Recipe No 34 – Red onion marmalade

From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook – ‘the perfect thing to eat for lunch with bread and cheese … and it’s delicious with sausages and mash’, she says. It keeps well in the fridge for about a month.

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: about an hour

Ingredients (for 3-4 jars)
2 garlic cloves
sea salt and black pepper
4 tbsp olive oil
450g red onions, sliced
4 tbsp red wine
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
few sprigs of thyme

Method
Crush the garlic with some sea salt and heat the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the onions and garlic, and sweat gently, without allowing them to brown, for 20 minutes. Cook until they are translucent and soft.

Add the red wine, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, and simmer gently until most of the liquid has evaporated, which will take about 15-20 minutes.

Add the thyme, season with salt and pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes. Put into warm sterilised jars and cover while still hot.

Recipe No 33 – A fried cauliflower

This seasonal recipe for cauliflower served with a salsa verde is from Nigel Slater’s latest book, Tender. He deep fries the cauliflower but, if that’s a problem for you, shallow frying would probably work pretty well.

Serves 2 as a main course

Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: max 10 minutes

Ingredients
a medium cauliflower
sunflower or groundnut oil for deep-frying
3 tbsp gram flour
½ tsp paprika

For the salsa verde:
handful parsley leaves
6 bushy sprigs mint
handful basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp capers, rinsed
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice

Method
Break the cauliflower into florets. Boil in deep, salted water for a couple of minutes (a little longer if you can only shallow fry), then drain thoroughly.

To make the sauce, chop the herbs quite finely, then stir in the garlic, mustard and capers. Pour in the olive oil slowly, beating with a fork. Stir in the lemon juice and season with sea salt and black pepper. Be generous with the seasoning, tasting as you go. The sauce should be bright tasting and piquant.

Get the oil hot in a deep pan. Toss the cauliflower with the gram flour, a little salt and pepper and the paprika. When the cauliflower is coated, fy in the hot oil until crisp – a matter of three or four minutes or so. Drain on kitchen paper before serving with the sauce.

Recipe No 32 – Carrot and ginger soup

A warming soup with a bit of a kick that makes use of the seasonal carrots in our veg boxes – from the Riverford website.

Preparation: 15 Mins
Cooking: 50 Mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 level tsp mustard powder
2.5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
natural yoghurt to serve

Method
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and soften the onion and garlic with the mustard powder, ginger, pepper and salt, adding 2 or 3 tbsp stock after a minute or so. After another 2 -3 minutes, add the carrots, stirring well. Pour in the rest of the stock, bring to the boil, then cover and leave to simmer for 40 minutes. When it is ready, whiz the soup until smooth in a blender, or using a hand-held stick blender in the pan. Stir in the chopped parsley, saving a little for garnish and reheat the soup gently if you need to. When serving, swirl a spoonful of yoghurt through each portion. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

Recipe No 31 – Brussels sprouts with chestnuts, bacon and parsley

Cooking sprouts with chestnuts and bacon makes them seriously irresistible.

Serves 4

Preparation time: less than 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 to 30 minutes

Ingredients
500g Brussels sprouts
vegetable oil
125g streaky bacon, cut into small pieces
1 tbsp butter
125g vacuum-packed chestnuts, roughly chopped
30ml marsala (optional)
handful fresh parsley, chopped
freshly ground pepper

Method
Trim the ends of the sprouts and put them in a large saucepan of salted boiling water. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until they are tender but still retain a bit of bite. Remove from the heat and drain.

Heat about half a tablespoon of oil in a large pan. Add the bacon and cook until it is crisp and golden-brown. Add the butter and chestnuts. If you’re using the marsala, once the chestnuts have warmed through, turn the heat up and add the marsala. Cook until the mixture has reduced and thickened slightly.

Add the sprouts and half the parsley to the pan and mix well. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Serve with the rest of the parsley sprinkled over the top.

Recipe No 30 – Leek and goats’ cheese tart

From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook

Serves 6-8

Preparation: 1½ hours (including 1 hour chilling of pastry)
Cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
285ml single cream
salt and black pepper
4 leeks, thinly sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
200g soft goats’ cheese

For the pastry:
120g butter
½ tsp salt
200g plain flour

Method
First make the pastry. Sift the flour with the salt and work the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add just enough cold water to bind it together. Roll out and use to line a 23cm flan dish. Put this in the fridge for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Prick the base of the pastry case with a fork and bake blind (cover pastry with greaseproof paper weighed down with baking beans or rice) for 20-25 minutes. Remove the beans/rice and paper and allow to cool. Leave the oven on.

When the pastry has cooled a little, spread Dijon mustard over the base. Beat together the eggs, extra yolks, cream and seasoning. Fry the leeks in the oil gently until they’re soft and put them in the pastry case. Crumble the goats’ cheese over the leeks and pour over the egg mixture. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the tart is set.

Recipe No 27 – Kale with chorizo and almonds

In last weekend’s Observer magazine, Nigel Slater sang the praises of kale – especially after a touch of frost. As well as using it as a side dish with a seasoning of crisp garlic and red chillies, he also cooked it with chorizo. For his recipe for a “less rich version of the classic cauliflower cheese” and other ways of using your winter greens, see his Cold as brassicas page.

