Wild Garlic Focaccia

As anyone with even a vague interest in wild food knows, spring is the season for wild garlic - a pungent wild allium which grows in woodlands, and which has become very popular in recent years. A couple of weeks ago, I was out walking and found a vast sea of wild garlic stretching as far as I could see into the trees. I picked a bag full, stuck it in my rucksack and carried on walking. I spent the next few days making pesto with it, chucking it in a stir fry, mixing it through ragu, and anything else I could think of. A week later I went walking with my Mum and she turned up with a very full carrier bag of wild garlic, and I had to think of more ways of using it. I made a wild garlic focaccia, which was delicious.

A sea of wild garlic...

First pickings from the asparagus bed

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about planting out an asparagus bed. I was very excited about the prospect of picking my own asparagus. However, we had to be patient. The asparagus crowns need to spend a couple of years establishing themselves before they can be picked. This year, the bed being in its third year, we were finally able to pick some asparagus. It was with great excitement that in early April I spotted the first spears poking through the ground. Several days later they were tall enough to pick and we had our first harvest. On the first picking there were only a couple of spears. Delicious but not quite enough to satisfy the appetite. By the end of April we were able to pick enough for a plateful. They were delicious!

Our first asparagus spears

What to do in the veg garden in April

There is lots to do in the vegetable garden in April and relatively little to harvest. But by putting the work in now you should be able to reap the rewards later in the year. April is an exciting month to be outside as the whole garden springs into life. Fruit trees put on amazing displays of blossom. Wild garlic pushes its pungent leaves through the soil. Seedlings emerge and put on rapid growth. Weeds, too, can appear everywhere. And if you don't watch out, slugs and snails can munch their way through rows of seedlings.

Asparagus

Braised mutton shoulder with borlotti beans

Mutton used to be one of the most popular meats in Britain. Due to changing tastes and changing farming practices, it has fallen massively out of fashion since the 1960s. There has been a resurgent interest in mutton in the last few years, but it is still something of a rarity. This is a great shame, as mutton has a fantastic flavour; stronger and more intense than lamb. The fat distribution varies by breed, but mutton usually has more fat marbling than lamb. Because of this, it is well suited to slow cooking. And when it comes to slow cooking mutton, my favourite cut is the shoulder.

Braised mutton shoulder with borlotti beans

What to do in the vegetable garden in March

With March comes spring, and things start to get underway in the vegetable garden. March can still be pretty cold, even at times even snowy. Hardier crops can be sown outside, and there are various plants that are worth starting off inside. However, it is easy to get carried away and sow too much too early. Because of how varied the weather can be, it is difficult to give hard and fast rules as to when to start sowing. One of the best signs to look for is weed seedlings. If the weeds are germinating, start sowing veg. Here is what I am up to in the garden this month:

What to do in the vegetable garden in February

February, for me, is the start of the gardening year. The days get longer and the sun stronger. The very first signs of spring appear as the garden starts to shrug off its winter dormancy. February is too early to do much sowing, but is the month to plan and prepare for the gardening year ahead. It is a time to harvest the last of the winter veg, and to start preparing the ground for the first spring sowings. Here's what I am up to in the garden this month.

Preparing beds

Seville Orange Possets

Citrus fruits are one of the culinary joys of winter. Their bright colours and zingy flavours bring a ray of sunshine to cold days and dark evenings. Seville oranges are a bitter variety of orange, available only for a few short weeks in January and early February. Seville oranges are usually used for making marmalade, but their culinary uses go well beyond preserves. Possets are one of my favourite desserts. They are easy to make, and can be made in advance if you have guests coming round and simply whipped out the fridge for serving. Possets are typically made with lemons, but work equally as well with Seville oranges, which give a nice twist to this classic dessert.

