Annual Honey Fair at Hillsborough helps to celebrate this golden elixir

The annual Honey Fair takes place on the 6th and 7th of August and is a celebration of this golden elixir. As well as beekeepers and honey experts, there’ll be food producers, music and entertainment for the kids.

Honey is one of my top three essential ingredients , along with good seasalt and proper butter, and my cupboard is graced with many jars. The excellent thing about honey is it doesn’t go off. A jar of honey was retrieved from one of the tombs in the Egyptian pyramids that was still edible despite the thousands of years storage. Browsing through my jars I have honey from down the road, from Italy, Romania and Galway. Honey is about a place and a time. Each time a bee gathers nectar from a tree or flora it will determine the outcome of the taste. One of my favourite honeys is Italian chestnut with a scent redolent of the blossom from the trees. It’s also a memory of where I bought it in the Abruzzi mountains. Honey from a garden in Limavady will taste distinctly different from honey gathered in the Mourne Mountains. That is what makes it so special.

Honey is the most versatile product. You can add it to dressings to cut through the acidity. At this time of year when peaches are perfect, they can be cut into wedges, grilled and drizzled with honey at the last minute to caramelize.

Toast some good bread, spread over some ricotta or cream cheese and top with the peaches for a delicious snack or starter. For a refreshing summer salad dice some watermelon and dress with a mixture of chopped chilli, ginger, honey, oil and vinegar. Peaches and honey feature in the first recipe this week where the fruit is roasted in the honey and then anointed with a honey sabayon. Sabayon is egg yolk whisked over heat with some wine and honey. Serve with some shortbread for a light pudding.

Hot honey is on trend at the moment. Essentially its honey infused with chilli and is a lovely addition to grilled meats, cheeses or vegetables. The heat from the chilli cuts through the sweetness of the honey to great effect. Lamb and honey work well together – two perfectly natural products. In the recipe here lamb leg steaks are spiced and then doused with some hot honey at the end of the cooking to glaze and then when its resting. You end up with lovely sweet spicy juices. To serve I’ve added a recipe for honey roast radishes. Radishes have a peppery taste and honey cuts through that. The lamb and radishes are served on a grilled flatbread – perfect to lap up all the cooking liquor.

Tickets for the Hillsborough Honey Fair can be found at hrp.org.uk.