artichoke: British food and drink

New Online Cookery School Directory: lookingtocook.co.uk

2011-03-29T05:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Artichoke followers,

I hope that you still find this blog is a useful resource for seasonal food. Please see below for exclusive details of my new venture - www.lookingtocook.co.uk - you are the first to find out about it. Lookingtocook.co.uk is the only site on the Web that offers independent reviews of the best cookery schools and courses in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The website currently has more than 80 reviews of cookery schools that are easily searchable by region, course type and cost. For example, learn how to make artisan bread in a clay oven in a Birmingham back garden or Michelin-starred dishes at the home of Jean-Christophe Novelli. New reviews are added weekly and are also searchable by an interactive map. There is a news section featuring the latest openings and cookery events, and competitions, discounts, giveaways and kitchen gadget reviews coming soon.

It's a work in progress but I'd love to hear your feedback on any ideas or tweaks that could improve the site, about any cookery schools that we've not covered or upcoming cookery events that you'd like me to feature.

You can also follow me at www.twitter.com/lookingtocook. I'm going to offer a prize of some new cookbooks to one lucky Artichoke follower who has spread the word and followed Looking to Cook either on the website or Twitter by Good Friday April 22nd.

Bon cooking,

Nick

For more information: Email lookingtocook@gmail.com

In brief season: blood oranges

2010-03-08T02:51:00.000-08:00

In season around now, blood oranges are the most elusive of citrus fruits. They appear briefly for a few weeks each year with unpredictable timing.

The fruit’s name comes from its garnet flesh and scarlet juices. It derives its colour from anthocyanin, a pigment more common in red fruits and flowers. Fuji and Red Delicious Apples, for example, owe their dark red skins to the pigment.

The most popular varieties are Tarocco (grown in Sicily), Sanguinello (Spain) and Moro (US). Blood oranges have a sweet taste with a hint of summer berries. They are best enjoyed eaten alone, freshly squeezed in juices and in desserts, bearing in mind that the colour dims when baked or heated.

Alternatively, a few segments add a rosy hue to a salad of grilled tuna, chicory or fennel, finely sliced purple onion and a strong vinaigrette or serve alongside warm cooked beetroot with a sherry-inspired dressing. For a simple finale plate try slices of blood oranges with Manchego and toasted almonds.

Baby leeks

2010-03-04T06:12:00.000-08:00

In France, baby leeks are considered the poor man’s asparagus. Sweet, oniony and tender they can be braised in a pan in a little water then, while they are hot, dressed on a plate with a good vinaigrette and crumbled with sheep or goat’s cheese and cracked pepper.
Alternatively, soak 4 small leeks in cold water for 15 minutes, melt 2 tbsp butter on a heavy skillet then add the wet leeks – cook for 5 minutes then add a quarter cup of chicken broth and 1 tsp lemon zest. Braise leeks, covered, for 5 minutes, or until very tender, and season with salt and pepper.

The chef Jean-Christophe Novelli uses baby leeks in a quiche with poached salmon and blue cheese. They also work well in a frittata with sorrel, or mixed in with a soft-textured polenta topped with Parmesan cheese.

A Johnson Family Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2009, South Africa (£7.98; Asda) is a crisp and zesty white that knows its onions.

Britain's newest vegetable: the flower sprout

2010-03-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

Britain has a new vegetable. Perfectly named to bridge two seasons – winter and spring - the flower sprout is a cross between a Brussel’s sprout and kale.

Cultivated by British growers in the Cotswolds, this new vegetable is coloured purple and green like kale but tastes more like sprouts. It is best eaten steamed or as part of a stir fry (marksandspencer.co.uk).

Purple sprouting broccoli is also in season now, bringing colour to plates and a sign that spring is just around the corner. Buy it in handfuls at farmers’ markets for best value and look for stalks that snap cleanly.

To make a tasty side dish of sprouting broccoli with garlic breadcrumbs heat a knob of butter and 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add 1 garlic clove, finely chopped, and after one minute 50g fresh breadcrumbs. Fry for three more minutes until crisp and golden. Cook the broccoli until just tender in salted water. Drain and serve scattered with the garlic breadcrumbs.

Perry - is it going pear-shaped?

2010-03-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

Perry, or pear cider, slipped into decline more than 150 years ago when farmers replaced pear trees with shorter cider apple trees that stood up to the wind and didn’t take as long to reach maturity.

That said, in the name of artisan produce, there has been a renewed interest in proper perry pears and more trees are being planted. Perry pears are not eaters, they have a harsh acidic taste but produce a sparkling drink that ranges from “gin bright” to golden in colour with a fragrant hedgerow aroma and a happy balance between tannins and the sweetness of unfermented sugars on the palate.

The winner of CAMRA’s recent National Cider and Perry Championships 2009 is Broadoak Perry of Clutton, Somerset, which was picked from 20 perries from around the country and declared “a lovely, drinkable perry with a true pear aroma that starts with a medium sweet taste and is followed by a dry finish.”

Runners up were Seidr Dai, Painted Lady Perry, from Glamorgan and Gwatkin, Blakeney Red from Abbey Dore, Herefordshire. Gwatkin’s Yarlington Mill also won gold medal for best cider.

Banh mi - London's sandwich du jour

2010-03-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

Tired of the same old sub, sandwich or panini? Currently budging over the burrito for London’s hottest ethnic street-food is the banh mi, a Vietnamese snack that’s arrived here via New York.

Not for the faint hearted, the banh mi (pronounced "bun mee") consists of a baguette made with 50 per cent rice flour to ensure that it's light and crispy, lined with homemade mayonnaise and pork liver pâté, then filled with Vietnamese salad of carrots and daikon (white radish), thin slices of cucumber, coriander and chilli, and finally, a generous helping of slow-cooked pork.

The bread and pate element are a legacy from the French occupation of Vietnam in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet somehow the combination of sweet, salt and sour flavours hits the palate’s jackpot.

Try banh mi at Mo-Me market stall at Spitalfields, Caphe House on Bermondsey Street; Loong Kee Café on Kingsland Road, Shoreditch; Viet Baguette in Fitzrovia; Banzi in Surrey Quays; Café Bay in Denmark Hill, and the Banhmi11 stall in Broadway Market.

Pomegranates

2009-11-01T03:25:00.000-08:00

Now is the time to be eating pomegranates, a so-called superfood with a leathery skin and fragrant sweetsharp juice that has been used in Central Asian and Middle Eastern kitchens for centuries.

There are about 800 juicy seeds in an average fruit which is high in vitamin C, antioxidants and iron.

A generous sprinkling of the ruby-red pomegranate seeds adds a festive flavour to a whole range of dishes from starters to desserts. Try the fruit capsules with a warm duck breast salad or Shaun Hill, co-owner of the Walnut Tree Inn, near Abergavenny, Wales serves a winter salad with pomegranate, pine nuts and chicken livers.

As well as adding a fruity kick to muesli or hoummous, pomegranate seeds go well with other Middle Eastern ingredients such as honeyed almonds, dates, rose water and lemon juice. Crushed with ice they make a refreshing and good-looking base for a number of aperitifs - Jamie Oliver whizzes up a pomegranate and gin cocktail shot in his early tome Jamie’s Kitchen. For a seasonal toast, try floating fresh pomegranate seeds in champagne, sparkling cider or ginger ale

Leeks

2009-11-01T02:58:00.000-08:00

Leeks have been lurking for centuries in our regional dishes such as cock-a-leekie (made by simmering beef with a capon, leeks and prunes), Welsh mutton pie and Cornish leek pie.

Small and medium sized leeks are best for cooking as they tend to be sweeter and more tender than chunkier ones. To clean, remove the outer leaves, the tough green tops and stringy root. Cut along the length of the stalk, halfway through, and put into a bowl of water; swill around a bit so that any dirt will be washed out of the leafy layers.

Try shallow frying leeks with a pinch of thyme or tarragon, some shredded spinach, and grated carrots or beetroot. Lightly blanched leeks can be baked with ham in a cheesy sauce or added to salads and pair well with seafood.

The Walnut Tree Inn, near Abergavenny, voted best regional restaurant in Wales according to Hardens 2009 restaurant guide, serves poached leeks cold in a mustard dressing with shavings of parmesan and black truffle. Chef Shaun Hill recommends an unoaked Louis Jadot Nuits-St.-Georges pinot noir for its jammy farmyard flavours.

A simple leek and potato soup is a good match for a glass of rose. Eyes peeled then for ex-footballer and winemaker David Ginola’s soon-to-be released Coste Brulade, a rosé from his Provencal vineyard, which won a silver award at this year’s International Wine Challenge.

Quince upon a time

2009-11-01T02:53:00.000-08:00

Forgotten member of the apple and pear family, the quince is an ancient fruit native to the warmer climes of southwest Asia.

Quince trees are now relatively rare in Britain but Norton Priory, in Cheshire, oversees the national collection, protecting more than 20 varieties.

Although the trees are aromatic, the fruit is bitter and hard when eaten raw. When cooked, however, quinces release a sweet, fragrant flavour. They also contain pectin, which make them ideal for jams and jellies.

Norton Priory hosts a quince festival this weekend with tours, tastings and recipe demonstrations (nortonpriory.org). Like Spanish membrillo, the jelly is best eaten with cold meats and Manchego cheese or used in fruit tarts with apples. Quinces poached with sugar and lemon juice are a good match for Greek yoghurt and honey or a soft goat’s cheese.

Bramley and Gage produce a quince liqueur (£11.64; bramleyandgage.co.uk), that won “best drink” in the Taste of the West awards last year. This home-grown version of a dessert wine has aromas of dates and figs and uses the pear-like “vranga” variety grown at Clay Barn Farm in Essex.

Chestnuts

2009-11-01T02:48:00.000-08:00

Gusty early November is the perfect time to go gathering nuts. Rule number one for nutty foragers is not to confuse edible chestnuts with conkers. A wild sweet chestnut is one third of the size of most conkers with a pointed end.

Chestnuts differ from other nuts in that they have a high starch and water content, but low protein and fat levels, so they can be dried and ground into a meal for breads, batters, cakes and stews.

The majority of chestnuts available in supermarkets are from Europe rather than Britain, so look for home-grown chestnuts at farmers’ markets.

If you don’t have a toasty open fire, remove the prickly green husks, make a small incision in the chestnuts (so they don’t explode) and “roast” them in a dry frying pan for about 10-15 minutes. Make that two minutes if you’ve got a George Foreman-style grill contraption.

Use fresh chestnuts in risotto, mash or stir fried with Brussels sprouts and pancetta. They work well roasted alongside game and root vegetables, as a stuffing for turkey and pork or to give a savoury-sweet autumnal stamp to a chocolate torte topped with spiced pears.

Core values - Britain's best cider

2009-11-01T02:29:00.000-08:00

With the cider harvest in full swing, CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, is celebrating National Cider and Perry Month with farm-gate tastings and orchard events nationwide (camra.org.uk/cider).

Unlike chilled and fizzy, artificially produced ciders, real cider and perry, which are produced naturally from apples or pears and are neither carbonated nor pasteurised, are becoming harder to find in pubs. As a result, CAMRA is introducing a new window sticker initiative to make it easier for punters to recognise a genuine cider bar.

Setting the standard is the winner of this year’s CAMRA National Cider Pub of the Year, the Orchard Inn in Bristol. The judges described it as like visiting a daily “mini cider festival”.

The runners up were the Arkwright Arms, in Derbyshire, Penrhyn Arms, in Gwynedd, and the Stand Up Inn, in West Sussex.

For a truly mellow tipple, or three, try Rosie’s Triple D Cider, from Llandegla, in Denbighshire, Seidr Dai Painted Lady Perry, made in Cardiff and Gwatkin Blakeney Red, from Abbey Dore, Herefordshire.

Tuck in to parsnips

2009-11-01T02:24:00.000-08:00

Root vegetables are in season and parsnips are plentiful, relatively cheap and full of flavour. They also have a natural sweetness that combines well with beef when roasted together. Avoid huge ones that tend to have a woody core.

Abel and Cole’s golden parsnip and parmesan gratin feeds 4-6 people and makes a handsome supper served with cold ham.

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6. Butter a gratin dish. Peel 500g parsnips and slice as thinly as possible into rounds. Boil for 5 minutes or steam for 5-10 minutes until soft. Layer roughly in the gratin dish.

