I’m not crazy, you can really cook with stinging nettle, here’s how to gather and prepare it:

Find large patches of stinging nettle away from polluted areas, put on some thick rubber gloves, and pluck it by hand, preferably taking only the top part of every plant, as the leaves are the main part you want to use while cooking.

Stinging nettle stops being irritating if you either cook it or wait for a few days. Before cooking it you have to wash it thoroughly, so keep wearing those thick gloves while you do it.

The uses of stinging nettle are very similar to spinaches, as is its taste, though stinging nettle has a milder taste than spinaches and tends to have a slimy texture.

Ingredients: stinging nettle, eggs, grated parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, oil (preferably olive oil or peanut oil).

Optional: milk.

Preparation:

1. Wash the stinging nettle and discard the stalks, keeping only the leaves.

2. Take a large and deep pan, add water (about two fingers deep if the pan is flat) and add the nettle.

3. Turn the heat on, add salt on top of the nettle and cover with a lid (or tinfoil if you don’t have a large enough lid).

1. remember to stir the nettle every once in a while as it cooks

2. the nettle will lose most of its volume once cooked, be careful to not cook too little

4. While the nettle cooks crack a few eggs open (about two eggs for every handful of cooked nettle) and put them in a large bowl.

5. Beat the eggs.

6. Add grated parmesan and breadcrumbs in a 1:1 ratio and mix until the mixture is dense enough (it shouldn’t fall off a fork completely, but still drip a bit).

7. If you chose to use milk, add about half a spoon to a spoon of it.

8. Mince some parsley leaves and add them to the mix.

9. Grind a few grains of pepper and add them to the mix, alternatively you can use pepper powder.

10. When the stinging nettle has done cooking (it should have lost most of its volume and turned a bit darker, having the consistency of cooked spinaches but with a slimy feel when touched by hand) chop it in small pieces and add it to the mix.

11. Add salt and mix everything.

12. Take a deep pan and fill it with oil until it’s a couple of centimeters (about an inch) deep.

13. Turn on the heat and wait for the oil to become hot (you can test this by letting a few drops of the mixture drip in the pan, if they sink the oil isn’t hot enough, if they float, you’re ready to go).

14. When the oil is hot take a spoon and add spoonfuls of the mixture to the pan, being careful that they’re far enough from each other to not stick to one another (the fritters should float in the hot oil, if they sink the oil isn’t hot enough or it cooled down because you added too many at the same time).

15. When the border of the fritters start becoming brown, flip them with a fork to cook them on the other side too.

16. When the fritters are ready, put them on a plate with paper towels to absorb the oil in excess.

17. Repeat steps 14-16 until the bowl with the mix is empty.

18. Taste a fritter, if they need more salt you can sprinkle a bit on top.

Your fritters are now ready! Enjoy!

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