“I have solved the mystery of all those ancient May Day customs, such as dancing around the maypole, crowning the May Queen, and skipping about waving branches of apple blossom. These were, in fact, clever excuses for getting out of all the do-it-yourself jobs.”

Oliver Pritchett, The Telegraph

Saucy Dressings aims to complete this post – four weeks’ menus and recipes, plus a few spare by the end of 2024. Every year an additional week’s menu, with the links to the individual recipes, is added.

For food in season in May, follow this link.

For music to listen to while cooking in May, follow this link.

In May we have two bank holidays and the Chelsea flower show…. nothing very interesting.

But we also have improving weather and more spring vegetables dropping onto our kitchen tables – it’s the month of the Alresford watercress festival. You might also be interested in these posts:

• guide to edible flowers
• peppery watercress salsa verde
• borage and watercress salad

Week’s menu for May: number 1

The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh. 

Philip Larkin

Saturday lunch:

• smoked trout pate with Irish paprika soldiers

or

• love child of a soufflé and an omelette, drizzled with truffle oil

or

• bountiful burrata toasties

followed by

• cakey cookies with Brazil nuts

Sunday evening mince:

• tagliatelle with tapenade

WITH

• soft green salad with dried cranberries, pistachios and spring onions

OR

• Artichoke and ricotta salad, enlivened by capers and pine nuts

Monday evening meat:

• piccatina di vitello with crushed lemony potatoes and roasted asparagus

OR with

• stuffed aubergine – one of Princess Diana’s favourite dishes

Tuesday evening:

• night out or leftovers

Wednesday evening poultry:

• little red rooster, inspired by Mick Jagger’s song and Christopher Bruce’s choreography

OR

• chicken fillets with butter beans and basil sauce

Thursday evening dinner party:

• starter: roasted artichoke hearts

OR

• starter: aubergine and red pepper terrine
• main course: against all odds pork
• with: Saucy Dressings’ sweet and saucy carrots

OR

• main course: summery salmon en croûte with dill, watercress, and spinach

• pudding: maple syrup and bourbon souffle

OR

• pudding: simple, stunning, almost instant, lashings-of-limoncello cake

Thank God It’s Friday Drink:

• The Saucy Cocktail

Friday evening fish:

• trout in a green dress

OR

• golden, breaded and smoked haddock

WITH

• pea purée

OR

• two pea and pumpkin seed salad
• roasted new potatoes

OR

• light as a soufflé spinach in a cheese sauce

Week’s menu for May: number 2

“And who could not be touched to melancholy in the fifth month, when the sweet flag iris leaves are laid on roofs, and the rice seedlings are planted out, and the water rail’s knocking call is heard?”

Kenkō, A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees (written circa 1330)

Saturday lunch:

• Prince Radziwill’s sardine and smoked salmon pâté
• green beans with black olives
• griddled aubergines and baby plum tomatoes with tahini sauce

OR

• courgette baked with cheese – kaygana
• hot day tomato and watermelon salad from Bamberg

OR

• a salad of soft white Gorgonzola, roasted hazelnuts and zucchini

FOLLOWED BY

• cranberry and dark chocolate cookies

Sunday evening:

• Persian … or Turkish…pomegranate and walnut chicken with pilaf

OR

• what to do with leftover lamb….or leftover beef

Monday evening chicken:

• Indian curry with fenugreek and other spices, jasmine rice and parsnip crisps

OR

• chicken more Greek than Marbella with prunes and pink Martini

WITH

• Courgette and walnut salad with infused oil

Tuesday evening:

• night out or leftovers

Wednesday evening meat:

• beef fillet with fenugreek and beans with coconut

OR

• Steak au Poivre with caramelised shallots, creamed spinach and wonderful wedge potatoes OR with mozzarella, pesto, and celery salad

Thursday evening dinner party:

