A return this week, to one of my favourite wild ingredients, wild garlic. It’s around this time of year that I make my way to my favourite wild garlic patch and fill carrier bags with the beautiful emerald leaves.

If I’m lucky, I will have timed my forage to coincide with the appearance of thousands of tiny white flowers, which not only look incredible, but pack a really tasty punch too.

The appearance in the woods of these gently bobbing leaves and stems signifies that the region is coming out of its hibernation slumber, and is ready to get cracking.

Shoots and tiny leaves are appearing everywhere, and the delicious wild garlic leads the way. With its mild, onion-y flavour, wild garlic is a delightful ingredient to use in any number of savoury dishes.

Over the years, I’ve made soups and sauces, filled pasta and pancakes, or just knocked up a simple omelette. I’ve used chicken, pork, and all manner of fish and seafood.

There’s almost no savoury ingredient that won’t appreciate a little assistance from this fragrant wild plant. So, I had to get my thinking cap on this time round, and make something suitable, but also novel.

I’d been thinking (as we chefs tend to) about bacon recently, and how I’d quite fancied roasting a small bacon joint as a whole piece, perhaps glazing it with a little muscovado sugar just before serving, adding a sweet note to all that cured, salty porkiness.

That got me thinking along Irish cuisine lines, and it wasn’t long before I had my wild garlic in use, flavouring a version of that famous Ulster treat, the potato farl.

The legendary Northern Irish gut-busting breakfast, the Ulster Fry, is never complete without a couple of fried potato pancakes tucked away on the plate, alongside all that delicious meat. These are known as farls, a derivation of the Scots word ‘fardell’, meaning fourths or quarters, and traditionally potato farls were made as large, thick, round pancakes, which would then be cut in four to serve.

Often these days, for commercial convenience, they are often made as squares, simply because they fit easily and neatly into packaging. But a real farl should still have that pie-wedge shape for it to be considered ‘proper’.

Sometimes farls are made of soda bread dough, but for me a farl should be made with fresh potato in the dough, which results in a wonderfully dense finished product.

For this recipe, we’re not after gossamer-light pancakes which blow off the plate if someone opens the door. Farls are big, hearty fellows, thick and with plenty of bite, ready to be cut into chunks and pushed around plates of sauce, their dense softness adding great texture and balance to a dish.

We add a little wild garlic to the dough, suffusing the finished pancakes with that lovely savoury fragrance when fried in a dab of butter. With this, we’re roasting a joint of back bacon, which carves into thick, meaty slabs, perfect for enjoying with the pillowy farls, and which squares the circle with the Irish theme.

Boiled or roasted bacon joints are incredibly popular all over Ireland, and go beautifully with the starchiness of potatoes of all kinds.

I thought a little parsley might sit well with the bacon, as traditionally they are often served together, but instead of a thick béchamel-type sauce, I decided upon a quick whisked beurre blanc loaded with plenty of the herb.

So there we have it, a perfect way to use the delicious wild garlic that’s growing in the woods right now; a real springtime supper.

FOR THE FARLS:

500g floury potatoes (Desirée or King Edward)

50g butter, cut into small dice

50g plain flour, plus a little extra for rolling

¼ tsp baking powder

A handful of fresh wild garlic, washed thoroughly and chopped finely

Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper

FOR THE BACON:

1 x 900g piece unsmoked, rindless back bacon, in the piece

1 small onion, chopped roughly

1 carrot, chopped roughly

2 sticks celery, chopped roughly

2 tablespoons unrefined light brown muscovado sugar

Maldon salt and freshly-ground black pepper

FOR THE PARSLEY BUTTER SAUCE:

1 shallot, finely minced

60ml white wine vinegar

60ml dry white wine

125g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small dice

1 handful curly parsley, very finely chopped

EXTRAS:

A few wild garlic flowers, if you can pick some

A little extra butter for frying

A mouli for the potatoes

METHOD:

First, set the bacon joint going. Place the bacon and the vegetables in a deep pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, skim and simmer the joint very gently for about an hour, until tender. Remove from the stock and drain. Place the joint in a lightly-oiled roasting pan. Heat the oven to 200ºC / Gas 7. Roast the bacon joint for 20 minutes, and then sprinkle the sugar evenly over the upper surface and sides of the joint. Roast for a further 15 minutes, or until the sugar has caramelised nicely all over the bacon. Remove from the heat and keep warm until you’re ready to serve. Now for the butter sauce; Pop the shallots, wine and vinegar in a small pan and simmer until almost evaporated. Remove from the heat and quickly whisk in the butter, piece by piece, making sure each one is incorporated fully before adding the next. You should end up with a smooth emulsified sauce. Add the parsley, season, and set to one side in a warm place.

Next, the farls; peel the potatoes, then cut them into equal-sized medium chunks. Bring a pan of well-salted water to the boil, and cook the potato pieces until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Drain well and allow them to steam dry before passing through a mouli (you can mash by hand if you prefer) back into the pan. Add the butter and whip this into the potato. Sift the flour with the baking powder and sprinkle over the potato mix, folding to combine into a smooth dough. You can add more liquid or flour until you have the nice firm yet soft dough you require. Add the chopped wild garlic and stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and adjust if required. Divide the dough into two halves. Form one piece into a ball, then roll it out on a well-floured work surface and into a circle about 15 cm in diameter and about 1cm thick. Cut the circle into quarters. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough mix. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat with a little dab of butter. Transfer four farls to the pan and cook for around 3 minutes on each side or until a nice golden brown colour in patches. Remove and keep warm as you finish the remaining farls. To serve, carve a nice thick slice of bacon on top of a couple of farls, and spoon over a little parsley butter.