Cookery Elisabeth Luard

HONEY

Borage, blue gum, goldenrod, lavender, leatherwood, sage, tamarisk, sea lavender… are just a few nectar sources for the world’s busiest pollinators.

While subtleties of fragrance and flavour can only be properly appreciated in raw honey, the choice when cooking is between light, medium and dark. Light honeys – acacia, orange blossom – are best for drizzling over summer berries, flower fritters or fresh goat’s cheese. Medium honeys can cope with stronger flavours – meat, hard cheese, plums, apples. Dark honeys – buckwheat, pine tree, chestnut – deliver earthy spiciness to chocolate truffles, fruitcakes, gingerbreads, barbecue marinades and anything meaty that needs a touch of sweetness. That said, you can substitute one honey for another in any recipe.

Hattie Ellis’s magnificently illustrated Spoonfuls of Honey (Pavilion £20) delivers everything you need to know about choosing, storing and tasting techniques for single-source honeys, plus a whole hiveful of irresistible recipes for the everyday stuff. Winnie-the-pooh would love it.

Sweet ’n’ hot jerk chicken wings Perfect for a lunch with children – in the garden. Serves 4–5

20 chicken wings Lime wedges Jerk marinade: Thumb-sized ginger root, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped ½ Scotch bonnet chilli, deseeded and chopped 1 tsp thyme leaves 1 tsp finely grated nutmeg 1 tsp ground allspice 1 tsp salt 3 tbsp honey (medium or dark) 3–4 tbsp vinegar 2 tbsp olive oil

Put the chicken wings in a non-metallic dish. Whizz up all the marinade ingredients in the processor to a smooth paste, pour over the wings and mix thoroughly. Cover with clingfilm and set in the fridge for at least an hour – ideally overnight.

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/GAS 5 (or light the barbecue). For oven cooking, arrange the chicken wings on a foil-lined tray in a single layer and cook for about 45 minutes, checking for burning now and again, and basting with the marinade until the sauce is well reduced and the wings are brown and tender.

For barbecue cooking, wait till it’s good and hot before you grill the wings. Baste with the leftover marinade while turning the pieces over, till the bones are easy to wiggle in their sockets. If there is any leftover marinade, add a cupful of water and boil it down in a small pan over a high heat till you have a thick, sticky dipping sauce. Serve the wings with lime wedges, lettuce leaves for wrapping and bread to sop up the juices.

Honey and cardamom kulfi This is Hattie’s shortcut to India’s luscious ice cream, kulfi. It’s usually made with milk, patiently simmered down to a thick, sugary sludge. Perfect with fresh summer berries. Serves 6 Seeds from 3 cardamom pods, crushed 150ml evaporated milk 150ml condensed milk 300ml double cream (not ‘extra thick’) 3 tbsp strong dark honey (maybe chestnut or heather)

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, leave for an hour or two to infuse the cardamom, and pour into six small moulds. You can buy special conical kulfi moulds with screw-on lids, but metal dariole moulds or empty yoghurt pots will do just fine.

Cover the filled moulds with clingfilm and set in the freezer for at least 3 hours. Unmould by running a knife dipped in hot water round the edges.