DELIA ONLINE IN SEASON INGREDIENTS THURSDAY 9 FEBRUARY

Apples

It’s on the subject of the apple, more than any other fruit, that chefs and cooks often part company. As one of the latter, and being born and bred in England, I am quite definitely a Bramley lover. Chefs, even English ones, are usually educated in F

Apricots

Here's a fruit that cannot be grown without warm sunshine, so we have to rely on Mediterranean countries for supplies. Picked straight from the tree, an apricot can be delightful to eat raw, warm from the sun, but once they arrive here I feel they ne

Artichokes

Season: Best from June to NovemberIt would be hard to find a prettier vegetable than the globe artichoke: its presence animates any table display. Although they were once very popular in Britain, the biggest crop now comes from Brittany in the late

Asparagus

Season: Mid-April to the end of June, depending on the weatherI have now almost completely given up making things with asparagus because, apart from the very thin shoots called sprue, which I like to chop and put in Eggs en Cocotte, I think asparagu

Aubergines

At their best July to SeptemberChefs and cooks seem to have an endless debate about aubergines: to salt and drain, or not to salt and drain. I’m for the former. I do take the point that the modern aubergine has evolved to a state where it does not c

Beetroot

Available all year round: A truly magnificent vegetable but, sadly, the beetroot’s reputation in this country has been ruined by one thing alone – malt vinegar, a lethal culinary weapon that kills off the flavour of anything it comes into contact with.

Blackberries

There is still something very satisfying about blackberrying, although I usually find someone has been there first, plucking off the best ones at the lowest levels! Don’t be thwarted – take a walking stick and summon down the upper branches; take som

Blackcurrants

Season: June to August: Of all the little sparkly jewels that appear in the height of summer (their season being from June to August), blackcurrants are the richest, with a strong flavour and sharpness that can stand up to sugar.

Blueberries

When I was small, my Welsh grandmother used to make tarts with a fruit called a bilberry – little berries that grew wild, with purple flesh that yielded dark, deep-red juice. The blueberry is, apparently, its cousin, and grows wild in North America a

Broad beans

Season: Best late June and July - If you grow broad beans , or know someone who does, try cooking the very young broad beans in their pods; the beans are hardly formed and the finger-thick pods are delicious. However, later on the beans themselves have

Broccoli (calabrese)

English season: June to November This is a vegetable that, because it’s imported all year round, turns up far too often on restaurant menus. However, it’s good to enjoy it in season. Prepare it by cutting it into even-sized florets measuring about 2

Brussels sprouts

Season: Best from November to February Mini cabbages that grow on thick stalks is how I would describe Brussels.

Cabbage

Varieties available all year. A cabbage is honest goodness with no pretensions. It is a supremely beautiful vegetable, an absolute work of art visually, with its tight, audibly squeaky leaves bursting with goodness and vitality.

Carrots

Season: Summer carrots from June to November, home grown large carrots (main crop) available all year round. Summer, bunched carrots are my favourites – sweet and delicate, great for simply munching raw or grated into salads.

Cashew nuts

As nuts come, a cashew is not a particularly hard nut: its flavour is gentle and distinctly more-ish, and it lends itself well to spicy dishes. Indian and Chinese cooking use cashew extensively, and India is a major exporter.

Cauliflower and cape broccoli

Season: December to March Home-grown cauliflowers are available all year, but in the winter months we grow something called cape broccoli, which has dark-purple curds instead of the creamy-white.

Celeriac

Season: Best through the winter months. Celeriac, at first sight, is probably the ugliest, most uninteresting-looking vegetable there is, but there is a hidden agenda here, for underneath the spiny roots and ugly skin is a soft, velvety flesh.

Celery

Season: Available all year round Celery is as English as the Stilton cheese it’s often partnered with: fresh, crunchy and crisp in the autumn, it is perhaps enjoyed best of all with a good cheese board, some fresh-shelled walnuts and a glass of vint

Cherries

I remember baskets of Kentish cherries, ripe and red, or ‘whites’, which were actually pale and creamy with a rosy blush. These have the finest flavour of all cherries and there are still Kentish growers.

Chestnuts

Mountainous parts of France and Italy seem to yield the plumpest chestnuts . Our home-grown ones are never a match for size and, when you have pounds to prepare for a party, or for the Christmas stuffing, size does matter.

Chives

I wouldn’t be without my chives – a very easily grown perennial that adds interest to a whole variety of dishes from early April right through to October. Although a member of the onion family, chives have a sweet flavour entirely their own.

Cod

There are several branches to this family, varying amongst themselves more in size than in texture or flavour. Cod itself is a very firm, flaky fish that can weigh up to 14 lb (6.5 kg), so lends itself well to thick steaks, cutlets and fillets.

Courgettes

Best home grown from mid-June to OctoberCourgettes are baby marrows, and don’t I know it! I used to grow them, but if I wasn’t vigilant about picking them every day in season they seemed to turn into marrows overnight.

Crab

If you’re not squeamish you can buy fresh, live crab and cook it yourself. I’m afraid I am squeamish and I could no more drop a live crab into boiling water than I could stab it through the head. I’m perfectly happy to leave the boiling to the expert.