Seville oranges

Winter salad leaves

I love the hearty stews, roasts and other comfort food we all eat in winter, but sometimes I get the urge for a good salad. Particularly post Christmas, when it is easy to feel one has over-indulged during the festive periods. It is good to get a bit inventive with winter salads, and I like to include things like julienned root veg, citrus fruit and finely sliced sprouts, but a few interesting leaves always help meld a salad together. Many gardeners grow salad leaves in summer, but far fewer grow them in winter. There are in fact many salad leaves that will grow in winter. Here a few to have a go with.

Pickled herrings

Herrings are a hugely populous fish, and are often landed at Channel fishing ports in winter. They usually swim in large shoals, so when caught are often caught in large numbers. They also deteriorate quickly. As a result, herrings are often preserved. Smoking - either as kippers or less commonly bloaters, salting or pickling are the common methods in the UK. Fermentation is also popular in Scandinavian countries. I love a good pickled herring, but I find the shop-bought ones a bit too sweet and vinegary. Better to do it yourself. If a good catch of herrings has come in at the fishmongers, I often pickle a whole batch of them. They keep well in the fridge, and make an excellent lunch or starter.

Pickled herrings

Garden foraging - a guide to edible weeds

Foraging used to be the preserve of dedicated enthusiasts and hippies seeking an alternative lifestyle. These days it is very much in vogue. Sunday paper supplements feature articles on wild ingredients. Any restaurant worth its salt will have at least a few foraged ingredients on its menu. So much so that professional foragers, usually wild-eyed men in disturbingly dirty boots, can be found lurking in restaurant kitchens as often as the more traditional meat, veg and other delivery guys. Foraged ingredients seem exotic and unusual, and it is easy to think that any foraging trip requires an expedition to the local woods or seashore. However, much like charity, foraging can begin at home. Or to be more accurate in the garden. There are many common weeds that are in fact edible. Weeding isn't my favourite job, but the prospect of free ingredients does make it more enjoyable a task. What follows are all edible weeds that I find growing in my modest urban garden.

Which tomatoes should I grow?

One of my favourite vegetables to grow is the tomato. I love the smell of the plants, the excitement as the first tomatoes start to ripen in high summer, and most of all the great taste - so much better than supermarket tomatoes. Each year I grow a number of varieties. I like to have a good range of colour and sizes, particularly for salads. I also like to grow some tomatoes that are particularly good for cooking. I thought I'd share my views on the varieties I have grown over the last couple of years. I'm always interested to hear from people what varieties they have had success with, so feel free to add your comments.

tomato harvest

Culinary adventures with hops

Last year I planted a hop plant in the garden. Hops used to be a common crop in Kent and East Sussex for centuries until the late 1970s, when big brewing companies started using imported pelletised hops. I liked the idea of growing something that was such a part of the agricultural heritage of my part of the world. Hops are mainly known as an ingredient in beer. I wanted to see if they had other culinary uses. When I was a student I had a summer job working on a farm where they grew a few hops, and I had done a bit of hop picking. I remembered the amazing smell that hops had - a bit like an IPA beer, but much fresher - and wondered if I could capture that flavour in food.

Hops

Growing agretto and a recipe for agretto with cockles and lemon beurre blanc

Agretto, also known as barba di frate, monk's beard, or by its latin name salsola soda, has become increasingly popular on restaurant menus in the last couple of years. It is native to the Mediterranean and has been eaten in Italy for many years. Texturally it is quite like marsh samphire. It has a fresh grassy flavour, with just a hint of iron-tinged bitterness which belies the fact that, despite appearances, it is related to chard and spinach. Although found on restaurant menus, it can be hard to come by in the UK, where I've never seen it for sale in any retail greengrocers. Last year I thought I'd have a go at growing some. I can't have been the only one, as the handful of seed merchants I found who sell the seeds had all run out. This year I made sure that I got my seed order in early. My experiment was successful and I found it grew very well.

