At this time of year, my route home sometimes alters, in order that I can drive past my ‘secret stash’ of wild garlic, to see how it’s coming along.
The mild winter seems to have had the same effect on the plants as it has on the daffodils and snowdrops that were in bloom at New Year, because there are definite early signs of young leaves poking out of the leaf litter, and soon the whole hillside will be covered in those wonderful, elegant emerald leaves.
Each year I try to remind people of the bounty that’s growing within our own towns and villages, just waiting to be picked and made use of; wild garlic is one of my absolute favourites.
It has a wonderful mild onion-y flavour, like a more scented chive, which cooks up brilliantly, but is also mild enough to shred raw into salads or wilt in a little hot butter like spinach. It’s perfect with many meats, and especially fish and seafood, and makes great soups too.
The flowers, which appear after a few weeks, are gorgeous little stellate things, perfectly white, and look incredible when sprinkled over salads and fish. If you ever find wild garlic in bloom, do yourself a favour and get picking! The leaves soon wither and become woody shortly after the flowers appear, and sadly, all too soon, the wild garlic is gone for another year. Exactly how it should be, of course.
This week’s recipe combines the colour and pungency of the wild garlic leaves with the flavours of Lebanon – we’re making a classic street snack, the shawarma. I’ve done a version of this recipe before a few years ago, but it’s worth reminding ourselves of just how delicious this dish is – it will have your umami alarms blaring like billy-o. The combination of delicious tender marinated chicken with a cool, punchy salad loaded with fresh herbs and sharp sumac rolled into a soft, warm flatbread is hard to beat, especially when we add a little hint of cool, creamy yoghurt and a healthy dollop of toum, the famous garlic-rich sauce that Lebanon cannot live without.
It can be smooth and delicate or ferocious, grabbing you by the lapels and blaring loudly into your face, but I like it all ways, especially with grilled, slightly charred meats and poultry, though it’s also brilliant with fish and seafood. Put it this way, after a toum-filled meal, you’re not going to be worried about vampires. It definitely lingers! Usually, toum is a pale, creamy sauce made by whizzing almost obscene amounts of fresh white garlic with oil and lemon juice until it forms a smooth, creamy sauce, but as the very first shoots of wild garlic are with us now, I thought this would make a nice addition to the sauce. And it works brilliantly; it adds a leafy pungency to the sauce which works very well with the flavours of the chicken and the freshness of the salad.
Keep a pot of toum handy while the season is with us – a few spoonfuls would add a lift to sauces, soups and stews, as well as lifting a boring lunchtime sandwich to greater heights. You could add it to a pasta dish in the same way you would pesto, and it will also dilute with oil and vinegar or citrus juice to make an assertive dressing for chunky salads – it’s a great alternative to the classic Caesar sauce, for instance.
But it really is most at home here, tucked into those soft, charred flatbreads with tender, juicy chicken and that cool, chunky salad; a little bit of summer sun to lighten the dark days.
For the chicken:
8 free-range chicken thighs, boneless, skin on
The juice and zest of 1 lemon
3 cloves garlic, crushed
25g piece fresh ginger, grated
A pinch of ground turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1½ tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp sumac
¼ tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ras el hanout powder
Extra-Virgin olive oil
A small bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
Maldon salt and fresh black pepper
For the flatbreads:
500g strong flour
2tsp fine salt
1 tbsp unrefined golden caster sugar
1 tbsp dried active yeast
350ml water, lukewarm
2 tbsps olive oil
A little melted butter
Sumac powder
For the toum sauce:
10 cloves garlic, peeled
A couple of large handfuls of wild garlic, washed and chopped roughly
125ml sunflower oil
125ml olive oil
The juice of a lemon
Maldon salt
For the salad:
4 large fresh tomatoes, chopped
1 red onion, finely diced
Cucumber, diced
A small handful fresh coriander, chopped
A few sprigs of fresh oregano, chopped
A small bunch of flatleaf parsley, chopped
Lemon juice
Extra-Virgin olive oil Sumac powder
Extras:
A griddle pan (optional)
Natural yoghurt
Method:
First make the marinade for the chicken. Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and ginger in a large bowl. Fry the spices on medium heat in a dry pan, until their scented oils are released and then add these to the bowl, along with a teaspoon of Maldon salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Add the chicken pieces along with the fresh coriander. Stir the bowl to cover the chicken pieces, then refrigerate overnight to allow all the aromatics to mingle. Now make the toum sauce; put the garlic, wild garlic and a teaspoon of salt in a food processor or blender, with a splash of lemon juice and a little oil, and whizz for 10-20 seconds. Stop, scrape the garlic down the sides, then run processor for another 10-20 seconds.
Repeat this process for as many times as required until you have a very smooth paste. Now, with the motor running, drizzle in half of the oil in as thin a drizzle as you can manage. The purée should begin to emulsify and become thicker and creamy. Add more lemon juice or water to thin the mixture if it becomes too thick, and add the rest of the oil in a drizzle.
Taste, and adjust the seasoning as required. It should be ferociously strong and quite salty. It will mellow in the fridge. Cover and chill until required.
Next, make the flatbreads; Put the water, yeast, sugar and olive oil in a bowl and stir. Leave for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to become frothy. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, and stir in the yeast liquid, bringing the mixture together into a soft dough. If it’s too wet, add more flour. Turn out onto a lightly-floured surface and knead briskly for 10 minutes. Pop into a large oiled bowl, and cover with oiled clingfilm. Leave in a warm place for about an hour, or until it has doubled in size. Tip out of the bowl and knock the dough back, then divide into 8 even-sized pieces.
Roll each piece out into a neat disc about 5mm thick. Take a fork, and lightly press the points all over each flatbread, making sure you don’t prick all the way through the dough. Leave the flatbreads for 10-15 minutes.
Then, heat a thin frying pan and brush very lightly with oil. Fry each flatbread for 2-3 minutes each side, making sure they brown well and char in places, then remove from the pan and keep warm as you process all 8. Brush each flatbread all over with butter and dust with sumac. Keep warm until required. To make the salad, toss the ingredients together with just enough oil and lemon juice to moisten but not soak the solid pieces. Season and chill until required.
To cook the chicken, preheat the oven to 180ºC / Gas 4. Remove the chicken from the marinade. If you have one, place the griddle pan over a high heat. Once then pan is fully hot, cook the chicken pieces for 3 minutes on each side until caramelised and seared. Transfer each batch to a baking tray to cook the thighs through in the oven. This should take about 10 minutes. Allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes before carving into thick slices.
To serve, quickly griddle the flatbreads and drizzle with olive oil. Add some of the tomato salad and add a few slices of chicken. Finish with a good drizzle of garlicky toum sauce, a splash of yoghurt, and roll or fold before devouring.
