It's asparagus season at last..

Ilkley, the town where I live, is more than fortunate to have a concert club which showcases some of the UK's most talented musicians. Last night it was the Fibonacci Sequence, a chamber ensemble who played Schubert,  Arthur Butterworth (a local composer) and Strauss. I am one of the hosts who look after the musicians post concert.

This is last night's supper and today's lunch. Steamed new season asparagus, pesto and slow roast tomatoes. 

I will add the recipes later but I suspect most people know how to make these simple dishes. They are a classic example of how simply prepared food can taste really great. 

Steaming protects the delicate flavour of asparagus while slow roasting concentrates the flavour of small tomatoes. Both tasted delicious with lovely garlicky, moist pesto.

French macaron - are they worth making?

I have been learning how to make macarons at the York Cookery School. The French ones, not the English kind known as macaroon. The English macaroon are quick to make from foamy meringue into which ground almonds and sometimes coconut are mixed. The French macaron, on the otherhand, take a couple of hours hard labour, require technical skill and can only be made in bulk - about four dozen at a time.

The outer shell of a macaron is brittle whilst the inside is soft. The filling is usually ganache - a mixture of whipped cream and either white or dark chocolate. I like them because they are pettite, sweet and indulgent and their colours are soft and pretty. One or two are really delicious any more and you begin to yearn a savoury snack. They are incredibly sweet.

Some say macarons are set to replace the cup cake in popularity and the craze for them has been fuelled in part by the Great British Bake Off. Apparently new brides are ordering towers of them in place of a traditional solid wedding cake. It is probably wise not to think too deeply about the symbolism being played out here.

Macarons are made from Italian meringue into which ground almonds and a little colouring is mixed. To make the Italian meringue sugar and water are heated to precisely 180C before slowly adding to whisked egg whites. Ground almonds and icing sugar are then folded into the meringue together with more egg white coloured with a paste.The raw macaron mixture has to be blended thoroughly otherwise it cannot be piped.

You need strong arms to hand mix the macaron ingredients. We were discouraged from using an electric mixer because this would beat out too much air.

It helps if there are two of you making the macaron. I worked with my sister Maggie Neil who is a more experienced cake maker than I am. This helped keep me on track.

You also need to be able to pipe competently. Little discs of macaron mixture are piped neatly onto a tray. This is tricky as you don't want them to spread and bump into each other. But it can be done if you put your head down and concentrate. " Keep the nozzle down and just push out a blob" we were told by our instructor Kate Clarkson. You also have to pick up the piping bag again to fill the inside of the macaron.

All macarons taste the same regardless of their colour. It is the fillings that determine the individual flavours. I like pistachio and vanilla - just simple, plain and beautiful. Some colours and fillings are a little garish for my taste.

Macaron are best left in the fridge for a day after making and before eating. This gives the inside of the macaron time to soften. The outer shell and the soft inner are very much part of the sensual experience of eating macaron.

Would I make them again? Probably not unless I was making them for an event. You need a good table top food mixer to beat the egg whites and meringue which I do not have at home. We used lovely Kitchen Aid food mixers that were perfect for the job. You also need a crowd to eat the quantity of macaron made. But don't let that put you off. Macaron are satisfying, quite inexpensive to make and good fun if made in a  pair with a cooking buddy.

They are expensive to buy - good ones cost about 95p each in Yorkshire. They probably cost more in London patisseries, so you are quids in if you make a job lot yourself.

There were two other people on the course I attended - Claire and Anne Chambers, a mother daughter team ,who were prompted to come on the course by British Bake Off fever. They had a great time and some of the macarons in the collage above are made by them.

"Kate is an excellent teacher, willing to help people individually and is very encouraging. She doesn't make you feel like a failure" said my sister Maggie  who is an advisory teacher for Oxfordshire County Council.

Claire and Anne Chambers agreed.

I was learning how to make macaron courtesy of the York Cookery School where ace cake maker Kate Clarkson and her husband Fraser run courses for professional chefs and be

giners.

Courses at the school range from £25 for a taster session to £125 for a masterclass.

Kate Clarkson, Director, York Cookery School

For more information on making macaron and other courses

The York Cookery School

Chicken and eggs

It snowed heavily today in Ilkley. As I woke up I could hear clods of melting snow slide clumsily down the window pane. Goose feathers of snow drifted down to earth and I made a warming cup of tea. I looked out over Ilkley Moor which was shrouded in mist and the high ground was covered in a douvet of snow. 

My mission was to drive 17 miles north to Settle and photograph some unusual chickens. It was cold and wet but I was keen to get some pictures in the bag and stick to my plan despite the awful weather.

I have been asked to mount a small exhibition of my photographs on Yorkshire food at

the Gallery on the Green

 in Settle from 18th May to 6th July and I need some more photographs of eye catching livestock. 

Jean Carr lives in Settle and is a keen allotment holder. She and her husband have acquired the equivalent of five allotments and manage them as a small holding.

 Their land is beautifully kept and positioned on the edge of Settle surrounded by magnificent, towering, craggy Yorkshire landscape. 

Jean keeps about fifty assorted chickens including Cream leg bars, Vorwerks, Houdans and Silkies. Silkies have foppish fringes and look stunning. She also keeps Booted Bantams who look in need of braces to keep their fluffy knicker like leg feathers from falling down. 

At this time of the year the hens are laying prolifically. As we tour the spacious coop and barn I hear a hen cluck. Jean looks at me and says 'that's one being laid'. I look in the wooden nesting box and sure enough a blue egg is ready for collection. It is warm to touch and Jean allows me to take it home.

The eggs are a soft, somber palate of colour - pale blue, olive green, soft grey and cream. When the eggs are cracked open the yolks are vivid orange. This is partly because of the breed but also due to the diet of the chickens which is rich in carotinoids - the coloured pigments in a range of fruit and vegetables. 

These chickens are well fed on fresh vegetable scraps from the allotment and they are free to run about outside in a very large coop. 

The Gallery on the Green at Settle claims to be 'probably the smallest art gallery in the world'. It is housed in a decommissioned telephone box. Inside and just above the 'out of use' phone is a digital screen which displays A4 sized photographs. The gallery/phone box is also given a makeover at the start of each exhibition with props and decor to suit the theme of the exhibition. 

The telephone box was purchased by local residents for £1.00 in 2010 and has become a popular feature of village life in Settle.

The tiny Gallery has some eminent fans including Brian May, Queen's lead guitarist who opened an exhibition of his painstaking collection of stereo images contained in 'Village Lost and Found' a book he co-authored with 

Elena Vidal. 

Brian loves the Gallery on the Green and has asked its curator Roger Taylor (not the one in Queen!) if he can put on another exhibition next year.

Alison Marshall one of the committee that manages the Gallery said with a wry smile 'I am not sure about that as we are very booked up. But we will try to fit him in'.

For more information on my exhibition of Yorkshire Food see 

What's on at the Gallery on the Green, Settle

Yorkshire Food, Yorkshire People 18th May to 6 July 

The Gallery on the Green, Settle