April is here, and spring is well and truly in the air. Always a period of promise with some of the year’s finest ingredients - April and May, along with October and November, are the easiest times to design menus. Nature guides you pretty easily. From now on, asparagus spears will start to appear (more on this later), along with forests full of spicy wild garlic and morel mushrooms. Peas are emerging in pods, while spring lamb is at its best, the meat sweet and delicate with flavoursome fat.
Add some classic techniques and avoid waste and your dish is designed: a slow-roasted lamb rack served on the bone, just pink, with fresh peas and redcurrants, a spear of asparagus and morels stuffed with a mousse flavoured with the lamb’s kidneys and thyme. The wild garlic leaves are turned into a vibrant green oil, appearing on the plate as a warm mayonnaise packed with spicy spring kick. All of this drenched in a light sauce made from the lamb bones, finished with some roasted garlic and the rendered fat from the lamb rack and lightened with lemon zest and juice.
[ Gnocchi with slow-roasted lamb, crème fraîche and greensOpens in new window ]
With enough time we may even make a lamb fat bun stuffed with the slow-cooked lamb shoulder. Designed to mop up the sauce and juices from the plate. Simple. What better way to place Irish food and ingredients on the plate? This, I suppose, is an insight into how chefs’ creativity should be guided by ingredients and seasons.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to spend three days slaving in the kitchen to create a dish like that. Here, I like to deliver maximum flavour with minimum fuss. But this week I am going to be guided by two of the stalwarts of spring: asparagus and rhubarb.
The first dish is a simple puff pastry tart. An intense creamed mushroom duxelles acts as the base, gluing everything together. This is topped with juicy asparagus spears. As the tart bakes in the oven, the heat does all the work, puffing the pastry while melting down the mushrooms and keeping the asparagus just crisp enough to release natural sweetness without turning to mush. This is a perfect starter or seasonal lunch centrepiece, and ideal with a decent glass of vino.
The second dish is a little more reminiscent of the restaurant menu. Poached rhubarb and white chocolate mousse is simple in its elements, but there are some finer details. Take care to keep an eye on the rhubarb as it cooks – you want just enough bite without it being raw. Poaching it in blackcurrant cordial is a handy trick for colour. The custard base in the mousse will avoid the white chocolate splitting, which it has a tendency to do (it’s essentially just sweetened cocoa butter). This is an ideal dessert to prep in advance and assemble quickly when you’re ready to eat.
The colours speak for themselves – spring has arrived, exciting times ahead.
Recipe: Asparagus and mushroom tart fine
