What's in season in April

How is it April already?  There is blossom on the trees and it genuinely feels as though spring is here and summer can't be far away.  Spring is such a great part of the year, lighter evenings, the promise of warm weather to come, summer holidays may be months away but they feel measurably closer than a few months back.

The shelves of the shops start to change too and by the end of the month greenhouse soft fruits become more common and more flavourful.

Here are my pick of the ingredients to cook with this month.

Rocket

The delicious peppery salad leaf (known as arugula in some countries) is a robust match in flavour to anything you put with it, even Stilton as in this Stilton Salad.

As at home in a salad but also served on a cooked pizza or stirred into pasta at the last second like this prawn linguine recipe.

Lamb

The traditional spring meat, I have to admit I prefer the more complex flavour of older lamb and hogget but spring lamb is tender and gently flavoured.  Great in this lamb and rocket salad making the most of the seasons.

But April can be changeable on some days the barbecue could be out (so time to cook these lamb tikka skewers).

On other days, I turn back to the slow cooker and is there anything better than slow cooked lamb shank?  Great for older lamb or even mutton.

Venison

Some days in April gives us hints of summer to come, others remind us that it is more likely to snow in Easter than Christmas especially as the evenings are still cool.  That's when I nip back to more wintery meals like this delicious venison and chestnut stew.

Enjoy the start of spring!

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