Book Review: British Seasonal Food by Mark Hix

January 20th, 2011 by Penny Golightly

This book is something really special from Mark Hix, the clever restaurateur and ingredients expert behind Le Caprice, The Ivy, J. Sheekey, Hix Oyster & Chop House and HIX. It’s the slightly more affordable paperback version of the epic hardback he had published in 2008.

What do you need to know about it? Well, for starters, it’s gorgeous. Beautifully laid out, full of appealing photography and quirky illustrations, and clearly brimming with enthusiasm for the best of our British ingredients. It would make a great gift, or you could treat yourself if you’re hankering after some inspiration.

The bottom line with Hix’s cooking is flavour and quality, but bargain hunters will also like many of his thrifty, and often sustainable, ideas. There’s a lot of information here about foraging food for free, and getting the full use out of meat, fish and vegetables to minimise waste. I also like his comments about when it’s worth paying more for certain ingredients and when it definitely isn’t.

It isn’t too gardening-focused, but home-growing fans will find all kinds of passing information about different kinds of fruit, herbs and veg to inspire their kitchen garden planning. It includes mentions of the main cropping seasons, but there isn’t much about planting or good things for small gardens.

One of the most useful features of British Seasonal Food is that each of the monthly chapters focuses on a tiny handful of ingredients that are at their best. There are several recipes based around each ingredient, ranging from the very simple to the showy, which shows you how to use up plentiful supplies and make the most of a glut. This includes preserves, and soups and other meals that can be frozen.

Unusually, I can’t find anything to be particularly critical about. So, to sum up: an elegant, engaging book full of handy information and enticing recipes.

The paperback edition of British Seasonal Food by Mark Hix is available from the 4th of March 2011, published by Quadrille, with an RRP of £14.99. It’s currently available to pre-order from Amazon for £9.74, including free delivery.

Seasonal foods in July 2010

July 2nd, 2010 by Penny Golightly

All I want to do this week is eat salads and sorbet, but there’s so much else going on if the heat hasn’t got to your appetite yet. Here’s my seasonal foods round-up for this month:

Fruit: bilberries, blueberries, cherries, currants (black, red and white), elderflowers, gooseberries, loganberries, raspberries, strawberries and wild strawberries. Possibly also some last sticks of summer rhubarb. Imported apricots, figs, melons, nectarines, pinapples, watermelon.

Box of rocket

Vegetables: aubergines, basil, baby turnips, baby beetroot, broad beans (finishing soon), broccoli (summer calabrese), celery, chard (baby leaf for salads), chives, coriander, courgettes and courgette flowers, cucumbers, dill, fennel, fresh garlic, globe artichokes, green beans, horseradish, kohlrabi, lamb’s lettuce, lettuce, mint, new potatoes, parsley, peas, peppers, radishes, rocket, samphire, sorrel, spinach, spring onions, summer cabbage, summer squash, tomatoes, watercress. Technically the asparagus season ended last week at the summer solstice, but you may find a few last spears of the British good stuff if you look.

Fish and shellfish: black bream, brown crab (hen), brown and rainbow trout, cuttlefish, early plaice and sole, herring, lobster, mackerel, Mediterranean sardines, prawns, pike, pilchards, pollack, scallops, Scottish squid, sea bass, sea trout, shrimps, signal crayfish, spider crab, young salmon (grilse). Some say this is the peak time for crab, lobster, mackerel, prawns and shrimps.

Meat, poultry and game: Not a special month for any particular meat or game.

Cheeses: Stinking Bishop, British goats’ cheese. Crottin de Chavignol, Saint Remy, Tomme Vaudoise, Valencay. Buffalo mozzarella.

The windowsill garden got somewhat too big for its boots and some of it had to be moved outdoors and into bigger pots. In the last couple of days we’ve had home grown cherry tomatoes, baby leaf spinach and chard, early peas, broad beans, cucumber, courgette, mixed baby leaf lettuce, spring onions, radishes, parsley, coriander, spicy purple basil, and broccoli leaves (eaten as cabbage). I’m getting the hang of cut and come again and sequential sowing now, so hopefully we’ll have a fresh meal for two people out of the garden on most days for the rest of the summer. Not bad for a back yard with no top soil, and a slightly lazy gardener!

We’ve mostly been having salads, or huge helpings of veg with our dinners, but Beau’s also cooked up some lovely fruity puddings as well with bought fruit.

Have you been growing your own fruit or veggies? How’s it going? Even if you haven’t been gardening, you can still have a little trip to the market at the weekend. What are you going to cook?

Seasonal foods in April

April 2nd, 2010 by Penny Golightly

I love seasonal foods: they’re fresher, they’re tastier and they’re usually cheaper too. Here’s what’s good at the market (or in the back garden or allotment) in April:

Fruit: early strawberries, rhubarb, last apples and pears from store. Imported Alphonso mangoes towards the end of the month.

Vegetables: asian greens, cabbage (green), chervil, chicory, chives, cucumbers, early asparagus, early Jersey Royal potatoes, lettuce and other salad leaves, morel mushrooms, nettles, purple sprouting broccoli, radishes, sea kale, sorrel, spring greens, spring onions, watercress, wild garlic.

Fish and shellfish: brown crab, brown shrimp, cockles, john dory, langoustine, lobster, red mullet, pollack, prawns, native oysters, sea bass, sea trout, wild salmon.

Meat, poultry and game: Spring lamb, Welsh lamb.

Cheeses: early British fresh-flavoured goats cheese, ewe’s milk cheeses.

Can’t wait for the first Jersey Royals. I’m also looking forward to buying a crate of mangoes and having them for breakfast, for dessert (try them sliced into a rice pudding with a couple of green cardamom pods), in salads, in smoothies and just maybe in a cocktail or two with some lime and coconut. Mmmmm.

What are you going to cook?

Seasonal foods in February

February 22nd, 2010 by Penny Golightly

Here’s the shortish list of UK foods that are in season during February, plus a few special imports. As ever, if there’s a glut of anything then you should be able to haggle a bit and buy it cheaper at the market. Failing that, it might turn up in the supermarkets’ special offers sections.

So, without further ado, here’s what’s best (and mostly local) in February. I’ll be picking up my wicker shopping basket and wandering out to purchase some of the following…

Fruit: apples from store, early forced rhubarb.

Vegetables: Asian greens, cabbage (white and green), celeriac, chicory, endive, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, leeks, parsnips, salsify and scorzonera, spring onions, the last sprouts and sprout tops, swedes, turnips.

Fish and shellfish: brown crab, clams, cockles, cod, dab, hake, halibut, lemon sole and other flat fish (plaice, sole), mackerel, mussels, rock oyster, scallops, wild salmon.

Meat, poultry and game:  hare.

Cheeses: Blue Cheshire, Cotherstone, Farmhouse Cheddar, Stilton, Blue Wensleydale. Bleu des Causses, Brie de Meaux, Tomme Arlesienne.

This week’s menu at Bistro Golightly will probably include chilli crab cakes with stir-fried greens, a leek and blue cheese bake, and some kind of casserole with kale on the side.

What are you going to cook?

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