Where has the spring weather gone? Spring's here by the calendar but it's cold. COLD. Nothing like only a few days ago when everyone was buying garden parasols and bedding plants. We didn't manage to do an outdoor Easter chocolate egg hunt but I hope at least the lamb roast was a success, if you made one. My roast leg of lamb was lovely, even though it wasn't yet new season British lamb.
If, like me, you have some post-Easter leftovers, this week is the time to make wonderful things like lamb pastillas, or rissoles, with any leftover meat. If you baked an egg yolk-heavy Easter bread like Colomba (mine was astonishingly good this year; I have a mind to repeat the experience and bake a post-Easter one for a week of breakfasts), you'll have some egg whites stashed away in the fridge. I'll wholeheartedly recommend an angel food cake or angel food cupcakes with the same mix if your stash is not enough for a full bake. It's truly wonderful, and light, and spring-like.
And now for the best of the spring: asparagus. I'm ecstatic to hear that the season is early thanks to warm March, and the green shoots are in abundance. I cook them simply, just in butter. Or not at all: make a raw asparagus salad. You can tackle them more boldly and do a spicy asparagus stir-fry - fantastic, and a bit different.
New potatoes are coming too, the Jersey Royals the best and the earliest in the UK. Boil, season and crush lightly - a side dish fit for a king.
And if the now more flavoursome strawberries are here to stay, the season of soft berry crumble cakes may be considered to have started. Happy spring!