Darina Allen: Enjoying an abundance of new-season produce 

Pic: iStock

How glorious is this time of the year? I seem to spend much of my time giving thanks for the blessing and joy of the new season’s produce. The thrill of being able to cut asparagus spears directly from the bed and pop them into a pot of salted water within minutes of picking. Add a drizzle of melted butter or a blob of three-minute Hollandaise sauce, and a sublime feast.

And then there are the fresh peas swelling in the pods and the joy of watching the grandchildren racing along the row tweaking the fattest ones off the vine. The endless excitement as they learn how to get the sweet, juicy peas out of the pods, rather than out of a plastic bag in the freezer and enjoy them raw.

We’ve also had the first of the broad beans, possibly my favourite vegetable of all. Once again, they must be super fresh to blow your mind. Freshness is important to flavour and nutrients in vegetables. This is where home gardeners score, plus one enjoys every bite even more when you understand how much time and TLC has gone into growing them.

Broad beans grow inside furry pods, so are even more appealing to extract. When they’re young, I love to eat them raw, dipped in extra-virgin olive oil, then a sprinkling of sea salt.

We’ve also been gorging ourselves on new season’s carrots. I love to nibble them, freshly pulled from the ground and the children love them raw too. It’s brilliant to see them feasting on fresh vegetables, preferring them raw when they might have turned their sniffy little noses up at a cooked version.

This year we planted a few rows of a cabbage variety called Caraflex in the greenhouses. They’ve got a pointy nose like ‘sweetheart’ or what we used to call ‘greyhound’ cabbage years ago. The flavour is wonderful, either raw or cooked.

Looks like we will have a glut of blackcurrants this year too. They won’t ripen until mid to late July but meanwhile, the leaves are incredibly aromatic, so we’ve been using them for blackcurrant lemonade and this irresistible blackcurrant leaf sorbet that makes a chic starter for a summer dinner party.

Here are a few of my favourite recipes to celebrate the bounty of the new season.

Chicken Breasts with Green Asparagus

recipe by:Darina Allen

Soaking the chicken breasts in milk gives them a tender and moist texture. We often serve this recipe with orzo, a pasta which looks like grains of rice sometimes called riso. Always worth having a packet in your pantry.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 1 hours 20 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 30 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts, free range if possible

• milk, optional

• 110g Irish asparagus in season

• salt and freshly ground pepper

• 15g butter

• 150ml homemade chicken stock

• 150ml cream

• roux (equal quantities of butter and flour – melt the butter and cook the flour for 2 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally)

• Garnish

• sprigs of chervil

• orzo, optional (see recipe)

Method

1. Soak the chicken breasts in milk, just enough to cover them for 1 hour approx.

2. To prepare and cook the asparagus.

3. Hold each spear of asparagus over your index finger down near the root end, it will snap at the point where it begins to get tough. Some people like to peel asparagus, but we rarely do. Cook in about 2.5cm of boiling salted water (1 tsp salt to every 600ml water) in an oval cast iron casserole. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes or until a knife tip will pierce the root end easily. Refresh in cold water, drain and cut into 2.5cm pieces at an angle.

4. Next, discard the milk, dry with chicken with kitchen paper and season with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a sauté pan until foaming, put in the chicken breasts and turn them in the butter (do not brown), and cover with a round of greaseproof paper and the lid. Cook on a gentle heat for 5-7 minutes or until just barely cooked.

5. When the chicken breasts are cooked remove to a plate. Add the chicken stock and cream to the saucepan. Bring to the boil, whisk in a little roux just enough to thicken the sauce slightly. When you are happy with the flavour and texture of the sauce, add the chicken breasts and asparagus back in. Simmer for a 1-2 minutes, taste and correct the seasoning. Serve immediately garnished with sprigs of fresh chervil and some freshly cooked orzo as an accompaniment.

6. Note: If the sauce is too thick add a little chicken stock to thin to a light coating consistency.

Blackcurrant Leaf Sorbet

recipe by:Darina Allen

Use only young blackcurrant leaves - when the bushes begin to flower, they lose their powerful blackcurrant flavour. We also use this recipe to make an elderflower sorbet, substituting 4 or 5 elderflower heads in full bloom

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 25 mins

Cooking Time

 3 mins

Total Time

 28 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 2 large handfuls of young blackcurrant leaves

• 600ml cold water

• 185g sugar

• juice of 3 lemons

• 1 egg white (optional)

Method

1. Crush the blackcurrant leaves tightly in your hand, put into a stainless steel saucepan with the cold water and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar, bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Add the juice of 3 freshly squeezed lemons.

2. Strain and freeze for 20-25 minutes in an ice cream maker or sorbetière. Serve in chilled glasses or chilled china bowls or on pretty plates lined with fresh blackcurrant leaves.

3. Note: If you do not have a sorbetière, simply freeze the sorbet in a dish in the freezer, when it is semi-frozen, whisk until smooth and return to the freezer again. Whisk again when almost frozen and fold in one stiffly beaten egg white. Keep in the freezer until needed.

4. If you have access to a food processor. Freeze the sorbet completely in a tray, then break up and whizz for a few seconds in the processor, add 1 slightly beaten egg white, whizz and freeze again. Serve.

Hot Tips

Not to be missed - David Asher is coming to Ballymaloe Cookery School (10th – 14th July 2023)

Join us and cheesemaker David Asher of The Black Sheep School of Cheesemaking for this comprehensive, five-day introduction to natural cheesemaking. David, a former farmer and goatherd from the west coast of Canada, is a natural cheesemaker and a leading advocate for raw milk cheesemaking. During this five-day course, he will cover many aspects of natural farmhouse cheesemaking, from culture propagation to rennet coagulation and affinage, the art of ageing cheese.

Students can expect to learn how simple traditional methods can lead to safe, effective, and delicious cheesemaking, using raw or pasteurised milk. David will explore how the philosophies of fermentation of natural wine, beer, sourdough and dairy are all interrelated. A great opportunity to learn from a world-renowned cheesemaking teacher.

• For more information, see cookingisfun.ie

Cork on a Fork Fest (16th – 20th August 2023)

Cork on a Fork Fest, Cork City’s new food festival, will take place from 16-20 August.

Taste your way through Cork City with food trails, cookery demonstrations, tasting masterclasses, a live stage, events, talks, demos and family fun, plus collaborations with producers from the Cork region and The English Market. John and Sally McKenna, Joe McNamee and Kate Ryan from Flavour.ie will also be hosting talks.

For more information, see corkcity.ie/en/cork-on-a-fork-fest/

Food from the Wild – Elderflowers

Elderflowers are in full bloom at present so harvest them to make elderflower syrup, lemonade, cordial, ice cream, sorbet. See next week’s column for recipes.