Chocolate Pots

Though it is really chucking it down today spring is beginning to elbow its way through the gloom. The days are longer, my clematis is dripping with buds on the brink of unfurling their creamy faces all over the fence and English asparagus has arrived at Borough Market. We had to have some.

With friends coming to dinner Saturday night I decided to have asparagus as a starter. Simple, elegant and irresistible. Not having an asparagus steamer has never felt like a disadvantage - my pan cupboard is already full. Especially in the first few weeks of the season I tend to steam it lightly and not much else. Snap the base of the stalks off - wherever they break is the dividing point between tender and hoary. If you're feeling particularly virtuous use the tough ends in a vegetable stock or as the base of asparagus soup - though soup this early in the season would really be a decadent treat!

Lay the tips of asparagus flat in a large heavy based pan, add a couple of tablespoons of cold water, a generous knob of butter, salt and a grinding of black pepper. Put the lid on the pan and steam for 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the stalks. Serve on flat plates with the buttery pan juices dribbled over. I fried duck eggs to go with the stalks - the big bright runny yolks spilled onto the plates like a golden sauce. With crusty bread we devoured the lot.

But about my chocolate pots. Everyone loves chocolate mousse - and the lovely boyfriend loves them more than most. They are very easy to make, have to be done a few hours before they can be served guaranteeing no last minute panic and variations can be served with the addition of grand marnier or kahlua for a little extra kick. Best of all they are bliss to eat - a kind of concentrate of luxurious richness consumed in velvety mouthfuls.

Chocolate Pots
120g/4 1/2oz dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
40g/1 1/2oz caster sugar
5 egg whites
2 egg yolks

Break the chocolate into pieces into a bowl and melt gently over simmering water, stirring occasionally. Take care not to have the water boil against the bowl or the chocolate will become irretrievably grainy - a disappointment best avoided. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, add the sugar, then beat again till the peaks stiffen. Cool the melted chocolate slightly then stir in the egg yolks. Incorporate about a third of the egg whites into the chocolate then add to the rest of the whites and stir together gently. Pour into four ramekins and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

I added little chocolate eggs as decoration that I bought from L'Artisan du Chocolat. But make sure you add them after you set them in the fridge. I tried to put one on top straight after I had poured the moulds only to have it sink gently into the mousse.

Much to his delight I tucked a leftover pot into my sweetheart's lunchbox as a suprise for Monday. He was thrilled.

Cannellini Bean Salad

After the pleasures of hot spiced lamb on Saturday there was still plenty of meat left over for Sunday. I have a thing about cold lamb paired with bean salad - the creamy beans in the herbed dressing somehow lifts the meat to new heights and creates a completely different meal.

I use tinned beans for this - they just need to be thoroughly washed before they go into the salad bowl. It is a really useful standby cupboard dish that only takes a few minutes to make, will keep in the fridge for a week and is fabulous with just about any salads - tuna particularly. And it is great as a side dish with barbecued anything. It is also cheap, nutritious and everyone seems to love it. Irresistible really!

Herbed bean salad
2 tins cannellini beans, drained and thoroughly washed under cold tap
4 tbspn finely chopped fresh herbs - parsley, thyme, tarragon, oregano, basil, a little rosemary
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 tbspn olive oil
1 tbspn lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Put everything into a salad bowl and mix thouroughly.

It really is that easy.

Roast Spiced Shoulder of Lamb and Parsnip & Spring Onion Pudding

Bank Holiday weekend and you can be sure it won't be hot and sunny. It is undoubtedly gettting better very (very) slowly but I'm not in any rush to break out the flouncy skirts and flip flops just yet. The pleasure of three days at home getting stuff done, seeing a movie, going for long walks, planting out the herb garden in preparation for spring is lovely. Decided to have one slightly complicated dinner Saturday night then an easy day Sunday with options for Monday depending on how things panned out.

