Roast squash, cobnut and cheese salad
A delicious salad for a light evening meal. Fresh cobnuts are so pretty, with their frilly husks wrapped like green overcoats around the pale shells. It’s worth the effort of shelling them: when fresh, the milky white kernels have a mild yet distinctive flavour. If you can’t find fresh cobnuts, you can use any kind of hazelnut instead.
Serves 4Approximately 600g red kuri squash, cut into wedges, skin left on
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
150g shelled cobnuts or hazelnuts, skinned
Mixed green salad leaves
150g mature cheddar (or similar)
For the dressing:
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
Preheat the oven to 190˚C (170˚C fan). Arrange the pumpkin wedges on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Drizzle over a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until just tender.
Meanwhile, chop the cobnuts and toast them in a dry frying pan over a low heat until they start to turn golden.
Whisk together the dressing ingredients until smooth, and season to taste.
Arrange the salad leaves and pumpkin slices on 4 serving plates. Thinly slice or pare the cheese into shavings with a vegetable peeler and scatter over the salad. Drizzle over the salad dressing, sprinkle over the toasted nuts, and serve.
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Electric For best results, keep the steam vent open.
Wood-fired The oven dial should read between mod and hot.
Recipe from my book Autumn
Bramble vinegar
A great way to use abundant hedgerow blackberries, this tangy, fruity vinegar is perfect for autumnal salad dressings and for adding to sauces. The acidity of vinegar enables it to extract flavours from fruits and herbs brilliantly. I haven’t given precise quantities here: you can make as much or as little as you like.
MAKES 1 jarBlackberries, picked over, rinsed and drained
Apple cider vinegar, to cover
Fill a glass jar with brambles and pour over enough vinegar to fully immerse the fruit. Put a lid on the jar and leave in a cool, dark place for at least a week – the longer the blackberries steep, the stronger the flavour.
Strain the vinegar through a sieve lined with a piece of clean muslin over a bowl. Gather up the fruit in the muslin and squeeze gently to extract as much liquid as possible. Pour into a sterilised glass bottle.
Recipe from my book Autumn
Posh beans on toast
This makes a nutritious breakfast, and is a great way of using up the last of the fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse. For extra protein, grate over some Parmesan-style cheese before serving, or top with a poached egg.
Serves 22 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 × 400g can borlotti beans, drained
3 sprigs of thyme, finely chopped
A pinch of chilli flakes
2 slices or more of seeded wholemeal sourdough
Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Put the olive oil into a frying pan set over a medium-high heat and add the tomatoes and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes until the tomatoes start to break down (if very ripe, they will cook quicker). Stir in the cooked beans, thyme and chilli flakes, and simmer gently for a few minutes to heat through. Taste for seasoning.
Toast your bread and put it onto serving plates. Drizzle with olive oil and spoon over the beans. Drizzle over a little more olive oil if you wish.
Recipe from my book Autumn
Apple and ginger buckwheat traybake
Buckwheat flour is nutritious, gluten-free and has a delicious nutty flavour. This is an easy cake to make, and delicious served warm as a pudding. It’s a healthy option, too: being packed full of apples, not too much sugar needs to be added.
My son Henry gave me a tip for grating fresh ginger: if you peel it and freeze it, you can grate it from frozen. That way, the ginger’s fibres are broken down, which prevents any stringy bits from clogging up the grater.
SERVES 8110g golden syrup
75g light muscovado sugar
75g butter
175g buckwheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A walnut-sized piece of root ginger, grated
1 Bramley apple, peeled and grated
2 eggs
For the topping:
4 eating apples, sliced
About 1 tablespoon honey
Preheat the oven to 170˚C (150˚C fan). Line a 20cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
Put the golden syrup, sugar and butter into a saucepan. Melt slowly over a low heat and leave to cool.
Put the flour into a mixing bowl with the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, root ginger and grated apple. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, along with the sugar and butter mixture. Beat together and pour into the prepared cake tin.
Top with the sliced apples and bake for about 40 minutes until firm to the touch and just starting to colour. Remove from the oven.
Warm a little honey in a saucepan and lightly brush over the top of the cake to glaze, then cool on a wire rack.
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Electric For best results, keep the steam vent closed.
Wood-fired The oven dial should read mod.
Recipe from my book Autumn