The Lake District

Once the fire was on the wind and rain didn't seem so bad... The cows seemed pretty unimpressed by being encouraged to move off the track once again. A few nights in the Lake District were beautiful and golden but very wet and windy. The deer were hiding from the elements in the woods, and as the mists rolled down the valley we got totally drenched out on our walk. Lovely warm stews and a crispy Belly Pork roast kept us going, huddled by the fire with a ghostly candle... It was a sad goodbye until the Spring. Until then...

Toffee Apple Muffins

When I took on my allotment last year it already had two lovely little apples trees in blossom on it, I think that's what swayed me to choose it over the others I was offered. In hindsight the ones that already had raised flower beds and no weeds may have been a wiser choice... I have definitely been on the loosing end of my battle with the weeds this year. To add to that I have hardly been in the past few months and am suffering from a severe case of allotment guilt... But I have grown more than ever this year and have produced a small crop of lovely juicy cooking apples. It just looks a state...

So to welcome Halloween I thought I'd show you these muffins. I'm much more one for a celebration through food than a fancy dress outfit... This makes about 6 to 8 muffins...

Pre heat your oven to 190°C before you begin with the muffin mix, and line your muffin tin with paper cases or squares of greaseproof paper tucked into each. Then peel and dice a large cooking apple into small cubes.

In a large bowl mix together a beaten egg, 50g caster sugar, 120ml of milk and 50g of melted butter, when everything is mixed together add in 150g of plain flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix everything together, but be careful not to over mix it, muffins don't like too much fuss...

Finally stir in the apple, a handful of chopped toffee and a handful of chopped fudge pieces. Now simply fill your muffin cases about three quarters full and place them in the oven. They will need to bake for about 30 minutes, keep an eye on them towards the end. They are ready when they are a lovely golden colour, you can check the centre with a knife or a skewer, if it comes out clean they are cooked through, if it has cake mix still attached they will need a little longer.

They are delicious warm, full of sweet cooked apple and melted toffee, but they are also just as good cold when all the flavours have mingled together, with a dollop of crème fraiche or cream.

Roast Pumpkin and Garlic Soup with toasted Pumpkin Seeds and Gruyere

We took a little trip over to the Lake District this weekend to check out its autumn colours. We were greeted by golden beech hedges, rain, mist and cows on the road that refused to move. It was a real stand off, they just stared us out and didn’t move one inch, which ended in us driving into a ditch to get past and very nearly getting stuck. I had visions of having to walk a mile in the rain to the nearest farm to get the car pulled out of a ditch... We made it in the end though and spent a lovely evening by the fire with the wind whistling around us. The next morning was bright and sunny and beautiful. You could hear the stags in the hills roaring at each other, hidden by the golden red bracken. The cows had helpfully moved out of the way for the drive home...

This month I have the privilege of a five page recipe feature in the magazine Living North. They asked me if I would put together a selection of Autumn recipes with hints of Halloween, so if you pick up a copy you can read about Toffee Apple Muffins, Roast Pheasant with Chestnuts and Wild Mushrooms, Dark Chocolate and Chestnut Tart, and this... Roast Pumpkin and Garlic soup with toasted Pumpkin seeds and Gruyère...

Preheat your oven to 220°C and begin by slicing the squash into eight wedges and scooping out the seeds. I find you can get a really good selection of squashes in the shops these days. This recipe works with pumpkins, butternut squash and all types of other squashes, I used an onion squash. The Halloween pumpkins that you find in the shops at this time of year are grown mainly just for carving and are not very full on flavour. The onion squash is a deep rich orange squash that looks a little like an onion... and is best roasted which brings out its earthy, nutty delicious flavours.

Place them all in a baking tray, season with salt and add a generous glug of olive oil, they tend to soak up quite a bit. They need to cook for about 30 minutes, but after 15 minutes throw in 6 cloves of garlic still in their skins and some sprigs of thyme and continue to roast, turning the squash around as you do.

While the squash is cooking dice a stick of celery, a carrot and an onion into small cubes, heat a large splash of olive oil in a heavy pan and add the vegetables. Add a large pinch of salt at this point and cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes until soft and sticky, you don't want them to brown too much so keep an eye on them.

When they have reached a soft sticky stage add a litre of boiling water, you could also use vegetable stock if you wanted. Leave the stock to simmer until it is time to add the squash. The squash is ready when it is golden brown and soft all the way through, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool a little, make sure you keep the garlic too. When you can handle the squash you need to remove the skin and cut the flesh into large chunks and add them to the stock. Next remove the soft roast garlic from its skins and add these to the stock too. Check for seasoning at this point, you might have to add some more salt.

Allow everything to simmer for another 10 minutes. Finally blend everything to a smooth velvety soup, with either a hand-held blender or a food processor.

To serve top with a scattering of pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted in a dry pan and a grating of Gruyère cheese.

The nutty roasted flavours of the squash and the garlic are delicious with the crunchy seeds and creamy melted cheese. A bit of crusty fresh bread and cold butter makes a delightful autumn lunch...

Onion and Gruyere Tart

My stall at Autumn Graze was full of tarts... I don't mean my sister and the Blonde... more onion, gruyere, chorizo, spinach, apple and lemon ones... I sold every single slice thankfully and they were pretty delicious, especially the lemon, and the onion and gruyere, oh and the chorizo and red pepper... I even had emails from people saying how much they had loved them, and about them bringing back childhood memories... this is high praise indeed so I thought I would share the recipe...