Mix together 175ml double cream, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 2 sprigs of thyme, 1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard and a good grating of nutmeg. Season well. Pour over the parsnips and press down so the liquid oozes through the vegetables. Dot the top with butter and cook in the oven for 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and cap generously with Parmesan. Return to oven for 10 minutes, until golden and bubbly.

Celeriac - roots and shoots

2009-11-01T02:16:00.000-08:00

Celeriac is in season now and is one of those vegetables that bridge the gap between late summer and winter. The delicate nutty flavour of celeriac works well shredded raw in salads or cooked until soft and creamy in soups and casseroles or with mashed potato.

This seasonal soup combines the subtle flavour of celeriac with the freshness of pears.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large saucepan, add 4 shallots, 2 finely chopped garlic cloves and finely chopped square-inch chunk of ginger and cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes until softened but not coloured.

Add about 800g celeriac, peeled and roughly chopped, 4 ripe pears, peeled, cored and roughly chopped and 1 litre of stock, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the celeriac has softened enough to mash easily.

Blend the soup until super smooth. A small knob of butter gives it a silky finish. Season and serve sprinkled with parsley.

Apples: core strengths

2009-09-12T02:40:00.001-07:00

Apples are, arguably, the most English of seasonal fruits. They have been ripening on trees for weeks now but September signals the true start of the apple season.

More than 2,000 varieties have been grown here over the years, many with names that pinpoint their origin such as Keswick Codlin, Kentish Fillbasket and Beauty of Bath. Others bear hints for the palate in their names such as the Pitmaster’s Pineapple, D’Arcy Spice and Blenheim Orange.

Sadly there has been a drastic decline in both the diversity of varieties grown and the number of orchards in the country in recent years. Kent, for instance, has lost 85 per cent of its orchards in the past 50 years.

Farm shops and farmers’ markets offer an excellent choice of locally-grown apples and eyes peeled for English apples in British supermarkets. If you have space in your garden, the Apple Source Book (Hodder & Stoughton, 2007) tells you everything you need to know to plant an apple tree.

A rosehip operation

2009-09-12T02:35:00.000-07:00

The bright red seeded berries of the wild rose are known as “hips”. They are found all over the UK, particularly in hedgerows skirting woodland and along footpaths.

Only the thin fleshy covering of rosehips is edible and they are used, most commonly, to make a subtly flavoured syrup that is delicious with ice cream, pannacotta, rice pudding and pancakes. Do not eat rosehips whole, the “itching powder” seeds inside are an irritant.

To make 2 litres of rosehip syrup, you’ll need a jelly bag (available from good cook shops). Boil 1kg of crushed freshly picked rosehips in 1.75 litres of boiling water and allow to stand for 15 minutes.

Pour the rosehip mixture through a jelly bag then repeat the process from the start using the pulp and 900ml boiling water. In a clean pan, reduce the juice, lower heat and stir in 450g caster sugar, boil for 5 minutes then pour into sterilised jars.

Tomato catch up

2009-09-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Homegrown tomatoes are coming into their own now and should have an aroma, taste and even (mis)shape that are more enticing than the uniform packaged varieties available in supermarkets.

Heritage or heirloom tomatoes are making a comeback among allotmenteers and chefs. These are basically old non-hybrid varieties with different flavours, rainbow colours and strange names such as Hillbilly Potato and Green Sausage tomatoes. Search farmers’ markets for the best crops.

In the kitchen, the tomato is such a versatile ingredient. Pizza and pasta aside, big beefy toms can be hollowed out and stuffed with cooked quinoa, feta cubes, toasted pine nuts and parsley then oven roasted; cherry tomatoes make a sweet partner to fish when roasted with a few capers, grated lemon zest and olive oil, and chopped vine tomatoes need no more than finely diced red onions, sea salt, vinegar and oil for a delicious side salad.

To maximise flavour, eat tomatoes at room temperature or even warm but never chilled from the fridge.

Engage with greengages

2009-08-27T02:24:00.000-07:00

There are plums and then there are greengages. Bright green and round with greenish-yellow or golden flesh, they have a beautiful sweet scent when ripe and can be used instead of plums for desserts and preserves.

The blogger Pim Techamuanvivit (chezpim.com) has a recipe for greengage and vanilla jam made with 2lb (about 1kg) greengages, 1lb (about 500g) sugar, 2 vanilla pods and the juice of 1 lemon. When cooked down into compote or jam, the fragrant flavour of the greengages intensifies. There’s also a enough acidity to balance the sweetness and plenty of natural pectin in the skin so there’s no need to add extra.

Another blogger, Princess and the Recipe (princessandrecipe.blogspot.com), has adapted Pim’s recipe to make greengage sorbet, substituting lime for lemon and leaving out the vanilla beans. She cools the stewed greengages before they reach a jammy setting point, pushes them through a sieve to get rid of the skins, pops the sieved liquid in the fridge, then churns it in an ice-cream maker.

Sweet as... sweetcorn

2009-08-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

The season is short but sweet for sweetcorn, running from now through most of September. A golden buttered corn on the cob is a seasonal delight. It has been cultivated in the south for years but with warmer summers has begun to appear further north, too.

When buying, choose creamy yellow kernels because they will be the sweetest. Eat fresh, as once the cob is cut the sugar starts to turn to starch and loses its sweetness.

Try putting whole cobs in their pale green husks in a roasting tin and roast in the oven preheated to 180C (Gas 4), or on the rack over a hot barbecue for about 30 minutes, turning once. Pull back the husks, add a knob of butter and freshly ground black pepper.

Also in season, baby corn is a specialised vegetable harvested before the kernels develop. The sweet, nutty cobs no bigger than a finger can be cooked whole or cut in chunks and are great in stir fries cooked with sesame oil and soy sauce.

Food for free - blackberries

2009-08-24T23:42:00.001-07:00

Blackberries are such a good free source of antioxidants and vitamin C that during World War One children were encouraged to collect them for the production of juice that was sent to soldiers on the frontline.

Ready for gathering now, blackberries can be eaten fresh, used for puddings and pies, or preserved into jelly or “pippy” jam.

They team up particularly well with the first of the cooking apples, are a good match for rich or gamey meat such as venison, lamb or pheasant, and add a seasonal flourish muddled into a cold martini for a late summer cocktail.

For a simple blackberry and oat sundae (serves 2), whisk 150g Greek yoghurt, 3 tbsp crème fraîche and a few drops of vanilla extract together until thoroughly mixed.

Alternately layer lightly crushed blackberries with the yoghurt mixture and handfuls of granola to fill two sundae dishes. For best results chill for an hour.

Plum season

2009-07-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Plums are in season now and this year's combination of a very cold winter and warm spring means bumper crops. Pershore, in Worcestershire, celebrates with a month-long festival featuring plum sausages and other recipes from the festival's Plum Cook Book (pershoreplumfestival.org.uk)

Rosie Lovell of Brixton's retro-feel deli has a recipe for Plum Clafoutis in her new book Spooning With Rosie (£18.99, Fourth Estate).

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Stone and chop 450g of Victoria plums into 2.5cm pieces. Butter a baking dish and scatter the fruit into this. Beat two medium free-range eggs in a bowl and add 50g plain flour so that it forms a smooth paste. Gradually add 75ml double cream and 150ml milk and 50g caster sugar so that it becomes a creamy batter. Add 1 tbsp Calvados before pouring the mix over the fruit. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Serves 4.

New: pink gooseberries and long-stem broccoli

2009-07-22T05:06:00.000-07:00

Gooseberries are not everyone’s favourite fruit. But a new, less tart variety Pink Gooseberry, grown, by Charles Gaskaine, at his farm in Faversham, Kent, has gone on sale recently in Marks & Spencer stores.

It is naturally much sweeter than the green cooking variety and has fewer spines so it can be eaten raw straight from the punnet or added to fruit salads, cereals and fruit compotes.

Sweet, long-stemmed broccoli is another twist on standard seasonal fare marketed with a view to capturing consumers’ palates and imaginations.

Grown in Lincolnshire, where its young shoots are hand-picked after just ten days of growth, bellaverde broccoli resembles the Italian cime de rapa.

TV chef Gino D’Acampo suggests eating it in a spaghetti dish with grated courgettes, crushed walnuts, lemon zest and chilli flakes or served warm with fresh mint, goat’s cheese and toasted pine nuts dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Both dishes go well with a 2008 Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, Cavit, Italy (Co-op £4.99) - a lively white with a citrus finish.

Raving about raspberries

2009-07-11T02:55:00.000-07:00

Although there are many varieties of raspberries, from amber red to yellow and white, they all have the same delicate tart-sweet flavour. Raspberries have a long season, from now until November, and some of the tastiest fruits come from Scotland, where they have cooler summers.

Naturally raspberries are delicious on their own, eaten just when they’ve softened and leave a stain on your fingertips. They make an instantly delicious topping for desserts from lemon meringue pie to cheesecake or embedded in an almond tart or at the heart of a summer pudding or jelly. Match fruity puds with a lightly sparkling Gancia Astia, Piedmonte, Italy (£5.79, Waitrose).

Try fresh raspberries with duck, grilled and sliced in a warm salad, dressed with olive oil and raspberry vinegar. The latter (vinaigre de framboise) is a French favourite served with foie gras and other fatty meats, while in Britain it was used as a cure for sore throats from the 17th century until World War Two.

Starwberry yields forever

2009-07-03T01:15:00.000-07:00

Ripe strawberries, like sunny days at Wimbledon, never fail to induce summery vibes. The warm spring means it should be a bumper crop and the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown, shared her excitement last week on Twitter about tiny strawberries in her garden.

Strawberry plants have short lives and rarely remain productive for more than a few years so new varieties are introduced often. They have names to match such beautiful fruit: Symphony, Florence and Eve’s Delight, for example.

Long-cropping Elsanta is the most common British strawberry variety; Ava is a premium Scottish strawberry first grown in 2005, the same year that Sonata, a large, firm variety was launched. English Rose is another newcomer noted for its zesty flavour and Marie de Bois is similar to a wild strawberry.

To enhance the flavour of strawberries allow them to bask a while in the sunshine and go soft. Wash and hull some strawberries then mush them up with sugar, double cream, a nip of Cointreau, if you like, and orange zest. Dig in. Match with a fruity-sweet Sauternes Chateau Sudiraut 2005 (£9.95, Waitrose).

Elderflower power

2009-06-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

Creamy clusters of elderflower are perfuming hedgerows and lanes all over the country at the moment with their delicate fragrance of Muscat grapes. Collect them just-bloomed, wash carefully, pat dry and use in a recipe immediately.

Traditionally elderflowers, like many other flowers (primroses, cowslips and lime blossom, for example) were infused into vinegars, cordials and wine. Today they are mainly used in desserts and refreshing summer drinks. Add a single stem to stewed rhubarb or any fruit to give a compote, jam or fool a fragrant flavour. Alternatively, make an elderflower and gooseberry sorbet, elderflower fritters or a syrup to add to summer fruit salads.

For elderflower cordial dissolve 450g (1 lb) sugar with 900ml (1.5 pints) water, the zest of 1 lemon and the juice of 2. Boil for 2 minutes. Add 12 elderflower heads. Stir, cover, leave until cold. Strain into a bottle. Chill. Serve diluted with sparkling spring water. It also adds a spritz to cocktails, and is great stirred in to custard or drizzled over vanilla ice cream.

Edamame - soy British

2009-06-10T05:41:00.000-07:00

Next month British-grown edamame beans will go on sale at 100 branches of the supermarket Asda.

Joe Cottingham, UK Young Grower of the Year 2008, has been growing a crop of these fresh green soya beans on a farm in Kent. This protein-packed bean is said to contain all nine essential amino acids and is usually imported frozen from the Far East.

Made popular in this country by Japanese restaurants, from Nobu to YO!Sushi, edamame are usually eaten as a starter or a side-dish, boiled in the pod and doused in a naturally brewed soy sauce or sprinkled with salt.

For a delicious summer salad, cook 300g of shelled edamame in boiling salted water until tender. Drain and cool under running water, then pat dry. Transfer the edamame to a bowl and add the 250g crab, 1 chopped avocado, 2 finely sliced shallots, 4 finely sliced radishes, 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp lime juice. Season, mix up and serve.

Broad beans feast

2009-06-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

Broad beans are at their best at the beginning of summer, as they become tough and bitter towards the end of the season.

All the podding and shelling is worth it to retreive the smooth-skinned pale green beans inside their fur lined pods.

The beans have a nutty, chalky flavour and are best steamed or boiled until tender when they can be easily popped out of their skins.

