What's in season: May & June

June menu

Beetroot, new potato and smoked eel salad with dill cream

Griddled breast of Gressingham duck, with a cherry and balsamic sauce

Strawberry Fair
It has to be strawberries for dessert in June. However, for a wedding breakfast or birthday party, I think you can really go to town here, and have a strawberry buffet, hence the name, Strawberry Fair.

Here are a few strawberry recipes to get you started:

Strawberry ice cream
Strawberry and blueberry terrine with strawberry sauce
Eton mess or Strawberry and raspberry fool
Strawberry tart

Tom's wine recommendations:
The first week in June is English Wine Week and these are the wines that I recommend with Frances' recipes this month, on the basis that local wine goes with local food and this is such an English menu. And note, it is English wine, not British wine. English wine is made in England from grapes grown in English vineyards. As the saying goes, British wine is neither British nor wine. It is made in factories here from grape juice imported from all over the world, and has, in my view, nothing to recommend it.

If you can afford about #15 a bottle, Nyetimber or Chapel Down Brut Reserve 1995 make a festive start to any party. For something less expensive, the non-vintage Chapel Down Brut makes an excellent Pimm?s Royale.

Smoked fish is ideal partnered with the Fume from New Wave Wines. Ortega, Seyval Blanc and Reichensteiner grown in vineyards in Tenterden, Kent, make up this soft fragrant wine. We have had it with smoked haddock, and it will do justice to the smoked eel.

With the duckling, I recommend the 1999 English Pinot Noir, which the company boldly suggests will `surprise the Burgundian bores'. With typical berry flavours and up to 12 months barrel ageing, this has the body and bottle age of a most respectable wine. Do serve it cool rather than the average British `room temperature', which makes most red wine taste like soup.

English sweet wine is made occasionally, but is elusive. Instead, I recommend Moscato d?Asti, served very chilled. Low in alcohol, fresh and sweet but never cloying, this is the best fizz to serve with a strawberry-based - or indeed any fruit - dessert.