It’s April, and probably the last opportunity to soak up a lovely warm-ish day in South Africa before the cold chill of winters approach sets in. Why not arrange some outdoor time on your patio with friends and family and surprise them by preparing some dishes, almost exclusively from your garden?

Right now you could be harvesting a host of herbs like thyme, parsley, marjoram and mint, to name a few and the season for veggies like peppers, tomatoes and beetroot will be coming to an end, so it’s a great excuse to pick and use them. Here are just a few quick and easy recipes you could rustle up for just such an outdoor occasion, in April.

Our monkfish recipe below calls for peppers, baby tomatoes, lettuce and some lemon, all of which can be plucked directly out of your garden at this time of year! Harvesting directly from your garden is not only convenient but also has the added benefit of eating healthy, naturally grown fruit and vegetables in season and you’ll taste the difference.

Some harvesting tips to keep in mind before getting stuck in:

• Prolong your lettuce harvest by only picking the larger, outer leaves each time, allowing the inner leaves to keep growing.
• Tomatoes are ready to be picked when they’re uniformly red – just before they soften.
• Lemons, depending on variety and care should be available to harvest pretty much all year round, so keep your tree well watered, prune when necessary and protect it from pests to keep your bounty flowing.
• Peppers are a Catch-22 harvest. If you want volume you should pick them frequently and before they mature since they’ll keep trying to produce viable seed but if it is flavor you’re after you need to let them reach maturity before harvesting knowing you’ll have less but tastier fruit.

Monkfish Kebabs

(http://www.womanandhome.com/)

Ingredients:

• 600g Monkfish tail, cut into 16 equal pieces
• 16 mini uncooked chorizo sausages
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large peppers, each pepper cut into 12 pieces
• Lemon wedges, baby tomatoes and lettuce to serve.

Preparation:

• Place a piece of pepper, followed by a piece of monkfish, then a chorizo sausage, on a metal skewer, then repeat again and finish each kebab with another piece of pepper.

• Brush the kebabs with a little olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the kebabs on a hot barbecue and cook on each side for approximately 6 minutes. Serve with the lemon wedges, baby tomatoes and lettuce.