To make a warm broad bean, streaky bacon and goat’s cheese salad, fry some chopped onion in a good knob of butter until golden, add some diced streaky bacon – cook until crisp. Add the cooked broad beans, some chopped flat-leaf parsley and a capful of red wine vinegar. Toss gently, scatter with goat’s cheese and season to taste.

The first crops of beans and peas need virginal, unoaked wines such as a citrussy Soave classico or try Spain’s version of Sauvignon Blanc, a grassy and crisp Palacio de Bornos Verdejo 2007, Rueda (£6.99, Waitrose).

Marsh Samphire

2009-05-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

In season from now until September, marsh samphire is a sea plant that grows wild mainly along the coast of East Anglia and Humberside on muddy, salty flats washed by the tides.

These emerald green knobbly stems are a prized delicacy, sometimes known as sea fennel or poor man’s asparagus that can be found at fishmongers and farmers’ markets during summer.

Traditionally samphire is pickled in vinegar but the succulent stalks are delicious lightly steamed and eaten fresh with garlic and lemon butter or with white and oily fish. Samphire is naturally salty so wash well in cold water before use.

Galton Blackiston, the Michelin-starred head chef at Morston Hall in Norfolk, has a recipe for local new potatoes with bacon, samphire and soya beans in his new book Summertime (£18.99, Virgin Books). The bacon lardons are fried with shallots and garlic and mixed in a bowl with the other cooked ingredients and a large knob of unsalted butter. Serve with an easy-going red to match the saltiness, such as a ripe fruity 2008 Recchia Bardolino, Italy for around a fiver from Waitrose.

Grape exceptions - English wine

2009-05-22T04:23:00.000-07:00

English Wine Week runs until May 31 with events and tastings in vineyards around the country (englishwineweek.co.uk).

Most English vineyards focus on white and sparkling wines. The chalky soil of the South-East allows classic grape varieties used in Champagne, such as chardonnay and pinot noir, to flourish, and some of the bubbly has bagged international awards.

The latest fizz on the podium is a white pinot brut from Camel Valley vineyard in Cornwall, which was runner-up to Champagne Bollinger in a global sparkling wine competition in Italy at the end of 2008. The Lindo family make it from red grapes, using all their flavour with none of the colour (camelvalley.com).

To celebrate English Wine Week, Marks & Spencer is promoting three new English wines from the Chapel Down winery in Kent, including a light and fruity English Rosé 2008 (£9.99) made from a blend of the rondo, shonberger, pinot noir, bacchus and huxelrebe grape varieties and a fresh and crisp 100 per cent White Bacchus 2008 (£9.99).

St George's mushrooms - patriotic fungi

2009-05-22T04:19:00.000-07:00

Wild mushrooms are not confined to the cold, damp days of autumn. A spring flush of fungi is happening around now, which includes the St George’s mushroom whose season is supposed to start on the patron saint of England’s day (April 23), the morel and the first wild oyster mushrooms.

St George’s mushrooms have a firm texture, a moreish mealy smell and an earthy, wood smoke flavour. The French call them le vrai mouserron, “the true mushroom”. They grow in a wide variety of habitats, from woodland to pasture, but are often found on chalk grassland. Forage for them or try upmarket food halls such as those at John Lewis and Harvey Nichols.

The less fuss the better when cooking fungi. Wash, shake and put in the frying pan with a little butter, some wet garlic, fresh herbs and a pinch of sea salt to bring out their full flavour. Serve on sourdough toast, partner with asparagus in an omelette or chicken in a casserole.

Wonders of watercress

2009-05-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

National Watercress Week (until May 24) celebrates a truly British and seasonal arrival, up there with the likes of asparagus.

These sprigs of shiny round leaves on thick peppery stalks grown in mineral-rich spring water beds are great in salads, sandwiches, chopped in sauces or soups or used as a garnish for fish dishes.

This week around Arlesford, in Hampshire, there will be free farm tours and special menus at pubs and restaurants. (watercress.co.uk)

For an ultra healthy start to the day try a Champneys’ watercress, apple and kiwi fresh juice or a Virgin Mary made with a blend of watercress (100g pack), 150ml freshly squeezed orange juice, 400ml good quality tomato juice seasoned with tabasco sauce to taste.

For a simple watercress soup, soften a chopped onion and a chopped potato in butter. Add 2 chopped bunches of watercress with 4 parsley stalks, and a light stock. Season. Simmer until tender. Puree. Thin with milk. Reheat or chill.

To make a watercress pesto, fill your blender with a bunch of watercress, a handful of basil leaves, a clove of garlic, a handful of toasted pine nuts, 5 tablespoons of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and generous shavings of parmesan. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, whizz everything together, then stir into a bowl of pasta.

Ravishing radish

2009-05-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

Easily cultivated at home, the small cherry-red and pert pink French Breakfast radishes that Brits are familiar with take about a month to grow in the garden, but their paler carrot-shaped relation, the mooli, a Japanese favourite, can take a whole season to grow.

Radishes fall all too easily into that category of common veg box leftovers, which is a shame because they can really add a mustard-flavoured zip to a salad or stir fry and need to be used swiftly before they shrivel. Store them briefly in iced water to enhance their crunchy texture.

Try them sautéed in butter with garlic or sliced in a salad with cucumber and fennel turning up their peppery heat with a hint of chilli, cumin, coriander and a squeeze of lime. Radishes can be added to a super healthy coleslaw along with sunflower seeds and apple, sliced thinly in a goat’s cheese sandwich, or even coated in oil and paprika and baked in the oven as chips.

Pea shoots and scores

2009-04-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

The highly esteemed chef Mark Hix has put his face to the pea shoots campaign this year claiming that the tender leaves of the traditional garden pea plant harvested after just two weeks are his first choice in the salad department.

Hix takes a leaf out of Chinese cookbooks and stir-fries pea shoots with butter, rapeseed oil and wild garlic flowers then serves them with scallops or poached sea trout. He also makes a cool minted pea salad with Little Wallop goat’s cheese and a cider vinegar dressing and a flavoursome chilled pea shoot and spring leek soup.

Pea shoots have crunchy stems and delicate leaves, like watercress, and taste of freshly shucked peas. Use them to make a pesto with lightly toasted walnuts, feta and pea shoot fritters or even in a super summery strawberry and cucumber salad with a honey and balsamic reduction.

Drinks wise, a Crossroads Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Marlborough (Wine Rack, £8.99) bursts with crunchy green fruits and is ideal with warm salad and fish dishes.

For more recipes visit peashoots.com

New season asparagus - bundles of joy

2009-04-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

The first English asparagus is in the shops now – thick stalked spears from the Wye Valley and there’ll be plenty more to come over the next eight weeks.

Whichever way you choose to cook asparagus - boiled, griddled (a combination of the two), steamed or oven roasted – don’t overdo it. The best spears are those that have only been a couple of hours out of the ground. They have an unbeatable, intense grassy flavour.

Serve asparagus with a fresh squeeze of lemon juice and butter; evoo – twitter speak for extra virgin olive oil -, balsamic vinegar and shaved parmesan cheese; with a Hollandaise to dip; blanketed in Parma ham; in a frittata with tarragon, or on a bed of cooked ham topped with a poached duck’s egg.

Asparagus festivals are held across the country from Essex to Yorkshire – see british-asparagus.co.uk for more details. Tomorrow sees the Great English Asparagus Run, starting at the Bell Tower in Evesham.

Watch a video on How to Cook Asparagus at timesonline.co.uk/realfood

Pollock is now a fish called Colin

2009-04-18T04:30:00.000-07:00

Sainsbury’s has renamed the fish pollack as “colin” - the French word for pollack - to save customers blushes when they ask for it.

Pollack is a cheaper, sustainable alternative to cod or haddock. Two of the most popular varieties in the UK are Alaskan Pollack (often spelt with an “o”, confusingly) whose fillets deliver a bone-free whitefish with a consistent snow-white color. They are lean with a tender texture and excellent flaking qualities. While Atlantic Pollack, a different species, is greyer and more oily, and has a "fishier" flavour. Both types are used for fish and chips and fish fingers.

A traditional ditty went “Pollack for puss, coley for the cat” but pollack works perfectly well in a fish pie, pan roasted with chorizo and butter beans, served with a fresh parsley sauce, or cooked Sicilian style with raisin and shallots. Try a Les Champs Bordelais Sauvingon Blanc 2007, Bordeaux (£5.98; Asda) for its fish-friendly citrus tang.

For more information on the fishing industry and fuss-free recipes check out Mitch Tonks’ new book Fish: The Complete Fish & Seafood Companion (£25; Pavilion) or visit the Marine Stewardship Council’s website (msc.org).

Strengths of spinach

2009-04-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

Popeye’s secret weapon, iron-rich spinach is available all year round, but the best stuff grows in the spring time.

A big handful of washed spinach is simple to cook, with or without butter or oil in a pan. It is a light vegetable with a high water content and so reduces to around a quarter of its size when cooked. As long as the stems are not stick-like, keep them for an added bite.

Alternatively, tender spinach leaves can be blanched and chopped before being reheated with spring onions sautéed in olive oil and mixed with crème fraiche or fried paneer. It’s an ingredient friendly leaf that pairs up smoothly with nutmeg, garlic and olive oil as well as most fish, smoked haddock in particular, and with cheese, especially feta and ricotta. It works well wilted into pasta dishes with bacon and chilli, in a crab frittata or in an English muffin with smoked salmon and a poached egg.

For an ultra-healthy salad, try raw baby-leaf raw spinach simply dressed with olive oil and lemon juice and scattered with toasted pine nuts, raisins and sunflower seeds.

Spring lamb for Easter

2009-04-10T02:14:00.000-07:00

Signs are beginning to appear in butchers’ windows in the south for the first of this year’s spring lamb. British raised lamb is only available fresh from about now until November.

New season’s lamb is traditionally associated with Easter and, if it’s had a spell hanging, has a tender texture, rosy pink hue and white crumbly fat. At this time of year, it is likely to have been reared indoors on its mother’s milk and supplementary feed with possibly some grazing on lowland grasses. By late May onwards if the animal is fed on lush pastures it will develop a deeper, juicy-sweet flavour that is enhanced by grilling.

It is said that the accompaniment to roast or grilled lamb should be based on the lamb’s natural diet. Hence young lamb goes well with baby spinach, watercress and mint, which are all plants that grow at a low level around streams. However, fennel, marinated artichoke hearts and roasted cherry tomatoes work well, too.

A bottle of Santa Julia Fuzion shiraz malbec (£4.49; Somerfield), from Argentina, is a good-value match for roast lamb with its dark fruits’ fragrance and peppery notes.

Hot cross buns

2009-04-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

Hot cross buns are small festive breads traditonally eaten towards the end of the Lent fast on Good Friday in Britain. Made from white flour with spices, sugar, dried fruit and dairy produce, these were special treats when most people lived on coarse wholemeal breads.

A good hot cross bun should be round, 7 – 10cm in diameter, well-risen (not squarish and squashed) and highly glazed, with a cross on top (this is usually made with flour and water paste, although strips of marzipan or cutting a cross are alternatives). The crumb should be fairly pale, not too soft or sticky, and have a light flavour of sweet spices and/or candied peel and dried fruit.
Eat warm or split, toasted with butter for breakfast, tea or a snack, and make bread-and butter pudding with leftovers.

The rhyme “one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns” recalls the habit of selling them warm from bakeries like the Chelsea Bun House in the 18th century. Avoid the cheap packs from supermarkets made using the Chorleywood industrial baking process.

Recipe: Make hot cross buns

Jersey Royals connections

2009-04-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

These delicious British potatoes are one of the keynotes of the seasonal food calendar and in a good year they’ll be available in time for Easter lunch.

Despite so many rival mini new spuds on the market, from “Charlotte” to “Pearl”, it’s hard to beat the first plate of pukka Jerseys topped with parsley or snipped chives, flakes of sea salt and lashings of butter.

JRs are grown using the local vraic seaweed as fertiliser and handpicked from the Channel Island soil. They have a firm texture, a papery skin that you can be rubbed away with your thumb, and an earthy flavour. Their firmness makes them great for both cooking and salads.

Jersey Royals are the only fresh British product to have PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status awarded by the EU. This guarantees the origin and quality of these potatoes.

