Cooking with Hazel Pollen

Yesterday was a bright and sunny if chilly morning and I went out early to collect oak moss which is actually a lichen not a moss and which can be used as a very fragrant spice in Indian-style tempering (I'll post more on this at a later date). The riverside path I usually walk around has loads of hazel trees on it and being early I went to check if the female hazel flowers were out yet.

Pile of hazel pollen

To my astonishment they were and in brushing against some of the male flowers (the catkins) there was a cloud of pollen. As I'd brought a few plastic bags to collect the oak moss I took one, put a few catkins inside and shook them to release a cloud of pollen, which was collected in the bag. 

It did take a fair while, foraging in a copse of hazel trees but I eventually managed to get a decent bag of pollen which weighed at just over 100g. If you have time and if it's a sunny and bright day after rain and the catkins are fully developed than you really can forage for hazelnut pollen and it's just about a worthwhile endeavour. In my case it was done on a whim to see if it could be achieved and I was out foraging for something else anyway. Moreover, Pancake day/Shrove Tuesday was only a few days away and I was preparing to try out some alternative pancakes with addition like cassava flour, hazelnut flour and ground almonds so the collection was well worth doing.
    
Having the hazelnut pollen, I proceeded to prepare a Shrove Tuesday pancake (actually a crêpe) using it.

 

Hazel Pollen Pancakes

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 35 minutes

(plus 10 minutes resting)
Serves: 6
 

Hazel Pollen Pancakes is a modern British recipe for a classic pancake made with that rather unusual wild food, reedmace pollen (the pollen of the male hazel (catkin) flower. 

Hazel pollen pancake

Like Breads, you can add a whole range of other flours to your basic pancake mix when making pancakes. Typically this is done in a 1:1 ratio of wheat flour to non-gluten flour. The following recipe is for a pancake using Hazel pollen which I had wanted to see whether it could be collected in reasonable amounts for ages. It did take a fair while, foraging in a copse of hazel trees but I eventually managed to get a decent bag of pollen which weighed at just over 100g. If you have time and if it's a sunny and bright day after rain and the catkins are fully developed than you really can forage for hazelnut pollen and it's just about a worthwhile endeavour. In my case it was done on a whim to see if it could be achieved and I was out foraging for something else anyway. Moreover, Pancake day/Shrove Tuesday recipes was only a few days away and I was preparing to try out some alternative pancakes with addition like cassava flour, hazelnut flour and ground almonds so the collection was well worth doing.

Ingredients:

70g plain flour
70g Hazel pollen
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg
240ml milk
2 tbsp oil (grapeseed oil is good, for flavour)
butter for frying. 

Method:

Combine the plain flour, hazel pollen, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl, stirring to mix thoroughly. Add the egg and oil and mix in with a fork. Now add the milk, a little at a time, beating thoroughly until you have a smooth batter. Cover with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and set aside to rest for 10 minutes.

Take a non-stick frying pan and heat until very hot (when water droplets splashed into the pan sizzle). Add a small knob of butter (just enough to moisten the pan) then pour in a ladle of batter. Turn to coat the pan then cook until golden on the base and are bubbly on top. Turn of flip over and cook until golden on the other side.

Serve the pancake immediately, accompanied by fresh fruit and/or syrup then continue cooking the remaining batter.

This recipe is kindly reproduced from FabulousFusionFood, see the FabulousFusionFood Hazel Pollen Pancake recipe page for the original version.


In testing Shrove Tuesday recipes, the following alternative pancake recipes were also prepared: almond pancakes, hazelnut pancakes and cocoyam flour pancakes.