John Wright
LATIN NAME
Chenopodium album
SEASONALITY
May–September
HABITAT
Common in veg patches and other disturbed, cultivated ground, also compost heaps
MORE RECIPES
Spear-leaved orache bhajis; Spinach, egg and potato curry
Every spring, gardeners descend on their vegetable patches to prepare the soil for this year’s planting. The first thing they do is dig it over to remove the newly growing annual weeds. Chief among these is fat hen. This is scrupulously removed and spinach, perhaps, is sown. My advice to them is to not bother. Fat hen tastes just as good.
It grows into a substantial plant, but it is the young specimens at around 15cm tall that are the sweetest and most succulent, and at this size, the whole plant is edible. Once you have your first crop, lightly dig the ground and you will get a second crop within a month or two – and a third.
Fat hen is an easily identifiable ‘weed’, related to spinach. The leaves are pale green and roughly the shape of a cross-sectioned egg, but with shallowly serrated edges. The young leaves, especially those at the top of the plant, are covered in fine granules that glisten.
Vegetable plots are benign locations with few poisonous plants with which fat hen can be confused. However, the leaves of the common black nightshade and the less common datura can appear vaguely similar, to those who are botanically challenged.
The best way to pick fat hen is with scissors, as this avoids bringing roots and dirt into the kitchen.
HENAKOPITA WITH GARAM MASALA AND EGGS
Traditionally made with spinach, the Greek dish spanakopita works equally well with fat hen. If you can’t find enough of this leaf, make up the difference with young nettle tops and/or spear-leaved orache. It’s good with sea beet too. Serves 4–6
6 eggs
A carrier bagful of young fat hen
2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
2–3 tsp garam masala
A squeeze of lemon juice
250g ready-made filo pastry (6–8 sheets)
75g unsalted butter, melted
35g hazelnuts or walnuts, roughly bashed
Sea salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Have ready a shallow 1.5 litre baking dish.
Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the eggs and cook for 7 minutes, then remove from the water. Allow to cool, then peel.
Pick over the fat hen, removing any very coarse stalks. Wash thoroughly and chop roughly. Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil and throw in the fat hen. Bring back to the boil and blanch for a couple of minutes, then tip into a colander and leave to drain.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the onion and sauté for 8–10 minutes to soften. Add the garlic and garam masala, stir and cook for another couple of minutes.
When the fat hen is cool enough to handle, squeeze to extract as much water as possible, then finely chop. Mix with the onion, adding the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.
Brush a sheet of filo pastry with a little melted butter and use it, butter side down, to line the baking dish. Let any excess overhang the ends. Place another buttered filo sheet on top and continue until you’ve used all but one sheet of filo.
Spoon half the fat hen mix into the dish. Halve the boiled eggs and distribute over the greens. Scatter over the nuts, then top with the remaining fat hen. Fold over the pastry ends to enclose the filling, dabbing with a little melted butter to keep the pastry together.
Take the remaining sheet of filo pastry, crumple it lightly in your hands to give the pie a nicely textured top, and place over the filling. Dab a little more butter on top. Bake for 35–40 minutes until golden. Serve immediately.