El Kemp

Magnificent mango season 🥭

A couple of weeks of sunny ice cream weather & a couple of new favourite flavours 🍨 Toasted coconut with salty sweet peanuts & coconut. Made a vanilla custard ice cream base & infused it with toasted coconut overnight before straining and churning, delicious. Could eat that peanut coconut topping on just about anything. Espresso & dark chocolate sorbet, made with a splash of tequila for a really smooth silky finish. Would like a scoop of both please.

Charred, tossed in melted butter, black pepper, topped with a blizzard of Parmesan. Only my second helping of asparagus spears so far this season, definitely worth the wait (& avoiding those supermarket packs sold all year round & grown far away). This is the good stuff.

Lasagne primavera for the second time in a week. I might be on my own here but I much prefer a lasagne the next day. Yes, it’s less saucey but i always think it tastes so much better. You could replace the wild garlic in the béchamel sauce with more spinach & a garlic clove. I’ve used frozen peas but fresh when they are in season would be excellent.   2 tbsp olive oil 2 onions, finely diced  250g peas, defrosted / fresh 300g frozen spinach /500g fresh 250g ricotta  Handful of basil, leaves picked & torn  50g parmesan, grated 50g butter 50g plain flour  700ml whole milk Big handful of wild garlic  150g cheddar, grated  Approx 250-300g dried lasagne sheets Heat the oil & cook the onions on a medium heat until softened & starting to caramelize. Meanwhile, blanch the spinach briefly (the wild garlic too, then put to one side for the sauce), ice & then drain well. Defrost the peas, don’t cook, but drain really well. Combine the onions with the peas, spinach, ricotta, basil & parmesan, mash the mixture together with a fork. You could blitz for a smoother filling, you choose. Season to taste. Make the bechamel sauce by melting the butter, adding the flour, cooking out for 3-4 minutes, before slowly adding the milk, mixing as you go. Add half the sauce to a blender with the wild garlic and blitz until smooth, add back into the pan and continue to cook the sauce until thickening, add the cheese. Build the lasagne in a 20x 30cm (ish) dish. Start with some of the ricotta mix, then lasagna sheets, then the green sauce, repeat until you have filled the dish, making sure you finish with the sauce on top. Bake at 180C fan for 35-40 mins until golden on top. Always leave to cool abit before serving.

Chocolate hazelnut torte, malted milk chocolate ice cream, big lay down.

Rhubarb & rosemary shrub. Bottling the last of the bright pink Yorkshire rhubarb. I chopped 400g rhubarb, mixed with a couple of sprigs of chopped rosemary & 150g golden caster sugar. Left in a jar to lightly ferment for a week at room temp before adding 700ml organic apple cider vinegar & refrigerating for another week. Strain, bottle & have over ice or with sparking water. It’s refreshingly sweet, tangy & delicious, I’m making another couple of bottles before the season is over.

The new @guardian food quarterly is out today, full of spring sunshine. Lots of fun styling this bag of the seasons best produce & a great line up of drinks with @tabhawkins & @_phoebepearson 🌞

I served shallots agrodolce with goats curd as teeny weeny bite sized crostini last week & although not really a looker, they went down well. Now it’s my favourite duo on toast. Shallots cooked down with garlic, chilli, honey, vinegar & herbs until buttery soft with just the right balance of sour (agro) & sweet (dolce).

Sharing this again from a few years ago, sometimes it’s good to remember old favourites & not always be looking for new ideas. There’s nothing I’d rather drink at this time of year while blood oranges are still in season. If it’s been a long & heavy week, one of these is just the ticket. Adjust to your taste but roughly 2 parts mezcal (or tequila if you not), 1 part cointreau, 1 part blood orange juice, 1 part lime juice, agave to taste, shake over ice and serve with salt / chilli rim. And remember to whack your glasses in the freezer beforehand so they are ice cold.

Rhubarb ripple rosemary custard ice cream, it’s a gooden.

Rhubarb crumble & rosemary custard. Forced Yorkshire rhubarb makes one of my favourite crumbles, sharp, sweet & delicious. The rosemary was a last minute addition when I remembered Jago’s @ecstasy_cookbook custard recipe from a shoot last year. Turns out rhubarb & rosemary make a good team. Custard to crumble ratio Granny Kemp would have approved of.

Brown sugar genoise sponge, vanilla cream & seville orange marmalade. Swiss-rolling my way through the year.