At a recent advent’s market in Germany I was treated to some seriously good boscoop apples baked above an open fire. They were served with raisins either soaked in rum or apple-juice (the kid friendly version). I went for the rum and raisins option – hey – it was freezing outside and a girl needs to keep warm! Baking apples in the oven is an age-old recipe. Long forgotten but really worth the while since it is so easy and delicious. You can also make these plain and roast them for 30 minutes in the oven alongside a roast pork dish. Here though is the advent version. Ingredients 6 belle de boscoop apples 100 gr. almonds 100 gr. hazelnuts 100 gr. walnuts 150 gr. sultanas or raisins 120 ml rum or port or apple juice Method Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. With a sharp kitchen knife chop the nuts into small pieces. Put them into a bowl together with the raisins or sultanas and add the liquid of your choice. Cut the core out of …

Unlike the tougher neck or “chuck” of a comforting venison stew,  traditional best practice requires neither a marinade nor a slow cook for a haunch of venison. There are, nevertheless, a couple of steps that should be followed in order to make the most of this prime, expensive piece of meat.  As for accomanying flavours the choice is yours – the cook can experiment with herbs and spices. Traditionally juniper berries have always accompanyed a venison be it in a venison stew or a game pie – but so do bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, red wine, quince jelly or red currant jelly …. that is because these flavours complement the late autumn robustness of this wonderful cut so well. For supper on Sunday we ate roasted haunch of venison with a potato and swede bake, red cabbage and a green winter salad (purslane). You could also serve the roast venison alongside creamed or buttered spinach,  roast potatoes and cabbages fried with some bacon. Alternatively, creamed celeriac is a popular choice. There are so many wonderful late autumn flavours to experiment with. The choice, as …

This is a substantial cake which stays fresh for up to three days if it can’t all be eaten in one sitting. If you want you can reduce the sugar by half and eat the slices with butter and jam. For the sponge 300 gr. plain white flour 100 gr. ground almonds 250 gr. butter 300 gr. dark brown sugar 3 tbs. treacle (dark molasses) 1 tsp. mixed spice 4 eggs 250 gr. dried prunes 100 ml. port 1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda 100 ml buttermilk or yoghurt A pinch of salt For the icing 150 gr. dark chocolate 100 ml. cream 100 ml. port Method Begin by soaking the prunes in the port overnight before blending into a pulp. Put the flour, mixed spice, bicarb. of soda and pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter, treacle and sugar on a low heat and add to the flour. Add the four eggs, the buttermilk and the blended prunes to the flour and thoroughly mix all the ingredients together. Grease the cake tin and pour the …

Ingredients For the sweet pastry 200 gr. plain white flour 100 gr. butter 80 gr. sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 beaten egg A pinch of salt For the filling 2 large apples (preferably tart), thinly sliced with red peel still on 1 tsp. cinnamon & 1 tsp, sugar. mixed 100 ml. cream 2 tbs. plain white flour 3 eggs, beaten 100 gr. sugar 3 tbs. honey vanilla pod. Method Begin by making and blind baking the sweet pastry, the recipe of which is set out here. For the filling Gently heat the milk, vanilla pod and honey together on the hob for five minutes allowing the vanilla flavour to infuse with the cream. Take off the hob and leave to cool until it no longer scalds. Whisk the eggs, flour, cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl. When the cream has cooled mix the eggy mixture together with the cream and pour into the tart. Over lap the thinly sliced apples over the top of the custard beginning from the outside and working your way in. Sprinkle the …

