Great outdoors

Mark Hix is about to swap his bachelor pad for a terraced home. Is he sad? No! Roll on late breakfasts in the garden this summer

I've spent the past few years dreaming about having a garden (and living off the memories of the last one I had), especially when spring arrives. I'm itching to get my hands on a patch of earth again. And soon I'll get the chance: I'm moving out of my bachelor pad in Shoreditch - where I don't even have a window box - and into a house ... with a garden.

I've spent the past few years dreaming about having a garden (and living off the memories of the last one I had), especially when spring arrives. I'm itching to get my hands on a patch of earth again. And soon I'll get the chance: I'm moving out of my bachelor pad in Shoreditch - where I don't even have a window box - and into a house ... with a garden.

I used to have one. That was years ago now, and I've missed nipping outside to pick salad leaves and herbs whenever I feel like it, then knocking up a salad without having to buy, well, hardly anything. I used to have friends round for a spot of al fresco dining, knowing that some of what they would be eating was picked a few feet from where they'd be sitting, just a few minutes before they arrived. I'm thinking herbs and some runner beans, peas eaten straight from the pod, strawberries, an apple tree or two ... OK, maybe I'm running ahead a little now, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to grow something that I can eat this summer.

And I'm imagining those lazy Sunday mornings, when you skip breakfast and move straight on to a summery brunch in the garden instead. The spring is no time for roasts and wintery stews, but it's easy to create simple and straightforward brunch-type dishes from seasonal goodies. Even if you don't call it brunch, the American style of late morning eating is catching on in restaurants and at home. What's best to eat then? I think it should be easy-going food, unfussy, with clear but gutsy flavours.

Eggs Benedict, for example. It's got all the ingredients of breakfast just stacked up into an incredible and sophisticated all-day snack or light meal. The hollandaise really makes it something special. It's been on our menus in the restaurants since day one. At Le Caprice we serve a variation with smoked salmon instead of bacon, called eggs Arlington, after the street the restaurant is on. At J Sheekey we serve a very posh version called eggs Royale which is an Arlington with a spoonful of caviar on top. Perfect with a glass or two of bubbly to get Sunday off to a late start.

Quail egg and sprue asparagus salad

Serves 4

The short asparagus season was a bit of a late starter this year and no sooner had it started than it's almost over. I always make an effort to avoid buying the Spanish asparagus for home consumption as it seems a shame not to use our home grown. Although to be perfectly honest, this time round, I almost forgot to buy our great English asparagus because I've been eating a lot of delicious wild sea kale. And it's free. You're unlikely to find it in a greengrocer, but if you're on a beach, look out for the plants that look like sprouting broccoli.

12 quails' eggs
250g thin, sprue asparagus, woody stalks trimmed
50g small salad leaves like land cress, rocket, lambs lettuce, baby spinach or small celery leaves
Celery salt

for the dressing

1tbsp good quality white wine vinegar, such as Chardonnay
1tbsp vegetable oil
2tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring 2 pans of water to the boil, one salted for the asparagus and one for the quails' eggs. Carefully lower the eggs into the water and simmer gently for 2 minutes then run under the cold tap until they are cool. The yolk should be a little runny, so peel them carefully.

Cook the asparagus for 2-3 minutes until tender then refresh under cold water. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Dress the leaves and asparagus, season and arrange on plates with the quails' eggs and sprinkle with celery salt.

Arbroath smokie hash with fried egg

Serves 4

Arbroath on the east coast of Scotland is famous for its smokies. The hot-smoked haddock (whole apart from their heads) were not so long ago given Protected Geographical Status by the European Union. I recently came back from a trip to Spinks smokehouse in Arbroath with a couple of packets of their smokies, which were a subtle shade of yellow, not that bright artificial buttercup colour that comes from dye. Smoked haddock is a traditional breakfast dish, and I do love a corned beef hash. Using the smokies in a hash seemed like a good way to marry the two ideas.

You can eat this with or without a fried egg, but I think the egg really makes it.

2 large baking potatoes, boiled in their skins until cooked but firm, and peeled
2 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 Arbroath smokie, weighing around 250g, skinned and boned, or the same weight of undyed smoked haddock fillet
2tsp freshly grated horseradish
1tbsp chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil for frying
A good knob of butter
4 eggs

Gently cook the onion in a little vegetable oil for 5-6 minutes with a lid on, stirring every so often, season, add a little butter and continue cooking with a lid off until they just begin to colour, then transfer to a bowl.

Coarsely grate the potatoes and add to the onions with the flaked smokie flesh. Add the horseradish and parsley, season and then mix well.

You can make individual hashes if you have one of those tiny non-stick egg pans, or make one large one and cut it afterwards.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, preferably non stick, add the mixture and shape it into a cake with a spatula.

Let the hash cook for 4-5 minutes until it begins to colour nicely underneath then flip it over like a pancake. Or turn it out by inverting it on to a plate then heating a little more oil in the pan and sliding the hash back into the pan. Cook for another 4-5 minutes.

Meanwhile fry the eggs and serve on top of the hash.

Minted pea soup

Serves 4-6

Apart from eating raw peas straight from the pod - picked from my own garden minutes before - I love pea soup, with that almost unreal intensity of flavour and colour and silky texture. To keep that fresh garden taste you have to make soup properly; keep the cooking time short. And although peas are coming into season, you can get as good a fresh taste from frozen. In fact they'll give you a better result, and in a fraction of the time.

1 leek, roughly chopped and washed
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
50g butter
1.5litres vegetable stock
400g frozen peas
A few sprigs of mint
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Gently cook the leek and onion in the butter until soft. Add the vegetable stock, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the peas and mint, bring back to the boil and simmer for 6-7 minutes. Blend the soup in a liquidiser until smooth and strain through a fine meshed sieve. Correct the seasoning if necessary. Serve with a dollop of yogurt or crème fraîche, if you like.

Cranberry blondies

Makes 25 small or 9 large

Like many gentlemen I've always preferred blondies to brownies. In her new book, Good Cooking (Quadrille, £18.99), Jill Dupleix has a great recipe for the alternative chocolate brownie. They're made with white chocolate and she adds cranberries to give that touch of pink that suits blondes so well.

200g butter, plus extra for tin
300g good quality white chocolate, chopped
3 medium eggs
150g caster sugar
1/2tsp pure vanilla extract
200g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1tbsp grated orange zest
100g dried cranberries
Icing sugar for dusting

Heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Lightly butter an 18 x 28cm baking tin and line the base with greaseproof paper. In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, melt the butter with 150g of the white chocolate, whisking well until smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together until pale. Beat in the melted white chocolate mixture. Fold in the flour and salt, then the remaining chopped chocolate, orange zest and the 75g of the cranberries. Pour into the baking tin and strew the rest of the cranberries on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is firm and the inside is still a bit soft. Leave to cool in the tin. Cut into small or large squares, dust with icing sugar and serve. Great with vanilla ice cream.