Cucumbers

A home-grown cucumber in the late English summer is a luxury for its fragrant, cool, pronounced cucumber flavour – if you can get hold of one. In any case, English home-grown cucumbers do have the best flavour and it’s difficult to find a well-flavour - i

Dill

This herb is best known for its use in Scandinavian cooking – gravadlax for example – or in commercially pickled cucumbers, where the leafy heads and the seeds are used. The seeds have to be planted annually, but grow very easily; the feathery leaves

Elderflowers

Season: From May to June (depending upon the weather) Elderflowers have a wonderful affinity with gooseberries and nature has kindly matched their seasons for us.

Fennel

Season: Home grown, May to September Sometimes called Florence fennel, or its charming Italian name is finocchio. Fennel is like fat, bulbous celery, with the same crunchy texture but with a marked aniseed flavour. Fennel can be thinly sliced and eat

Feta

Feta is a quite unique and distinctive cheese. It has recently been registered in the EU as a product of controlled origin, which means that true feta is made in Greece from 85 per cent goats' milk and 15 per cent ewes’ milk. It develops its special

Goats' cheeses

These can range from a soft, spreadable young cheese with a mild flavour, to a well-matured, strong, zesty, very goaty-flavoured one. For eating, I like the strong-flavoured French Crottin de Chavignol, the English Chabis, or Mine Gabhar.

Goose

In Britain the goose always used to be the favoured bird at the Christmas table. For centuries geese were marched from their breeding grounds in the country, on journeys that might take weeks, to the outskirts of the cities.

Gooseberries

These are traditionally Whitsun fruit , though it’s always touch and go whether they will actually be in the shops in time. Early imports from France (where there isn’t a specific word for gooseberries) and Poland can help extend the season.

Grapes

Season: Available all year round The grape is one of the oldest and most lovingly cultivated fruits, and we all know why. Much has been written in praise of wine, in contrast to the joys of the simple, unprocessed table grape...

Lamb

If Scotland has the best beef, then the best lamb surely has to be found in the Lake District. Even so, most lamb in Britain is extremely good, since it has the advantage of living happily in its natural habitat...

Leeks

Season: Best home grown from September to May. Leeks are a very fine vegetable indeed. Though they are related to onions, they have a far more subtle – and somehow nobler – taste, I think. Leeks lend themselves to other flavours superbly, too.

Lettuce or leaves?

For me, it would be lettuce all the way; a salad needs bite, crunchiness and some substance. Yes, there are leaves that make good salads, but there are now too many kinds of designer leaves grown, bought and used merely for their looks.

Mackerel

An under-estimated fish if ever there was one. It has a bad reputation with older generations, who were suspicious of its career as a scavenger (it is all right for humans to eat the flesh of other creatures, but wrong, apparently, for the poor...

Mussels

I love the appearance of mussels: a rich saffron colour, and they sit so prettily in the blue, boat-shaped shells. To me their aroma and flavour are the very essence of the sea. Some people wrongly accuse them of being dangerous to eat.

Onions

Available all year Where would cooks be without onions? One of the principal flavour-makers in the kitchen, stews, soups, casseroles, quick salads and sauces are all enhanced by this most humble but wonderful of vegetables, together with its tiny...

Parsley

What needs to be said about the most universal and widely used herb of all? No garden or window box should be without it. The leaves can be used to flavour and enliven the appearance of many, many dishes. The stalks may be added to stocks

Parsnips

Best November to February What an absolute star a parsnip is – full of soft, juicy flesh and a fragrant, sweet flavour. They are lovely plain, steamed, mashed and roasted, and one of my favourite parsnip recipes is where they are baked in the oven

Partridge

These are very small game birds; each partridge will serve only one person. They have a fine flavour and texture but, because plain roasting tends to dry them somewhat, pot-roasting or braising is a better bet to keep them moist and succulent.

Peaches and nectarines

Oh, to be in either Spain or Italy when the peaches are ripe and fragrant and just about to fall from the trees. The peach, beloved of artists, is a beauteous thing, with its deep-crimson, rosy bloom and voluptuous bright-yellow flesh...

Pears

Best from September to late October. France is the home of the best pear variety, the Comice, which for years was reverently named Doyenne du Comice, and it does seem that those with the fullest figures and most gloriously juicy, melting interiors...

Peas

Season: Home grown best in June and July. One very sad but thought-provoking incident happened to me a few years ago. I was buying fresh peas in the pod in a supermarket, and the sixth-former doing a Saturday job on the checkout asked me if I could...

Peppers

Best season, summer and autumn. Once an exotic import from the Mediterranean, now an everyday, ever-available staple, but best home grown in the summer and autumn. Peppers actually come in all kinds of colours, but red, green and yellow are...

Pheasant

With all game birds, care is needed to avoid overcooking, which can make the flesh dry. Younger pheasants roast perfectly if you are careful to rub butter into the skin and wrap them in fat bacon and begin the roasting by covering them loosely...

