SEA KALE. It has been a wonderful year – late but better than ever – for Sandy Patullo’s extraordinary crop. We can do them in lots of ways – with scallops and gremolada, for example, or a poached egg or with blood orange hollandaise, but nothing beats dipping them in a little melted butter. Should go on for a while yet.
ASPARAGUS. Great fat sticks of white asparagus will be with us soon, served simply boiled with hollandaise or with blood oranges and olive oil or wrapped in parma ham and glazed in Parmesan. In late April we should see the first English green asparagus: it will need very little but some good butter or a nice soft boiled egg. As the season goes on we will start to experiment….
MORELS. A trickle from faraway places like Mexico and Siberia (really) at the moment but soon European morels, the finest mushroom of all in my book, will be coming in. We’ll stuff them with chicken mousse and poach them in consommé flavoured with Sauternes, we’ll serve them on toast and in a ragout with white asparagus (sometimes with scallops too) and always happy to do a party in the private room featuring the perfect combination of spit roast chicken and fresh morels.
NEW SEASONS LAMB. Once Easter is out of the way, we’ll start on the new season’s lamb, pale, sweet and succulent. Watch out for a gigot en persillade, a steamed saddle with mint and racks ‘alla cacciatore’.
ST GEORGE’S MUSHROOMS. Punctual to a fault, April 23rd sees these fragrant spring mushrooms pop up all over Southern England and Northern France. There punctuality and fragrance is married to an exquisite meaty, floury taste, best seen with eggs, butter, chicken and fish. For a fortnight at the most, an absolute treat.
SEA TROUT. Gently poached in butter and finished with a shredded sorrel and lemon; steamed and anointed with a little olive oil on a little spinach and wild garlic puree; delicately grilled and served with béarnaise. Whichever, sea trout is the taste of spring.
GARIGUETTES. Greenhouse strawberries in April. Sounds pretty stupid, until you taste them. They have high acidity but are unbelievably sweet and flavoursome. The usual sort of thing: with pannacotta, with meringue, in a champagne jelly, nothing fancy. Also very good in conjunction with…
RHUBARB, of the early forced ‘champagne’ variety. Already with us, with mackerel as well as a myriad of other, just desserts.
NETTLES. “Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you, for your pains: Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains.” In soup and in spaghetti, with a hint of garlic and some Pecorino cheese.
PLAICE. Towards the end of April plaice should have fattened up and the remarkable harpooned fish from Poole harbour should be appearing. Their thick succulent fillets with a sensational briny fragrance and melting texture are a sure sign of spring becoming early summer.
