We love asparagus. But we don’t like having things flown halfway round the world if avoidable. So we normally only have British asparagus when it’s in season from April to June. And anyway British asparagus is far superior in terms of flavour, although it needs to be used as fresh as possible. Here are three tips.

Size. Don’t be afraid to buy thin asparagus spears – often called sprue. They’re going to be more tender, and often better flavoured, than the more ubiquitous tree trunks.

Trimming. You need to remove the bottom part of the asparagus spear as it will be relatively woody. Don’t use a knife and guess where to cut. Hold the spear at the bottom and about two-thirds of the way up and bend it sharply towards you. The bottom quarter or third will break off naturally leaving the most luscious top to eat. If you’re making vegetable stock, throw the woody base of the spears in that; otherwise compost them.

Cooking. This is a tip I recently spotted in a food magazine. So you’re cooking a pasta dish and want asparagus to go in it. The easiest way to cook the asparagus is to cut into 2-3cm lengths and add it to the cooking pasta about 2 minutes before the pasta is done. Then when the pasta is cooked you can spoon pasta and asparagus straight into the sauce (along with that all important spoonful of pasta water).

Last week we had a surplus of small, soft, tomatoes and a couple of older peppers. So I used them with some onion and garlic to make what amounted to vegetable jam, only without any added sugar. It is dead easy.

Quarter any normal size tomatoes, and skin them if you can be bothered. Chop the pepper into 2cm pieces. Sweat a chopped onion and some garlic (as much as you like) in a tablespoon of olive oil until going translucent. Add the tomatoes and pepper. (You could add any other veg, like courgette, fennel, aubergine. I’d avoid mushrooms as they’ll make the mixture a less appetising dark colour.) Season with fresh ground black pepper, add some chopped herbs and half a glass of cooking brandy. Leave to simmer gently until the tomatoes are breaking down and everything is reducing – probably about 30 minutes. When cooked, allow to cool before putting it in the fridge.

This will keep 2-3 days in the fridge; or you could eat it hot, like ratatouille.

I used ours to make a tart. Drain any excess liquid from the tomato mix. Put the mix in a blind-baked tart case and dot with dollops of Boursin cheese (or any cheese of your choice). Ours made a 20cm square flan tin and used just over half a Boursin. Bake for 20-30 minutes in an oven at about 200°C until golden; cover with foil if necessary as the Boursin tends to blacken easily. The tart is best enjoyed warm or cold, with some green salad and a glass of light white wine.

Yep, I reckon that over the last 15 or so years I’ve written at least 80 posts about my exploits in the kitchen. From now on I intend to number them, as they should include hints, tips and the like beyond just straight recipes. As an example here is one of the recent experiments.

Lamb’s Kidneys with Linguini.

This was a further incarnation of my infinitely variable (see for instance here and here). I’m not going to give you the full method; you know how to cook my pasta recipes by now (if not, see the links above)!

On this occasion I used a handful of lamb’s kidneys, cut into 5-10mm slices, and added cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and some asparagus (cut into 2-3cm pieces). It was the usual method, although you’ll need to ensure the kidneys go early in the pan and are well on the way to being cooked through before adding the veg.

It went down well with a bottle of robust red wine.

Here’s another variation on an old and infinitely variable theme which we did yesterday: poussins and mixed vegetable traybake. It went like this …

Poussin & Veg Traybake

Serves: 4 (or 2 with plenty left for cold)
Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 60 mins

We used …

• 3 500g poussins
• 750g small potatoes, cut into ping-pong ball size pieces, skin on
• 2 medium onions, quartered lengthways
• garlic, as much as you like, roughly chopped (optional)
• 200g cherry tomatoes, left whole
• 8-10 large mushrooms, halved
• aubergine, cut into about 12 pieces
• 2 peppers, each cut into 8 pieces
• big bunch of asparagus, in 6-8cm pieces
• olive oil
• black pepper

We did …

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°/fan 180°/gas 6.
2. Steam the potatoes for about 10 minutes until part cooked.
3. Meanwhile butcher the poussins: with heavy scissors cut down each side of the spine and remove it; flatten the bird and cut along the breast to get half birds piece.
4. Put the poussins (including the spines and any trimmings) in a roasting tin along with the garlic and part cooked potatoes. Toss in 3 tbsp olive oil and a good grind of black pepper, cover with foil, and bake for about 20-25 minutes.
5. Now prep the remaining veg, put in a large plastic bag (or a mixing bowl) and toss in another 2-3 tbsp olive oil.
6. After 20-25 minutes, remove the roasting tin from the oven, add the vegetables and another good grind of black pepper; and mix well. (At this stage you can optionally add the juice & zest of a lemon and springs of fresh thyme.)
7. Return to the oven, without foil, and bake for a further 30-40 minutes until the veg and chicken are cooked through.
8. Serve with a glass (or several) of dry white wine.

Notes …

1. The poussin spines (and trimmings) will add to the stock, which is worth keeping and freezing.
2. Any leftovers make a good cold meal the following day, or if there isn’t enough for that take the meat from the bones (including the spines!) and use for risotto.
3. Cold roast veg makes a good sandwich filling.
4. The lemon and thyme are optional and could be replaced with a glass of white wine, or a slug of brandy or sherry, according to taste. Omitting them altogether (as we did on this occasion) still works well!