Rhubarb Fool

1:03pm today

RHUBARB is one of those plants that suffers from an identity crisis. Is it a fruit or a vegetable? Some experts are still out on that one. Today's Michelin-starred chefs solve the problem by using it to flavour savoury dishes as well as puddings.

	Pasta and bolognese sauce
	8:55am Thu 15 May 08
	I AM trying to aid my mother's recovery from a long illness by feeding her up, which involves creating meals stuffed with as much goodness as possible that are both tasty and easy to eat. Pasta has proved a real favourite, especially when I serve it with a bolognese sauce which calls for lots of fresh vegetables, garlic and herbs. She finds this dish easy to digest and particularly flavoursome. I use spirals or shell shapes for the pasta as the spaghetti proves difficult to pick up. To make things easy for myself I cook enough for four people, give her one fresh and then freeze the rest in individual servings that can be microwaved later.

Salmon and asparagus with Hollandaise sauce

8:04am Thursday 8th May 2008

I SHARED a bunch of freshly picked asparagus from Q Gardens, Milton Hill, with a friend recently and we enjoyed it with salmon fillets and a lemon Hollandaise sauce.

	King prawn and asparagus stir fry
	7:48am Thu 1 May 08
	I CREATED this dish from a few early spears of asparagus which appeared in a friend's garden. She had suggested we cooked them for lunch, but as there were not enough spears to serve alone as a starter dish, I decided to concoct a stir fry which would make the most of what we'd got. It really was a matter of opening the larder doors and pulling out ingredients I believed would go together. It was great fun, but we didn't measure anything, we simply threw in a handful of this and a handful of that. So, on acquiring more asparagus from a farmer friend, I cooked the dish again, measuring all the ingredients as I went so that I could write it up.

Asparagus

2:09pm Friday 18th April 2008

I MAKE no apology for highlighting the joys of freshly harvested British asparagus once more. How can one ignore such a vegetable? Impossible. Particularly as its season is only six weeks long. Asparagus is one of those vegetables that grows particularly well in Oxfordshire, which may account for the many pick-your-owns and local farm shops which will be selling it any day now. Although imported asparagus is available virtually all the year round now, nothing beats the taste of freshly harvested local asparagus eaten the day it is picked. True asparagus aficionados may like to know that there is now a British Asparagus Festival. It takes place in at the Fleece Inn, found in the tiny village of Bretforton, near Evesham, from Saturday, May 24, to Monday, May 26 (Bank Holiday Monday), when there will be cookery demonstrations by Rachel Green, a craft fair, a farmers' market and a tutored asparagus tasting. For more details of the event, go to: www.british-asparagus.co.uk/asparagus_festival.php Asparagus is high in vitamins B6 and C, plus fibre, folate and glutathione which is an anti-carcinogen and antioxidant, which makes asparagus an excellent nutritional choice.

	Pork fillet with rhubarb
	2:49pm Fri 11 Apr 08
	LOOK up rhubarb in any gardening book and you will usually find it classified as a vegetable, yet it's normally cooked as a fruit and served as a pudding. Because it's so tart, it goes particularly well with meats, such as pork or duck, which call for a sharp sauce to bring out the flavour. With this recipe, I've decided to use it as a vegetable and serve it with a pan-fried pork fillet. This long thin cylindrical cut which is usually about 6-8 cm in diameter is considered the most prized cut of pork and, as a consequence, it isn't cheap. However, it's both tender and delicious.

	Pork and apple pie
	8:00am Thu 10 Apr 08
	WHEN the pig farmers presented a 10,000-signature petition to No 10 Downing Street earlier this month, it was Winnie, an Oxfordshire pig from Vitality Farm, Wallingford, who joined the campaigning farmers.

	Fruit, nut and honey loaf
	8:00am Thu 3 Apr 08
	I USUALLY use strong white bread flour for my fruit, nut and honey loaf. When I discovered there was none left in the larder, I decided to go ahead anyway using Matthews Cotswold Crunch mix - and am so glad I did. This flour is a delightful blend of Cotswold flour, malted grains and wheat flakes, milled at Shipton-under-Wychwood. which does what it says on the bag - it comes with a crunch. It proved, therefore, an idea flour with which to make a loaf containing fruit and nuts.

	Leek and potato filo savouries with cheese sauce and lentils
	2:48pm Sun 23 Mar 08
	I LOVE working with filo pastry. It's the only pastry I'd recommend you buy ready-made. To create it yourself and roll it thin enough to handle is extremely difficult. Even professional chefs buy in their filo pastry. Handling it is easy providing you remember to keep pastry you are not working covered with a cloth to prevent it drying out. This recipe, which should make at least eight savouries, can served as a snack or starter dish.

Eggs for Easter

9:00am Thursday 20th March 2008

CHOCOLATE eggs of all sizes fill the shop shelves at the moment - but don't forget that you can celebrate Easter with hens' eggs too.

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