• starter: romanesco with parsley and garlic sauce

OR

• starter: Julia Child’s mousselines de poisson
• vegetarian main course: potato tarte Tatin, broad beans and artichokes and spinach, aubergines with saffron yoghurt
• pudding: lemon nearly trifle or black locust flower fritters

Thank God It’s Friday drink:

• Pimms

… and to nibble at with it:

• old friend cream cheese glazed with sweet chilli sauce

Friday evening fish:

• trout with a salacious spinach sauce
• crunchy, creamy potato salad

OR

• A not very Portuguese fish omelette

OR

• Middle-eastern cod goujons with a slurpy garlic dip and an iceberg salad

Week’s menu for May: number 3

“May in Ayemenem is a hot, brooding month. The days are long and humid. The river shrinks and black crows gorge on bright mangoes in still, dustgreen trees. Red bananas ripen. Jackfruits burst. Dissolute bluebottles hum vacuously in the fruity air.”

Mina Holland, The Edible Atlas

Saturday lunch:

• Lincolnshire chine

AND

• apricot salad with marcona almonds and mozzarella

OR

• Piperade, a sort of spicy Basque version of ratatouille  – served every which way, with eggs, with ham, as a savoury tarte Tatin…or a sauce for pasta or fish

OR

• Fluffy, exotic mixed rice for an Indian spring

FOLLOWED BY

• cracking chocolate combination

Sunday supper:

• Ceppatelli mushrooms

OR

• pasta all’aglio e olio

Monday evening meat:

• Japanese meatballs

Tuesday evening:

• night out or leftovers

Wednesday evening poultry:

• a bit Greek and a bit Turkish chicken kebabs

with

• artichoke, goats cheese and black olives

or with

• avocado salad

Thursday evening dinner party:

• with drinks: mushroom encased quail’s eggs
• starter: little gem and goats’ cheese OR seventh heaven ham and melon
• main course: lamb stuffed with saffron rice
• vegetable: peas – how to cook frozen
• pudding: House of Lords’ chocolate truffle cake

Thank God It’s Friday drink:

• pink and tonic summer cocktail

….. and to eat with it:

• houmus with walnut oil and cumin
• middle eastern sesame crackers

Friday evening fish:

• Tom and Mark sea bream
• fennel with parmesan

OR

• celebratory sea bass baked on a bed of soft-braised potato and fennel with sublime orange sauce

Week’s menu for May: number 4

“In May, that moder is of monthes glade,
That fresshe floures, blewe, and whyte, and rede,
Ben quike agayn, that winter dede made, 
And ful of bawme is fleting every mede.”

Geoffrey Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde

Saturday lunch:

• courgette ribbon and flaky pie
• Meghan Markle’s favourite watermelon and feta salad

OR

• sixties-style smoked salmon cheesecake with vodka
• bright salad or pickled cucumber

OR

• a hearty, creamy, celery leaf soup

OR

• Magnificent and surprising hot melon salad

FOLLOWED BY

• lemon puffs

Sunday supper:

• pasta alla carbonara

OR

• orecchiette with buttermilk, peas and pistachios

Monday evening meat:

• coconut and coriander lamb

Tuesday evening:

• night out or leftovers

Wednesday evening poultry:

• Not-rabbit with mustard, parma ham and crème fraiche

Thursday evening dinner party:

• with drinks: pesto and sundried tomato paste crostini
• starter: vallée verte goats cheese

OR

• starter: crunchy, creamy, carrot starter
• main course: country chicken with
• vegetables: barley and magnificent mushrooms
• vegetables: and X-rated, flaming  tequila carrots
• pudding:   strawberry and prosecco jelly

OR

• pudding: a pretty pink-and-green chocolate and caramel dead-cinch no-bake cake for Kate

Thank God It’s Friday drink:

• Basil Bliss – gin, manzana, fresh ginger, lime, basil, grapefruit foam

….. and to eat with it:

• ricotta and yoghurt dip with celery

Friday evening fish:

• haddock with saint’s sauce