Salad are nowadays a much more lavish affair with diverse influences

My grandparents grew a lot of their own vegetables and the lettuce and scallions would have been pulled from the ground a matter of minutes before they ended up on the plate. The tomatoes were grown in a greenhouse at the side of the house and the smell of the plants under hot steamy glass is a sense that always brings me back to that particular time and place. If you were lucky, my grandfather would have dug up some Sharpe’s Express potatoes, a family favourite, to have on the side. It was a very simple affair but all the component parts were so fresh and delicious.

Salad nowadays is a much more lavish affair with middle eastern, Asian and European influences. A ham salad is something I still love but something that never ceases to amaze me is the price of sliced meats. You can buy a whole, raw ham for less than a tenner – a mouthful of it sliced could nearly cost the same. Boiling and glazing a ham makes for a tasty and economical alternative to buying ready sliced. Here the boiled ham gets a glaze of sugar, maple, mustard powder and vinegar. It’s served with a broad bean, radish and egg salad. Broad beans are in season now. You can pod them and then boil them or place them on a barbecue to scorch then open. The beans will have steamed in the pod and have a nice smokiness. The beans and radish are dressed in a simple vinaigrette then served on lettuce with sliced ham and soft boiled eggs. A few steamed Home Guards or Sharpes Express would be an ideal accompaniment.

Chicken is another meat that costs so much more when cooked and sliced. Smoked chicken is even more expensive again. Smoking chicken doesn’t require any fancy equipment – just a roasting tray, tin foil and some woodchips. Line a tray with foil and scatter over some woodchips. Place a rack on top and add the chicken. Cover tightly with foil, you need to create a vacuum, and place direct on heat. I’d advise doing this outside so as not to stink the house out and set the smoke alarms off. Allow to smoke for a few minutes then turn off. Finish the chicken in the oven and slice – all the flavour and a fortune saved. Here the recipe calls for the smoked chicken to be served with a Waldorf salad.

This salad has fallen out of favour a bit but it’s still a classic. Rather than the usual celery I’ve substituted celeriac and some grapes instead of the apple. Cheese is something I’ve always put into a Waldorf but I don’t think it’s traditional.

Add a smoky one for a bit of oomph. Mix it up and serve with thinly sliced smoked chicken on top.

And again a few hot new season spuds wouldn’t go amiss …