Cardoon, Potato And Wild Garlic Gratin

I admit, I've been inspired by Guy Watson's Cardoon and potato gratin on the Riverford website. I've been wanting to try this strange, Victorian vegetable for years- this week I was in luck! Tonnes of the stuff in grade out at work. 

I followed the recipe on the website, but switched it up a little bit. Obviously, being a wild food blog I had to incorporate some form of weeds in this recipe. Wild garlic being the most versatile vegetable and not so strong that it would overpower the artichoke-y taste of the cardoons, seemed perfect. 

https://www.riverford.co.uk/ply/recipes/view/recipe/cardoon-gratin

I can take no credit for this recipe apart from to say that you too should try cardoons- they are a pain in the bum to clean and prepare but believe me, if you are a fan of jerusalem or globe artichokes, you are going to love these. Plus the flavour takes well to creamy, cheesy comfort food.

Substitute the garlic for it's wild cousin and fry it all off in a little oil and butter, I added a vegetable stock cube and a hell of a lot of black pepper to the recipe too but it's one of those things that you can build around it to your taste. 

Oh and if you're wanting to serve this in a neat slice rather than a wet slop on the plate- refrigerate and reheat it, the potato will have absorbed more of the cream and it will be a lot easier to make look presentable on a plate. 

And lastly, I don't judge you if that's too damn hard.....