The Joyful Home Cook

1 Warm a large platter or plate in the oven.

2 Gently melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat, then stir in the salt, spices and peppercorns. Stir to combine, then remove from the heat while you cook the asparagus.

3 Bring a few centimetres of salted water to the boil in a saucepan wide enough to hold the asparagus without crowding it. Add the asparagus and poach for 2–3 minutes, until a knife blade inserted into the thickest part of a spear can be pulled out with no resistance. While it’s poaching, return the spiced butter pan to the heat and add the shrimp, wild garlic or herbs and lemon juice, basting the shrimps in the butter. Taste for seasoning. Drain the asparagus and pile onto the warm platter, then pour over the shrimps and butter. Garnish with the flowers, if using, and serve with chunks of crusty bread to dip in the butter.

TIP: If you don’t eat shellfish, leave out the shrimp and top with crushed roasted hazelnuts or the Savoury Granola (see here).

Three-cornered leek and scrambled eggs on toast

Serves 2

Three-cornered leeks often get mistaken for wild garlic, thanks to their allium scent, green stems and pretty white flowers, but they are easy to tell apart. Where wild garlic has fat, flat green leaves and open, star-shaped flowers in clusters, these wild leeks have hollow, three-cornered stalks and droopy, edible bell-shaped flowers, similar to bluebells, except they are white with green stripes running down them. They are in season in the UK from spring until early summer, and have a gentle, mellow green onion-chive flavour which is lovely layered into green salads, added to wilted greens or stir fries. If you can’t find wild leeks use baby leeks, chives or spring onions instead.

4 eggs

25g salted butter, diced, plus extra for spreading

50g three-cornered leek, baby leek or spring onion, washed and roughly chopped

2 slices of sourdough (shop-bought or (see here (#ulink_431b5a20-72ee-5996-9780-cd2eacb88765)))

pink peppercorns or dried chilli flakes, to taste

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

three-cornered leek or chive flowers, to serve (optional)

1 Crack the eggs into a bowl or jug. Whisk lightly with a fork, just to break up the yolks, then stir in three-quarters of the diced butter.

2 Heat a small non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the remaining butter to the pan, followed by the three-cornered leek. Season with salt and cook for a minute or two, stirring, until it has wilted into the melted butter. Toast the bread and warm two plates.

3 Add the egg mixture to the pan with the leeks and cook, stirring, until all the butter has melted and the eggs are coagulated but still silky and creamy. Butter the toast and top with the scrambled eggs, season with salt and some freshly ground pink or black peppercorns or chilli flakes and garnish with some of the three-cornered leek flowers, if you can find some.

Kimchi and sweetcorn fritters

with chilli maple syrup

Serves 2 (makes 4–6 fritters)

Sweetcorn fritters have been a staple since childhood. My mum used to make them to go with her ‘chicken Maryland’ – basically spiced fried chicken. My sister and I used to fight over the fritters, so I’ve given them a recipe in their own right, which makes a great brunch dish and also happens to be gluten free. I’ve added the fire and spice in the form of kimchi, which gives them a lovely sour crunch and an addictive, chilli-spiked maple syrup. Add fried eggs, avocado and streaky bacon to this to make it a brunch for four, otherwise serve two fritters per person with some avocado on the side.

2 eggs

3 tbsp water

½ tbsp soy sauce

65g rice flour

¼ tsp baking powder

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp ground turmeric

100g My ‘Kind Of’ Kimchi (see here (#litres_trial_promo)), or shop-bought kimchi, drained and finely chopped

165g drained tinned or frozen sweetcorn (or fresh corn boiled and cut from the cob)

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

2 tbsp coconut, rapeseed or vegetable oil

1 avocado, halved and stoned

sea salt flakes

For the chilli maple syrup

80ml maple syrup

½ tsp dried chilli flakes (preferably Urfa chilli flakes), or 1 fresh bird’s-eye chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

10ml dark soy sauce

1 tsp black sesame seeds

spring onion greens

1 Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the water and soy sauce and whisk to combine. Sift in the flour, baking powder and spices and whisk to form a smooth batter. Leave the batter to sit for a few minutes while you make the syrup.

2 Put the maple syrup, chilli flakes, soy sauce and sesame seeds into a small saucepan and stir. Heat until really runny and warm but not reducing or bubbling. Remove from the heat.

3 Stir the kimchi, sweetcorn and spring onions into the batter and coat well to make sure everything is cloaked in the batter. Add a dash more water or soy sauce if you think it needs loosening – it should be loose enough to drop off a spoon.

4 Line a plate with kitchen paper and heat half the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. To make the fritters, spoon 2–3 dessertspoonfuls of the batter into the pan in little piles, leaving space between each pile. Use the back of the spoon to flatten them slightly and fry for 4–5 minutes, flipping them over to cook on the other side halfway through, until golden and crispy on the outside and cooked all the way through. Drain on kitchen paper and season with salt. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the rest of the batter, keeping the first lot warm in a low oven until you’re ready to serve. Serve the fritters with the syrup poured over, and slices of avocado alongside.

Wild mushrooms on toast

with lemon and thyme seeded crumb

Serves 4 as a starter, or 2 as a lunch

I made this dish for 120 people from the kitchen of a pub in Borough Market with a brigade of brilliant female food writers and chefs. We were cooking a dinner to raise money for the food poverty charity Action Against Hunger, and even though it’s just fancy mushrooms on toast, it went down a storm – though the logistical effort of cleaning wild mushrooms and making toast for that many people is not something I wish to repeat!

Try to sniff out wild mushrooms, which have more of an interesting woodland flavour than standard ‘shrooms, and come into season from early autumn onwards – girolles and porcini work well but if you can’t find them, try chestnut or oyster. The crumb provides extra texture and lovely nuttiness thanks to the toasty, malty quality of the buckwheat. The butter and crumb can both be made in advance.

4 thick slices of sourdough bread (shop-bought or (see here (#ulink_431b5a20-72ee-5996-9780-cd2eacb88765)))