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Spelt French toast with smashed blueberries and blackberries
Another very happy childhood food memory. French toast is as comforting as a feather-filled bed.
SERVES 4
A day-old spelt loaf
4 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
125ml/½ cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of agave syrup or brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of butter
For the smashed blueberries and blackberries
2 generous handfuls each of blackberries and blueberries
1 tablespoon of water
3 tablespoons of agave syrup or honey
4 heaped tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
Put the berries in a saucepan with the water and agave or honey. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, or until they begin to split into a big jammy autumnal mess.
Slice the stale loaf into manageable toast-sized pieces. In a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and egg yolk with the milk, vanilla, agave or sugar and the pinch of salt. When well incorporated, pour this mixture into a shallow baking dish. Start putting the bread in it, making sure it’s fully dunked. You need to let the bread sit in this eggy bath for at least 20 minutes, so it can really soak it up. If the bread needs help, prick it with a fork to help the egg mixture permeate.
Take a big griddle pan or large heavy-bottomed frying pan and melt the butter. Put the egg-soaked bread in, in batches if needs be. Cook it for about 4 minutes on each side, until the bread is bronzed on the outside and soft on the in. Serve on warmed plates, with the smashed berries and yoghurt on top.
Mushrooms on toast
This is also perfect for a Sunday night supper when there are few around and you can eat this on your lap, a poached egg on top of it, watching a good old costume drama.
SERVES 2
A good few handfuls of mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
A handful of fresh parsley
A pinch of fresh chopped tarragon
A knob of butter
A whisper of single/light cream
Salt and pepper
Slices of soda bread or dark rye, toasted and buttered
First of all, make sure your pan is searing hot. Otherwise, your mushrooms can get soggy and unpleasant and, frankly, a soggy mushroom is a bit grim. Toss in the mushrooms at the same time as the olive oil and the garlic. You should hear an angry hiss. Hurrah!
Keep throwing it all around and when the mushrooms are the burnished shade that appeals to you, toss in the parsley, tarragon and butter. There should be lots of juices in the pan and I suggest you add to them with a trickle of cream. And maybe a splash of white wine? But I suppose it is breakfast. Season to taste and serve on crispy buttered toast with a big cup of tea.
Apple cider omelette
There is nothing more English nor more autumnal than an apple swollen from the tree in late September. This omelette celebrates that in my house. Put your scarf on and kick some leaves!
SERVES 1
2 tablespoons of butter
¼ of a small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper
3 eggs
50g/½ cup of mature/sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
1 teaspoon of sumac
1 teaspoon of fresh chopped thyme
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter, on a medium heat, in a non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and turn the heat down, cooking until it is soft. Add the apple cider vinegar and season, cooking until the vinegar is absorbed. Whisk the eggs and, adding the rest of the butter to the frying pan, pour in the eggs over the onion mixture, making sure it’s distributed easily. Agitate it a bit and add the Cheddar, sumac and thyme. Flip it, cooking for another 30 seconds or so until cooked, and serve.
Gooseberry yoghurt
Dedicated to my Aunt Lucy – a gooseberry fan. So much so that when she was in Amsterdam and saw gooseberries on the menu, she began shouting ‘Gooseberries!’ at the top of her voice and did a little joyous dance, much to the amusement of my cousins, her daughters. She does live in Los Angeles, so is gooseberry deprived, rather than just a bit weird.
SERVES 4
400g/14oz of gooseberries
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of orange flower water
185ml/¾ cup of Greek yoghurt
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4. Put the gooseberries in an ovenproof baking dish and sprinkle with the sugar and orange flower water. Cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, take out and leave to cool thoroughly. Strain the gooseberries, pour into the blender and purée for a minute or so.
This can be eaten in a multitude of ways. Pour on the top of the yoghurt so it drips through, leave on the bottom of the yoghurt to find as a surprise or ribbon through it.
Autumn Lunches
Heartbreak carbonara (or the first thing I ever cooked for a boy)
To marry with the wistful theme of my autumn, here is the first thing I ever cooked for a boy who I loved quietly and secretly. The carbonara in the pan lingered longer than he did — he wolfed it down with a bottle of Chianti, and informed me he was actually in love with a dancer called Willow (or something infinitely more exotic than Sophie). Then he disappeared into the night. I lay sobbing on the floor, wishing I could be angular and coordinated like Willow. Indeed, I cried such a ridiculous amount that in the morning I looked as if I had a black eye, and my mother gave me a heartbreak dispensation day off school.
