WHAT TO EAT WHEN
It is said St George’s Day (23 April) marks the start and midsummer’s day
(21 June) the end of asparagus season, and it is well worth eating as many of these vibrant green spears as you can between those dates. They require little more than a quick steam and some melted butter, lemon juice and salt to shine, though soft-boiled eggs and smoked fish are also welcome bedfellows.
These are in season from May to September. Early on they are smaller, sweeter and the skins are tender enough to be left on and eaten. Later the skins can turn leathery and require peeling (also known as doublepodding) before serving. They purée well into summery dips, and are wonderful scattered over salads and pastas.
A bowl of peas in the pod on the table, ready for unzipping and eating there and then, is a highlight of the summer. When cooked they happily find their way into just about all summer foods, from frittatas and salads to pestos, dips and coconutty curries.
We cook with garlic all year round, but in a short window from
May to June you can find plump new-season bulbs, their outer skin often streaked with purple. The cloves are sweet and mellow, delicate enough to be used raw in dressings, or the bulbs are wonderful roasted, as in the recipe on page 46.
This has long heralded early spring, the first leafy spears appearing in February and bringing much-needed greenery into our root-veg dominated kitchens. As in the recipe on the facing page, they are often best blanched first if you intend to fry them. Sadly, the purple colour tends to rinse out during cooking.
We grow fantastic tomatoes in this country, with plenty of varieties to choose from: the season starts in June and runs to October. A good sun-ripened tomato should balance acidity and sweetness, and is a welcome guest in all salads all summer long.
Even timid foragers can reap a bagful of wild garlic – it grows in abundance near woodlands, announcing itself on the breeze for miles around. The first shoots appear in March and are the most delicate in flavour. By April and May they’re more pungent and their white flowers blossom (they’re edible and look pretty scattered over salads). Blanch later season leaves for 30-60 seconds in boiling water to mellow the flavour. It makes wonderful soups, butters, mayonnaises and pestos.