Spring, holidays, lamb - it all seemed to go together. Before I started shopping at Borough Market shoulder of lamb was not a cut that I was enamoured by. The stuff from supermarkets tends to be very tough and very fatty and greasy. Generally nasty. From well raised animals it is a well flavoured meat with firm flesh and little fat or sinew. It will always need a little more preparation than a leg but you will be well rewarded.

I had ripped a recipe out of the Guardian for spiced shoulder of lamb from the Michelin starred chef Shaun Hill. I decided to go with his accompaniment of parsnip and spring onion pudding. New season lamb is in the market now but I find that aged is better. I had half a shoulder from an older beast in the freezer - and that was my starting point. The spiced lamb is wonderful - from the sensual pleasure of rubbing the mix into the flesh then wrapping it in cling film to marinate right through to the eating. Cooked slowly, the spice rub blackens on the skin and the base of the pan creating a lovely gooey sticky finish to the meat and the perfect base for a sauce to serve with it. I had expected it to be good and it was better than that.

But the real revelation was the parsnips. Pureeing them when cooked makes them silky smooth but they are saved from blandness by the spicing and, especially, the spring onions. They add texture and crunch and a contrasting flavour. I made it in a single pan but they could easily be made in individaul ramekins for a more glamourous presentation. With new potatoes and buttered courgettes this was a great supper.

Spiced shoulder of lamb
½ red pepper
1 small red chilli
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp chopped mint
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp saffron threads
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large half shoulder or small shoulder of lamb
Salt and black pepper

Chop the pepper, chilli, garlic, mint and spices together until almost a pulp - it's easier if you use the flat of the knife to crush everything first. Stir in the oil, then rub this mixture on to the meat and season. Wrap the shoulder in clingfilm and leave to marinate for a few hours in the fridge. Roast in a moderately hot oven (180C/350F/gas mark 4) until done the way you want. I prefer shoulder more well cooked than leg or rack. Once the meat is resting on the carving board, add a tumbler of water to the pan and bring to the boil. The strained juices and burnt-on bits of spice will be all the sauce you need.

Parsnip and spring onion pudding

The advantage to this variation of mashed parsnips is that it can be made in advance and baked as needed. Carrots can substitute and even be used along with the parsnip, provided they are boiled separately, as they will take longer to soften.

600g/21oz parsnips, peeled
Salt and nutmeg
1 egg
25g/scant ounce butter
1 small bunch spring onions, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Cut the parsnips into smallish, evenly sized pieces - cut out and discard any tough or woody parts from the bases. Boil in salted water until tender, then drain. Season with salt and nutmeg. Blend in a food processor, together with the egg and the butter. Stir in the spring onions and spoon into an ovenproof dish. Bake until set - around 20 minutes - and serve hot.

Curried Parsnip & Lentil Salad

Though spring has ostensibly started it hasn't really felt like it. There was snow in March in London and the weather has remained a little on the chilly side most days, even now. The first of the jersey royals and english asparagus are just appearing at Borough Market now but there is still the last of the winter veg as well. We had a great piece of rare grilled rump steak for supper on Saturday with nothing more than a crisp green salad and a piece of crusty bread. Bliss. But expensive.

I needed to have a few cheaper dishes up my sleeve to get us through the week. Flicking through a Vogue Food magazine recently I found this recipe for parsnip and lentil salad and it seemed to fit the hesitant mood of spring perfectly. It has a really fabulous mix of textures and flavours, the sweetness of the roasted parsnips balanced by the earthiness of the lentils and the green beans add crunch to the final dish. The always ideal combination of curry with parsnips rounded it out. The dressing is a bit of a faff to make - it takes about an hour - but it really makes the dish. It lasts indefinitely once made so you could always make it beforehand when you have more time and leave it in the fridge then this is blissfully simple to make.