Remembering rosemary

2009-04-02T04:48:00.000-07:00

A spiky evergreen bush, rosemary is a member of the mint family. It has a pungent, pine-like taste with lemon and camphor undertones that add flavour to meats, potatoes and breads and is a common ingredient in marinades and soups.

Rosemary is at its best palled up with garlic on roast spring lamb or chicken, on blistering hot focaccia bread with a splash of olive oil or in slow-cooked tomato sauces. It also works well with rabbit, mustard, honey and oranges.

To use sprigs of fresh rosemary in cooking, strip the leaves from the woody stalk by holding the tip and pulling down on the leaves in the opposite direction they are growing. Chop the tough leaves finely before adding to other ingredients, ideally at the start of cooking to allow it plenty of time to break down.

Dried rosemary loses some of the aromatic perfumed flavour of the fresh stuff but is handy to have to hand in the kitchen. Simply hang a bundle of freshly clipped sprigs upside down in a cupboard for about four to five weeks then transfer the leaves to an airtight container.

Go wild for garlic

2009-03-30T02:47:00.000-07:00

Wild garlic, also known as ramsons, thrives in damp woods and beside semi-shaded hedgerows. It is recognisable by its garlic-like smell and long lush leaves, similar to those of Lily of the Valley.

Now is the time to pick leaves while they are young and tender. The torn leaves have a mild oniony flavour and can be eaten in salads or cooked in soups and sauces. The white flowers make a pretty garnish for salads and can be deep fried in a tempura batter. The bulbs are tiny but edible.

Alex Venables, chef at the award-winning Tollgate Inn, in Holt, near Bath, is a fan and uses wild garlic in a range of dishes including omelettes and bubble and squeak. For recipes other than salads it is best to blanch the wild garlic: put it into hot boiling water for about 20 seconds then refresh it in ice cold water. Now it’s ready to chop up and use.

To make a wild garlic pesto put a handful of blanched leaves into a blender with walnuts, a healthy slug of olive oil and some crumbled Keen’s farmhouse cheddar, season, blitz and serve with pasta or baked trout.

Mutton dressed as lamb

2009-03-30T02:22:00.000-07:00

Spring lamb is just around the corner but in the current spirit of cheaper cuts and “stick with what your grandma ate” philosophy mutton has been enjoying a renaissance.

Mutton means meat from a sheep more than two years old, but it could be as mature as four to five years. Carcasses should be hung for three weeks and the meat, which is gamey red, is best boiled or braised slowly in the oven until tender.

When the Prince of Wales began a campaign, in 2004, to revive mutton – once Britain’s traditional meat before it was usurped by roast beef in the 18th century – he shared some morsels with food industry guests from his own rare breed Hebridean flock at Highgrove. The meat was marinaded for hours in red wine and slow cooked then served with pearl barley and mixed vegetables.

Try mutton in a broth or biryani, or a leg of Herdwick mutton from Cumbria roasted very slowly and served with black pudding and root vegetables. For more recipe ideas and regular masterclasses visit muttonrenaissance.org.uk.

Where to buy: Graig Farm Organics (01597 851655; http://www.graigfarm.co.uk/), sells; Farmer Sharp (01229 588299; http://www.farmersharp.co.uk/) is at Borough Market; Ardalanish Organic Farm (http://www.ardalanishfarm.co.uk/), (buy through Loch Fyne, 01499 600264; http://www.loch-fyne.com/).

Ready, steady mango

2009-03-23T03:06:00.000-07:00

Obviously mangoes don’t grow on trees in Blighty but it is the right time of year to keep eyes peeled for stacks of mango boxes outside Asian and Middle Eastern grocers.

The prized contents are usually Alphonso mangoes from India. These mangoes are smaller, thinner-skinned and more golden than the hard green specimens found in supermarkets. They have a pointed end, an intoxicating fragrance and a pure nectar flavour.

Much of a mango’s flavour is in the aroma that’s released into the mouth when biting the flesh off the washed skin.

Knead the fruit without splitting the skin, chill it in the fridge and then cut a hole in the skin and squash the pulp straight into your mouth.

TV chef Anjum Anand uses the pulp of alphonso mangoes to make a lassi yoghurt drink and a velvety mousse cutting the fruit’s natural sweetness with a squeeze of lime juice.
The flesh can be puréed and frozen to use in sorbet and ice cream.

Look out for the Kesar variety towards the end of April for a beautifully sweet, juicy and aromatic thin-skinned mango from India and Pakistan.

Sussex produces 98% local menu

2009-03-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

It is no mean task to create a decent menu from 100 per cent local produce in this country.

Sussex is leading the way with its Celebration of Sussex menu - the brainchild of Martin Hadden, head chef at Historic Sussex Hotels, who claims to use 98 per cent fodder from the county.

Hadden’s dinner starts with Selsey lobster canapés and a brown crab egg custard tart with white crab meat Hollandaise and spring salad leaves, followed by roast best end of lamb with a spinach mousse, and half a dozen Sussex cheeses.

Drinks include a pinot gris 2008 and pinot noir 2006 from Bookers Vineyard, in Bolney, and a mead from Lurgashall Winery.

The honeyed mead is a sweet match for the tangy Sussex Pond pudding, which is traditionally slow cooked for eight hours, allowing enough time for the entire lemon inside to collapse and infuse the syrup which spills out – like a pond – when the casing is broken with a diner’s spoon.

Although there are growers of pak choi and edamame (soya beans) and makers of halloumi in Sussex there are no locally-produced lemons – the menu’s alien 2 per cent.

Photo via Flickr.

Calcots - Catalan's spring onions

2009-03-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

It’s still a bit early in the year to find young, tender spring onions grown in Britain but calcots, from Tarragona, in north-east Spain, are in season now.

At annual festivals, known as calçotadas, calçots, which look like a cross between a scallion and a leek, are roasted on a grate over coals and vine trimmings until they are charred on the outside but soft on the inside.

The vegetables are then wrapped fish-and-chips style in newspaper to steam and finish cooking them and served on a terracotta roof tile ready to be peeled at the table and eaten dipped in a pungent red romesco sauce, made with tomatoes, garlic, ground almonds and peppers. It’s a great sauce to use with leeks or roasted sweet red onions. Try them at London’s recently re-opened Fino restaurant.

Calcots, or at least the ones from Valls, have EU protected status and are best eaten with red wine or cava. A Muriel Rioja Reserva 2003 (£9.99; The Co-operative) has a rounded mellowness that suits roasted vegetables.

Sorrel, I haven't a clue...

2009-03-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

Sorrel is part of the lettuce family and grows abundantly in the countryside from early spring. It is also available in selected supermarkets and farm shops. Its arrow-shaped leaves resemble a paler looking type of baby spinach and have an astringent lemony flavour that comes from the high content of oxalic acid.

Because of its acidity sorrel is often combined with other mellowing ingredients. It is ideal in soups, sauces or salads with avocado and cucumber, goat’s cheese and beetroot or chopped like a herb and added to stuffing.

Like spinach and watercress it cooks down to minimal quantities and works particularly well with fish, chicken and egg dishes. Try shredded sorrel cooked in butter on sourdough toast with a poached egg, or oily fish such as poached sea trout or grilled mackerel with a sorrel sauce (made with fish stock, cream and vermouth).

The citrus notes, not unlike lemon verbena, mean that sorrel can even be added to fruit salads, jellies and custard.

Limes light up dishes

2009-03-11T03:21:00.000-07:00

If oranges and lemons tend to hog the limelight then it’s not because limes lack bite. The lime has a stronger more sour taste than lemon and is a dynamic little culinary catalyst.

It is mainly used for its juice in Asian curries or, along with its zest, as a marinade or salsa for fish and chicken. In ceviches it effectively “cooks” the raw seafood.

Use the juice to make a refreshing sorbet with mint and a splash of vodka, or to liven up icing on a cupcake. Lime juice muddled with brown sugar syrup, rum, soda and spearmint makes a mojito or, for a more crude cocktail, stick a wedge in the top of an ice cold bottle of Mexican beer.
The sourness in limes provides a great foil to sweet dishes: for example, in Florida’s famous Key lime pie where it partners crushed Digestive biscuits and condensed milk, or in a sponge pudding topped with lime curd and mascarpone.

Choose limes that are firm and heavy for their size, and have a glossy, deep green skin – the colour indicates that they are at the peak of their zingy tartness.

In praise of parsley

2009-03-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

Parsley is probably the world’s most popular herb. It derives its name from the Greek word meaning "rock celery" and, indeed, carries a hint of celery in its taste as well as dill and mineral flavours and a slight sweetness. In the kitchen it is first and foremost a garnish but it is also highly nutritious.

The two most popular types of parsley are curly parsley and Italian flat-leaf parsley. The Italian saw-toothed leaf has a more fragrant and less bitter taste than the crispy, tightly bunched curly variety. There is also a third type of parsley known as parsnip-rooted (or Hamburg) that is cultivated for its roots, which resemble salsify and burdock.

Combine chopped parsley with bulgur wheat, finely sliced green onions (scallions), mint leaves, lemon juice and olive oil to make the Middle Eastern classic dish, tabbouleh.

Use parsley, combined with garlic, orange and lemon zest, to make herby sauces such as salsa verde or gremolata as a marinade or dip for chicken, lamb and beef or to finish grilled fish dishes.

Serve a bright salad of fennel, blood orange, vine tomatoes, pumpkin seeds and parsley leaves.

Good old parsley sauce is a “comfort blanket” made for gammon and salmon fishcakes and there’s just as much flavour in the stalk as in the leaf.

Go bananas

2009-03-06T06:56:00.000-08:00

There are more than 300 different types of edible banana, but almost all of the commercially grown ones belong to just one type, the Cavendish variety, according to the new Rough Guide to Food (£12.99). This monoculture deprives us of speciality bananas such as the Red Makabu and the tiny Lady Finger and makes bananas more vulnerable to disease, since whole regions are planted with genetically identical stock.

Although bananas are inescapably heavy on food miles, they remain the most iconic food of the Fairtrade movement. They might lack the colour and juice of other winter fruits such as oranges and pomegranate but they have a versatility and comfort factor second to none and are packed with potassium, fibre and the serotonin related B6.

Bananas are a key ingredient for breakfast smoothies or comforting old-school dishes such as banana custard made with fresh vanilla and cardamom pods; banana bread baked with crushed pecans and topped with a lemon syrup; flambé bananas with rum or deep-fried banana and sesame fritters.

Tip: you can freeze ripe bananas to use in cooking at a later date – they will go black in the freezer but taste just fine.

It's OK to okra

2009-03-03T03:33:00.000-08:00

If you've had your fill of cabbage this winter but are still seeking greens then scoop up a bagful of okra next time you're shopping. The only reason we don't eat more of this shapely vegetable, also known as ladies' fingers, is because most of us are uncertain how to cook it or have experienced it overcooked when it becomes slimy and tasteless.

Trim and slice the okra and add to a splash of vegetable oil in a heavy-based frying pan with a tight-fitting lid. The trick is to get the okra to sweat without burning it; flick in a bit of water, shake the pan and cook until tender.

Add to ratatouille, a Thai Monkfish curry or fry with chickpea flour, chilli and chaat masala. Okra is the key thickening ingredient to gumbo, a gelatinous stew from Louisiana made with meat or seafood and Cajun spices.
When shopping look for bright green pods that are soft to touch.

Jme - get it?

2009-02-28T02:57:00.000-08:00

The Jamie Oliver juggernaut rolls on. The first of his new chain of Recipease (get it?) food and kitchen shops has just opened near London’s Clapham Junction.

Beyond the girly pink shop-front fascia, piles of Jamie Magazine, Habitat-style “Jme” (get it?) kitchen paraphernalia and £12 trays of ginger and orange Belgian chocolate brownies there is an open kitchen where punters can drop in and cook up their supper to take home. It’s mostly simple homely fare on the menu such as fish pie, mega mozzarella meatballs and rogan josh and there are knife skills classes (jamieoliver.com).

It’s not a new idea. The Kitchen in Parsons Green has been helping budding Jamies to prepare a week’s worth of meals in one session for more than a year now. With an emphasis on seasonal ingredients, home cooks can try their hand at the likes of sweet and sour Gloucester old spot pork belly with runner beans, organic salmon and smoked haddock fishcakes, free-range Thai green chicken curry and winter fruit crumble (visitthekitchen.com).

The bonus about both places: no washing up after cooking.

Champagne popping rhubarb

2009-02-25T02:35:00.000-08:00

This weekend, a food festival in Wakefield celebrates the candle-lit world of champagne rhubarb with a snap, crackle and pop.

