Paper Palate

Another magazine packed full of Spring celebration – which sadly hasn’t eventuated in London yet. Still, flicking through April’s delicious makes me a little less glum in the midst of this seemingly never-ending winter.

Easter lamb with grilled vegetables is on the table at top chef Angela Hartnett’s home, as she shares her Italian family’s special recipe. Baby sheep also gets special treatment from Rick Stein, departing from his usual seafood theme and offering up three tasty lamb recipes, including ‘Shepherd’s pie as cooked in India’, a dry style curry.

For those who enjoy having friends and family over for Easter, there’s an entire weekender menu from brunch to dinner, a lot of which can be made ahead. Cake recipes, including traditional Simnel Cake, fulfil the ‘indulgent’ category, along with a host of chocolate and dessert ideas any guest will love. And to keep the kids busy there’s a special section for them with several Easter chocolate sweets and small goodies recipes that are easy to make and sure to prove a hit when eaten.

Drinking chocolates get the delicious review, and they also track down the best commercial offerings of Hot Cross Buns for the season. I fully agree with them that the Marks & Spencer Luxury Hot Cross Buns – made with top quality Turkish sultanas, Vostizza currants, orange & lemon peel and free-range egg & butter - are the pick of the lot.

Tom Norrington-Davies enthuses about eggs and their history at Easter. A little more research and a little less enthusiastic generalisation would have made the article more historically accurate, however he presents several vegetarian dishes with eggs as the star ingredient that are very appealing - the ‘Baked Eggs and Capsicum Peppers’ especially.

Gordon Ramsay provides three of his top main courses – salmon, lamb and beef – that will impress at any dinner party, and at the other end of the scale Jill Dupleix provides several ‘pub grub’ recipes to match with a cold beer and a relaxing evening. Beer bread, potato cakes with bacon, chicken skewers with satay sauce, the list goes on in delicious detail.

Susy Atkin offers advice on how to select a wine to those tricky-to-choose-for meals – spicy food, eggs, salads, salty dishes, soups, etc. Her suggestion of matching a small glass of Amontillado sherry or medium-dry Madeira with meat soups or consommé is certainly a tip I’ll be taking.

There are several programs and restaurants in London’s East End that now offer training and apprenticeships to teenagers from underprivileged backgrounds. ‘Food for thought’ takes a look at three young people who’ve taken up the challenge and their successful transformation into budding chefs.

The ‘Producers’ feature this month focuses on Kuapa Kokoo, a Fairtrade cooperative in the Ghanaian village of Domeabra. Their partnership with the Fairtrade organisation has improved the local quality of life in many ways – economically, health wise and socially. Delicious details the development of the cooperative and some of its members.

Finally, in a whimsical article with underlying seriousness, Adam Edwards delineates the difference between organically reared beef in an artisan bun and a burger.