SERVES 4
125g/4½ 0z of pancetta, bacon or ham
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 egg yolks
30g/¼ cup of grated Parmesan
A splash of white wine
2 tablespoons of single/light cream
Salt and pepper
500g/1lb 2oz of spaghetti
Cut the pancetta into bite-sized pieces. In a medium-sized frying pan, put a small glug of oil and cook the pancetta until crispy. Put to the side.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the egg yolks, Parmesan, splash of wine, the cream and some salt and pepper. Add the pancetta and mix it all together. Cook the pasta and, as soon as it is ready, mix it quickly with the sauce so the egg doesn’t cook.
Heartbreak not essential.
Squash and Parmesan soup
This is what blowsy October days are made for. Comforting and golden, this soup is a hymn to autumn. I first made this clucking around in upstate New York when I had some leftover squash. It works just as well with pumpkin or sweet potato.
SERVES 4
50g/½ stick of butter
1kg/2lb of squash, cubed
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons of sherry
875ml/3½ cups of chicken or vegetable stock
½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
A couple of bay leaves
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of double/heavy cream
A handful of toasted pumpkin seeds
A handful of fresh chopped parsley
A handful of grated Parmesan
In a heavy-bottomed pan, melt the butter and add the squash, onion and garlic. Cook for a few minutes. Add the sherry, stir and then add the stock, cayenne pepper and bay leaves. Cook until the squash is tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and blend the soup either with a hand-held mixer or in the blender. Season and add the cream. Serve with a topping of pumpkin seeds, parsley and grated Parmesan.
Spanish omelette
Like a frittata, a bit of a recycling dish for what you’ve got lying around. Also great for a lunchbox for a small or big person – just wrap in greaseproof/wax paper.
SERVES 4
3 tablespoons of olive oil
225g/1½ cups of potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
150g/1⅓ cups of onions, thinly sliced
8 eggs
Salt and pepper
Preheat the grill to a high setting. In a large non-stick frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil on a medium to low flame. Add the potatoes and the onions and cook until golden. Take off the heat and reserve.
Whisk the eggs and season them. Pour the onion and potato mixture into the eggs and heat another tablespoon of olive oil in the pan. Add the egg, potato and onion and turn the heat down to low. Loosen the edges and agitate the pan.
When the bottom is set and golden brown, take an oiled plate, turn the omelette out and put it back in the pan, this time face-side down. Transfer the omelette to under a hot grill and cook for another minute or two until the top is set, then turn out, serving happily either hot or cold.
Bonfire night
I had been raiding the memory bank in order to come up with a recipe that captured all of the hissing November glory of Bonfire Night, but I first arrived at a feeling rather than a taste. Whether wrapped in the crisp skin of a twice-baked potato, or hidden amidst the charred sweetness of a sausage, rolling anticipation is the abiding sense of that night for me. Maybe it’s a hangover from those teenage days – crushes seen through a wreath of bonfire smoke, against a backdrop of technicoloured sky, or the electric feel of cold fingers handing over an oozing marshmallow. Either way, the visuals are made flesh as soon as you eat something with a November tinge, from jaw-locking candy apples to mellow roasted pumpkin, and how....
‘Fireworks in the heavens, fireworks in my head, one vodka too many, now I wish I was dead.’
These were the words I wrote on the sixth of November, aged seventeen, nursing an aching head and heart. I had seen my love rat ex-boyfriend across a bonfire the night before and, oh woe, necked a couple of stiff vodkas and wobbled up to him, professing undying affection in the face of his horrible cheating ways. Love rat was a classic; twenty-seven to my seventeen, he’d disappear for nights on end and then eventually return with love bites and a bedraggled bouquet, probably nicked from a grave. He never had any money and was constantly dipping into my babysitting funds, and he only ever wore a black polo neck, probably to hide the love bites.
On that night of sparklers, over the smell of chestnuts, he greeted my tear thick protestations with fluttering eyelashes and a sly smile.
‘Oh sweetheart, I’ve been away. Went to see a man about a dog in Leicester, you know how it is.’
I didn’t know how it was – how could I? I was green as a milk-fed calf, and I thought that if I just looked after him, made him lasagne and kept him warm, he would love me as he had in August, and he might even stop drinking and disappearing. And after all, weren’t the greatest love affairs meant to be a bit tortured in their onset? I was highly romantic and believed we were playing out a drama of old, I Caitlin to his Dylan, or he Burton to my Taylor.
As my friends rolled their eyes around the bonfire, he kissed me behind a bush, and then sloped home to his new girlfriend, a twenty-something Dane with stumpy legs, a BMW and her own flat in Chelsea. I did not have a flat in Chelsea; I lived in Balham with my mum, had a curfew and I couldn’t drive.