Each winter, a small community of farms in Yorkshire’s "Rhubarb Triangle", transfers acres of rhubarb plants by hand into long, dark nursery sheds to be "forced". They grow at an accelerated rate in the light-free hothouses, which are so completely silent you can hear the "pop" as the buds of new stalks burst open. From mid-February workers harvest armfuls of stalks by candlelight to preserve the younger stems that are still growing.

The harvested stalks are tender, sweet, and a distinctive bright pink in colour with tiny curled yellow leaves that make forced rhubarb instantly recognisable. Known as champagne rhubarb it is a seasonal delicacy and is dearer than its more fibrous and bitter outdoor equivalent.

Chefs have long championed rhubarb as a versatile ingredient that works as well with savoury dishes as it does as humble crumble filling. Its sharp-yet-sweetness makes it an ideal companion for high-fat meats such as duck and oily fish.

For more information on rhubarb walks and candlelit tours visit experiencewakefield.co.uk.

Seville oranges

2009-02-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

In the depths of winter, citrus fruit from the northern hemisphere is at its best adding colour, vitamins and energy to the kitchen.

Bitter Seville oranges are a seasonal treat most commonly used for making marmalade. This is partly because their high acidity makes an ideal setting power for preserves. But the fragrant zest and sharp juice of these tough-skinned non-eaters also works well instead of lemons in many recipes.

Add a squeeze to make a tangy salad dressing with grilled chicken and crushed walnuts or a classic sauce blended with port to mitigate the richness of roast duck.

Or try it as an alternative to lime juice in ceviche, South American-style super fresh seafood marinated in citrus juices. Queen scallops bask beautifully in Seville orange juice, shaved onions, coriander, chilli and salt. Savour them with an Argentinian Susana Balbo Crios Torrontes 2007 Cafayate Salta (£8.75; gauchorestaurants.co.uk), a honeyed white with crisp acidity and a creamy finish.

The organisers of the rather grandly named The World’s Original Marmalade Festival held earlier this month at Dalemain House, in Cumbria (marmaladefestival.com) have compiled their own Recipes with a Citrus Twist book that features 80 zesty dishes made with Seville oranges, lemons, or limes. Try a slice of almond and orange cake drizzled with marmalade syrup served with a Croix Milhas Rivesaltes Ambre, Roussillon, France (£7.99, Tesco). The dessert wine’s spicy notes of caramelised oranges add depth to the cake’s flavours.

Purple patch for sprouting broccoli

2009-02-18T08:17:00.001-08:00

The poetically named purple sprouting broccoli and its trendy acronym psb are not an invention of the pr industry to boost the flagging brassica family.

A rare yield from the late winter garden this seasonal super-veg packed with iron, calcium and vitamins A and C has been available to buy for about 30 years in Britain.

Psb is particularly good when young and tender. Look for stems that are snappy not bendy. Ultra fresh stalks can be washed and dipped in hoummous.

Simply steamed or boiled for a few minutes and served with lemon juice and butter, psb goes well with most white fish and meat. Try it for brunch with a plate of Iberian ham and soft boiled duck's eggs or mixed in a classic Southern Italian pasta dish with chilli, garlic, anchovies and a splash of the best olive oil money can buy. The slender spears are ideal for a stir fry cooked with ginger and sesame oil and added to quinoa or Thai curry style with rice noodles.

Dates in your food diary

2009-02-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

A Middle Eastern staple, glossy dates in a box stuck to a stem and dusted in sugar are a classic Christmas extra.

The fruit of a date palm or Tree of Life, dates keep well for several months (which is just as well in many cases). Fresh and dried dates can look very similar and are both sweet and rich with a chewy, sticky texture.

Of the 350 or so varieties the Medjool date is known as the “king of dates” and was once reserved for Moroccan royalty and their guests. Medjool dates are deep amber-brown and have a slightly crinkly skin. They taste of toffee, wild honey and a hint of cinnamon.
Like many delicacies, Medjools are pricey because their cultivation is a complex and labour-intensive process.

Stuff them with walnuts for a snack or chop them into a bright winter salad with endive and orange segments; add dates to roasted butternut squash with cinnamon and toasted almonds, or make an apple, date and ginger chutney to go with a festive cheeseboard. The Leon cookbook has a recipe for a date and banana smoothie made with Greek yoghurt and string bark honey.

Return of the turnips

2009-02-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

It’s been a long, slow journey for the turnip from cattle fodder to gourmet ingredient. This versatile, good value vegetable is still nowhere near as popular as fellow roots squash, pumpkin and parsnips but chefs are on the look out for different varieties of small, young turnips of the sort cultivated in France.

These are usually globe shaped with a creamy complexion and a hint of purple. They have a sweet but mustardy flavour that intensifies with cooking. Mature turnips are available now as opposed to the baby ones of early summer.

Try cooking them whole like roast potatoes, pan-fried and served with duck or lamb, or caramelised in honey and butter. Alternatively use them as the main root ingredient in a dish of Gordon Brown’s thrifty favourite: rumbledethumps.

Chocolate for a chilli day

2009-02-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Like tea and sausages, chocolate is one of the most prolific artisan products available at any food fair or deli. To sift out the quality from the Quality Streets and promote a greater awareness between fine chocolate and mass-produced confectionery the grandly named Academy of Chocolate was set up in 2005 by five of Britain’s leading chocolate professionals.

The academy’s annual awards have just been announced and the winner of the “Golden Bean” is… Amedei No.9, an Italian chocolate bar made with 75 per cent cocoa solids. This Super Tuscan of the chocolate world blends and refines beans from nine cocoa plantations to make a strong and balanced dark chocolate with expressive flavours ranging from cherry and molasses to blueberry and coffee.

On the homefront, William Curley scooped six gold awards, including the best UK chocolatier, for the delicately crafted chocs he sells from his shop in Richmond, in south-west London. Curley excelled in the filled chocolate category with praise for his toasted sesame, Japanese black vinegar and rosemary and olive oil chocolates.

Other winners included Amano from Utah, French chocolate houses Valrhona and Pralus, London based Paul Wayne Gregory and Sir Hans Sloane, and regional companies Chococo, in Swanage, and Co Couture, in Northern Ireland.

The cold snap is a perfect excuse to drink hot chocolate.

It was the Aztecs who first made cocoa beans into a bitter-tasting hot drink flavoured with chilli, and the Spaniards who sweetened it with sugar and vanilla.

When cocoa butter is removed from chocolate liquor it creates a fine, bitter-tasting cocoa powder. These days, there are no excuses for not buying Fair Trade cocoa powder with plenty of options available from Divine to Green & Black’s Organic.

For a taste of the original Aztec-style drinking chocolate, try Hotel Chocolat’s Aztec Chilli Liquid Chocolat flavour (just add milk to the flakes) or the Chocolate Society’s Valrhona dark drinking chocolate with chilli (chocolate.co.uk). Both have a mouth-warming kick absent from the average cup of cocoa.

There are more flavours on offer at Hotel Chocolat’s in-store Concept Café on High Street Kensington in London. Hot liquid chocolate is served in jugs with china cups and long handled spoons. Choose from six flavours including wintry praline with a tingle of cinnamon and seasonal Valencia oranges (hotelchocolat.co.uk).

Radicchio

2009-02-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

Like rhubarb at this time of year, Italian radicchio is a forced crop that has distinctive claret and white leaves. The less light the vegetable has seen the deeper the red coloured tips of the leaf. It has a strong, bittersweet taste and is related to the chicory family. These “bitter principles” are said to be beneficial to the liver.

Shaped like a pert mini cabbage, it’s mainly used in salads where its tart flavour and crisp texture contrasts well with milder leaves such as rocket. Look out for the seasonal Tardivo variety of Radicchio Rosso di Treviso, which has locally protected status and comes from a small town in North-East Italy.

The tougher winter leaves and the heads can be grilled, braised with balsamic vinegar or shredded and wilted into pasta or risotto. The bitterness of radicchio nicely complements both sweet and creamy ingredients. Try baked figs, goat’s cheese and radicchio or penne with pancetta, mascarpone and radicchio.

Cavolo Nero

2009-02-08T06:57:00.000-08:00

Like so many ingredients that have reached our dining tables via pioneering Italophiles such as Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray of London’s River Café, the Italians have been eating cavolo nero (black cabbage) for donkey’s years. What’s more they don’t make a fuss about it. We say superfood, they say versatile yet tasty vegetable.

Unlike cabbage, Cavolo nero, also known as Tuscan kale, does not form a head, but is made up instead of long, loose dark green leaves. A British variety, which we could call “Lincolnshire kale”, is now being grown in the fertile, loamy soil of this country.

Like cabbage, the leaves should be boiled or steamed for about five minutes and dressed while warm with peppery oils with chilli, garlic and anchovies. It’s delicious in classic soups such as ribollita, which is traditionally left to thicken for a day before serving to intensify the flavours, tossed through pasta with speck, or served with slow-cooked meaty winter dishes.

For more recipes visit discoverkale.co.uk

Salsify your soul

2009-01-09T01:42:00.000-08:00

Can’t stomach oysters? Root vegetable to the rescue… salsify hails from the dandelion family and is also known as the oyster plant because it tastes like native bivalves when cooked; or artichokes according to others.

Salsify comes in two shades — gnarly and white or stick-like, bark-skinned black, also known as scorzonera, which can be found at farmers’ markets. Confused?

Treat salsify like parsnips – after a scrub and peel it can be boiled then sautéed in butter, mashed, used in soups and stews, chopped thinly into chips or pan roasted with lemon, pepper and herbs.

Gordon Ramsay, who unseasonably had salsify on the menu at one of his London restaurants in June this year – tut, tut - uses the root vegetable with roasted Gressingham duck or partridge and honey-glazed onions or in an Indonesian stir fry with chicken.

Highlight the slight sweetness of roast salsify with a classic minerally Riesling Tradition, Albert Mann, Alsace, France 2006 (£14.20; everywine.co.uk).

Darling clementines

2008-12-19T01:28:00.000-08:00

A clementine is so much more than just a stocking filler.

Easy peeling small citrus fruits are in their prime right now and make a refreshing antioxidant-rich snack during the feasting of Christmas as they tend to contain even more vitamin C than oranges, tangerines and satsumas.

Try segments in a winter salad with either goat’s cheese or grilled chicken, with rocket, shallots and walnuts.

Shaun Hill, chef at the Walnut Tree, near Abergavenny, in Wales makes a steamed Clementine pudding using baking powder rather than suet to keep the dish lighter.

Jamie Oliver adds clementine zest along with cranberries and sweet chestnuts to his mince pie mix and Allegra McEvedy creates a pithy Byzantine salad out of thinly sliced clementine segments, pistachio halva and pomegranate seeds with a splash of orange blossom water and runny honey – delicious served with Greek yoghurt.

Or simply savour a juicy clementine with a classic German Riesling such as a 2003 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Auslese, Saarburg (£13; waitrosewine.com; £13).

Shabby chicory

2008-12-15T01:35:00.000-08:00

An antidote to the saccharine excess of the Christmas table, chicory’s crunchy, bitter leaves are not to everyone’s taste.

Chicory is more popular on the Continent where it is commonly known as witloof (from white leaf) and in the US, where it is called Belgian endive. The French even have a museum dedicated to the vegetable in Orchies, in the Calais region.

The commercially-grown vegetable has a pure white colour because the roots sprout in complete darkness but other varieties have a burgundy flush.

Citrus fruits, such as grapefruit and orange, work as a natural foil to the zesty bite of chicory leaves in a winter salad. The leaf also matches well with strong cheeses such as Roquefort or gorgonzola and can be poached, braised, stir-fried or baked and served with bacon, ham and pheasant. The website chicorychallenge.co.uk has scores of recipes using chicory in an audacious range of global dishes.

A raw chicory salad needs a dry, crisp acidic white wine such as a Soave or Lugana from Italy. The 2007 Soave Classico, Ronca (£3.98, Asda) is a bargain bottle made from hand-harvested garganega and trebbiano grapes, with a fresh, unoaked citrus palate.

Pershore plum festival

2008-07-31T03:51:00.000-07:00

The Worcestershire town of Pershore champions its plums throughout August with a month-long festival, concluding with a plum fayre on August Bank Holiday.

