Enchanted Forest Stinging Nettle Stew

Here's a lovely recipe Loba and I came up with the other night, in the spirit of our recent Faery Tale inspired meals. Though we're not quite done editing Loba's last cookbook, The Enchanted Pantry, we seem to be well on the way to collecting recipes for a new wild-foods based cookbook. I'll be posting recipes from both books regularly here. To make the Monarda Pesto mentioned below, you can use any good pesto recipe and subsitute fresh Monarda leaves for the Basil, along with a bit of curry powder, and don't forget the Piñon Pine Nuts! This is a great early Spring dish when the evenings are still cool but the greens are popping up everywhere.

Enchanted Forest Stinging Nettle Stew

5 Chicken pieces (though Turkey is lovely too)
1 large Onion, sauteed
10-15 whole Shitake Mushrooms (fresh or dried)
3 TB fresh Ginger sauteed in butter
1 C Tomato sauce or salsa
big bunch of fresh Stinging Nettles
2-3 TB Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Roasted Garlic to taste
Monarda Pesto to taste

Brown chicken, simmer mushrooms and chicken together for two hours. Remove mushrooms and chicken, cut mushrooms into slices, de-bone chicken and add both mushrooms and chicken meat back to broth. Add all remaining ingredients except pesto, simmer for 15-20 minutes. Optionally, serve with chunks of goat cheese or cheese covered toast placed directly in the stew. Garnish with a generous spoonful of Monarda Pesto.