‘He doesn’t really love her,’ I told my friend Cassie afterwards, the relief of his kiss still reassuringly near. ‘He loves me. He told me, it was very sincere. I feel awful for him. He feels beholden to the Dane because she doesn’t know anyone in London, and he’s painting her flat. It’s temporary. And anyway, I have better legs.’
‘Love,’ she said. ‘He’s a total prat.’
‘Aren’t they all?’ I asked wearily, as the Catherine wheels sang over my head. I felt that this was one of life’s MOMENTS, one that I would remember always.
My association with the love rat lasted until Christmas, when the stumpy Dane who had stolen him from me called me crying. She read from my script, and I felt oddly sorry for her.
‘He’s gone missing,’ she said.
‘He does that,’ I said. ‘It’s horrible.’
And as I said the things to her that everyone had said to me, it became real.
‘You’re worth more than this. Love is not meant to be about uncertainty. He’s very lucky to have you.’
The truth was liberating.
‘He’s a total arse,’ I told her. ‘I’d get rid of him if I were you.’
It was November a good seven years later when I bumped into him. Red wine stained his teeth, and gathered in the creases of his mouth. He looked like a vampire and stumbled with drink. He told me I was the great love of his life. I laughed. He still wore a polo neck.
Baked pumpkin with lemon, sautéed greens and toasted cumin dressing
This is perfect to serve with some quinoa or wild rice as a main to a non-meat eater, or as a side with some roast chicken for the carnivorous. It’s also good served warm the following day with a little grilled tofu added.
SERVES 4
1kg/2lb of pumpkin, deseeded and chopped into rough chunks and/or slices
1 large red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
A few fresh sage leaves, roughly torn
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of olive oil
For the dressing
1½ teaspoons of cumin seeds or ground cumin
Juice of ½ a lemon
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of crème fraîche/sour cream
For the sautéed greens
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
A handful of Swiss chard
A handful of curly kale
Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/Gas 7. Put the pumpkin in a roasting tray with the onion and sage, season, and pour over the olive oil. Cook for around 30 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender.
While the pumpkin is cooking, make your dressing. In a small frying pan on a medium heat, toast the cumin seeds. This should only take a minute, and you will know it’s ready when the dusk of the cumin is wafting round your kitchen. Cool for a minute, then squeeze the lemon juice into the pan, followed by the olive oil. Put this into a jug or something and leave to the side, stirring the crème fraîche in just before serving.
Now, the greens. In a big frying pan, heat the olive oil and garlic. Throw in the greens and cook until tender, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Take the pumpkin out of the oven, put the greens on a plate, with the pumpkin on top and cover with the dressing.
Soba noodle salad with rainbow vegetables and sesame dressing
I put soba noodles in everything – soups, salads and stir-fries. This is a quick, healthy, bountiful lunch and one to give to your friend who’s allergic to EVERYTHING.
SERVES 2
250g/9oz of soba noodles
⅓ of a large daikon (about 150g/5oz), cut into thin strips
½ a small head of white cabbage, shredded
1 medium carrot, grated
A handful of radishes, thinly sliced
1 spring onion/scallion, finely shredded
1 small handful of sesame seeds
For the dressing
3 tablespoons of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of brown rice vinegar
1 teaspoon of tamari (wheat-free soy sauce)
1 teaspoon of agave syrup or honey
Cook the soba noodles by bringing 2 litres/8 cups of water to the boil, adding the noodles and cooking on low for 6 or so minutes. Drain and cool. When the noodles are cool, put them in the bowl you are planning to serve them in and add all of the vegetables – shredding, grating and thinly slicing.
In a small frying pan, toast the sesame seeds for a minute or so. Add to the noodles. Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together, adjusting according to taste, and pour over the noodles.
Lentil salad with a mustard dressing
Lentils are always good things to have in stock, along with chickpeas. You can turn them into a salad or soup on the spot. This is a hearty salad that is also good warm.
SERVES 4
225g/1¼ cups of Puy lentils
2 celery sticks, chopped in fine rounds
A handful of cherry tomatoes, finely chopped
150g/1 cup of feta, crumbled
A small handful of fresh chopped mint
For the dressing
4 tablespoons of olive or rapeseed oil
1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
Salt and pepper
Place the lentils in a pan and add just enough water to cover. Simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes, then drain.
In a serving bowl, mix the lentils with the celery, tomatoes and feta.
Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together, adjusting according to taste. Dress the salad and then toss with the mint.