Plaice

Plaice is a popular fish with a good flavour and a fine texture. The white underside fillet can be bought separately and as the skin is very tender, it tends to melt into the flesh during the cooking and can therefore be eaten.

Potatoes make a comeback

Well, in a way this is true, because in my younger days potatoes were the enemy of the perfect waistline in a less nutritionally enlightened era; it was starch that made you fat, and starchy foods like bread and potatoes had to be avoided.

Prawns

The term prawn covers a multitude of varieties, many of them from warm foreign waters where they grow fast and often large. Even when unfrozen, these lack the flavour of our own, native fat juicy prawns. Scampi is the Italian name for what we used...

Rabbit

This is very underrated. It has a firmer, meatier flesh than chicken, and wild rabbit particularly has a lovely light, gamey flavour. You can, however, buy domestically-reared rabbit. I love to cook wild rabbit jointed and on the bone for maximum...

Raspberries

A truly exquisite soft fruit that needs hardly any adornment. I like them served on a plate, spread out in a single layer with a minute sprinkling of sugar, and I eat them just like that as often as I can during the season, which lasts from...

Redcurrants and whitecurrants, meringues, soft fruit, dessert,

I like the combination of redcurrants mixed with strawberries and raspberries in equal quantities for one of the simplest of desserts. Hand them round with caster sugar and cream, and summer is in every spoonful. Whitecurrants can be used as well fo

Rhubarb

Although it came here originally from Russia, rhubarb is, for me, an extremely English fruit, arriving at a very important time in the calendar – early spring, when there's absolutely no other interesting fruit in season.

Rocket leaves

I make no secret of the fact that this is one of my favourite salad leaves. Why? It's traditionally English and has been used in salads since Elizabethan times. It has a lovely concentrated, buttery flavour and goes with any dressing.

Runner beans

Season: August to mid-September. This vegetable is, for me, the crown prince of all British vegetables. Although runner beans are imported all year round, they're never quite the same as our own end-of-summer crop, which provides a feast for almost...

Salmon

Although a salmon spends its life at sea, because traditionally it was caught at the mouth of the river on its way upstream, it is counted as freshwater fish. It’s perfect for foil cooking or pan-seared and, for entertaining, a traditional...

Scallops

Scallops with their bright orange roes come in decorative shells. The fish itself sits on a flat fan-shaped shell and is enclosed by a similar concave one (the one scallops are traditionally served in). This curved shell has become a...

Sorrel

Much loved and used for sauces and soups in France, sorrel is not so widely known here. Yet it's easy to grow and well worth including in a herb garden. It has leaves similar in appearance to spinach and indeed tastes like a sharper version of...

Spinach

Season: Home grown, best from May to October Very green and very good for you, spinach is packed with vitamin C. What you need to be most aware of is that spinach contains a great deal of water, so what looks like a huge amount won't be when...

Squid

An unusual alliance of chefs in the very best restaurants and package holidays to Greece and Spain has finally cracked the British aversion to squid. Scary though it may look, squid has a mild flavour and – when cooked correctly

Strawberries

I think it's true to say that English strawberries are the best in the world, available only in June and July. The season is very short, of course, but my advice is not to think about them at any other time. Our red, ripe strawberries are...

Swede

Home grown, best in winter I love the unique flavour of swedes, which seems to epitomise all the goodness of home cooking. They have long been of service to cooks because their presence in stews and casseroles not only ekes out the meat...

Sweetcorn

Season: Home grown from July to October Aesthetically one of the most beautiful vegetables, I think – such a visual work of art. Outside, the pale-green casings cover firm, silky-white threads, and all this to protect the plump, pale-golden kernels.

Tomatoes

Best from June to late September In the 1990s many of us turned to preserved tomatoes to get the full Mediterranean flavour: first to sun-dried tomatoes, which are tomatoes halved, salted and left to dry in the Italian sun, then to the softer mi-cuit

Trout

There are three kinds of trout, the sea trout, brown trout and the rainbow trout: the latter has now become more widely available and less expensive because of notable success up and down the country with commercial fish farming.

Turnips

Season: Baby turnips are best in June and July; winter turnips, all year. In early June, I love seeing the first young bunches of carrots, and the same goes for turnips – so pretty, about the size of golf balls, with deep-purple tinges to...

Walnuts

The walnut harvest in Europe starts in October; the Californians send their uniform, high quality crop a little later. When walnuts are farmed on any scale, as they are in parts of France like the Dordogne, the nuts are gently dried in huge ovens

Watercress

Popular with everyone, watercress is a bit like rocket, with its own distinctive, fresh, peppery flavour. I think it's too strong to be used on its own, but it's wonderful combined with lettuce, used as a garnish and for giving its own unmatched...

Winter pumpkin and squash

Winter pumpkin: home-grown, October to November; imported, September to November. Squash: all yearThe bright-orange lantern pumpkins available around Halloween do not have a great deal of flavour, so in my opinion are not worth serving as a vegetabl

Wood pigeon

These are small but are the least expensive of all game birds, serving one per person, unless they are very large. It's really only the breast that's eaten and I favour braising, as in Braised Wood Pigeon with Cider Apple Sauce