20 best spring recipes: part 4 (2024)

Uyen Luu’s congee with cod cheeks, ginger, cabbage and dill

This congee recipe is healing, invigorating and refreshing. It is light yet full of flavour and balance, for spring afternoons and light evenings, and intensifies evermore the next early sunrise. It’s a great way of using leftover rice and a traditionally eaten for breakfast or late suppers in Vietnam.

Serves 4
uncooked rice 150g, for approx 400g cooked rice
chicken stock 1.5 litres, or pork/fish stock, homemade or the best quality available
ginger 40g, peeled, finely chopped
rock sugar 1 tsp (optional)
fish sauce 5 tbsp, the best quality available
olive oil or rapeseed oil 1½ tbsp
cod cheeks 400g, or cod, haddock, salmon or sea bass fillets, sliced
cabbage 400g, sliced into 1cm stripes
dill 20g (about 20 stems) with stalks, sliced to ½cm
white and black pepper to season
dill or coriander to garnish (optional)

If leftover cooked rice is not available, cook the rice and add to a pot of hot chicken stock with the ginger (and rock sugar if using). Cook for 15 minutes on a medium boil with a lid on. The rice grains will have softened and expanded. Season with good quality premium fish sauce and a good pinch of white pepper.

In another frying pan, lightly brown half of the cod cheeks in the oil and set aside. Mix in the cabbage strips and the raw and fried cod cheeks to the congee and cook for a further 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the chopped dill. Season with black and white pepper and serve warm with an extra garnishing of dill and/or coriander.

Leftovers are delicious as, with time, the congee will thicken, taking in the delicious broth, and the ginger fires more in the mouth and the flavours of dill, cabbage and cod intensify. If necessary, add more chicken stock or water to loosen.
Uyen Luu is the author of My Vietnamese Kitchen (Ryland, Peters & Small, £16.99)

Sam Harris’s risi bisi

Serves 4
olive oil 3 tbsp
unsalted butter 15g, plus 20g to finish
shallots 2 large, finely chopped
celery 1 stick, finely chopped
salt a pinch
garlic 1 large clove, finely chopped
risotto rice 360g
unoaked white wine 150ml
vegetable stock 1 litre, simmering (cold water simmered for 2 hours with carrot, fennel, onion, bay leaves, parsley sprigs, 2 slices of lemon)
fresh peas 200g podded (however you can use frozen)
parmesan 20g, grated
mint 2 tsp, chopped
lemon juice 1 tsp

Place the olive oil and butter in a large wide pan and heat slowly. Add the shallot and celery and cook for 20 minutes on a very low heat turning the vegetables translucent and soft (add a pinch of salt to help the process), then add the garlic and raise the heat, quickly stirring all the time for a minute to enable the garlic to ‘cook out’ but not colour or burn. Add the risotto rice, and keep the heat up, stirring all the time. You want to coat the rice in the oil, then add the wine and boil for 30 seconds. Add the hot vegetable stock slowly a ladle at a time allowing the stock to absorb before the next. Once you’ve added around 6 ladles, and the rice is two-thirds of the way cooked, add the peas and stir. Add more stock. The rice is cooked when there is still a bite but not chalky and chewy. Turn off the heat, and stir in a small splash of vegetable stock, the cheese, mint, lemon juice and extra butter. Cover and let rest for 5 minutes. Taste for salt and then serve.
Sam Harris was chef patron of Zucca, London SE1

Alice Waters’ green garlic pudding soufflé

If there is a recipe for some kind of twice-cooked pudding soufflé in nearly every Chez Panisse book, it’s for this simple reason: this type of soufflé has become a versatile mainstay of our repertoire. Easier to execute than a regular soufflé, it has the great advantage that it can be prepared ahead of time – a boon to restaurant and home cooks alike. Actually, these puddings have their genesis in a recipe by Richard Olney, a long-time friend and mentor, that was first published in 1974 in his Simple French Food. We still look to Richard for inspiration whenever the task of menu-making becomes too challenging. Green garlic is available at farmers’ markets in the spring. It is harvested before the individual cloves have formed, so it resembles a green onion or small leek. Green garlic has a sweet pungency and a pure, clean flavour best brought out by gentle simmering. You can serve the pudding soufflé as a simple first course, unadorned, or as a meatless main course, paired with a spring vegetable ragout of peas, onions and spinach.

