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As the smell of wild garlic fills the woodlands of Britain, it’s time to leave all thoughts of winter behind us and embrace the new. This is a menu to celebrate March, with its tripping lambs and nodding daffs. Verdant shoots give vibrancy to the landscape, urban and rural, and hope is in the air. These recipes celebrate the arrival of fresh new flavours, while not being overly optimistic, with staples such as carrots and dried green peas acting as the backbone of the dishes such as rhubarb, that blushing harbinger of spring, which gives a decisive nod to better times in the charlotte pudding, along with delicately spiced ice-cream.
Carrots with wild garlic and olives
Disclaimer: this is an excellent recipe for good carrots, but not best suited to the flavourless, unwieldy roots that you can bung into a stock or soup base. If you have a local farmers’ market or your supermarket has the lovely looking carrots still with their tops, then it’s worth splashing out. Steaming rather than boiling them will slightly heighten their flavour and give them a better texture.
If you can’t find any wild garlic, add five cloves from a bulb at the start along with the carrots, and a small bunch of parsley at the end instead. Serves 4. Ready in 45 minutes
olives 60g, with a glug of their brine
carrots 400g, medium
wild garlic 1 bunch
sea salt a pinch
olive oil 2 tbsp
red wine vinegar 2-3 tbsp
black pepper
Remove the olive stones and set aside. Scrub the carrots and trim the tops.
Add the carrots to a wideish pan, barely cover with water and add a glug of the olive brine, a pinch of salt and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and cook, simmering, over a medium heat for 30 minutes or until yielding but not too soft. I have a glass lid which is really useful as I can see how they are coming along. The water will evaporate at some point. Before they begin to fry, test with the point of a knife to check how cooked they are.
Once done, add a good splash of water and the wild garlic and steam for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat.
While still warm, cut into chunks and dress with the wild garlic and any pan juices that remain, along with the vinegar, olive oil, olives and some black pepper. Set aside until ready to eat. The carrots improve from sitting for a while.
Pork tenderloin
A great cut of readily available meat that, when seasoned ahead and cooked just slightly pink, punches above its weight. Serves 3 (or 2 with leftovers for a sandwich the next day). Ready in 40 minutes, plus 24 hours to salt the pork
pork tenderloin 1, about 450g
juniper berries 4
fennel seeds 1 tsp
sea salt 1 tbsp
garlic 1 clove
olive oil
rosemary 2 sprigs
white wine 80ml
butter a knob
black pepper
The day before, trim off any silver skin from the fillet and cut it in half. Pound up the juniper and fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar, along with the salt, before adding the peeled garlic and mashing it in to combine. Rub the salt mixture all over the pork, then cover and leave in the fridge for 24 hours.
The next day, heat a couple of tbsp of oil in a trusty pan and over a medium-high heat. Sear the pork on all sides for a couple of minutes. Once golden all over, add the rosemary along with the wine and half a glass of water. Reduce the heat to medium, cover (I use a lid smaller than the frying pan so that it sits low, close to the meat) and cook for 5 minutes.
Turn the pork over and cook for another 4 minutes. Set aside to rest while you make the sauce. Turn the heat up and reduce the liquid to a couple of tbsp, then add the butter and swirl together for a reduced, silky sauce. Slice the pork, set it over the sauce and serve with a drizzle of oil and pepper to season.
Split peas and pancetta
We rely on dried pulses in the pantry throughout the year. One advantage of green split peas is that they don’t require soaking in advance so can be on the table in no time. Serves 4. Ready in 1 hour
white onion 1, small
split green peas 200g
pancetta 50g
garlic 2 cloves
olive oil 3 tbsp
fennel seeds 1 tsp
sage leaves 10
rosemary 1 small sprig
black pepper sea salt
Peel the onion and cut into 6 segments. Add to a smallish pot with the peas and cover with about 6cm of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until cooked.
Stir from time to time to release any peas that may become stuck to the bottom, adding a splash more water when necessary. The peas will probably drink quite a bit, but it’s better to add the water little by little to achieve the end result of cooked, thick peas.
The more the peas soften, the more careful you should be with the water, and the more you should stir. It’s lovely once they begin to mush and at this point, they will inevitably stick a bit to the bottom of the pan. The peas will take about 45 minutes to be fully cooked through. Once done, remove from the heat.
Cut the pancetta really small (in half again, should a pre-chopped packet be your source). Peel and halve the garlic cloves. Fry the garlic and pancetta pieces in 2 tbsp of olive oil over a medium-low heat. The pancetta will render most of its fat, making the pieces seem smaller still, which is what you want, and the garlic should turn golden brown.
Remove the garlic and discard, before adding fennel seeds and herbs. Fry for another minute until the herbs are crispy, then add the whole thing, with another tbsp or so of olive oil, to the peas. Incorporate well, adding a good grind of black pepper and salt to taste.
If you make this dish in advance, you will probably need to add a little water when reheating.
Rhubarb charlotte
A charlotte is a type of moulded bread pudding, which can be eaten either hot or cold. Here it’s served hot – and while you do not, of course, have to serve the charlotte with this ice-cream, and vice versa, they are great together. Serves 4. Ready in 50 minutes
rhubarb 500g
soft brown sugar 125g
butter 90g, plus a little for the basin
orange 1
dark rye bread 175g
honey 1 tbsp
The first thing to do is wash the rhubarb and cut it into 1cm slices. Toss it with the sugar and the zest of the orange and then set aside.
Heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6 and lightly butter a 20cm pudding basin.
Blitz the bread to fine crumbs in a food processor. In a pan, melt the butter over a medium heat. Allow the butter to foam and have the courage to allow it to slightly brown, for a nutty effect. Remove from the heat and after a minute or so add the honey and then, carefully, as the butter will still be very hot, the juice of half the orange. Finally, add the breadcrumbs and mix thoroughly.
Place a layer of rhubarb on the bottom of the basin and cover with a little of the crumbs. It does not have to be perfect. Cover with another few handfuls of rhubarb, then crumbs, and then again, and so on until everything is used in 4 layers, making the final layer breadcrumbs. Squash the bread down into the basin with the back of a spoon.
Cover with baking paper or foil and bake for 30 minutes, before removing the cover and baking for 10 minutes more to form a crust. Serve hot.
Cinnamon ice-cream
The no-churn ice-cream does have a slightly involved method – waiting for the egg whites to heat up is the worst bit – but it’s basically straightforward and very successful. Serves 4. Ready in 40 minutes, plus freezing time
cinnamon stick 1cm
soft brown sugar 80g
eggs 2, yolks and whites separated
vanilla pod ½
milk 30ml
double cream 75ml
Crush the cinnamon in a mortar and pestle with 1 tbsp of the sugar until completely smooth. Add to the egg yolks along with another 30g of the sugar and the scraped seeds from the vanilla pod.
Set over a pan of simmering water and whisk until pale. Whisk in the milk, all at once, and keep whisking for 5 minutes, until the mixture is much thicker. Keep an eye on it, being careful not to cook it so much that the eggs scramble.
After 5 minutes, remove the bowl and set aside to cool. Add the remaining sugar to the egg whites in another bowl and set this over the pan of water. You need to heat this to about 80C, which takes about 15-20 minutes over barely simmering water.
Once at temperature, remove the bowl and whisk – an electric hand whisk is preferable for this – for 5 minutes or so, until you have achieved a thick, smooth meringue.
In a third bowl, whisk the cream until very thick. Stir the cream into the yolk mixture until completely combined and then, more carefully, fold in the meringue.
Place the mixture into an airtight container and freeze for at least 5 hours before serving.
Joe Trivelli is co-executive head chef at the River Café, London
