) with salted butter, of course!

[Dorothee]

I made pesto out of it last week. It grows like weeds in the Englischer Garten in Munich.
The pesto is yummy! Much better than any store-bought stuff.

[Steamy Kitchen]

this sounds so delicious!!!

[sahdcooks]

I hope you don't mind but I made the dish and posted it on my blog. I gave you all the credit though for the simple yet tasty combination.