The festival starts today with a market and the crowning of a plum princess. There’s also a touring heritage exhibition tracing the history of plums in the area and a plenty of plum varieties to savour, including Pershore Purples, Yellow Eggs and Emblems, as well as trees to grow your own.
Pershore began its association with plums in 1833 when a pub landlord found wild plums growing in a nearby wood. The Pershore Egg variety was developed and, because of its high pectin content, soon became the basis of much commercially sold jam in the UK.

Homegrown seasonal plums are a prize worth relishing fresh from the tree but local butchers also use their famous fruit to make the Pershore “plum” sausage using pork, spring onion, ginger and plum puree.

The town’s Abbey Tea Rooms has a range of plum-themed dishes on the menu such as homemade plum charlotte and a savoury roasted plum tart made with courgettes, peppers and topped with stilton all available with a plum flavoured black loose leaf tea.

Finally, eyes peeled for Churchfield Farmhouse plum ice cream at the farmers’ market on the August bank holiday. It’s a regional rival to the country’s only asparagus ice cream made by Spot Loggins on a nearby Evesham dairy farm.

Apricot

2008-07-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

In these climate-changing times, the home-grown English fruit bowl gets more exotic each year. Apricots join grapes, walnuts and blueberries as the latest hot-weather crop cultivated on these shores.

The majority of apricots are still imported to the UK from the US and Europe, but there are a number of small producers in Southern England.

A member of the peach family, the apricot is a small golden-orange fruit with velvety skin and juicy flesh. They are at their peak in July so catch them why you can – although you’ll be hard pushed to find English ’cots, the lack of steady sunshine and February frosts when the plants flower have all but zapped this year’s yield.

The longer the fruit is allowed to ripen on the tree the more sweet its flavour. Note, contrary to the supermarket trend of selling “ripen-at-home” punnets of bullet-hard fruit, apricots don’t mature once picked. But you can always halve and poach under-ripe fruits in a little dessert wine and vanilla or bake with a splash of orange juice, zest and a drizzle of honey.

Apricots are delicious hot and gooey in pastries and custard tarts, and are a good match with chocolate and almonds or served alongside roast pork with the ripe fruit and spicy notes of a 2006 Heartland Viognier Pinot Gris from Oz available in Selfridges (£20.50; 0207 318 2375; selfridges.co.uk).

Cherry aid for Britain

2008-07-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday (July 19) is the first British Cherry Day, a rallying cry to get the cherry out of a jam and back on top. In the past 50 years England has lost 90 per cent of its cherry orchards and now imports about 95 per cent of its cherries.

Organised cherry orchards were a Tudor invention, but the Romans brought the first cherry trees to Britain from Persia. It is said that you can trace old Roman roads by the wild cherry trees that grew up from the stones spat out by legions as the marched across the country.

Backed by chefs such as Raymond Blanc and Mark Hix, Cherry Aid - the campaign not the medicinal coloured pop – aims to get everyone to bite into at least one home-grown cherry this year and help save traditional orchards.

Cherries are delicious eaten fresh or dipped in melted chocolate. Kent’s Simply Ice Cream makes an ice cream from local cherries (01233 720922) and Mrs Huddleston sells a luxury black cherry and cranberry preserve with kirsch (01296 712005). Carr Taylor’s rose-red cherry wine (£4.95; carr-taylor.co.uk) mixes well with brandy or vodka and can be added to desserts or gravy when serving duck.

At Borough Market in London, try specially-made Cherry Down Cheese from the Kent Cheese Co and Sillfield Farm’s wild boar and cherry pie.
The Ludlow Food Centre in Shropshire will be selling traditional variety cherries and cherry ice cream.
Several cherry orchards are open this weekend in Kent, including the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale which will be hosting cookery demonstrations, tastings and walks. For information on cherry-themed events around the country and a guide to where to pick and buy fresh cherries visit foodloversbritain.com.

Fennel for beginners

2008-07-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

People are puzzled by fennel. It’s the mystery guest of organic boxes and the vegetable about which we most commonly cry: “How on earth do I use this?”.

Bulbous Florence fennel has a distinctive aniseed flavour and can be eaten cooked (trimmed, cut into quarters and braised or roasted) or raw when its flavour is more pronounced.

Shave it thinly into salads or as a contrasting crunch added to fish in ceviche. Soak strips in lemon juice and olive oil and serve with roasted fish or simply tossed with orange segments.

The folk at Riverford organic vegetable boxes (riverford.co.uk) suggest tips on how to use fennel for its consumers. Recipes from its new book and website include aniseedy cabbage soup, fennel baked with Parmesan and pork with braised fennel.

Fennel’s fresh bite teams up well with dry Italian wines such as a Lugana Soraighe 2005 (£9.35; purplewine.co.uk), made from Trebbiano grapes in the area between Lombardy and Veneto. It’s a delicate white with fresh but not overpowering acidity, great with fish.

Chinese food, British ingredients

2008-07-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

Chinese food gets a bit of a boost this month as an appetiser for the Beijing Olympics with two new TV series and books.

Ching-He Huang, a delicate new face among the grizzled mugs of celebrity chefs, has recast Chinese food as an msg-free blend of the traditional and modern. She uses seasonal pak choi grown in the Fenlands, fresh chillies from Chorley and even soy sauce brewed in Wales.

Gold-medal TV dinners she recommends for the Games (for viewers not athletes) include steamed sea bass in hot beer and ginger lime, refreshingly chilled drunken chicken soaked in Mijiu rice wine or gin or vodka, and the gloriously named and alcohol-free Empress Dowager Cixi’s longevity peach pudding. Chinese Food Made Easy is on Mondays on BBC2; watch exclusive videos at timesonline.co.uk/realfood.

Later in the month Gary Rhodes packs his wok for China where he guzzles snake bladders as he masters regional dishes, including pockmarked grandmother’s bean curd, to cook for a banquet back home (UKTV Food 28 July).

Petal power blooms in kitchens

2008-07-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Petal power is blooming in British restaurant kitchens. For a splash of vivid colour, silky texture and exotic aroma, flowers are hard to beat. And they’re seasonal and often local to boot.

At a recent Slow Food workshop, held at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, Surrey, head chef Skye Gyngell arranged a three-course floral menu featuring figs with goats’ cheese, ricotta, Parma ham and rose syrup; grilled quail with sour cherries, toasted walnuts and ras el-hanout (a, North African blend of crushed dried Damask rose petals and spices), and violet meringues with English strawberries and cream.

At this week’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt), the Growing Tastes kitchen garden, designed by Michael Balston, features three types of edible flowers: Asian hemerocallis, or day lilies, which add a sweet crunch to stir fries or can be steamed like French beans; British nasturtiums which, like marigolds and violets, can be scattered in salads or used to garnish dishes and, from the Mediterranean, the intense blue flower of borage, which is popular in Pimm’s and cocktails. Look out for more floral cuisine in the Growing Tastes cookery theatre.

As a general rule the flowers of vegetables and herbs are safe to eat but some flowers are toxic. In Britain, nasturtiums, marigolds and violets are scattered in salads or used to garnish dishes. Avoid petals that have been sprayed with chemical pesticides and discard the petal’s white base which has a bitter taste.

Dried rose petals mixed with cumin seeds and nutmeg can be rubbed into game or lamb and added to couscous for a fragrant flavour.

Spoon sweet violet confit or rose petal jam into Greek yoghurt or rice pudding and drizzle rose syrup over cakes and pastries.

Petals can also be added to blended teas. Try delicate white tea with rose as a palate cleanser, or black Ceylon tea with violets.

If the back garden fails you, Secretts Farm in Surrey has a range of edible flowers (01483 520500; secretts.co.uk).

While most regions pick a weekend to celebrate their local food, Hampshire settles on a whole month. Highlights for this weekend include Lavender Lust, a chance to see this pale violet plant more commonly associated with the bathroom distilled at Hartley Park and indulge in the farm’s lavender biscuits and cup cakes decorated with lavender water ice.

At home try apricot and lavender compote with crème brulee or Greek yoghurt. The lavender adds a perfumed twist to the sharp sweetness of apricots.

How to eat an artichoke

2008-07-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

The globe artichoke appears exotic but is actually harvested in England from late June.

The fist-sized thistle-like heads of the vegetable are best prepared raw and then cooked, but speedy supper this isn’t.

The freshest artichokes, like flowers, are the more tightly closed, bud-shaped ones that are heavy for their size.

The leaves have a subtle flavour and the heart is a just reward for all the patient preparation - trimming spiky leaves, removing the fibrous choke at its core and boiling until tender (20 to 45 minutes).

Once done, pull off the leaves while still warm and dip in hollandaise, lemon butter, mayonnaise, or vinaigrette.

Jamie Oliver makes a vibrant artichoke, pink grapefruit, frisee and pecorino salad; the River Café, in west London, may well have spaghetti with artichoke pesto on the menu at this time of year, and the Roux brothers go to town and serve upside crowns with chopped smoked salmon, crème fraiche and caviar in the hollow.

Can’t be bothered? Carluccio’s (carluccios.com) sells jars of chargrilled artichokes in olive oil which add instant class to an antipasto of deli meats, pasta or salad.

It’s been said that artichokes have a way of making wines taste sweeter. So choose very dry wines with high acidity. Go British with Ridgeview Bloomsbury Merret 2004, from West Sussex (£19.99, Waitrose). It’s a pared down, dry fizz with lively citrus fruit and a toasty note.

Castroville, in California, is the self-proclaimed world, hmm, heart of artichokes. The small town hosts an annual artichoke festival and has a restaurant, the Giant Artichoke, shaped like an oversized artichoke that serves the local speciality steamed, sautéed, french-fried, pickled, poached, and so on.

Just one elderflower cornetto

2008-07-02T05:59:00.000-07:00

The current chilly spell will suit the first tasting of a ‘canal flavoured’ ice cream tomorrow made with foraged ingredients in honour of London’s first gelato vendor, Carlo Gatti.

Gatti is credited with being Britain’s first ice cream man, cutting ice from the Regent’s Canal to make the Italian dessert available to all classes of Londoners in his café, which he opened in Holborn in 1849.

As part of the London Festival of Architecture, British Waterways has teamed up with award-winning eco-restaurant The Waterhouse, run by green chef Arthur Potts Dawson, to serve an elderflower ice from within a 19th-century ice well, a series of which were built along the canal to store ice transported from Norway, keeping it in its frozen form before the invention of the freezer.

Potts Dawson says: “It’s a great chance to celebrate the history of a British culinary phenomenon that has its roots on the canal. Foraging for a local ingredient to base an ice cream flavour on was an enjoyable challenge for us."

The elderflower flavour ice has been added to the menu at the Waterhouse and will also be available to taste on the canal as part of a series of events inviting visitors to gain a fresh outlook on the canal’s environment, and discover new aspects of the 200 year-old transport network.

On Sunday 6 July, an actor impersonating Carlo Gatti will be walking the towpath telling visitors all about his business ventures, which included bringing 400 tons of Norwegian ice by canal to New Wharf Road. The London Canal Museum, that is open for free on the day, will have talks on the ice trade and ice wells.

For more information about the event, including timings, ticket details and prices, visit http://www.waterscape.com/ or http://www.refreshregentscanal.co.uk/

For further information on the London Festival of Architecture visit http://www.lfa2008.org/

Eco tips for summer kitchen

2008-06-27T04:53:00.001-07:00

Most folk are unaware that this week has been Food Waste Awareness Week. Britain’s throw-away food habit produces £10 billion of food waste each year or enough grub at dinnertime to feed 19 million people.

A key reason for the waste is a lack of leftover know-how. Inspired exotic buys such as Thai spices, pak choi and mangoes often end up in the bin rather than on the dinner table and too many home cooks are slaves to sell-by-dates.

In her new book, How Green are my Wellies? (Eden Project, £14.99), The Times’ Eco Worrier Anna Shepard shares a few tips for frugal but delicious seasonal fare.

Save the woody bottom bits of asparagus stalks to drop into a stock for summer soups thickened with leftover mashed potato; whiz tough broad beans in a blender with garlic and a splash of olive oil to make a dip, or boil them and mash with rosemary, garlic and oil. Blend prolific garden rocket with pine nuts, parmesan and oil to make pesto sauce.

Remember that fresh fish fillets hold up well for three days in the fridge, and use spices and handfuls of herbs to pep up surplus ingredients. Finally, make jams and pickles from summer’s abundance of vegetables and berries and freeze any excess for later in the year.

The rise of the "Glasto-pub"

2008-06-25T01:39:00.000-07:00

There was a time when the only sustenance at music festivals was a soggy heap of chow mein washed down with scrumpy.