Cockles, agretto, lemon beurre blanc

Lamb Breast, braised artichokes and broad beans, and caper and anchovy mayo

Lamb is a pretty expensive meat these days. With the modern interest in slow cooking, once cheaper cuts like shoulder and shank command a similar premium to the classic roasting joints like leg and best end. The only really cheap cut of lamb is the breast, which is a thin strip of meat, about 2 feet long that is taken off the ribs and belly of the animal. Like pork belly, it contains layers of meat and fat, and if cooked properly can be delicious. I took the inspiration for this method of cooking lamb breast from Elizabeth David's recipe for lamb breast Ste Menehould in her classic book, French Provincial Cooking, paired it with some seasonal veg from the garden and gave it a modern twist.

Cooking squash tendrils

This year I am growing a couple of varieties of winter squash - potimarron and crown prince. Both have a trailing habit, and can cover a vast amount of ground. I recently came back from a week's holiday to find the squashes stretching out across my cauliflowers, onto the lawn and up an apple tree. Some intervention was obviously required. I cut back the squashes' growing tips in an attempt to dissuade them from growing further. This also has the beneficial effect of encouraging the plants to put more energy into developing its fruit. But what to do with the cuttings? Are squash tendrils edible?

Winter squashes gone crazy

Hop shoots

Wild hop plants can often be found growing in the hedgerows and field margins of Kent and Sussex. These plants are a legacy from the time when hops were a common crop in South East England. Sadly most hops used in the UK beer industry these days are imported, often from as far afield as China, though the craft beer movement is spawning a renewed interest in English hops.

Hop shoots

Are chard roots edible? (and are they worth eating?)

At the weekend, I was clearing some old chard plants from a bed, and was surprised by quite how large their roots were. Some of them were the size of a large carrot. It got me wondering, are they edible? And if so, are they worth eating? The edibility question is easily answered. Chard is a close relative of the beetroot, and they share a common ancestor. From this common ancestor, our forefathers developed two strains, beetroot primarily for its sweet roots, and chard for its tasty leaves. Chard has a biennial life cycle, and in its first year mainly puts on green growth. When it overwinters, some of its leaves die back, and the plant develops a large root in which it stores energy, from which to put forth a flower stalk the following spring. Chard's closeness to beetroot means that this root clearly can be eaten, which leaves the second question, is it worth it?

Chard roots

Braised duck with peas

Braised duck with peas is something of a French classic, and is what we enjoyed for Christmas dinner chez Room for a Radish. Although fresh peas are in season in summer, the dish works equally well with frozen peas, and in many ways seems more suited to cold winter evenings than the summer. I take the legs off the duck and confit them - partly because I find the legs a bit dull braised, but mostly because I love confit duck. If you are in a hurry you can miss out the confiting. Depending on how many people you are feeding, you can either eat the confit legs with the rest of the duck, or save them for another day. The recipe uses a fairly large duck, and should feed four or five people, but if you have fewer diners simply purchase a smaller duck. The recipe also works nicely with mallard.

Braised duck with peas

Linguine with smoked trout and watercress

A few weeks ago, we dropped in to see some friends who own a trout fishery at Avington in Hampshire. It's a lovely place, and while I'm not a game fisherman myself, I can see the attraction of wiling away a few hours stalking trout. One of the things about the place that excites me the most is that they have their own smoker, and cold smoke trout from the lakes. The smoked trout and salmon that you buy in the supermarkets is often a bit dull and flabby, but this stuff is the real thing: produced in small batches, with a firm texture and a full smoky flavour. We came away with a side of smoked fish. I used some in a pasta dish - linguine with smoked trout and watercress.

Linguine with smoked trout and watercress

Leeks vinaigrette

Leeks are one of the stalwarts of the winter vegetable plot. At this time of year most of the available green vegetables, such as cabbages, sprouts and kale, come from the brassica family and have a certain similarity in flavour. Leeks, which are alliums and related to onions and garlic, provide a distinctly different flavour. Leeks are fully hardy, and will stand through the coldest of weather. They are often a bit player, appearing in stews and pies alongside many other veg, but are such a tasty vegetable that sometimes they deserve to be the star of the show. One of my favourite leek dishes - and very easy to prepare - is the French bistro classic: leeks vinaigrette.