Gloucestershire food with Rob Rees July 2009

With soaring temperatures welcoming in July, The Cotswold Chef Rob Rees sets his sights on wild food for summer cocktails, fruit-picking family daytrips, fennel and fresh garlic this month in Gloucestershire.

School’s out for summer this month, so there’s never been a better time to indulge in some PYO family experiences – with strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries in abundance this month. A terrific chance for parents to engage their children with the food chain, picking-your-own will encourage the little ones to smell, touch and taste a larder and lifestyle that Gloucestershire is so special at showcasing, and it’s great fun for the grown-ups too.

Gloucestershire’s farm shops and farmers’ markets prove a real hive of activity in July, as the produce starts to flow from the fields – with new season radishes, globe artichokes and garlic adorning colourful stalls across the county. Fresh garlic has a soft skin that can be cut up and used in cooking – and it is particularly great for marinades and salads, or succulent when baked with bay leaf, clove, white wine and creamed into soup.

The sprightliness of summer is directly delivered with invigorating fennel – it’s refreshing, zany and intense taste of aniseed should be ignored at your peril in July. Fennel is fantastic roasted on a barbeque or in the oven, used instead of celery with some of the county’s cheeses, or married with local trout and a few drops of truffle oil as well as gratings of parmesan for a real experience.

Spinach in July has a delicious earthy sweetness about it, which is refreshing when finely chopped and placed into a soup or a creamy Vermouth sauce. It is equally effective when mixed together as part of a salad – throw in a few sunflower seeds, some orange segments and a spoonful of local honey to glaze or mix with plain yoghurt and the new season’s spring onions.

The English season for legumes also really kicks in during July. Peas loosened from the pod explode with sweetness and are a real summer highlight. Tender young broad beans can be combined into salads or velvety soups and purees, or perhaps par boiled and sautéed with a touch of crushed fresh garlic, grated ginger and a splash of cream.

For those keen on foraging for the wild harvest, the heavily-scented but unsprayed rose can make a delicious garnish poached in stock syrup, while the delicate little blue flowers of borage will adorn ubiquitous summer Pimms cocktails with impressive, and unique, aplomb.

Also, keep an eye out for fresh wild strawberries too. This tiny little red fruit can often be found blushing under the thick leaves of the forest, hedgerows or rockeries in Gloucestershire. Pick gently and wash these little beauties lightly, in the catering trade we pay excessive amounts for the fruit which are as juicy as an old-fashioned Opal Fruit – indeed, they are likely to make your mouth water.

See you again in July for more scrumptious summer food highlights spread right across Gloucestershire’s borders, until then you can visit my website at thecotswoldchef.com, or follow me at twitter.com/thecotswoldchef.

Rob Rees
1 July 2009