These days, the food corner of any festival field worth its salt is more likely to resemble a farmers’ market than a greasy takeaway. The best of the food is wholesome and imaginative with stalls offering a range of gourmet fare from organic ostrich burgers with homemade redcurrant relish to Loch Fyne oysters, and seasonal berry smoothies.

At Glastonbury, which starts tomorrow, the Goan Seafood Company serves a breakfast kedgeree made with fish caught freshly from Mevagissey in Cornwall, while the Splendid Chicken “Glasto-pub” has free-range Moroccan tagines and there are hot smoked mackerel wraps from Hall’s Dorset Smokery.

The soulful Manic Organic Café and Tiny Tea Tent please the veggie crowd with homemade cakes, speciality teas and sparkling elderflower and wild nettle cordial.

For a handy main meal “to go” Pure Pie’s coconutty Thai pie and Pieminster’s Chicken of Aragon (laced with tarragon) are worth seeking out.

For liquid refreshment it’s all aboard the double decker cider bus for local hero Julian Temperley’s Burrow Hill Somerset cider which Laura in the festival office describes as “flat and pokey (as it should be) with no chemical fizzy crap”. Spot on. His Kingston Black is a bottle fermented sparkling Cider made by traditional method and is just about as good as cider gets.

Standon Calling, in Hertfordshire (Aug 1-3), has the pick of stalls from Borough Market, and Lovebox, in London’s Victoria Park (July 19-20), has its own farmers’ market.

Courgette flowers

2008-06-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

Seasonal courgettes are one of the most versatile of the summer squashes. They are delicious cut lengthways, brushed in garlic oil, char-grilled and served with feta, peas and mint, or sliced in a courgette and Manchego frittata.

But it is their golden flowers that are prized by chefs. If you see these at a greengrocers or farmers' market, snap them up. Female flowers come with a mini courgette attached and male ones with a small stalk. The flowers don’t last so are best bought and cooked on the same day.

Stuff the flowers with batons of buffalo mozzarella, parsley and anchovies and shallow fry. At Salt Yard restaurant, in London (020 7637 0657; http://www.saltyard.co.uk/), they serve courgette flowers filled with Monte Enebro goat's cheese, drizzled in honey, lightly battered and fried with the vegetable still attached.

These tapas-style dishes work well with a Manzanilla Pasada Pastrana (£10.50; Jeroboams: 020 7288 8850). This single-vineyard aged Manzanilla has a crisp but well rounded flavour that complements the sweet oiliness of the dish.

This season's seasonal menu at Ascot

2008-06-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

Royal Ascot runs this week and if one is lucky enough to be in the Parade Ring hospitality restaurant here’s a sneak preview of the menu that’ll be served to 50,000 privileged punters over the five day meeting.

Sodexo may serve basic grub in hospitals and schools but the prestige end of its business is attuned to current trends. The coffee is fair-trade, the eggs in the sandwiches free-range and the cheeseboard has an all-British line up: Isle of Mull Cheddar, Win Green, Dunsyre Blue and Rosary Ash.

The main menu features seasonal foods, some of which have been locally sourced. Starters include dressed Cornish crab with avocado and bloody Mary ice cream, and poached English asparagus with pea panacotta and gazpacho verdi.

The seafood bouillabaisse comes with sea-salty samphire; the roast fillet of Scottish beef with a wild nettle risotto, and the double rib lamb cutlet is sprinkled with rosemary flowers. Clearly someone at Sodexo has been watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Spring.

A good bet to drink with the wild strawberry and pink champagne terrine is a rich, new rosé champagne from Bollinger (Berry Bros & Rudd, £55), six years in the making, and launched at Ascot 2008. Made from 60 per cent pinot noir it has delicate aromas of ripe red fruits.

Berry Bros: 0870 900 4300; www.bbr.com

Talk and (balsamic) vinegar

2008-06-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

Slow Food London continues its series of original events with a balsamic vinegar tasting at the Natural Kitchen, in London’s Marylebone (slowfoodlondon.com).

Expert taster Manlio Guidetti grew up among the acetaie (sets of vinegar barrels) of Modena, in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna, and can spot a watery caramel-boosted fake a mile off, and tell you how to do so, too.

An excellent balsamic vinegar should be very well balanced in sweetness and acidity; not too dense but relatively fluid, and have a Guinness colour with a deep gold hue that is still transparent on a white plate.

Two good buys are a three-year-old Bellei at £4.10 for 250ml and a 12-year old 100ml bottle by Acetaia Sereni for £20 (Orrery Epicerie, Marylebone; 0207 616 8036).

The tasting will demonstrate how to use different ages and styles of balsamic vinegar with various foods.

For example, use a couple of drops of aged balsamic vinegar instead of sugar to marinate strawberries or fresh figs and melon and then serve with a dollop of mascarpone.

It’s officially the last week for asparagus in Britain so griddle some while you can and serve it with parmesan shavings, and tiny splashes of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

In Emilia Romagna eight-to-ten-year old balsamic vinegars are used to “pepper” simple regional dishes such as shelled broad beans with thin slices of pecorino; or to draw out some of the sweetness from the cured fat in an antipasto of San Daniele ham and Felinetto salami.

Murray’s in Clevedon, Somerset, recommends a ruby-red sparkling Lambrusco, Picol Ross from small producer Paolo Rinaldini (£10; 01275 341222). It’s a summer-friendly wine, best served chilled, with a hint of violet on the nose and sweet blackberry on the palate. Its acidic edge helps to slice through Emilia’s hearty cuisine.

Britain's new super berries

2008-06-19T06:21:00.000-07:00

Around midsummer berries reign supreme in the seasonal fruit kingdom. The sweetly perfumed English strawberry may be king, but gooseberries are approaching their best towards the end of June and tayberries, a Scottish hybrid of the blackberry and the raspberry are ripening, too.

Gooseberries are tart and green early season but soften in taste and texture over summer. Use in crumbles or pies, poach then purée to make the classic fool, ice cream, or a tangy sauce for rich roasts like pork or oily fish such as mackerel.

Purple tayberries can be a touch sharp but work well, like blackberries and raspberries, in summer pudding, pies, sorbet, or in fruit sauces, jams and jellies.

There are now rivals to these traditional soft fruits. Growers of the new aronia berry (or chokeberry) on a farm in Angus, in Scotland, claim that it’s a “super berry” with more antioxidants than blueberries and cranberries. It’s available in juices and smoothies at Juice Almighty bar in Edinburgh (0131 220 6879).

And if you can’t decide between a punnet of strawberries or raspberries then Waitrose has the answer. Dutch-grown Strasberries originate from a wild strawberry breed but are smaller with darker seeds, hence the link to raspberries. Try them dipped in melted dark chocolate.

To match the tart-sweet balance of a creamy gooseberry and elderflower fool try a Coteaux du Layon from the Loire Valley. Yapp Brothers in Mere, Wiltshire (01747 860423), has a Château la Tomaze 1995 (£18.50) made from 100 per cent chenin blanc grapes. It’s a golden wine with unctuous raisin fruit and subtle honey and mineral flavours.

Fruitful year for farm shops

2008-06-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

Farmers’ markets might have been at the vanguard of the good food movement in the past decade but a dozen stalls once a month in the town square is no longer satisfying our craving for farm-fresh local produce.

The farm shop has been around for years but is now smartening up its act. More than 234 farm shops have opened in the past year making it the fastest growing retail sector in the UK, a report showed last week.

Many have an authentic on-farm location, are open seven days a week and stock more than just free-range meat and freshly unearthed vegetables (expect peas, broad beans, gooseberries, strawberries and lettuce at this time of year).

Trailblazing farm shops such as the one in Occombe in Devon, Goldy’s in Dorset or Farndon Fields in Leicestershire offer homemade ready meals and ice cream and sell frozen peas, beans and raspberries bagged from last year’s harvest.

Most have a range of local wine, beers and cider. Middle Farm Shop, in East Sussex (01323 815043), sells a 100 per cent Pinot Noir (£11) from nearby Bookers Vineyard. It’s a quaffable cherry tasting red that marries well with the farm’s own chorizo.

California: destination food and drink

2008-06-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

“Welcome to California: Land of Wine and Food” reads the state’s tourist advertising campaign. And for once it’s no exaggeration.

If any region in the US lives up to such a title – simple yet proud - then it has to be the Golden State. It may not be the meatiest swath of the US, but Salinas is known as the “salad bowl of the nation” and the Central Valley as the “nation’s fruit basket”. Note, too, that it’s “wine” before “food” in the tag, after all 90 per cent of America’s wine is produced there at more than 2,700 wineries.

What’s more, global culinary trends start there. Take farmers’ markets, independent farms and gardens growing specialty produce, eco-gastronomy and Slow Food. California has led the way, too, in producing an abundant range of affordable organic, locally grown produce.

California Cuisine comprises two key ingredients. The dynamic, ethnic diversity in cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, with their international cuisine and world-class chefs, work side by side with the region’s agricultural producers. (Gordon Ramsay will have to be on his best seasonal behaviour when he expands his restaurant empire to LA in June.)

Alice Waters of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse is considered the pioneer of this fusion of world cooking styles with the freshest local ingredients.

“When my friends and I opened Chez Panisse in 1971 we thought of ourselves as agents of seduction whose mission it was to change the way people ate,” says Waters.

“We soon discovered that the best tasting food came from local farmers, ranchers, foragers and fishermen who were committed to sound and sustainable practices.”

Given the favourable climate – both literal and political - some restaurants even grow their own produce. The Parkway Grill in Pasadena has its own organic herb and vegetable garden, and at Zazu, a gourmet roadhouse restaurant in Santa Rosa, plenty of the menu comes fresh from the adjoining farm.

In typically enlightened Californian fashion, this concern to connect the pleasure of eating out with support of the local agricultural community has spawned a new West Coast concept: “locavores”. The aim is to eat only foods grown or harvested within a 100-mile radius of where one lives or is staying.

“It’s simple: we all realise that virtually anything can grow in California and we have a whole culture built around growing, buying and eating it,” says Napa Valley vintner Pat Kuleto of Kuleto Estate Winery.

To get a taste of locavore living, Market Foray tours in Santa Barbara show culinary tourists how to shop, buy and eat like a true local (www.marketforays.com).

Otherwise, check out the piles of freshly unearthed vegetables at Wednesday’s giant farmers’ market in Santa Monica. Or the Ferry Building in San Francisco, a sprawling showcase for seasonal food and specialist cheeses, chocolates, breads, olive oils and wines. Break for lunch at Charles Phan’s nouveau-Vietnamese restaurant, the Slanted Door, whose menu makes artful use of the market’s bounty.

In fact, San Francisco has more Pan-Asian cafés than you can shake a chopstick at, plus destination eateries like The French Laundry, Jewish delis and some of the best Italian restaurants in the States. Just for fun, try celebrity spotting - between mouthfuls of an organic bison burger with rocket and homemade peach relish - at the Hollywood farmers’ market on Sundays.

Out on the road in the surrounding counties it’s not hard to find the idyllic landscape portrayed in the movie Sideways, filmed in Santa Barbara County: roadside stalls piled high with peaches the size of baseballs, bucolic farm-to-fork banqueting in the fields of a vineyard toasted with a glass of one of California’s big reds.

Over the years, food capitals have sprouted up across the state each known for different specialties: Garlic in Gilroy (there’s a festival in July); raw milk dairy produce and artisan cheeses in Tulare, including Bill Boersma’s award-winning Bravo Farms Cheddars; artichokes in Castroville; honeybees in Palo Cedro and horseradish in Tulelake.

Brilliant yellow mustard plants bloom each year between poppies and grape vines in Napa Valley’s vineyards, signalling the start of the annual Mustard Festival (http://www.mustardfestival.com/); while Stockton hosts an Asparagus Festival in April (http://www.asparagusfest.com/), and San Francisco Bay celebrates its Zinfandel Festival in January.

California has optimum wine-growing conditions. “The Mediterranean climate brings a coolness from the ocean while the interior has steady warm weather which consistently ripens grapes; at least eight or nine years out of ten you have a shot at making some of the best wine you’ve ever made,” says Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards at Cupertino.

Napa Valley, some 50 miles to the north of San Francisco, and Sonoma Valley bordering the ocean stretch of Northern California, are just two of the state’s numerous wine regions. As a rule of thumb – to which there are exceptions – the smaller producers often offer more character, memorable wines and less generic tasting bars than their corporate counterparts that line the wine trail highways.