Beef Stroganoff
I know, I know. Totally from the same school as Chicken Kiev in terms of 80s nostalgia and naffness. But wasn’t it good, particularly if it came in a ready meal? We knew not what we did. I used to beg for Beef Stroganoff as a child. I think, as a worthy vegetarian, it became Quorn Stroganoff and now, somewhere in the middle, the last time I had anything resembling it was a mushroom variety in a pub in Cornwall. Good old retro food.
SERVES 4
1 tablespoon of olive oil or butter, plus extra oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 handfuls of mushrooms, roughly chopped
500g/1lb 2oz of beef fillet, chopped into strips 1cm/½ inch wide and thick
1 teaspoon of paprika
Juice of ½ a lemon
A splash of vermouth
60ml/¼ cup of sour cream
A handful of fresh chopped parsley
Put a frying pan on a low heat and drop in the oil or butter. Add the onion and garlic and sweat for a few minutes, making sure they don’t brown. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are golden. Put this mixture to the side.
In the same pan, heat a little more oil and add the beef strips, the paprika and the lemon. Toss around. Cook for a minute or so, and then splash on the vermouth. Pour the mushroom and onion mixture back in the pan, cook for another minute but no longer, and then take off the heat and add the sour cream and the parsley. Mix it all together and serve with some simple boiled potatoes or rice.
Autumn Suppers
Salmon steaks with a wasabi coating
I adore the kick that wasabi gives to anything in its path. Buy it in powder form and add SLOWLY to dressings or mayonnaise, or if anyone you know goes to Japan, get them to bring you back some of the toxic green stuff in a tube.
SERVES 2
2 salmon steaks, about 175g/6oz each
Salt and pepper
For the rice
100g/¾ cup of wild rice
1 large beetroot/beet
1 pomegranate
1 tablespoon of olive oil
A small handful of fresh chopped mint
For the wasabi coating
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
½ teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of wasabi paste or powder mixed to a paste with water
Cook the wild rice (two parts water to one part rice) by boiling for 45 minutes. Leave to the side to cool.
Meanwhile, cover the beetroot/beet with water; bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the beetroot/beet is tender. Drain, and when cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and cut the beetroot/beet into rough chunks.
Chop the pomegranate in half and extract the seeds. Add the pomegranate, beetroot/beet, olive oil and mint to the rice. Leave to the side.
Make the wasabi coating by mixing the mayonnaise, cumin and wasabi together. Taste and adjust if you want. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4.
Wash and dry the salmon, and season. Heat a griddle pan or ovenproof frying pan big enough to fit both salmon steaks and, when it is searing hot, drop the salmon in, skin-side down. Turn after 5 minutes or when the skin is brown and crispy. Take off the heat, carefully turn again, and spoon the wasabi mayonnaise onto the top of the salmon. Put the pan into the oven and cook for around 10 minutes until the glaze begins to brown. Serve on the wild rice.
Baked vegetables smothered in scamorza
Scamorza is an Italian cow’s milk cheese, available in most Italian delis. If you can’t find it, use mozzarella instead. The smoked scamorza lends a smoky depth to sauces and whatever it touches. It is also pretty bloody good on it’s own, eaten from the packet. This is a variation on a recipe given to me by my girlfriend Emma.
SERVES 2
1 large aubergine/ eggplant
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 ball of smoked scamorza or smoked mozzarella (or use regular mozzarella)
For the pesto
1 large clove of garlic, peeled
A large handful of fresh basil
A few tablespoons of pine nuts
3 tablespoons of olive oil
30g/¼ cup of grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4.
Start with salting the aubergine/eggplant. Slice it lengthways, put on a tea towel and sprinkle it with sea salt. Turn after 20 minutes or so, and do the other side. Rinse and dry thoroughly.
Make the pesto in a big pestle and mortar by grinding up the garlic. Add the basil, keep mashing away, and then add the pine nuts. Slowly add the olive oil, and then the Parmesan. Season to taste.
Put all the aubergine/eggplant in an ovenproof dish and give it a good dash of olive oil. Cook for around 10 minutes. Take out and spread the pesto on a layer of aubergine/eggplant, followed by a layer of scamorza or mozzarella (if using). Repeat the process until everything is used up. Bake for around 30 minutes and serve with a crisp green salad.
Root vegetable cakes with a cheesy béchamel sauce
Basically, a bubble-and-squeak cake with melted cheese on top. You could also serve this as an accompaniment to roast beef or any meat. Children seem to like these, they are crispy outside and sweet and moreish on the in. Serve with a gravy, either meat eaters or a mushroom or onion one for non- meat eaters.
