Toast the walnut halves in a pan with a little oil over a medium heat, then grind them in a pestle and mortar or chop them to a rough consistency. Scatter the nuts over the plates of salad as you serve it, spooning the salad on to the plates in appetisingly high mounds.
I am no fan of flasks filled with old tea for car journeys, but it is good to stop and sip something hot that was not bought at gross prices from service stations. This is a family invention to solve the problem. Pressed apple juice, with a little spice and light muscovado sugar, lasts all day as long as there is a decent Thermos to store it in. Try to use the best pressed apple juice, not one made from concentrate – juice made from concentrate can taste metallic. I sometimes buy direct from farmers’ markets in the city, although you can buy pressed apple juice in supermarkets, too.
Heat 1 litre/1¾ pints apple juice to boiling point and add ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon and a tiny pinch of ground cloves. Sweeten with light muscovado sugar to taste. If you are putting the juice into a flask, remember to wash it out first with boiling water.
| Kitchen note | |
| Hot cider is the adult alternative for non-drivers, and can be made using the same spices and sugar to sweeten, as above. |
I like this ice when it has a slightly bruised, windfall scent, like the musty inside of an apple store. The base is a jelly, extracted from whole apples or leftover apple peelings. Fresh apple is grated into the jelly before freezing but not before allowing it to brown a little – for that orchard-floor taste.
This is not a quick recipe but it is a very worthwhile one, especially if you use up windfalls. Try it with various apple varieties, including crab apple – you should see some interesting fluctuations in taste. Using slightly unripe apples will heighten the flavour.
Serves 6–8
10 Russet apples, plus 6 more to grate in at the end
golden granulated sugar 2 egg whites
Chop the 10 apples into quarters, leaving the cores, stalks and skin on, and put them into a big, heavy-bottomed pan. Cover (only just) with water, bring to the boil and cook very slowly – it should murmur and bubble rather than simmer fast. This ensures the apples do not change flavour, and they will turn a pretty, rusty-pink colour. When you have a thick, sloppy purée, line a colander with muslin and set it over a bowl (or use a jelly bag, if you have one). Spoon the purée into the muslin. Do not push the purée or stir it; just let the juice drip naturally into the bowl through the cloth. Make sure the cloth is high above the bowl so it will not touch the juice in the bowl as it fills. This can take at least a couple of hours or overnight – you need to extract every last bit of juice.
Measure the volume of juice and add 450g/1lb granulated sugar for every 600ml/1 pint. Put it into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes – the liquid will clarify as it boils and become syrupy. Allow to cool down to about 40°C/104°F (hotter than bathwater). Meanwhile, grate the flesh and skin of the 6 remaining apples – leave to brown a little, then add to the syrup. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the apple mixture. Pour into a container and place in the freezer. After an hour or so, stir to loosen the ice, then freeze again (or use an ice-cream maker if you have one). Serve with Pistachio Biscuits – made with another nut (walnut, for example), if you prefer.
Asparagus with Pea Shoots and Mint
Being one of those slow-growing vegetables with a short (eight-week) glut, British asparagus comes at a price too high for it to be anything but a treat. Having said that, I would be happy to live off bread and lentils at that time if I could eat asparagus by the kilo. Its arrival in the shops is a happy moment, an affirmation of spring. When the supply begins to dwindle and the spears begin to look a little hairy and overblown, it’s like the end of a birthday.
British asparagus should be all over the place in season, which, depending on the weather, runs from late April to the third week of June. Look for it in greengrocer’s shops and supermarkets; the boxes are usually heavily emblazoned with Union Jacks. Buying asparagus locally not only supports farmers in the region where you live, it also makes sense in terms of freshness. Competing with it will be the Spanish. I have to say I am not unhappy about using Spanish asparagus before the British season begins because it can be very good. Air-freighted baby Peruvian and Thai asparagus is tasteless and pointless.
Buying asparagus
To find your nearest asparagus grower, see www.british-asparagus.co.uk (tel: 01507 602427). To find a farmers’ market, check your local council website or www.lfm.ore.uk for London markets.
For mail-order asparagus, contact Sandy Patullo, who grows exceptional asparagus and sea kale (another delicious edible stalk) in Scotland: Eassie Farm, By Glamis, Angus DD8 1SG; tel: 01307 840303.
All the major supermarkets sell British asparagus in season.
Asparagus with Pea Shoots and Mint
Pea shoots are an established vegetable now. They have been stocked by Sainsbury for the past three years and I often see them in markets. They are increasingly available in good food shops, too, and you can get them via mail order from Goodness Direct (www.goodnessdirect.co.uk; tel: 0871 871 6611).
When they are cooked – lightly fried in a little oil or butter, or even steamed for a minute – they have all the taste of a good, sweet garden pea, or indeed a frozen pea, but with the added bonus of being lively plants. They appear around the same time as English asparagus and, while I am always happy to eat asparagus plain, the combination of the sweetness in the pea shoots and the unique grassy flavour of the asparagus is joyfully vernal.
Serves 4–6
1kg/2¼lb new-season asparagus
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 punnets of pea shoots
a few small mint leaves
finely grated zest of ½ lemon
sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
For the sauce:
1 shallot, chopped
a grating or two of nutmeg
2 wineglasses of white wine
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
225g/8oz unsalted butter, softened
Pare away the outer skin of each spear, taking off about 6cm/2½ inches from the base of the stem. Bring a large, shallow pan of water to the boil. Before cooking the asparagus, however, make the sauce. Put the shallot, nutmeg, white wine and white wine vinegar in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook until the liquid has reduced to about 3 tablespoons, then strain it through a sieve and return it to the pan, discarding the shallot. Add the butter, about a teaspoon at a time, whisking it into the liquor over a low heat. When all the butter has been used, the sauce should be