salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
150g sour cream
handful of edible flowers (chive, wild garlic or nasturtium work well) (optional)
1 First, cook the asparagus. Bring the water to the boil in a saucepan. Add the asparagus and cook for 3–5 minutes, or until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to cool slightly. Reserve the water in the pan. Cut away 2cm of the bottom of each spear, very thinly slice and set aside in a bowl – this will go into the croquettes. Place the remaining tips in a separate small bowl and toss with a little of the lemon juice and olive oil for the salad.
2 For the croquettes, bring the asparagus water back up to the boil and add the peas. Cook for 1 minute, then add the lovage. Cook for 30 seconds. Take out 50g of the peas with a slotted spoon, leaving the rest in the pan of cooking water. Put the reserved peas in the bowl with the sliced asparagus set aside for the croquettes. Pour the pan contents – the peas, lovage and cooking water – into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth green liquid – you’re going to use this for the bechamel.
3 Heat a non-stick frying pan or skillet over a medium heat. Melt the butter in the pan with the crushed pink peppercorns. Gradually stir in 60g of the flour and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened and is smelling nutty. Reduce the heat slightly, add the wine and blitzed pea mixture and cook, stirring, for 5–6 minutes, or until you have a thickened, smooth sauce.
4 Stir in the cheeses, lemon zest, sliced asparagus and reserved peas, stirring until the cheeses have melted in nicely. Season well with salt. Pour onto a plate or tray, allow to cool and cover with cling film. Put it in the fridge to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours (you could leave it overnight), until well set.
5 Once the mixture is set, grab it out of the fridge. It’s time to ‘crumb’ (or, as the French call it, ‘pané’) and because this is quite a chunky, veg-packed mix, you need to give the croquettes a double coating. Gather two plates, a bowl and a flat tray covered with greaseproof paper. Place the remaining flour on one plate, the breadcrumbs on the other, and crack the eggs into the bowl. Lightly beat them, then, using oiled hands so that they don’t stick to the mixture, pinch off about a ping-pong-ball-sized lump of mix, roll to form it into a croquette or cylindrical shape. Repeat with all the mixture to make 10–15 croquettes, placing them on the greaseproof paper. Chill for 15 minutes. Then, using one hand and keeping the other clean for handling the rest of the mix, dip each croquette in the flour, tossing all over to coat, followed by the egg and breadcrumbs to coat completely. Repeat the process with the rest of the croquettes, until they are all coated, then repeat once more with each one and chill them all in the fridge for 10 minutes.
6 Heat the vegetable oil in a high-sided frying pan over a high heat until it’s shimmering. Place a plate lined with kitchen paper next to the hob and shallow-fry the croquettes in batches for 3–5 minutes, turning them to produce an even golden crumb, until crisp. Drain on the kitchen paper and season with salt.
7 For the salad, place the seasonal leaves, lovage and pea shoots in a salad bowl. Add the reserved asparagus spears, spring onions and lemon juice or elderflower vinegar, drizzle with a little extra oil, season with salt and pepper and toss together lightly to combine.
8 Spread the sour cream on four plates and top with the croquettes. Pile on some salad and garnish with the edible flowers.
Wild garlic/harissa cheese straws
Makes 12–15 cheese straws
Yes, there are plenty of very good shop-bought cheese straws out there, but I wouldn’t be encouraging you to make these unless I thought they were worth it. Your guests will be in awe when you breezily tell them that the cheese straws are ‘homemade, darling’, and some inevitably crumble in the oven, making for bonus chef’s-perk nibbles. Once you get the hang of this method, the chances are you’ll be busting these out at every given opportunity and trying to feed them to everyone you know. I’ve included seasonal tweaks – wild garlic pesto for spring, and spicy harissa for the rest of the time. You’re welcome.
225g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
large pinch of cayenne or red chilli powder
½ tsp sea salt
nutmeg, for grating
150g cold unsalted butter, cut into small dice
1 tsp Dijon or English mustard
100g Cheddar, Gruyère or Comte, finely grated
1–3 tbsp iced water
2 tsp Wild Garlic Pesto (see here) or rose harissa (I like the Belazu one)
1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk
1 Sift the flour, cayenne or chilli powder and salt into a bowl and grate over some nutmeg, then stir. Add the butter and lightly rub it into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse breadcrumbs – it’s okay if there are a few smooth flakes of butter in there. Stir through the mustard and half the cheese, then sprinkle over a tablespoon of the iced water, bringing the mixture together with your hands, squeezing until you have a smooth dough. Add a little more water if needed. Roll it around the bowl to pick up any stray crumbs or scraggy bits – you can dampen your fingers to help with this if you need to. Mould it into a ball and flatten to a disc, wrap it in greaseproof paper and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 and line a couple of baking trays with baking parchment.
3 Unwrap the chilled pastry and roll it out on a surface lightly dusted with flour to a large rectangle just a little longer than the length of this cookbook and about 5mm thick. Fold it in half like a book, rotate it by 90 degrees and fold it in half again, then roll it out once more to a large rectangle, just bigger than the size of this book. Spread the pesto or harissa all over the pastry, then cover with the remaining cheese. Fold the pastry in half like a book again, so the filling is contained (don’t worry if some escapes out the sides), and carefully roll it out lengthways to a rectangle about the size of this book, or 15 × 22cm. Place on a baking tray, trim the ragged edges with a sharp knife, brush with egg wash and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes, or until firm.
4 Cut the chilled pastry into strips – I think 13–15cm long and 1–1.5cm wide is just perfect. Either bake them as they are, or, if you’re feeling a bit swish, very gingerly pinch the ends and twist them ever so slightly to reveal the filling and underside of the pastry. Brush any exposed pastry that wasn’t coated in egg wash, place the straws on the lined baking trays and bake for 12–15 minutes, or until golden and oozy. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then serve still warm, or at room temperature.
TIP: the pastry can be a little delicate to work with, but it’s easy to patch up, and if they crack a bit once you’ve shaped them, a little extra grated cheese on top before you bake them can cover a multitude of sins. Remember, the beauty of making cheese straws yourself is that they should be perfectly imperfect.
My go-to dips
When I was a kid, it was my job to hand round dips at my parents’ dinner parties and I guess I’ve never grown out of it. Dips are an ideal way to start a meal because they can be made ahead, are communal and a great vehicle for lovely crunchy raw vegetables or the homemade spiced crackers (see here).
Roast squash and Parmesan ‘queso’
Serves 4–6
This dip is based on the creamy, cheesy Tex Mex dip ‘queso’, which is usually made with shedloads of orange American cheese. Here, I make it with roasted butternut squash