P
Dorset
L E N T Y
From Farm to Fork
Five seasonal ingredients you should be eating this month
1
Cucumber
2
Fennel
3
Peppers
4
Raspberries
5
Blueberries
10
Cucumber is all too often used as a dipping vessel for humous or in an afternoon tea
sandwich, but other cuisines have more exciting uses for the watery cucurbit. They’re
an essential ingredient in the punchy Middle-Eastern fattoush salad, in Thailand they’re
dressed with lime juice and fish sauce, while Indians mix grated cucumber with mint and
yoghurt to make a cooling raita. Cucumber also adds a refreshing crunch to a Greek Salad
and is the star in the vegetarian sushi Kappa Maki. And if you are going to have them in a
sandwich, at least make it more memorable with the addition of some smoked fish.
From the bulb to the green fronds, you can use almost every part of this mildly aniseedy
member of the carrot family in your cooking. You’ll need to slice the bottom off the bulb
and discard the shoots and little root in the middle before you start. Then you can slice or
finely chop the bulb for a crunchy, flavoursome addition to salads or slaws. Cooking lessens
the aniseed flavour a little, but it still holds its own in a fennel and lemon risotto or fennel
and rocket pasta dish Fennel goes really well with fish, and you can use the herby fronds to
stuff cavities before baking in the oven.
In America, they’re known as bell peppers, Australians call them capsicums, but rather
confusingly we just call them peppers. Despite sharing a name with the spicy peppercorn,
peppers are the only capsicums that doesn’t produce the capsaicin compound which makes
chilli peppers hot, but that means you can use them to add a pleasant, sweet crunch to salad.
However, they’re far better roasted or grilled, their skins wrinkling and the edges charring
with the heat. Stuff halved peppers with halloumi and couscous, or you can serve them with
rice in a paella, a jambalaya or a jalfrezi curry.
Surely no berry is as mouth-poppable as the raspberry – small, soft and delicate, they deliver
such an intense sweet and sour flavour when the juice bursts between your teeth that its
hard to save them for a recipe. If you do manage to get them back to the kitchen, they’re
wonderful in trifles, fools, cheesecakes and they make the best mess with meringues and
cream. They’re also the headline act in a tart summer pudding, their juices soaking into the
bread as they mingle with red and blackcurrants. If you have a glut, you can make a jam or
even freeze them to preserve their flavour.
Given that blueberries are used in classic dishes such as pancakes, muffins and cobblers, it
probably won’t surprise you that this superfruit is native to North America. However, they
grow well in colder climates and since being introduced to Northern Europe in the 1930s,
we have started growing our own (The Dorset Blueberry Company began in the 1950s) and
enjoying their sweet, juicy goodness. There really is plenty of goodness in a blueberry, too –
scientists have recently put them at the top of the antioxidant league.
www.menu-dorset.co.uk