Curried Parsnip, Bean and Lentil Salad

500g/17.5oz Parsnips, peeled and quartered lengthways
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 eggs
200g/7oz green beans
100g/4oz green lentils
Small bouquet garni - parsley, thyme, bay tied with string
1 tbsp shallot, finely chopped
100g/4oz salad leaves

For the dressing:

150ml/1/4pint vegetable oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbsp mild curry powder
1 tbsp coriander, finely chopped
1 tbsp mango chutney
Juice of 1 lime

To make the dressing put the oil, onion and garlic into a saucepan and cook over a gentle heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the curry powder and coriander and cook for five minutes. Tip the contents of the pan into a sturdy sieve and puush the oil through into a bowl with the back of a ladle. Discard the onion mixture. Leave oil to cool.

Put the mango chutney and lime juice into the bowl of a food processor. Season with salt and pepper and pulse until smooth. With the motor running, slowly add the oil in a steady stream - you are aiming for the consistency of single cream. Refrigerate until needed.

While the oil is infusing preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6. Put parsnips, oil and salt and pepper into a roasting pan and mix thoroughly. Roast for 30 minutes, turning them after 15, till the are golden.

For the lentils, put them into a small saucepan with the herbs and cover with water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 30 minutes till tender. Season with salt and pepper after 20 minutes. Drain and discard the bouquet garni.

For the green beans, simply blanch them for a minute in boiling water then refresh under cold water.

Like all warm salads, this should be assembled at the last minute. Poach the eggs and place the beans, lentils, chopped shallot and salad leaves into a salad bowl. When the eggs are ready, add the parsnips and a couple of tablespoons of the curried dressing to the other ingredients and toss lightly but thoroughly. Divide between two plates and drape a poached egg delicately on top.

With a slice of crusty bread this is a wonderfully satisfying supper.

Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb

I love rhubarb - the fabulous colour, the acidic sharpness of it, the way that it is equally good with yoghurt for breakfast or topped with crumble for supper. It is also a harbinger of spring. Borough Market has been selling the pale stalks of forced rhubarb for about a month and is now selling deep red bunches of outdoor raised plants. The thing about rhubarb is that it is not so much dependent on warmth as light to spring back to life. The sight of rhubarb at the market means the days are getting longer so even in a miserable spring like we are having in London this year, rhubarb supplies hope that sunny days are on their way. I've been buying it for a couple of weeks and having it for breakfast - it wakes up my mouth up with a zing and puts a little joy in my day.

Stewed Rhubarb

1kg/2.2lbs rhubarb stalks
200g/7oz caster sugar
1 tablspoon finely grated ginger

Chop the stalks into 1 inch lengths. Wash them then put into a pan with the sugar, ginger and about an inch of water in the bottom of the pan. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally and simmer gently for about 10 minutes till the rhubarb collapses. Check for sweetness - it may need a little more sugar.

But don't eat the leaves - they are poisonous!

Packed Lunches and Poached Chicken

I am poaching a chicken. Not boiling a fowl as the lovely boyfriend seems to suspect. There is no violent bubbling of scalding water or great hissings and billowings of steam. Rather the whole flat is slowly filling with the gentle aroma of coriander and parsley, celery and onion studded with clove as occasional great fat bubbles mar the surface and the bird slowly acquires a delicately scented flesh from the aromatics. After an hour or so I will have a moist chicken and a litre or so of well flavoured stock.

The chicken is a corn fed bird from France, decent eating as the French are serious about their poultry. Sadly, with the discovery of bird flu their sales have been badly hit, so it is possible at the moment to buy one of these chickens for £5. A bargain not to be sniffed at.

It is for packed lunches this week. Turns out my sweetheart became bored with the little on offer around his office and so stopped eating in the middle of the day. I asked occasionally what he'd had for lunch and was getting increasingly vague replies - including 'I forget' ! Hmmm. There is no joy in all the overprocessed, under flavoured gunge that is served up by sandwich bars - chains or independent. As an occasional stop gap it might just pass muster till the hunger pangs recede but as a daily ritual it is untenable. It's not as if it's even cheap. So he'd stopped eating lunch all together. Not good.

