Wild mushrooms

These are increasingly popular in this country and, when they are in season, you can often find a selection in specialist greengrocers and even supermarkets. Better still, you can forage for them - it’s a fun weekend activity and a great excuse to get into the woods for a country walk. A word of warning though, most forests demand a licence these days and limit the weight you pick, so check it out first.

There are about five or six mushroom varieties that I concentrate on during the year, which can be foraged fairly easily depending on conditions. Oyster, cep, chanterelle, trompette, hedgehog fungus and puffball mushrooms are all quite common in the UK and they are very versatile. At dinner parties where a couple of friends are vegetarian, I’ll sometimes just serve a plate of ceps roasted with garlic as a main dish - no one seems to notice that there isn’t any meat on the menu. Mushrooms really do go well with almost anything savoury.