Spring Review

So, we've just made our 'Spring' deadline - we completed the last of the spring recipes on the longest day of the year (21st June) and whilst this can sometimes be classed as Summer we have stuck to our guns on the deadlines; we'll call the changeover the 22nd of each 3 months!

So it's been quite an exciting time in our kitchen. I definitely started off very excited and looking forward to all of the recipes we were about to cook. My positive attitude did sometimes wane, as the least appealing dishes loomed ever closer! Also, as we've been nearing the end of the season I have been browsing the next section of recipes for Summer.  These look incredibly appealing and as such, I almost lost interest in the last few recipes we had to cook.

There have however, been some absolute revelations along the way.  Some things that we have worried about and then thoroughly enjoyed, some things we were eager to try but didn't taste that good and even some difficulty sourcing ingredients.

Here is a rundown of the ups and downs...

Tricky Bits:

James Martin uses Bibb Lettuce and Frisee lettuce - I had never heard of Bibb, and I could only find Frisee in mixed bags.  I searched and searched and unfortunately, ended up getting what I felt was the closest!  

Going to the Supermarket for Mackerel, I was told that it was not in season. I asked what the season was and was told it was all year apart from the months I needed it! We had to buy fillets rather than whole mackerel in the end which did act as a suitable substitute but I was a bit confused as the whole point of us cooking this book was to be in line with the seasons! (It does raise questions as to why the shops had fillets and not whole fish though...)

Elderflowers are renowned for having a short season - we managed to source some and do all of the elderflower recipes in one sweep - you'll notice that all of those recipes feature in my top 5!

Timings were (as is often the case) a little shy of what our kitchen can do! I expect all chefs have the best gas hobs and top range ovens that can cook things very quickly but alas we do not! We did get caught out with this a few times - for example the rolled rack of lamb for the lamb, mint & little gem salad.  It was very nice, but extremely rare!

There were some general store cupboard malfunctions (or memory malfunctions?) a few times - for example, in one recipe we substituted hazlenuts for almonds as we had run out of stock of hazlenuts! I suppose this is bound to happen, but I thought I should mention it just in case anyone can spot that we've swapped something around in the photos.

Gluten free substitutes weren't really a problem this season - hoorah! The Dill Marinated Salmon was served with one of my standard homemade gluten free loaves - and very nice it was too! We also searched everywhere for a gluten free victoria sponge as we were low on time to do the baked alaska.  Apparently shops do not sell these so I had to quickly whip up a sponge, which worked very well in the end.

The Scotch Eggs did not go to plan.  We're actually seasoned scotch egg makers but we use a different recipe and unfortunately, following these instructions just didn't work this time.  It was a complete disaster really, as the eggs managed to seep out of the sausage meat casing, and once that has happened it's a write off in terms of keeping the egg from drying out.

Things we learnt:

We do not enjoy livers.  At all.  (I feared this from the start, but Andrew did not enjoy them either)
Gremolata is just butter basically - but very yummy with lemon and pistachio added for flavour on top of pancakes!
Broad beans taste very nice when cooked in a good recipe.
Baked Alaska is actually super fun to make and not too tricky.  Two pairs of hands definitely advisable as you have to be very on it.  I got really psyched about this one because I thought it would be a complete disaster (think Great British Bake Off 2014), but because we were so careful it was a great success!
How to segment a lemon - very handy for the halibut recipe.

Top 5

To do a round up - these were our favourite recipes! Hopefully some of these will make it in to our usual repertoire as they were a joy to eat (and cook!)

Andrew's Favourites -

Grilled Halibut with Champ & Lemon Caper Butter
Wok Fried Chicken with Ginger, Chilli & Garlic
Baked Alaska with Elderflower Meringue
Lamb, Mint & Little Gem Salad
Juniper-Pickled Cucumbers

Rachel's Favourites -

Dill Marinated Salmon with Rhubarb & Lime
Elderflower Fritters with Maple Syrup
Baked Alaska with Elderflower Meringue
Wok Fried Chicken with Ginger, Chilli & Garlic
Elderflower & Lemon Cordial

**And of course there are recipes that were still lovely to eat, but didn't quite make it in to the top few...

Now onto the Summer recipes!