Serves 6
butter 55g
flour 30g
milk 350ml, slightly warmed
salt
thyme 2 sprigs
onion 1 medium
green garlic 230g, sliced
cayenne a pinch
Gruyère cheese 50g
pepper
eggs 3, separated
double cream 180ml

Jane Scotter and Harry Astley’s elderflower cake

This is a basic génoise sponge, or French butter sponge cake, scented with fragrant elderflower. The cake is light and delicate. It is not difficult to make, providing you follow the instructions carefully. For the best results, use an electric whisk, which will introduce the air and volume the cake needs to help it rise without the aid of baking powder. You can also use the sponge mixture to make a fantastic Swiss roll.

Collecting flowers to make elderflower cordial has to be one of the top good-to-be-alive moments. May is when we see the first of the elderflowers coming into bloom. They are the prettiest of flowers – tiny, lacy blossoms, hundreds of them on each stem, in nature’s most exquisite shade of cream.

Pick the flowers first thing in the morning before they are fully open, on a dry day. Choose a tree that is full of flowers, as this will mean that the majority of flower heads are in their prime; the heady muscat scent should be almost overwhelming. Choose the whitest heads and snip them at the base of the flowers, keeping the heads whole. Shake them gently to remove any insects, but do not wash. To dilute the cordial, we suggest four parts fizzy or still water to one part cordial.

Serves 8-10
For the elderflower cordial (makes 2 litres)
elderflower heads 50 freshly picked
lemons 4
boiling water 2 litres
granulated sugar about 1.5kg

For the sponge
eggs 6
caster sugar 170g
vanilla extract 1 tsp
plain flour 170g, sifted twice
unsalted butter 75g, melted
fresh elderflowers 4 large heads, flowers removed from the stalks, plus a few flowers to decorate

For the buttercream
granulated sugar 60g
water 4 tbsp
egg yolks 2
unsalted butter 170g, softened
elderflower cordial 3 tbsp (see above)

For the icing
icing sugar 200g
elderflower cordial 2 tbsp (see above)
lemon juice about 1 tbsp

To make the cordial, place the elderflower heads in a large bowl. Slice 2 of the lemons, add them to the bowl and pour over the boiling water. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave overnight to infuse.

The next day, strain the infusion through a muslin cloth into a saucepan. Juice the 2 remaining lemons, then strain the juice into the pan. Add the sugar and heat gently, stirring frequently, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Simmer for a few minutes, until the mixture reaches 90C on a sugar thermometer. Pour the hot syrup into sterilised bottles and seal. The cordial should keep for a year.

To make the sponge, heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Grease 2 deep 20cm cake tins and line the bases with a circle of baking parchment.

Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl and add the sugar. Whisk with an electric hand mixer (or a balloon whisk and plenty of elbow grease) until the mixture is pale and mousse-like; it should be thick enough to leave a ribbon trail on the surface when the whisk is lifted. Add the vanilla extract. Carefully fold in about half of the sifted flour with a large metal spoon. Pour the cool melted butter over the surface and fold it in, immediately followed by the remaining flour. Finally fold in the elderflowers. It’s important to do all this as quickly and lightly as possible, so you don’t lose too much air.

Divide the mixture between the prepared cake tins and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cakes are golden and beginning to shrink from the sides of the tins. Leave in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out on to wire racks to cool.

