Time to give up the roast potatoes for a while and enjoy some of this season's new potatoes. We’re into the months of simple cookery, where the fruit and vegetables around are more than capable of impressing with the minimum of effort. Asparagus needs to be steamed or briefly boiled in salted water, nothing more than that. To ensure that you have no woody stem to embarrass your guests bend the asparagus spears and they’ll break at the point where the woody part ends. Use the waste for soup.

Ingredients - serves 4

700g beef roast
olive oil
salt, pepper
a glass of red wine
250ml beef stock
1-2 tsp crème fraiche

24 small new potatoes
1 tbsp chopped mint leaves
24 spears of asparagus
butter
salt and pepper

Method

Lightly oil the beef, season and roast to suit your taste. I prefer beef pink but I wouldn’t dictate, allow it to rest in a warm place before carving and while it does so, deglaze the roasting pan with a little red wine, when this reduces to almost nothing, add some beef stock and reduce again to half volume and then whisk in a couple of teaspoons of creme fraiche. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Scrub new potatoes and boil to tender in salted water, drain and crush lightly with the back of a wooden spoon. This fluffs up the potatoes and now when you add a generous knob of butter they’ll take it up and be delicious. Sprinkle with some finely chopped mint and fold in.

Serve slices of beef beside crushed potato and spears of asparagus, spoon over the sauce. Have creamed horseradish available.