One Pot Chicken with Lemon and Beans.

Place the chicken skin side down in a casserole dish  and cook in butter and oil until the skin is coloured.

Remove from the pot and reserve.

Add chopped onion, carrot and celery to the pot (you may need a little more oil), a chopped garlic clove and cook until softened then season with salt and pepper.

Add a tin of white beans the juice and zest from a lemon and place the chicken back on top and cook with a lid on until the chicken is cooked through.

Before serving add a few good handfuls of spinach (or chard) to the pan and cook for 5 mins or so until wilted down.

Clams, Cannellini Beans, Tomato and Wild Garlic Sauce.

This is a delicious tomato and garlic sauce and can also be made when wild garlic is out season with traditional garlic cloves.

Soak the beans overnight in cold water - add a splash of vinegar to the water as the acidicy softens the skins.

Drain the soaking water from the pan and refill with fresh water - do not add salt.

Add some halved and de-seeded tomatoes, a large hand full of wild garlic leaves (if using traditional garlic add a few cloves with the skin on), a small peeled potato, and cook the beans on a low simmer until tender -  this is a long slow process.

When the beans are cooked remove the potato and add to a dish, remove the tomatoes too and slide off the skins, discarding them, (if using traditional garlic squeeze the pulp from the skins into the dish and discard the skins).

Drain a little cooking water into the dish and mash into a paste.

Drain the beans, but leaving enough cooking water in the pan to form a sauce when added to the tomato and potato paste, but discard the wild garlic leaves.

You should now have a bowl of beans in a wild garlic and tomato sauce - season with salt and pepper and mix together.

In a pan heat half a small glass of white wine and when boiling add the clams - cook for a few minutes, shaking occasionally until the clams open, then spoon the clams over the beans.

Carefully drain the cooking liquor from the pan leaving any sand at the bottom - and drizzle over the clams and beans.

Garnish with a few finely chopped wild garlic leaves (and flowers if you can get them) and serve.

Marinated Artichokes with Serrono Ham and Parsley Dressing.

 

When preparing the chokes have a pan of water and lemon juice to hand to dip them in after cutting them - this stops them discolouring - you can then use this to cook them in.

Start by pulling off the very tough outer leaves. 

Then cut off the top third and trim the tough flesh from the outside and base of the choke (if using younger chokes you can leave the stem on but peel off the tough outer skin too.
Place in the saucepan with salt and bring to the boil, then simmer until a sharp knife can slide in with little resistance - this will vary depending on age and size of the choke.

Leave to cool until you can handle them and halve or quarter depending on size  - you can now easily remove the hearts if they have formed.

While the chokes are cooking pummel chopped parsley, salt & pepper, a little chopped garlic and a glug of good oil in a mortar and pestle until you have a smooth paste.

Place the cooled chokes in a bowl or container with the oil and parsley paste and leave to marinade.

Serve with salad leaves (using the marinade as a dressing), slices of Serrano or other good cured ham, and some roughly chopped parsley leaves.

Asparagus and Wild Garlic Soup.

 A delicious spring soup mixing bought and foraged ingredients.

In a pan with a little oil and a good knob of butter soften half an onion, a small chopped carrot and a stick of celery.

Season and add water bring nearly to the boil and turn heat down to a simmer.

Take the tips off the asparagus and reserve. 

Cut the woody end off the stalks and discard, shave any tough outer skin from the base of the stalks with a peeler, chop and add to the pan along with a good hand full of chopped wild garlic leaves.

When all the veg is cooked blitz in a blender and pass through a sieve back into the pan, pushing all the pulp through with the back of a wooden spoon - this will get rid of any woody bits left in the asparagus.

Add the asparagus tips back to the soup and warm through until the tips are cooked and serve.

Pickled Mussels with Radish and Apple.

Bring a thumb of water containing a sprig or two of thyme and a couple of bay leaves to a rolling boil in a large pan.

Drop in the cleaned and de bearded mussels and place the lid on.

After a minute give the pan a shake and cook for a further 30 seconds or so or until the mussels have opened.

Drain over a bowl to reserve the juices and leave to cool.

When cool remove the mussels from the shells and add to a bowl with a handful of toasted coriander seeds some of the cooled cooking liquor, a good dash of sherry vinegar, dill and ground pepper and leave in the fridge to steep.

For the dressing  place a blob of dijon mustard into a bowl add a little pickling liquor and mix - slowly add extra virgin olive oil, whisking all the time to emulsify - season  and add a few sprigs of dill.

Take some french breakfast radishes and half, slice some apples and roll in lemon juice to stop them discolouring.

Assemble on a plate with fresh radish leaves, the mussels - dress and serve.

Mussels Rockerfeller.

Blanch a few hand fulls of spinach in salted water for a minute or so drain and stop the cooking process by rinsing with cold water and leave to cool.

In a large saucepan, big enough to hold all your mussels, melt a knob of butter and gently fry a finely chopped shallot and stick of celery. 

When softened increase the heat and add the mussels- when the pan starts to sizzle add half a glass of white wine and a small shot of pastis, (traditionally its dry sherry and pastis, but white wine is fine - if you do not have pastis add a few more tarragon leaves to the sauce later in the recipe to add the extra aniseed flavour), cook for a minute and give the pan a shake, after another 30 seconds or so, when the mussels are fully open, remove from the heat and drain over a bowl, reserving the cooking liquor.

Squeeze all the liquid out of the spinach and place in a blender with the cooking liquor, finely chopped parsley leaves, a few sprigs of tarragon (leaves only) and few drops of tabasco and blitz.

The mussels should now be cool enough to handle so remove the empty half shells and return to a pan - pour in the sauce and gently reheat and serve.

Roast Butternut Squash, Choritzo and Sage.

 

Peel and de-seed the squash then cut it into large chunks, place in a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, season and scatter over a few ripped sage leaves, a chopped de-seeded chilli and roast in a medium hot oven until 3/4 cooked.

In a frying pan heat a little good quality oil and fry off some slices of cooking choritzo - when the choritzo is releasing its oils and starting to colour add some of the roasted squash and continue to fry, turning occasionally to colour -  a minute or so before serving add some finely chopped sage leaves.

Serve with some good crusty bread for the juices.