Hungry Gap Cooking

Ask anyone who tries to live mainly on what's home-grown or local and seasonally available and they will tell you that April and even early May can provide enormous challenges. This is especially true if you're in your first growing season or have yet to master the art of laying in long-term stores. For more on this art check out Rhonda's wonderful blog ‘Down to Earth', or some recent posts on the Throwback at Trapper Creek blog - one's Australian and the other's American but the principles apply wherever you are and are well worth thinking about as you plan ahead for the growing and cooking year.

By the beginning of April we're usually left with kale and the odd leek in the ground plus a few salad leaves on the windowsills; other than that we rely on what we've popped in the freezer, dried or preserved in other ways. These get supplemented by the first of the new potatoes once they start appearing in the shops as ours won't be ready until late May or early June. So for this month kale provides the main ingredient for our first dish.

Crispy kale

This is great as an accompaniment to pies, pasties or, I'm told, bacon. Alternatively if you add in a few boiled new potatoes and a bit of crumbly white cheese it makes a lovely spring lunch or light supper.

Ingredients

(all measurements are approximate)

• 1 good handful of kale per person - washed thoroughly and chopped fairly thinly. Pat dry and leave to drain as too much moisture will make the dish soggy.
• 1-2 cloves garlic - sliced or crushed as you prefer. How many will depend just how strong you like your garlic.
• 1oz/25g nuts per person - we like roughly chopped almonds or hazelnuts but for a special treat pine nuts can't be beaten.
• 1 tbsp oil - for frying
• Cooked potato and cheese if wished

In a large fry pan or wok heat the oil. Add the garlic and quickly stir, add in the chopped kale and stir - it'll start to go crispy quite quickly so have your choice of nuts (and cooked potato if using) to hand. As soon as the kale starts to go crispy, add the nuts plus the potatoes and cheese if you are using them, stir for few minutes to heat the potatoes through and then serve quickly whilst still hot. This works just as well with broccoli spears or spring greens.

Asparagus

As May progresses the wonders of the UK asparagus season begin - short it may be but well worth the wait as it tastes so much better than the imported stuff that's flown half way round the world wrapped in plastic. Now there are lots of recipes around but in my opinion simple is best! Freshly cut, lightly boiled or steamed then served hot with a knob of butter and a good grinding of black pepper. Serve with slices of brown bread for a real lunchtime treat.

Now if April and May savouries provide a bit of a challenge, fresh fruit is definitely a bit thin on the ground in our house so here we rely on frozen or bottled apples or berries supplemented by a few servings of rhubarb to provide our puddings. If we get our act together in March we might even have some fresh strawberries in the little greenhouse by the end of May but to be honest they are more likely to be a June treat. To ring the changes we vary between traditional crumble, pies or my personal favourite - sponge topped fruit. So for a tasty pudding using whatever cooked fruit you have or even a pot of jam why not try this one?

Fruity sponge pudding

I usually use my 2-pint Pyrex casserole dish (pictured) for this but any deep ovenproof container will be fine.

Ingredients

• 1lb/450g cooled cooked fruit or jar of jam
• 6oz/150g sugar
• 6oz/150g butter or margarine, softened
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 6oz/150g self raising flour, sieved

Place the cooled cooked fruit or jar of jam into the base of the dish. In a mixing bowl cream together the sugar and butter or margarine until fluffy. Add the eggs and then the flour to make a traditional cake batter.

Spoon the batter on top of the cooked fruit leaving about ½ inch gap to allow for rising. (Spoon any leftover cake batter into fairy cake papers and bake for 10 minutes or so for a tea-time treat!)

Bake the pudding in a medium hot oven Gas 4 for about 30 minutes until the sponge is golden brown and springy to the touch. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or custard.

Tanya

Top and bottom photos (c) Tanya Butchers 2010

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