The savoury ones are all based on an Elizabeth David recipe for Tarte a l'Oignon. It is a pretty simple recipe, delicious with just onion and gruyere, but you can add anything really. Some left over cooked ham went into this one, or try some fried up bacon, wilted buttery spinach, sliced chorizo, chopped herbs or roasted red peppers...

Grease a tart tin and roll out your shortcrust pastry to about a centimetre thick, you can make it yourself or buy it, I bought it this time I admit... But it is pretty easy to make. Then line the tin with the pastry, pressing it into the corners with your knuckles and trimming it to a neat edge around the top, it does shrink a little so leave a slight overhang.

Next thinly slice 4 or 5 onions and melt a tablespoon of butter in a large pan, then add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook them slowly on a low heat with a lid on for half an hour. Stir them every now and them, they will become very soft and translucent and buttery... and smell amazing... When they are ready stir in 2 beaten eggs, 100g of grated gruyere and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Finally fill your pastry lined tart tin with the onion mixture and bake in the oven at 170°C for half an hour, until it is golden and beautiful! It is delicious hot or cold, better than any quiche type thing I've ever bought in a shop and is pretty simple, especially if you buy the pastry... It is quite simply a treat... A delicious cheesy, buttery onion treat...

Roast Duck with Chestnut, Chorizo and Cabbage

Autumn food.... Duck, chestnuts, pumpkins, squashes, mushrooms, apples, venison... Everything... its all so very tasty and warming, leaps and bounds better than any other season... I just love it, and aim to do as much cooking as possible while it lasts. There is a lot to try out... Pickling, terrines, confit, stews, sauces, pies... I'm laughing a bit at the thought of it all!

The shooting season has started so it is relatively easy to get hold of wild feathered game; these mallards were the first of the season for me, followed closely by four little partridge which are currently hanging in the porch, their fate yet to be decided... Mr. Hedworth is a good shot and generous too...

Thus a lovely way to spend a Friday night last week was with some roast duck, some lovely fresh new potatoes from my aunts garden, some soft sticky chestnuts and chorizo, a little bit of red wine and the fire on. Did I say that I loved Autumn... You need a really hot oven, about 230°C, so put it on before you begin anything else. Pop a tablespoon of herby butter and half and onion inside each duck. I made my herby butter with some salted butter, chopped sage and thyme, a few crushed juniper berries and some salt and pepper, all mashed together. Settle the ducks in a roasting tin and smear their skin with some more butter, ready to go in the oven.

Begin the chestnut, chorizo and cabbage with a chopped onion, soften it on a low heat with a pinch of salt, for about 10 minutes. Next add a diced carrot, a diced stick of celery, 2 bay leaves and some sprigs of thyme and continue to soften for another ten minutes. After about 5 minutes add a finely chopped clove of garlic. The mix should start to become soft and sticky and caramelly.

At this point you can put the duck in the oven, it needs to roast for 20 minutes, this will give you a  rare bird, depending on its size. You shouldn't cook anything for more than about 30 minutes however or it will just be dry. Keep an eye on it and after about 5 minutes add the juice of half an orange and the same amount of red wine. Continue to baste the bird with the buttery juices every so often as it cooks.

Dice about 100g of chorizo, and about 100g of chestnuts, from a tin or vacuum packed, and add these to the carrot and onion mix and leave to cook for another 5 minutes. Finally add about a quarter of a savoy cabbage finely shredded, turn it into the mixture and continue to cook on a low heat, with a lid on, until the duck is ready. Check it after 5 minutes as it may need a splash of water to loosen it up a bit, I used a few tablespoons from the new potatoes...

When your duck is ready take it out and rest it covered in foil for a good 5 minutes. Finally carve and serve with some new potatoes and a big spoonful of chestnut, chorizo and cabbage.

Wild duck is far less fatty than those you buy in the supermarket and has a deep rich gamey flavour, this one was quite rare and was beautifully soft and pink. It is perfect with the chestnut, chorizo and cabbage, which is sweet, sticky and delicious...

As I cooked two birds we did continue to eat duck for about four days, mixed through some red wine lentils it was delicious, in a little sandwich with bread sauce and leaves it was pretty good too... I even managed to boil up the carcasses to make some duck stock, which I imagine will make a pretty good base for some sort of game pie...

Duck Hearts on Toast

When you've had a lovely day in Edinburgh for the Blonde's birthday, got home late, feeling a bit tired and emotional, what better pick me up than a bit of duck offal on toast.

I kept the hearts and other bits and bobs from preparing the ducks earlier in the week. Arch offal merchants St. John recommend frying them for about 4 minutes, in a very hot pan, with a knob of butter. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and chicken stock half way through and pour it all onto a piece of toast. Eat and enjoy the ducky, irony, tasty treat.

Wild Mallard

Autumn has arrived and with it the shooting season has begun. I picked up two beautiful looking mallards last night and spent a few hours getting reacquainted with how to pluck. Their throats were full of acorns that they had obviously just picked up before they were shot...

An acorn fed wild duck sounds pretty delicious to me... Ideas of confit, terrines and roasts are all floating around for this weekend. I thought I'd introduce the little fellas to you before I got started...

Autumn Graze Market

Sunday saw my inaugural food event come to fruition and it really didn't disappoint. Thank you so much to everyone who came along, ate, drank and braved the rain. We were busy all day long, with fantastic stalls full of amazing local produce. There was a lovely atmosphere and I met lots of great people, so thank you again, to stallholders, visitors and helpers alike, and here's looking forward to the next one...