Meanwhile, make the buttercream. Put the sugar and water in a heavy-based pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Continue to boil until the syrup reaches the thread stage (115C on a sugar thermometer). Gradually trickle the warm sugar syrup on to the egg yolks in a bowl, whisking with an electric hand whisk until thick and mousse-like. Cream the butter until very soft and fluffy. Then gradually beat it into the egg mixture a little at a time. Finally beat in the elderflower cordial. Sandwich the cakes together with the buttercream.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a small bowl and stir in the elderflower cordial and enough lemon juice to make a fairly thick but spreadable icing. Spread it over the top of the cake, letting it run down the sides a little. Decorate with a few elderflower petals.
From Fern Verrow by Jane Scotter and Harry Astley (Quadrille £25)

Nigella Lawson’s rhubarb meringue pie

I don’t go in for flavoured mash, flavoured pasta, or flavoured pastry. I think that mash, pasta and pastry are meant to be the base line, the comforting neutral blanket against which other more sprightly tastes can be set. But orange, in pastry, does work, and subtly. Orange, famously, sets off rhubarb – and it is used also to bind the fruits beneath the meringue topping. Because I quite often make rhubarb jelly, I tend to have pulpy bags of frozen, poached, sweetened fruit in the freezer. For a 21cm flan dish about 300g of cooked fruit should be fine. And if the puree is already sweetened, you’ll need only 1-2 tablespoons of extra sugar rather than the 150g specified. If you’re using raw fruit, proceed as below.

Serves 6-8
For the pastry
plain flour 140g, preferably 00
unsalted butter 70g, cold, cut in small cubes, or ½ lard and ½ butter
orange juice of ½, iced

For the rhubarb
rhubarb 800g, untrimmed weight
orange juice of ½
eggs 2, separated
caster sugar 150g, plus 120g
plain flour 2 tbsp
butter 30g, melted
cream of tartar ¼ tsp

To make the pastry, measure the flour into a bowl and add the butter. Put this, as is, in the freezer for 10 minutes. Then put this in the food processor with the double blade attached or into a food mixer with the paddle attached, and switch on (at slow to medium speed if you’re using the mixer) until the mixture resembles oatmeal. Then add, tablespoon by cautious tablespoon, the iced orange juice. Go slowly, adding iced water if needed. (Remember you will be using the other half of the orange’s juice for the filling, so keep it.)

When the dough can be formed into a ball, stop, roll it into a ball in your hands and then press it into a disc, wrap with clingfilm and put in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. Roll it out and line a deep flan/quiche tin of 21cm diameter. Put back in the fridge if possible for about another 20 minutes and preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Bake blind until the pastry looks cooked but not brown.

Remove from the oven; you don’t want the pastry hot when you put all the other ingredients in it.

Trim the rhubarb and chop it into roughly 1cm slices; if the stalks are very wide and chunky then cut them in half lengthways, too. Put them in a saucepan with the orange juice and heat briefly, just until the rawness is taken off them. Remove and drain (but keep the liquid).

If you haven’t done so already, separate the eggs, putting the whites aside for the meringue later and beat the egg yolks in a bowl. In another bowl, mix 150g sugar with the flour and the melted butter. Then add the eggs, and enough of the orangey-rhubarb liquid which came off the rhubarb in the pan earlier to make a smooth and runny paste.

Squeeze in more orange if you need more. Put the rhubarb in the blind-baked pastry case and pour the sugary, eggy mixture over it. Put in the oven and bake until just set, about 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, add 60g of remaining sugar and continue to beat until glossy. I use my mixer until this point. I then change to a metal spoon and fold in the remaining sugar and the cream of tartar. Spoon this over the hot cooked rhubarb in the flan case, making sure it is completely covered and there is no place, no gap where some rhubarb can bubble up through and over the meringue. Use the spoon to bring some of the meringue into little pointy peaks if you like (I do), but this is an aesthetic diktat not a practical-culinary one. Sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon caster sugar and put back in the oven for about 15 minutes until the peaks are bronzy and brown topped.

I like this cold. But for most tastes, eat it 10-12 minutes after it’s been taken out of the oven.
From How to Eat by Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus, £20)