Cooking The Most Expensive Spring Ingredient

I've really been looking forward to spring this year. It's been a bit colder than last year so everything feels slightly delayed. I usually come back to this spot around this time just to check if the wild garlic has started to grow. It's funny, you would think this place would be full of people picking wild garlic. It's quite expensive to buy and there's so much growing out but actually I've never seen a Swede picking it. It's mostly people with Asian heritage. I wonder if that's the same in other places. Maybe some people prefer to buy it in the stores but for me it's not just about the ingredient. I really enjoy the whole process of being out here walking around, finding it myself, picking it, you know. I do have some pollen allergies early spring so it's not always the smoothest experience but it's worth it. And of course it's much cheaper this way. You can pick enough to make things that last for quite a long time. The leaves are still pretty small. They have only just started coming out. So I'm only taking just enough that I need and then I'll come back later on within a week or two when they have grown a bit more. The weather is starting to get really really good. The past week has felt completely different. It's been much warmer so today is actually the first day I'm cooking outside on the balcony. It's very peaceful out here especially with the view of the lake. I've been sitting here now almost every evening just watching the sun go down. When you have been in the city for a while surrounded by all the noise, all the time, you really notice the difference and the quietness. I love it. With the long winters, spring is magical. Since it's the first harvest of the season and the first day cooking outside, this feels like the perfect moment to celebrate spring. Wait my hands are so slippery. Cheers. While garlic is an ingredient you can use for so many different things, pesto is one of my favorite things to make. But also oil, mayonnaise, butter, mashed potatoes, hummus or soups. You can also just use it as a finishing ingredient in almost any dish. Just add it at the end so it doesn't lose too much of its flavor. If you've never tried it before, it smells and tastes exactly like garlic. Just a little bit milder and fresher. Growing up in Uganda, I didn't really eat cheese. We had milk for tea but we didn't use milk or cream in cooking the way it's done here. Sometimes you would see cheese on a pizza. There was this place in Kampala called Nandos that served it. I loved it. They are probably closed now. But in general, cheese is not really part of the local cuisine. We use ghee but that's about it when it comes to dairy. So when I first moved to Sweden, I was a bit surprised by how much cheese people use and how versatile it is. My favorite cheese is a Swedish one called Westerbotten's Host. It's become something I use quite a lot in my cooking now. The consistency of the pesto is completely up to you. It depends on how much olive oil or lemon juice you add. You can make it thicker or more loose depending on how you want to use it. And if you want a stronger flavor, you can just add more wild garlic. If you want it less intense, use more basil instead. Leek. This is another ingredient I didn't grow up with. The closest thing to it was spring onions. But leek is quite different depending on which part you use. The white part is much more softer and milder and that's what I'm using here. The green parts are tougher and quite bitter. I mostly use these while making beef stock. I keep a bag in the freezer and add green parts there over time. Then when I want to make beef stock that cooks for a long time, I already have everything ready. Apart from using leek in stews, you can also roast it and make a pesto from it. For that, you can use some of the lighter green parts as well. But one of my favorite ways to cook it is braising. It transforms the leek into something much more refined. Almost like scallops. What do you usually make with your leek? One thing I never do when I cook is use plain water. For me, it just doesn't add anything. In any case, it's the enemy. It takes away from the flavor. I prefer using homemade stock. It gives everything more depth. Cooking can get pretty messy real quick. Dishes start piling up, you spill things, oil starts to splash everywhere. But one thing that is very very important to me while cooking is to keep everything clean and tidy. When things feel messy and unclean, I lose my appetite no matter what I'm cooking. I think it's in my head but it also affects how I feel while I'm cooking. So I always try to clean as I go, step by step. It makes everything much more enjoyable and it even feels like food turns out much better. This pesto works really well with bread, pasta or even as a dressing for a salad. I'm using it as a base for the leek but I'll also get some bread to go with it. It's a simple dish but it feels like a real celebration for spring. Cheers! Cheers to spring!