Strawberries Strawberries always smell delicious, but it's worth waiting until June so that their flavour lives up to the hype of their fragrance: nothing beats the taste of a perfectly ripe strawberry on a warm day. Eat the berries au naturel, sprinkled with sugar or drizzled in cream. Strawberries are the quintessential summer treat, so work them into as many dishes as you can. Dip them into melted dark chocolate and set aside until firm, then serve as a tasty canapé at champagne receptions; the berries will complement a rosé bubbly. Garnish summer salads with slices of strawberries and other seasonal fruit. Stir the berries into meringues and whipped cream to make Eton mess, or sandwich them between sponge cakes or pastries such as millefeuille. Adventurous gourmets can sprinkle a few drops of balsamic vinegar or a dusting of freshly ground black pepper sparingly over strawberries to enhance the flavour. If you end up with a glut when the season draws to a close, add them to homemade ice cream, or make strawberry sorbet or granita.
Peas Frozen peas are available year round, but fresh garden peas are in season from early June until late July. Mangetout are undeveloped garden peas, picked while the pod is still edible. Similarly, petits pois are young garden peas that are picked and shelled when small, young and tender. Unlike mangetout pods, the pods of garden peas are too tough to eat, but popping fresh peas straight from the pod into your mouth remains one of life's great pleasures. Peas don't need fussy preparation when they're in season. Boil them briefly until just tender, add a knob of butter and season with black pepper, perhaps crushing them lightly with a fork before serving alongside grilled fish fillets or slices of boiled ham hock. Alternatively, cook up a prawn risotto, stirring in the peas, a sprinkle of chopped fresh mint and a squeeze of lemon juice just before serving. For picnics, prepare a cold pasta salad and add peas or mangetout, a crumbly, tangy cheese such as feta, chopped mint and plenty of olive oil. Or make a Spanish-style tortilla and add fresh peas and leftover vegetables. When the weather's hot, cool down with chilled pea soup, garnished with a swirl of cream.
Grey mullet Grey mullet is often underrated, passed over in favour of the red mullet (to which it's not related). It's available all year round but is at its best between June and August. This round fish has a firm, rather than flaky, texture and it's oily, which makes it moist and perfect to barbecue, steam, bake or roast. Always sold whole, it's good baked, stuffed either with fennel, mushrooms and garlic and doused in olive oil, or with other strongly flavoured herbs, such as rosemary and thyme.
Watch Mitch Tonks's Buyer's guide to fish. Broad beans Broad beans are at their best from the end of May through to mid-July, when the pods are pale green and soft and the beans are still small. The whole young pod can be cooked and eaten, or the beans can be removed from the pod and cooked. Only brief steaming or cooking is required when broad beans are in their prime but, as the season progresses, the pods get bigger and tougher and then the beans are encased in a thick outer skin. The unappetising skins need to be removed and the beans should go into the pot straightaway. Once cooked, add a little butter and sprinkle with chopped summer savoury or tarragon and serve as an accompaniment to roast lamb or a barbecued fish fillet. Give them an Italian twist by mashing freshly boiled broad beans with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and piling the verdant mash onto bruschetta for an easy summery nibble.
Gooseberries Early small, green gooseberries tend to make the best pies, fools, preserves and chutneys. There are many varieties and these can be hairy or smooth and golden, yellow or pinkish-red. When fully ripe, the dessert varieties can be eaten raw but it's the immature fruit, which always need to be sweetened, that makes the most versatile ingredient. A gooseberry purée is a traditional accompaniment to mackerel but can also be eaten with roast pork or other rich meats: top and tail the fruit, cook with sugar, then blend until smooth. The high pectin content in gooseberries also makes them ideal for jam-making. Adding elderflowers to gooseberry recipes, especially pies, tarts and crumbles, will give a subtle, sweet scent.
TayberriesDeveloped in Scotland, the tayberry is a hybrid of the blackberry and the raspberry. It's a large berry, long and conical in shape and deep reddish-purple, with the flavour and scent of the blackberry. Tayberries can be a little tart, but use them as you would blackberries and raspberries. They work well in cooked dishes such as pies, or in fruit sauces, jams and jellies. They can also be added to uncooked desserts such as summer pudding, ice cream or sorbet.
Also in season apricots I artichoke I asparagus I aubergine I blueberries I broccoli I carrots I cherries I cod I crab I Dover sole I elderflowers I fennel I haddock I halibut I herring I Jersey Royal new potatoes I John Dory I kiwi fruit I lamb I lemon sole I lobster I mackerel I melons I new potatoes I plaice I radishes I raspberries I rocket I runner beans I salmon I sardines I sea bass I sea trout I sorrel I spring onions I tomatoes I turnips I watercress I wood pigeon
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