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Treat yourself!
What's on at the football club?
No-meat meals in minutes
Got a courgette glut?
Berries, barbecues and beans…
Quick Links:
Fruit
Vegetables
Meat and fish
Other seasons and reasons
Now that dog days are upon us, imported fruit and veg isn't a patch on home-grown produce. And what better to partner your courgettes, beans and herbs than summer lamb and spanking fresh fish? With summer here at long last, Dee McQuillan looks forward to a July of barbecues, picnics, home-made ice cream and relaxing holidays
Fruit
Expect wonderful raspberries – the very best are from Scotland – and their rarer relation, the loganberry. Gooseberries can be gorgeous too. With currants coming on the market and strawberries at their peak, it is summer pudding time.
Imported cherries, peaches, melons and nectarines will come down in price. Apricots may – finally – have some flavour, though this is a difficult fruit to export ripe and ready. If you are lucky enough to come across the larger, silky-skinned peach/apricot cross try it – this is good and juicy. Greengages – French or ours – are the cute little honeys of the plum world.
Recipes to try
Vegetables
In some parts of the country, mid July is time to bar the door against neighbours who come bearing beans – seriously, the beans (fine, broad or runner) should be going ballistic. Peas are good, artichokes are good, potatoes are good, lettuce is lavish, herbs are herbyaceous – in fact everything in the British vegetable patch is lovely.
Home-grown courgettes – increasingly organically grown – deserve a special mention, while Jersey and Canary tomatoes are full of flavour and perfect for summer salads.
Recipes to try
Meat and fish
This is Delia's favourite time for lamb – she finds the flavour is better than with spring lamb – and her summer recipes are a great way to support British farmers.
The best of the fish include mackerel and line-caught, wild sea bass from the South West – shiny-fresh, of course – or Scottish herring. Plaice and sole are back in prime condition in most fisheries and crustaceans, too, are on cracking form.
Recipes to try
Other seasons and reasons
The alfresco impulse continues and the school holidays are upon us – time to fill the little monsters up with good fruit and veg and treat them to Delia's home-made ice cream. Bastille Day and Independence Day offer the opportunities (or perils) of themed dinners.
Pastureland is rich now, giving character both to the short-lived soft cheeses and – two years on – to Cheddar and Parmesan.
Recipes to try
