Bacon, Apple and Rocket Salad.

 

A simple, but tasty salad of crispy bacon, apple matchsticks and peppery rocket.

Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry in a knob of butter until crispy.

While the bacon is frying cut your apple into small matchstick size pieces and roll in lemon juice to stop it discolouring.

When the bacon is cooked place it on a bed of rocket while it is still warm in your serving dish and add the apple.

Deglaze the warm pan with the lemon juice from the apple and a little good quality vinegar - add little more oil and a teaspoon of dijon mustard, season and mix into a dressing.

Dress the salad while the dressing is still warm and serve.

Asparagus, Potato, Cheese and Chervil Tart.

Peel and chop potatoes and put onto boil in salted water.

While the potatoes are boiling brush a baking dish with melted butter and add the filo pastry in layers, brushing with the melted butter in between all the layers. 

Make sure the pastry lines the sides and hangs over the edge slightly as this will be folded back later.

If you have very thick asparagus spears its best to par boil them for a minute or two by dropping them into the pan with the potatoes just before the potatoes are cooked.

When the potatoes are cooked (removing the asparagus if you have par boiled it), chop and add milk (or cream), salt & pepper, chopped chervil and good quality grated cheddar and a couple of eggs - then mash - you are looking for a consistency that will pour into the pastry lined dish, but will be set when cooked and cooled.

Pour into the dish and place the asparagus spears on the top (you can also push some into the mixture if you want more asparagus), fold back the excess pastry to form a rim and place in a pre heated oven.

Cook for 15/20 mins until the pastry is done on a fairly high heat then allow to cool for 15 mins or so before serving so it can set and be sliced.

Serve warm or cold with a good green leaf salad.

Asparagus Broth.

 

Make a stock with the bottom half of the asparagus spears, a stick of celery, a small carrot, a leek (the white part only), a peeled shallot, a couple of bay leaves, parsley and a couple of black peppercorns.

Once the stock has simmered for a hour or so allow to cool and strain and discard the veg and aromats.

Slice the top half of the asparaugus spears thinly at an angle but keep the tip whole and add to the stock along with some chopped chervil and salt.

Warm through until the asparagus tips are cooked and serve with more chopped chervil.

Baked Asparagus with Chervil, Mint and Parsley Dressing.

 

Roll your asparagus in olive oil, dot with butter and season with salt and pepper and place in a hot oven at 180 degrees for 10-15mins depending on the thickness of the shoots.

As the asparagus is cooking mix a dash of sherry vinegar into a small teaspoon of dijon mustard.

Mix in a little salt and pepper and then slowly add some good olive oil, constantly stirring to form an emulsion.

Mix in chopped mint, chervil and parsley.

When the asparagus is cooked add the dressing to the pan mix to dress the shoots and serve.

Sea Bass with Jersey Royals, Asparagus and Chervil.

Cut up the jersey royals and boil in salted water.

While the potatoes are cooking take the woody ends off the asparagus.

Put a little oil in a frying pan and when hot add the seasoned sea bass skin side down.

Drop the aspragus into the pan with the potatoes.

When the aspragus is cooked drain the veg and return to the warm pan with heat off, and add a small knob of butter, a little olive oil, salt and pepper, a dash of good vinegar and chopped chervil and replace the lid to keep warm and melt the butter.

The fish should noe be 3/4 cooked so filp it over to finish the cooking on the flesh side.

Roll the potatoes and asparagus in the dressing and plate, top with the fish and scatter with a little more chervil.

Pea and Asparagus Bruchetta.

 

Place frozen peas and a little water (no salt) into a pan and cook with the lid on until the peas are soft.

Place into a blender with a grind of salt and pepper, some torn basil leaves, a dash of sherry vinegar and a little olive oil and blitz - you may need to add a little water or more oil to get to the right consistence - not to wet and runny, but not too dry and soild and leave to cool.

Cut off the woody ends of the asparagus and using a potato peeler remove the tougher outer skin towards the base of the spears.

Roll in good olive oil and season.

Get a griddle pan smoking hot, drizzle a bit of olive oil over a slice of good quality bread and toast on the griddle.

When the bread is toasted remove to cool and add the asparagus spears - keep turning and be careful not to over cook them.

Rub the toasted bread with a garlic clove that has been halved and drizzle with a little more oil.

Place the cooled pea puree on top.

Remove the asparagus from the griddle and dress in a mix of seasoned oil and lemon juice, place on top of the peas and grate lemon zest over the top and serve.

Piccalilli.

 

Select your veg - I used radish, cauliflower, green beans, yellow pepper, courgette, shallot and carrot, but you could also use baby onions, green or yellow tomato, red or green peppers, marrow, runner beans or cucumber.

Chop all the veg into small pieces and place in a colander over a bowl and sprinkle generously with salt.

Cover with a cloth and leave overnight.

The following morning the salt will have drawn out a lot of the moisture. Rinse the veg throughly to get rid of the excess salt and pat dry in a clean tea towel.

Add a squeeze of honey and a few teaspoons of sugar to a pan and cover with cider vinegar, warm to disolve the sugar.

While the sugar is disolving crush mustard, cumin and corriander seeds and mix with cornflower, english mustard (or mustard powder) a good grind of salt and pepper and ground tumeric.

Add cider vinegar a little at a time and mix into a paste - when it is liquid enough add to the pan with the honey sugar and vinegar and heat through.

When the mixture is hot it should start to thicken -you can loosen it with more vinegar if it gets too thick.

Stir in the veg and coat thoroughly before pouring into steralised jars. 

Seal and leave for a few weeks before using.

Red Mullet with Sauce Vierge.

A very simple vegatable sauce that goes well with many things, but it's fresh flavour goes especially well with red mullet and other delicate white fish such as sea bass.

You first need to deseed and skin the tomatoes.

Cut the eye out of the top of the tomatoes and score the bottom with cross.

Drop them into a pan of boiling water for 15- 20 seconds then refresh in a bowl of ice cold water.

Peel off the skins, cut into quarters then deseed and chop.

Finely chop a red onion, a garlic clove and a bunch of herbs - preferabley chervil, dill, basil, chives and tarragon.

Zest and juice a lemon and crush a handfull of coriander seeds in a mortar and pestle.

Season and pan fry the red mullet fillets - this will only take a a minute or two on each side.

While the mullet is cooking warm a small pan of extra virgin olive oil (just enough to cover all the tomatoes, onion and herbs) on a low heat - too much heat will make the oil go bitter.

Add the red onion, garlic, herbs, coriander, lemon zest and juice to the oil and season.

Add the tomatoes last and when warmed through plate and serve with the mullet on top of the sauce.

Pan Fried Sea Bass with French Beans and Tomato Sauce.

Crush a clove of garlic using the back of a knife and sprinkle with sea salt, then rub the back of the knife across the garlic to turn it into a paste (you can also do this in a mortar and pestle).

Add to a pan with a finely chopped shallot and a glug of olive oil and gently fry until the shallot becomes clear.

While the sauce is cooking deseed and chop a few large ripe tomatoes and add to the pan.

Turn up the heat and add a glug of white wine and burn off the alchohol. 

Reduce the heat, season with salt and pepper and leave to simmer and reduce to a sauce.

Boil a handful of french beans in salted water with a knob of butter for three minutes until tender and drain.

Add the tomato sauce, coat and keep warm on a low heat.

Pan fry a sea bass fillet skin side down on a medium heat in butter. 

When the skin is lovely and crispy the fillet should be about 3/4 cooked so flip it over for 20/30 seconds to finish off the flesh side.

While the fish is finishing cooking plate up the beans in tomato sauce then place the sea bass on top and serve.