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Posts from the ‘Spring’ Category

Jun 8

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Boiled eggs with asparagus and parma ham soldiers

boiled eggs, asparagus and parma ham

One bunch or two? I was deliberating my options at the asparagus stall this weekend, when the owner mentioned that next weekend would probably be the last of his harvest for this year, thus prompting an immediate panic-induced purchase of three bunches of asparagus by me. Only two more weeks of asparagus! I feel like I’ve barely got started with it this year.

Still, I can easily get through three bunches in a week. This is one of my asparagus favourites and happily it’s quick and easy, so it’s perfect for a weeknight supper or brunch at the weekend. There aren’t many recipes that take less than 10 minutes yet still feel like a treat, but this is one of them.

As with so many simple recipes, the quality of the ingredients is key. So to pair with the freshest asparagus I bought some lovely rare breed biodynamic eggs from the next stall along, with beautiful yolks the colour of apricots. It’s worth trying some non-standard eggs for things like this, I find the flavour generally superior to the mass produced kind.

Start by snapping off the woody ends of a bunch of asparagus. In a shallow pan, just wide enough for the spears to lie flat, add a generous splash of boiling water and cook the spears for a couple of minutes before removing from the pan and setting aside to cool. Drain any remaining water from the pan and retain.

Bring another pan of water to the boil for your eggs. If you keep your eggs in the fridge, bring them up to room temperature by popping them into a bowl of hot tap water for a couple of minutes. This should stop them cracking when you put them into the boiling water.

Once the asparagus is cool enough to handle, coil strips of parma ham around the stem of each spear. A whole slice per spear is too much, so I try to cut each slice lengthways into two, which invariably results in it falling apart, but it doesn’t matter, so long as some ham gets wrapped around somehow.

Heat a splash of oil in the shallow pan over a medium heat and add the ham wrapped spears. Now put your eggs on to boil. I like to err on the side of caution with my eggs – I don’t know about you, but I think there is nothing more disappointing than cracking into an egg and discovering a set yolk. So I boil them for 4 minutes, but if the chance of a little undercooked egg white would put you off entirely, then you may wish to err on the other side of caution and cook them for a little bit longer.

Jiggle the asparagus around whilst the eggs cook, so the ham crisps up nicely. Drain the eggs and serve immediately with the asparagus. A perfect speedy sunset supper.

To serve one:

One medium sized bunch of asparagus

However many eggs

A few slices of parma ham

May 20

Coconut, lime and strawberry tart

coconut, lime and strawberry tart

A tropical twist on a summery strawberry tart. This looks and tastes like far more effort than it actually involves; no-one would ever believe that it was borne of series of compromises on a day where I wanted to make something, but everything seemed like too much trouble.

Sometimes I just find myself in the supermarket ambling around aimlessly, without a shopping list and without a clue what I want to cook. There were punnets of new season strawberries which made their way into my basket, but otherwise I was feeling hopelessly uninspired. Maybe I could put them in some sort of tart…no, not in the mood for making pastry…maybe with some victoria sponge and cream…no, a bit boring…. So as I drifted up and down the baking aisle, suddenly a bag of desiccated coconut caught my eye and it all fell into place.

I thought I’d experiment with using a coconut macaroon mixture instead of pastry to make a tart shell. It requires a fraction of the time and effort of making pastry, yet gives the impression of being a much more ambitious and  exotic endeavour. Combining the coconut with a zesty lime filling gives the whole thing a pleasingly tropical feel. Even the lime filling was a bit of a shortcut in the end. I had initially intended to make a lime curd with the leftover egg yolks, but again that felt like too much of an undertaking, so the egg yolks were abandoned in the fridge in favour of a simple creamy filling made from condensed milk and whipped cream instead.

Coconut shellStart by making the tart case. Preheat your oven to 150C (fan). Lightly but thoroughly grease a 20cm loose bottomed round tin. This mixture can be pretty sticky, so a good non-stick tin will help immensely. Mix together 1 1/2 cups of desiccated coconut, 2 egg whites and 1/4 cup of caster sugar. If you pick up a clump of the mixture and give it a squeeze it should clump together nicely. If it seems a bit wet add a little extra coconut. Press the coconut mixture firmly into the base and sides tin as evenly as you can. Bake for 15-20 minutes until light golden and set. Leave to cool then release the edges from the side of the tin.

Meanwhile decant a 400g can of condensed milk into a mixing bowl. Add the juice and zest of 4-5 limes until the mixture has a good balance of tangy yet sweet to suit your taste. It’s very hard to know how much juice will come out of each individual lime, they can so often be disappointingly dry. I ran out of limes before I’d obtained the requisite sweet-sour balance, so ended up adding the juice of a lemon too to get the balance right.

Lightly whip 200ml double cream until it is just thick and voluptuous, forming gentle sloppy peaks. It will thicken up further once added to the citrus juice, so don’t worry about it being too runny. Stir it into the lime mixture and its done. Pour it into the cooled coconut case and put it in the fridge to chill and set for an hour or so.

imageA little while before you are ready to eat it, macerate a punnet of strawberries in the juice of half a lime and a good spoonful of caster sugar. Leave to meld for half an hour or so before tumbling them on top of the tart. As any dedicated mojito drinker knows, mint is excellent paired with lime, so a few sprigs on top bring extra flavour as well as making the whole thing look pretty.

So there you have it, a chewy, sweet coconut macaroon tart, with no more than half an hour in the kitchen.

A word on storing this – as time passes the coconut will slowly absorb some moisture from the cream and soften a little, which can make for slightly messier slices after a day or so.

Shopping list:

1.5 cups desiccated coconut (about 150g)

2 egg whites

¼ cup caster sugar + 1 tbsp

400g can condensed milk

200ml double cream

5 or 6 limes (probably best to get a couple of spares, just in case)

1 large punnet of strawberries

mint to decorate

May 11

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Spring chicken

Spring chicken

It’s no coincidence to me that all the vegetables coming into season in May taste amazing together. All those sweet tender peas, delicate asparagus spears and buttery, waxy new potatoes are a match made in heaven.

This dish makes the most of all of these wonderful flavours of an English spring garden. For me, the holy trinity of May is the Jersey Royal potato, English asparagus and baby broad beans. I could eat combinations of these three in various guises all month, but this chicken dish wins the prize for one of my perfect Sunday suppers.

You could use any combination of vegetables for this, but I think that full on spring feeling only comes if everything is green, green, green, so aim for a pick and mix selection of peas, beans, green leaves and herbs.

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