The ivy-clad Hess Collection in Napa combines a winery with a
modern art museum built by the Swiss multimillionaire Donald Hess. Visitors can browse works by Frank Stella and Francis Bacon interspersed with views of fermentation tanks. If the art is depressingly expensive console yourself with a $10 tasting of four wines. The mountain cabarnets excel.

Go to the “Land of Wine and Food” and you probably will, as Governor Arnie propounds at the end of the promotional video, “be back”. If only to visit the restaurant or taste the vintage that you didn’t get round to on a first visit.

For more information: http://www.landofwineandfood.com/

5 steps to the perfect cup of tea...

2008-06-05T01:28:00.000-07:00

Tea connoisseur Don Mei tells me how to make the perfect cup of tea:

1. Take a purple clay pot - considered the best material for its high porosity that absorbs the flavour of the tea in the pot itself.

2. Pour hot water over all the cups and tea pot to bring them to a warm temperature.

3. Put loose tea in the pot and fill it with hot water (85C if delicate green or white tea; 100C boiling if red or black tea). Discard the water. This is called "washing the tea". The Chinese do not drink the first infusion. This process opens up the tea - unfurls the dragon. It is a good time to smell the aroma of the tea.

4. Pour in more water. Allow it to steep for 1.5 to 2 minutes.

5. Decant the pot into another vessel so that the tea is of an even strength throughout. Left in the teapot it is weak at the top and strong at the bottom where the leaves sit.

Voila...

Tea is the new wine

2008-06-05T01:14:00.000-07:00

If your idea of tea and food matching stops and starts with dunking a Digestive in a scalding mug of Tetley then a new exhibition may change that.

A small but informative exhibition on Chinese tea opens today (Weds) at Asia House in New Cavendish Street, London W1 at the start of a national tour (0207 7303 5454, £4). As well as tracing the 3,000 year-old history of tea there are displays of types of tea and exquisite porcelain tea sets.

A temporary outlet of Camden’s Chinalife tea mixology bar offers fresh brews to sample from its stock of more than 70 teas. Try jasmine tea with goji berries that plump up in the cup, popcorn tea, a green tea from Zhejiang province with roast brown rice, or a seasonal iced tea with jasmine, elderflower and mint. All go well with yam flour cookies.

“Tea is now rightly being treated like wine, with serious tea lists in hotels and restaurants that note harvests and vintage. Like wine the microclimate, soil, picking, processing and storage are all vital parts of the production of tea. It is a gourmet beverage that pairs well with all types of food,” says Don Mei, tea connoisseur and creative director of Chinalife (0207 307 5447).

For summertime, he recommends a chrysanthemum tea for its cooling and anti-inflammatory properties. Its delicate fragrant notes partner seafood dim sum or counteract the spiciness of fish with chilli.

The Tea Centre at Tregothnan in Cornwall offers a range of tea tastings and tutoring days (see previous blog; 01872 520000). Earl Grey and Cornish Yarg any one?

Britain's new breed of "bar chefs" mix seasonal cocktails

2008-06-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

People are becoming better informed about eating seasonal food but it’s a trickier proposition to drink seasonally, especially where alcohol is concerned.

This is where the summer cocktail comes into its own and mixologists or “bar chefs” are shaking up the scene with ingredients sourced at farmers’ markets.

Drinks are being embellished with mint leaves and edible flowers and infused with elderflower essence and crushed strawberries. They look beautiful, taste even better and presumably leave a clearer eco-conscience than having opted for the cocktail that uses tinned lychees flown in from China.

London’s award-winning Canteen (0845 686 1122) restaurants have a new cocktail list created by drinks’ pioneer Tony Conigliaro. Its Great British Bar offers prosecco Bellinis made with seasonal purees such as strawberry, raspberry or apple with lavender. A Rhubarb Collins has been reworked to create a refreshing pre-dinner drink using gin and lemon with a twist of rhubarb, and the Twinkle is a champagne cocktail with a floral elderflower note.

Canteen’s head chef Cass Titcombe says: “You can experiment with all sorts of berries and homegrown herbs such as mint and basil. Whizz the ripe fruit and and a few torn leaves in the blender and add dry prosecco.”

When the Vyse Room opens at Stoke Place manor in Buckinghamshire (01753 534 790 ) next week its drinks’ list will feature seasonal punches (summer cup garnished with borage) and cocktails made using herbs and flowers grown in the Capability Brown designed grounds. A gooseberry and lemon thyme Bellini adds a citrus bite to picnic favourites such as smoked salmon sandwiches or barbecued mackerel, says Nick Strangeway, cocktail consultant at Stoke Place.

Get fresh wet and smoked fish from Steve Hatt in Islington (020 7226 3963) or from the fish counter downstairs at Wholefoods, in Kensington (0207 368 4500). Both buy from day boats and are committed to sutainable fishing.

Pea shoots not rocket science

2008-06-02T07:09:00.000-07:00

Move over mizuna and rocket. There’s a new salad leaf in the pack. If we’re to believe the hype, pea shoots will be cropping up everywhere this summer - at barbecues, in Pimm’s, even on the hats of ladies at Ascot - as this season’s favourite leafy garnish.

Pea shoots are the tender leaves of the traditional garden pea plant harvested after just two weeks when the plant is less than a foot tall. Grown in natural sunlight from April to October on Mullens Farm in Wiltshire, the plants have crunchy stems and delicate leaves, like watercress, and taste of freshly shucked peas.

Skye Gyngell is serving them at her delightful Petersham Nurseries restaurant in Richmond, London, with just about everything from crab cakes to roast pork belly. They work well, too, whizzed in a smoky bacon soup or crushed up in bubble and squeak.

Wine will depend on what the pea shoots are garnishing. A good match, particularly with seafood starters, is an Iona Sauvignon Blanc (Waitrose, £9.49) from South Africa. It’s a classic cool-climate white with a wonderfully aromatic nose showing fine mineral notes, hints of herbs and a touch of gooseberry fruit. On the palate it complements well the intense, fresh flavour of the delicate pea shoot leaves.

The brains behind pea shoots is the marketing team at Vitacress (turnover £70 million) who regularly scout for fresh ideas among the kitchens of California. Basically, an age-old allotment secret has been washed in spring water and repackaged for selected supermarkets. Very tasty but it’s not, err, rocket science.

A Cornish brew - England's only estate tea

2008-05-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

The South West is the home of the cream tea and it can now be enjoyed at a whole host of locations in the region with a truly English cuppa.

England’s first tea estate at Tregothnan, in Cornwall, takes advantage of the mild climate and humidity to grow Chinese and Indian leaf tea which is hand-picked from April to October and blended with other exotic leaves to make four different varieties (Classic, Afternoon, Earl Grey and Green).

The tea plantation is the idea of the estate owner, the Honourable Evelyn Boscawen. Cultivation began nine years ago and has been increasingly bearing fruit since 2005. Last year produced just under a tonne of tea.

“We can’t compete with the Tropics but the conditions are similar to those for a high-altitude, slow growing tea like Darjeeling,” says Jonathon Jones, garden director at Tregothnan.

Following in the footsteps of specialty tea shops in London, such as Tea Smith in Spitalfields and Tea Palace in Notting Hill, the estate is now offering day-long tea tasting courses run by expert tutors Tim Clifton and Jane Pettigrew.

“We drink 165 million cups a day in the UK and don’t think about it much. Like wine, each tea is distinctive, has regional varieties and there are stacks of myths,” says Jones.

The estate also makes an iced Earl Grey tea using its own well water and a range of new herbal infusions, including Manuka Bush, a tea popular with the Maori people in New Zealand.

“What could be more English than tea grown on English soil,” says Jones, who claims that Tregothnan has been “doing sustainability” since 1335 when it came into the hands of Boscawen’s ancestors.

Of the 80 or so places serving a Tregothnan brew in Devon and Cornwall, Jones recommends a cream tea at Charlotte’s Tea House in Truro or Greys Dining Room in Totnes, Devon.

So is coffee next?

“I won’t rule it out. We could grow it indoors. But it’s not as English as tea.”

For more information on Tregothnan estate: (01872 520007; http://www.blogger.com/)

The English Riviera Cream Tea Festival runs from April 18-23: www.englishriviera.co.uk

A taste of Manchester's food scene

2008-05-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

Historically, articles about eating out in Northern England written by London-based journalists have fallen into two categories. The first portrays it as grim up north and a decade behind London in culinary terms; while the second claims that no one eats out anyway for that would be an expensive diversion from the serious business of getting glammed up for a night of high-octane drinking.

It’s true you won’t find a Michelin starred establishment in Manchester city centre – the nearest was Juniper in Altrincham until that closed down last month. But according to Alison Seagrave, head chef at the Second Floor restaurant and brasserie at Harvey Nichols, in Exchange Square, there’s ample Michelin-star standard food to be had, some of it at sub-capital prices.

“Foodwise, Manchester used to be years behind London but we’ve caught up lately in terms of choice and reliable local suppliers. To win a star you have to set that as a goal. It’s judged on many different criteria from the service to the cooking and some of our dishes are Michelin star in all but name,” says Seagrave.

In her restaurant, the slow cooked fillet of Cheshire beef Rossini and the playful sweetshop inspired desserts explain why Seagrave was chosen as Chef of the Year at the 2007 Manchester Food and Drink Festival awards.

“Beef fillet always sells well, even if you serve it with weird ingredients,” she says. “But then so does our corned beef hash served with a fried egg and brown sauce. It’s comfort food basically.” Food to be scoffed not scoffed at.

On the brasserie menu at seven quid a pop is a mini hotpot served in a souffle dish and accompanied by finely shredded pickled red cabbage. It looks good and tastes even better.
“I’ll often have one of these for my tea,” says Seagrave.

She rates the new Michael Caines restaurant that opened at the ABode Manchester hotel on Piccadilly in March and the River Restaurant at the Lowry hotel in Salford – now under a new chef - in the same stellar category as her own restaurant.

Caines, who already holds two stars for his flagship Gidleigh Park in Devon, is on a mission to bring a Michelin star to Manchester. His contemporary British menu (best-end of Herdwick lamb and honey-roast Goosnargh duckling) features international touches (the slow poached sea bass comes with a Thai puree and lemongrass foam) and is keen on the best regional ingredients. A clever lunchtime grazing concept allows diners to taste three mini dishes from the a la carte menu for under a tenner.

According to Manchester’s most-read food and drink blogger Sarah Hartley (http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/food/) the city doesn’t have big destination restaurants like London, partly because there’s not a sizeable over-50s spend at the weekend. The “Silver diners” prefer to eat out in the neighbourhood restaurants in leafy West Didsbury and Chorlton or further afield in Cheshire and Lancashire.

For more casual dining in town Sam’s Chophouse is a perennial favourite with its cosy basement glow and Great British seasonal menu.

For feel-good refuelling between shops and sights Love Saves the Day, a deli beneath a railway arch at the south end of Deansgate, lives up to the expectations of its flashing neon “sexy food” sign out front. On the menu are home-cooked meatballs, lamb shanks, salads, its own pickles and beer – a North West Fine Food winner last year – plus monthly tastings including, in May, artisan honey and vegetarian black pudding.

Local lunchtime institution Shlurp! is tucked away beneath an office block just off Albert Square. From a tiny canteen, its walls garlanded with awards and glowing reviews, it serves soups from gazpacho to thick mushy pea and lamb kofta with mint raita – Manchester in a bowl. And how’s this for a sandwich of the day? Fresh sardines roasted in garlic and olive oil.

Another lunchtime classic is This ‘n’ That on Soap Street in the trendy Northern Quarter whose “rice and three” (curries) is part of the local furniture as testified by its cult-like Facebook group. Fans swear it’s the best food for under a fiver in Britain.

The garish, student-crawling Curry Mile is part of Manchester’s culinary fabric but a bit of a lottery. Hartley recommends the Punjab for its interesting range of vegetarian dishes and its low-style old-school ambience. In Chinatown she opts for Red Chilli over Yang Sing for the adventurous Cantonese dishes on the a la carte menu.

Finally, for a pre-dinner drink take the exclusive lift to the 23rd floor of the Hilton at Deansgate. The lanky Beetham Tower that houses the hotel has its fair share of opponents but the views from the Cloud 23 bar are unparalleled and the cocktails pretty good. Try an Ena Sparkles as you seek out Coronation Street below.