The 'hunger gap' is a time between seasons when locally grown produce is thin on the ground

Recently I’ve signed up to a vegetable box delivery scheme. There are many of these around the country but the one local to me is Rhee River organics. They email on a Tuesday with what they have available and deliver on a Thursday. At this time of year they have lots of green vegetables, salad leaves, white turnips and Jerusalem artichokes. As the year moves on they’ll have summer vegetables like tomatoes, squashes, cucumbers, beans and herbs. There’s something very satisfying about seasonality dictating what you cook and eat.

Jerusalem artichokes are classified as a tuber but are less starchy and have a nutty flavour. They’re a nobbly, dark brown vegetable that just need a good scrub to prepare them. They can be whizzed into a soup, sliced and fried in butter and added to pasta and risotto, deep fried into crisps as a garnish, baked and stuffed like a potato, the list is endless. One of my favourite ways of cooking them is in a gratin. The vegetable is thinly sliced and cooked in a mixture of milk and cream that’s been seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg. When they’re still have a bit of bit the mixture is layered with fried onions, topped with cheddar and cooked to golden, bubbling deliciousness. This would be excellent served with a grilled steak or roast chicken but here I’ve paired it with an apple braised ham. The ham is cooked with aromatic vegetables and cider and finished with an apple and honey glaze. Some greens would complete the meal perfectly.

The availability of white turnips is unpredictable. When I get my hands on them I embraced them, enjoy them immensely and look forward to their reappearance. Much like a friend from abroad that visits sporadically. For me soup is something that I like to eat all year round. Let’s face it there are times when the weather in December isn’t dissimilar to that in July. White turnips can be cooked like their yellow fleshed relatives – simply steamed or boiled and finished with butter or black pepper. You can shave them, toss with sliced apples, red onions and a sharp dressing to accompany grills. They also make a fabulous soup. The key to this soup is to slowly cook onions and celery in quite a lot of butter to begin with. Add the turnip, a potato, and cover with stock (some of the juices left over from cooking the ham would work very well) and simmer. Check the seasoning and blend to a smooth puree. It has a silky, creamy texture. For a bit of crunch I’ve added a recipe for a hazelnut granola – oats, hazelnuts, butter and rosemary are baked then mixed up half way for even cooking. Sprinkle over the hot soup and serve.