Seasonal foods: March

Many of winter's root veg are on their way out, being replaced by greens, purple-sprouting broccoli, wild garlic and the star of the month, leeks. Plus: two leek recipes. By Elaine Lemm

Make 2012 a leek year

Phew. At last we are creeping towards spring and the larder door is slowly creaking open to reveal brighter and lighter foods. It is not quite time to put the stew pan away just yet, as you will have to wait until later in the month for some of the gems in the March crown. But before we get to those beauties, there?s still some good stuff not to be sniffed at.

One of those is the leek. The leek may be coming to the end of its season in April, but as 1 March is St David?s Day in Wales and this vegetable is its emblem, the humble leek gets to be the star for one day at least.

For me, though, the leek is not given enough credit for the sterling work it does in the kitchen. You can add it to almost any savoury dish to enhance the flavour; use it as a support alongside carrots to pad out a stew, soup or stock; and make the most of its bold, onion-like flavour as the main ingredient in a wealth of different dishes. And did I mention they are also cheap to buy? What a star.

Meanwhile, a lot of the roots that we have been munching on through the winter are now getting past their best, to be replaced by above-ground greens. The particular veg flaunting its spring coming is purple sprouting broccoli.

I am not regular broccoli?s biggest fan ? despite knowing all the health benefits, blah, bah ? as frankly, I find it boring, overused and rarely cooked properly. However, purple sprouting broccoli is another beast altogether.

While the florets of the regular type are all tight and buttoned up, the purple stuff is slightly unruly and wild and can be eaten stalks and all, though you may have to split the stem in two if it?s particularly thick.

PSB comes with impressive credentials, being rich in vitamin C and a useful source of carotenoids, iron, folic acid, calcium, fibre and vitamin A. It also plays very nicely alongside practically all meat and fish and is delicious enough to eat on its own, slathered in hollandaise sauce and flashed under a grill.

Wild garlic

Fancy being a little more adventurous? If the longer days and weak sunshine later in March can tempt you outdoors, then take a walk in the woods. Sniff around under trees, hedgerows or anywhere a little damp and you should smell, not truffles, but the distinctive aroma of wild garlic, which is just coming into season.

Ramsons, as wild garlic is also known, can usually be smelt from quite a distance and surprisingly, despite the aroma, has a lovely soft taste. Unlike its namesake, wild garlic is treasured for the leaves, which can be eaten raw or cooked.

Add it raw to such bland foods as cream or cottage cheese, or to a salad, or use in a mayonnaise for a background hint of garlic. Cooked, my best tip is to add its lightly steamed and finely chopped leaves to mashed potato, served with roast leg of lamb or other meat.

The bulbs can be used in a similar way to garlic cloves, but the flavour is less pronounced. Though the wild garlic isn?t quite in flower yet, when it is, the flowers are delicious and the flavour intensifies as the seeds ripen.

March is also good for spring greens, early lamb, sardines and native oysters. And you may find the first Jersey Royals at the back end of the month (though you will require a small mortgage to buy them).

Recipes for Leek and Goat?s Cheese Rarebit and Leek, and Red Pepper and Cashew Nut Lasagna

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Elaine trained as a chef at the Ritz-Escoffier Ecole de Gastronomie in Paris, set up an international cookery school, and ran her own restaurant in Yorkshire. She was food and wine editor at Yorkshire Life Magazine, has written for Waitrose Food Illustrated and Olive, initiated the annual Food and Wine awards, chairs the Regional Food Awards and is editor of the New York Times? About British Food website. She has written two books, The Great Book of Yorkshire Pudding and The Great Book of Rhubarb, and is a member of the Guild of Food Writers.

Source: http://www.high50.com/archives/food-and-drink/seasonal-foods-march?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=seasonal-foods-march

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