Serves 2 as a light main course, 4 as a side dish

Preparation 5 minutes
Cooking 15 minutes

Ingredients
250g curly kale
250g cooking chorizo
a little groundnut or sunflower oil
50g skinned whole almonds
a clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

Method
Wash the kale thoroughly. Put several of the leaves on top of one another and shred them coarsely, discarding the really thick ends of the stalks as you go.

Cut the chorizo into thick slices. Warm a non-stick frying pan over a moderate heat, add the slices of chorizo and fry till the pieces are golden. Lift them out with a draining spoon on to a dish lined with kitchen paper. Discard the oil that has come out of the chorizo and wipe the frying pan clean. Add the almonds and cook for 2 or 3 minutes till pale gold then lift out and add to the chorizo.

Warm the oil in the pan, add the crushed garlic and shredded greens and cook for a couple of minutes, turning the greens over as they cook, till glossy and starting to darken in colour. Return the chorizo and almonds to the pan, add a little salt and continue cooking till all is sizzling, then tip on to hot plates.

Recipe No 25 – Henrietta’s winter salad

Henrietta says this is good ‘as a lunch snack with cheese or cold meats, also with winter casseroles.’ She warns that it’s best to dress the salad just before use otherwise it will become soggy.

Serves 8
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
100g pumpkin seeds
2 large carrots coarsely grated
200g spinach leaves, washed and thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
½ red cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced

For the dressing:
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tbsp runny honey
salt, freshly ground pepper

Method
Lightly toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry fry-pan. Put all the above ingredients in a bowl and lightly mix together.

Whisk the dressing ingredients together and add to salad when ready to serve.

Recipe No 24 – Cavolo nero soup

From Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’ River Café Cook Book Easy. They add this note, ‘All bean soups are made more delicious with a generous addition of the spicy-flavoured newly pressed olive oil poured over each serving. Tuscan olive oil is pressed at the end of October, which is also when the frosty weather starts and cavolo nero is ready to be picked.’

Serves: a generous 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
500g cavolo nero
4 garlic cloves
2 red onions
4 carrots
1 celery head
1 dried chilli (or good pinch of dried chilli flakes)
400g tin borlotti beans
extra virgin olive oil (see note above)
½ tsp fennel seeds
200g tin tomatoes
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
¼ sourdough loaf

Method
Peel the garlic, onion and carrots. Roughly chop 3 garlic cloves, the onion, pale celery heart and carrots. Crumble the chilli. Drain and rinse the beans.

Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a thick-bottomed pan, add the onion, celery and carrot and cook gently until soft. Add the fennel seeds, chilli and garlic and stir, then add the tomatoes, chopping them as they cook. Season and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the beans and stock, and cook for another 15 minutes.

Discard the stalks from the cavolo nero and boil the leaves in salted water for 5 minutes, drain and chop. Keep 4 tbsp of the water. Add the water and cavolo to the soup. Stir and season.

Cut the bread into 1.5cm slices. Toast on both sides, then rub with the remaining garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Break up the toast and divide between the soup bowls. Spoon over the soup and serve with more olive oil.

Recipe No 23 – Vichy carrots

A good way of bringing out the flavour of winter carrots.

Serves 6

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients
1kg carrots
50g butter
pinch of salt and black pepper
1 tsp sugar
plenty of chopped parsley
juice of 1 lemon

Method
Peel the carrots and slice them. Put them in a saucepan with the butter, salt, pepper and sugar. Just cover with cold water and let them boil until the water has evaporated and they are tender and glazed.

Stir in masses of chopped parsley and the lemon juice to taste.

Recipe No 22 – Black-eyed beans with mushrooms

Another excellent recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery. She says: “I like this bean dish so much, I often find myself eating it up with a spoon, all by itself.”  Serve on its own with naan bread and a salad or as a side dish. It does take a bit of time to make but it re-heats very well.

Serves 6

Preparation time: 1 hour 10 minutes (includes 1 hour soaking time)
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients
225g dried black-eyed beans, washed and drained
1.15 litres water
225g mushrooms
6 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
2.5cm stick of cinnamon
150g onions, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
400g tinned tomatoes
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
½ tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp chopped coriander or parsley

Method

Put the beans and water into a heavy pot and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer gently for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the  pot sit, covered and undisturbed, for 1 hour.

While the pot is resting, cut the mushrooms through their stems into 3mm thick slices. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium flame. When hot, put in the whole cumin seeds and the cinnamon stick. Let the sizzle for 5-6 seconds. Now put in the onions and garlic. Stir and fry until the onioin pieces turn brown at the edges. Put in the mushrooms. Stir and fry until the mushrooms wilt. Now add the tomatoes and ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric and cayenne. Stir and cook for a minute. Cover, turn heat to low and let the mixture cook in its own juices for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat under the pan.

Bring the beans to the boil again. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the beans are tender. To this bean and water mixture, add the mushroom mixture, salt, black pepper and fresh coriander/parsley. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Simmer, uncovered, on medium-low heat for another 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.