Spring

This classic Easter recipe for Hot Cross Buns is a firm Daylesford favourite. Lots of fun to make, especially for children who can help stir the mixture, shape the dough and pipe the crosses.

Make the most of springtime’s bright green shoots in this recipe which combines heady wild garlic and tender nettle leaves.

This is a favourite of head chef Gaven Fuller: “A lovely, rustic, slow-cooked and warming stew that really showcases the lamb."

A delicous seasonal alternative to classic eggs benedict.

In cookery, hollandaise is a ‘mother’ sauce and has many variants which will add to your repertoire, while knowing how to poach an egg is a key skill.

Discover more seasonal recipes and cooking skills at our Cookery School.

The combination of fennel seeds, fresh rosemary and thyme in this recipe is the perfect complement to our pasture fed organic lamb.

Though it may look as though this recipe requires a number of steps, it is incredibly easy and provides a fresh approach to the Sunday roast.

A juicy steak is the ultimate carnivorous treat when you are craving something meaty.

We have paired the perfectly cooked steak with a piquant, herb-rich sauce that combines elements of salsa verde and chimichurri. When wild garlic is in season, this is a beautiful addition.

Recipe from From the Veg Patch by Kathy Slack.

“When I worked at Daylesford Organic Farm, the bakery made chocolate brownies that were out of this world. They were dark, fudgy and flecked with nuggets of white chocolate. I would buy one at the end of my shift in the kitchen garden, unable to resist tucking in straight away despite my mud-engrained fingers. They have been my brownie benchmark ever since, and so when I came to this recipe (beetroot and chocolate, after all, being a classic combination I could not omit), I knew mine too must be broodingly dark and have those signature morsels of solid chocolate hidden within. The result is a grown-up brownie, almost savoury, thanks to the beetroot and tahini. Good for dessert with a dollop of sour crème fraîche as contrast.”

This traditional recipe makes the most of our organic lamb or mutton and is a wonderful family meal.

A great dinner party dish that combines different textures of raw and butter roasted asparagus with sauce gribiche, a classic French sauce that is both rich and sharp.

Discover more seasonal recipes and cooking skills at our Cookery School.

A guest recipe by Thomasina Miers.

It’s the Valentine’s sugar-pink of the rhubarb, blushing under a blanket of melted Cheddar, that makes this feel like romantic food for me; though it’s the flavour – rhubarb’s intense earthy sourness counterbalanced by rich buttery pastry and melting cheese – that makes me long to eat it. As much as you might associate rhubarb with puddings and nursery fare, don’t be fooled: this is very much a savoury business and also very much a ‘grown-up’ dish. I’ll be honest: the portions here are more than generous for two, but to make half a tart seems mean, and this is one of those dishes that everyone always eats more of than seems sensible, so I prefer to err on the side of plenty. And while it really does taste its very best warm straight from the oven, the cheese melting in your mouth, I nonetheless always look forward to leftovers.

To go with it, you only need a salad: I can’t resist pairing this with a similarly pastel- hued salad of blush-pink radicchio rosa or dark red bitter chicory. Too much? Or just enough? One warning: this works best with long, thin, furiously pink rhubarb stems rather than the fatter ones, which take longer to cook and can taste a little too sharp.

A Table Full of Love by Skye McAlpine is published by Bloomsbury, £26.

Photography by Skye McAlpine

Skye is hosting a supper club upstairs at Daylesford in Pimlico on Thursday 29th June 2023. Spaces are limited and booking is essential; last few places remaining. Find out more.

The classic Bakewell Tart filling is almond frangipane with raspberry jam, but we’ve used our new gooseberry & elderflower jam here for a seasonal variation. Feel free to play with this base recipe - hazelnuts with plum jam would be delicious in the autumn, for example. 

Discover more recipes like this and pick up essential skills in the kitchen at our Cookery School's Cakes & Bakes course.

Perfect enjoyed after a dinner party or with a cup of afternoon tea or coffee. 

This delicious recipe offers a lighter take on traditional lamb dishes and is full of the delicate flavours of summer.

“Wild salmon comes into season at the start of the summer, so this dish is based around pairing it with other seasonal ingredients. The accompaniment is a twist on the classic French dish, ‘petit pois à la française’, something I’m quite partial to, in which peas and lettuce are braised in stock and butter. My husband likes the addition of the bacon, but you could happily leave it out to make it a meat-free dish.”

Carole Bamford