Tag: herb

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Roast Mugwort Chicken

Mugwort, Garlic & Herb Roast Chicken

Try this fantastic way to roast a chicken using foraged ingredients
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Free Range Organic Chicken Or the best welfare you can afford.
  • 100 g Butter (unsalted) Softened
  • 2 tsp Wild herbs of your choice I used rosemary, oregano & thyme finely chopped. (Not Sage)
  • 4 Cloves of garlic grated
  • 1 Bunch Mugwort You'll have to forage this one, it can be found along farmers fields.
  • 1 L Water
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions
 

  • Take your chicken and remove any organs left in the cavity. save these for a good gravy etc…
  • using your fingers separate the skin from the breast and thighs. To do this, find the place above the cavity, where the cavity meets the breast, you should be able to create a little pocket that you can insert your fingers in to start separating the skin from the breast. Work you way around the breast and onto the thighs.
  • Mix in a bowl the herbs, butter, garlic a little salt and pepper. beat together with a fork until you get a smooth paste. This can then be used to stuff under the skin and into the thighs. retain a small amount to rob over the exterior of the bird.
  • Take your mugwort and rinse it under a tap to remove debris. fold it up so that you create a tight bunch that you can then stuff the cavity with. Mugwort will add a sage flavour to the roast.
  • Tie your birds legs and wings up with butchers string to prevent it from opening up during cooking.
  • Place onto a roasting rack in a roasting tray and pour in the water to the tray. The water will create a moist atmosphere for the chicken to cook in and also will stop spitting fat going all over your oven when the bird starts to drip during cooking.
  • Cook for 1h20 depending on the size of your bird, or until it is fully cooked and the juice runs clear.
  • Serve with your home grown potatoes and veg…
Keyword butter, chicken, garlic, herbs, mugwort, roast
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Daisy

Known to all, even the hardest non-botanists, the daisy is the romance of poets and writers from Geoffrey Chaucer to Thomas Hardy. 

A Native wildflower, the daisy can be found everywhere from mountain grasslands, costal cliff-tops and sand-dunes, on hedge banks and, especially, lawns and other grasslands. 

It flowers from February to December, peaking in late spring, including all through mild winters.

As you can see from my time-lapse video of a daisy it’s flowers open and close at dawn and dusk and on overcast, dull or wet days (just like the dandelion – see article on dandelions).

It has historically been known as a valued herb for healing wounds. We shall revisit the works of Nicholas Culpeper M.D. from the 17th Century.

Daisy

“ The leaves, and sometimes the roots are used. They are among the traumatic and vulnerably herbs, being used in wound-drinks, and are accounted good to dissolve congealed and coagulated blood. They also help pleurisy and peripneumonia. In the king’s-evil the decoction given inwardly and a cataplasm of the leaves applied outwardly, are esteemed by some. An infusion boiled in asses’ milk is effectual in consumption of the lungs”.

More modern uses are crushing the leaves and applying to wounds which will still work to soothe and help healing. In some places it is still known as ‘bruisewort’ In a remedy for lumps and swellings as a result of injury, and also for chronic skin diseases due to impure blood, such as boils.

All in all the often overlooked garden weed is powerful as a medicinal herb both today and through history. 

Enjoy

Tom