Rogan

To make the emulsion, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and blanch the parsley and lovage leaves for 1 minute. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and refresh in a bowl of iced water. Drain, squeeze out the excess water and blitz the herbs with the oil in a blender until smooth. Pass the herb oil through a muslin-lined sieve. Blitz the soft-boiled eggs in a clean blender on medium speed, adding the lovage oil slowly until the emulsion has a mayonnaise consistency; season with salt.

Spoon dots of shallot purée on to a serving dish and sit the drained warm potatoes on top. Spoon a small amount of lovage emulsion on each potato and scatter over the onion ash.

BABY POTATOES WITH OX-EYE DAISY SPREAD AND CULTURED CREAM (#ulink_da255cfa-51d7-51b2-80c4-3149b756b477)

In June you will see ox-eye daisies everywhere – along roadside verges as well as in domestic gardens. These yellow-centred white flowers grow like weeds, so there’s no problem with foraging a few flowerheads for this dish. The flower buds are pleasingly aromatic and perfect for flavouring savoury vegetable dishes. Cultured cream is fermented crème fraîche, so including this helps you to stock up on good bacteria in your digestive system. The cultures take 4 days to activate, so you need to plan ahead, and make sure you use live culture crème fraîche to ensure proper fermentation.

SERVES 6, AS A STARTER

Cultured cream

250g double cream

40g crème fraîche

Ox-eye daisy spread

1 carrot, chopped

1 beetroot, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

50g unsalted butter

1 tbsp plain flour

2 handfuls of ox-eye daisy

1 handful of mugwort

1 tsp ground ginger

juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp tomato purée

Baby potatoes

350g baby potatoes

1 tbsp salt

Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, for seasoning

pea shoots, borage flowers, rapeseed oil, to serve

To start the cultured cream, warm the cream in a small, heavy-based saucepan over a low heat until it reaches 34°C (check with a thermometer). When the temperature is reached, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the crème fraîche. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and leave for 3 days at room temperature, then transfer to the fridge for 1 day.

Heat a large, heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Cook the carrot, beetroot, onion and garlic in the pan with the butter and a pinch of salt, stirring regularly, for 10–12 minutes until tender. Sprinkle in the flour, stir it into the vegetables and cook for a further minute. Add the rest of the ingredients, along with 20ml water, and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring at regular intervals. When almost all the liquid in the mixture has evaporated, remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender until smooth. Pass through a fine sieve. Keep warm.

Put the baby potatoes in a medium saucepan with the salt and cover with cold water. Cook over a medium heat for 10–12 minutes, or until tender, then drain.

Smear ox-eye daisy spread on each plate, add dollops of cultured cream and set the warm potatoes on top. Season with Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, sprinkle with pea shoots and borage flowers and drizzle with rapeseed oil.

DOCK PUDDING WITH RAMSON EMULSION (#ulink_374d164b-0009-5a4a-92ea-ba968f4b4445)

In Cumbria this is traditionally eaten at Easter and is better known as Lent pudding. It is eaten at this time of year because supposedly this combination of fresh spring herbs cleanses the system of the fats eaten during the winter. The flavours are fresh and aromatic; acidic dock and herby, vegetal nettles are accentuated by the garlicky hit from the ramson emulsion. This recipe is a forager’s dream; nettle, dandelion and dock leaves grow across the country throughout most of the year, but ramsons, also known as wild garlic, have a short season in late spring, so make plenty of emulsion then, as we do, when ramsons are available and freeze it for use over the next few months.

SERVES 4, AS A STARTER

Dock pudding

200g pearl barley

6 Savoy cabbage leaves

10g nettle leaves

5g dandelion leaves

5g dock leaves

2 tbsp sunflower oil

½ onion, diced

1 leek, thinly sliced

75g porridge oats

2 hard-boiled eggs (cooked for 8 minutes)

Dock pudding crumb

250g panko breadcrumbs

5g dock leaves, dried

5g ramson leaves, dried

4 eggs, beaten

200g plain flour

Ramson emulsion