Mint is the gift that keeps giving and that keeps growing after every snip

The mint especially is the gift that keeps giving. Every time I cut it a new crop appears within days.

Thankfully mint is a herb that lends itself to a myriad of savoury and sweet dishes. The most common use is in a classic mint sauce to go with roast lamb.

The mint is chopped finely and mixed with vinegar and a little sugar.

The first recipe is a riff on this combination – lamb leg steaks are marinated and then cooked on the barbecue or grill and served with a mint sauce that also has garlic, lemon, anchovies and pistachio nuts. It’s zinginess comes from the lemon rather than vinegar.

The lamb is marinated in a herby, lemon and garlic mixture. Lamb smells particularly well on the barbecue and adding this mix of aromatics makes it even more intoxicating.

Mint works particularly well with citrus fruits. A simple but delicious fruit salad is orange segments combined with chopped dates and fresh mint –refreshing and bursting with flavour.

Mojito cocktails are mint based with the addition of lime, lots of mint and rum. Mint makes a soothing tea if you have an upset tummy – just add lots of mint leaves to boiling water and allow to infuse for a few minutes before drinking.

Chocolate and mint work beautifully together. The fresh zing of the mint cutting through the rich warmth of the chocolate. Mint chocolate matchmakers and After Eight mints were the taste of treats in my childhood and I still love that merge of flavours. Nowadays I like to make chocolate truffles by adding a handful of chopped mint to 125ml of hot double cream with two tablespoons liquid glucose added.

Bring to the boil and then infuse for half an hour. Melt 250g of chopped dark chocolate with 75g of butter and pour the hot cream mixture through a sieve on top. Squeeze well to get as much of the mint essence in. Mix well and chill to set. Roll into balls and toss in cocoa. Chocolate and mint forms the basis for my other recipe this week – the classic chocolate and mint traybake. When I was young I thought these were a work of art and admired anyone who took the time to make them.

They’re something I’d forgotten about until someone requested them for a big birthday they were celebrating – the nostalgia of this treat soothed the number of candles on the cake…..

Traditionally you’d use mint essence and some lurid green food colouring but I’ve infused the mint in cream with some white chocolate added.

This is whisked into the buttercream to top the baked biscuit, before covering in dark chocolate.