What's in Season?

And how do you find out?

The best thing to do is go to a local farmers market, where the vegetables that are on sale are guaranteed to be seasonal! At the market here on Sunday, there were some particularly delicious looking leeks (which we didn't buy do to lack of space in our bags) and some Jerusalem artichokes, january king cabbage and swede - which we did bring home.

Knobbly Jerusalem artichokes (left) make a particularly nice soup - a Delia Smith recipe, Carrot and Artichoke Soup. It's not only a beautiful rich orange colour, as she points out, but a lovely thick, rich and tasty meal. One tip if you're following this recipe is to add a little squeeze of lemon juice at the end (to taste), giving it a hint of sharpness to cut through the richness. We had a bowl each this lunchtime with some sourdough bread and the last of the mature Gouda we'd bought in for Christmas from the Cambridge Cheese Company. They are closing for renovations, but (if anyone local to Cambridge is reading this) they were at the market on Sunday and more details of where they'll be and when are available via that link to their website.

Swede mashed with butter and black pepper is one of our favourites. It really is the time of the year when humble ingredients, cooked simply, provide the kind of hearty pleasures necessary to get through a cold month. To those who are only thrilled by exotic dishes and ingredients, to wax lyrical about a cabbage might seem a bit eccentric - but the January kings (see left) which the Sunday veg stall on the market have in abundance at the moment (since December, in contradiction of their name) are a great treat. No need to do anything else than chop them up into a colander, rinse them, stick them in a pan you can cover with a little bit of water in the bottom and a knob of butter and then cook, covered, until they're just done.

The poultry stall at the market had some lovely looking partridges, but as we were weighed down already, we'll put that off for a treat for next week.

Other than going to a seasonal market, the other thing you can do is consult a handy reference work. This could be a cookbook - Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries is a journal of his cooking year and uses predominantly seasonal ingredients; and Simon Hopkinson's Week in Week Out, which does something similar. I'd very much recommend the Slater book - it's something we've been dipping into on and off for the last year. Week In Week Out we got this Christmas, so we haven't used it much yet.

Also a new arrival this Christmas was Seasonal Food by Paul Waddington, which gives clear handy references for what's in season when. It's a book I shall attempt to review in a later post, but looks to be a useful aid to eating more seasonally.