My solution is to make lunch for him and me to take with us most days, if not all. But I don't want to have to get out of bed half an hour earlier (or even 5 minutes earlier!) than I have to. So, if I poach a chicken on Sunday it only takes a few moments to put it into a tub with some crunchy sugar snap peas, baby plum tomatoes, and organic carrots from Total Organics because, after trying the carrots from all the different suppliers at Borough these are undoubtedly the carrotiest - sweet, crunchy and smelling great. This is good till Wednesday, then rather than have the meat dry out, the rest can be made into sandwiches and frozen. Thawed by lunchtime back to freshness. With a couple of biscuits and an apple from Kent orchards, this is a great lunch, especially at work. And cheaper than a nasty thing from Pret. Smells better too.


Poached Chicken

1 free range corn fed chicken
1 onion, unpeeled, chopped in half and studded with 2 cloves
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery sticks, roughly chopped
bouquet garni - thyme, parsley, coriander, celery leaves, bay leaf
12 coriander seeds
12 black peppercorns

Wash chicken thoroughly and place into a large stock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and cover with cold water. Bring to a simmer and skim off any scum or foam that rises to the surface. Simmer very gently, uncovered, for an hour. Allow to cool, remove the chicken from the liquid, cover and refrigerate till needed. Strain the stock and freeze for use another day.

Curried Lentil and Potato Soup

Some disasters are worse than others. I accidentally bought a new cookbook - really, it is possible. Browse randomly on amazon and you may not necessarily be invited to supply a password or other details before your vague curiosity is rewarded with a debit from your credit card and a book in the post. Lesson - always sign out of any site that holds your details before you shut down. Upon its arrival I decided that the book was probably okay (it was a cup half full kind of day) - I would simply prove that I was not intergalactically stupid by rustling up a few of the interesting sounding recipes and all would be well. Cunning plan, no?

No.

Lentil and sweet potato curry sounded promising. Fry off onions then make a paste with chilli, garlic and ginger with what seemed like a lot of lemon juice but hey it was in the recipe. It would probably evaporate to a proper flavour. Cooked that down till fragrant then added vegetables, lentils and a litre of stock. Very liquid looking but it had to simmer for a while. Covered. Hmm - probably at this point I should have been more nervous than I was but I was pretending disaster was impossible. Forty minutes later it was still pretty liquid looking but the vegetables were nearly cooked. Nothing for it but to keep it bubbling merrily for a while longer, uncovered -then serve it in bowls. At this point it was a long way from great. Watery consistency with a too sharp acidic back note from all the lemon juice but nice potato bits bobbing about and a good level of chilli heat with a long finish. Sprinkled with coriander it was still a very disappointing supper.

I wanted to throw it all away and pretend it never happened. My sweetheart, being cheese to my chalk, thought it could be rescued, and suggested making soup. I could see adding coconut milk might soften the flavour and reducing the lot to a rough liquid with the blender stick would sort out the texture. What a genius he is.

Supper next day was fabulous.

Curried lentil and potato soup

Spice Paste
6 large fresh green chillies, seeded and chopped
30ml lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons ginger, grated
1 cup fresh coriander, leaves, stalks and roots, chopped

Put all the ingredients into a processor and blend until well combined.

Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
1 litre/1.75 pints vegetable stock or water
500g/1.1lbs orange sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 3cm cubes
500g/1.1lbs waxy potatoes, unpeeled but chopped into 3cm cubes
200g/7oz dried green lentils, rinsed
1 teaspoon salt
400ml/14oz can coconut milk

Heat oil in a large saucepan and cook onions gently until softly translucent. Add the spice paste and fry for 3 or 4 minutes until aromatic. Add the remaining ingredients except the coconut milk and simmer for about 40 minutes till the potato and lentils are soft. Blend to the desired consistency, adding a little water or stock if it seems too thick. Stir in the coconut milk and warm through. Check seasoning - it may need a little more salt - then serve in large bowls topped with fresh coriander leaves.