Ingredients For the sweet pastry 150 gr. plain white flour 50 gr ground almonds 100 gr. butter 80 gr. sugar 1 tsp. spekuloos spices (or mixed spice) 1 beaten egg A pinch of salt. For the filling 200 gr. baked sweet potato 1 pear, cored, peeled and thinly sliced. 150 gr. ground almonds 150 gr butter 100 gr sugar 3 tbs. honey 2 tbs. plain white flour 3 eggs 1 tsp. speculaas spices Raspberry jam Method Begin by making and blind baking the sweet pastry, the recipe of which is set out here. For the filling Purée the baked sweet potato until soft.  Over a medium heat melt the butter and then add the almonds, sugar and honey. Whisk the eggs together with the flour. When the butter, almond, honey and sugar mixture has cooled so that it no longer scalds the hand add the mixed eggs and flour. Layer the bottom of the baked pie with some raspberry jam. Pour the almond custard into the pastry case. Slice the pears thinly and shape like a star over the tart. Place in …

Ingredients For the sweet pastry 200 gr. plain white flour 100 gr. butter 80 gr. sugar 1 beaten egg A pinch of salt For the filling 3 quinces (or pears if you can’t find quince) 100 ml. cream 2 tbs. plain white flour 3 eggs, beaten 100 gr. sugar 3 tbs. honey 1 vanilla pod 8 cardamom pods, seeded Method Begin by making and blind baking the sweet pastry, the recipe of which is set out here. For the filling If you are using quince they first need to be peeled, cored, thinly sliced and then softened in boiling water for around 40 minutes. If you are using pears you do not need to boil them first. Gently heat the milk, vanilla pod,  cardamom seeds and honey together on the hob for five minutes allowing the vanilla and cardamom to infuse with the cream. Take off the hob and leave to cool until it no longer scalds. Whisk the eggs, flour,  and sugar together in a bowl. When the cream has cooled add the eggy mixture together with the cream …

Autumn is a great season in which to experiment with dried fruit and root vegetables. Traditional societies added a lot of dried fruit to their dishes for the simple reason the results are so pleasing. From the end of Autumn until the following growing season dried fruit was often the only source of sweetness our ancestors had to sweeten a dish.   Dates, figs, apricots, prunes, raisins, sultanas, sliced apples etc. were all used in our ancestral dishes regardless of continent or region. In Afghanistan, along the Hindu Kush, by way of examples local populations have been cultivating mulberry, apricot and plumb trees for thousands of years, drying the fruits in the hot summer months on their roof tops. The sweetness from the fruit was not just reserved for deserts, cakes or puddings. Dried fruit was (and still is) used to add extra flavour to savoury meals. In the absence of sugar and with honey being a rare treat age old dishes combined the sweetness derived from dried fruit with the savoury adding a sprinkling of spices …

“True wild game has the appeal of rich, variable flavour, thanks to its mature age, free exercise and mixed diet.” McGee on Food and Cooking Late autumn has always been associated with wild game hunting. The cooler days and evening frosts prevent the carcass from putrefying as it is left to hang, mature and tenderise. Harold McGee notes “Wild animals are especially prized in the autumn, when they fatten themselves for the coming winter.” Laura Ingall Wilder’s childhood memories confirm this. “Winter was coming. The days were shorter and frost crawled up the window panes at night. In the bitter cold weather Pa could not be sure of finding any wild game to shoot for meat…Even if he could get a deer, it would be poor and thin, not fat and plump as deer are in the fall.” Little House in the Big Woods. We are incredibly fortunate to have a family run butchers operating close-by who has good contacts in the southern, forested, French-speaking part of Belgium. From early autumn right through to Christmas they offer a good supply of quality, …

I’ve already covered the basic veal shank stew here. Don’t make the same mistake I once did and buy beef shanks which are tougher than veal shanks. Beef shanks make a great beef broth and the left over meat can be turned into a spinach, ricotta, meat pie. For a stew, however, you are better working with veal. The gentle sweetness of dried apricots and cardamom teams up well with the pale, tender veal. There is no need to add a stock to this stew. The bones add enough gelatine to make the stew thick and they add bags of savouriness that gives this dish the extra edge. You can serve this meal alongside either mashed potatoes, roast potatoes or mixed roasted winter vegetables. Any left overs can be turned into a delicious pie – one of my daughter’s favourites.   Ingredients Serves six 6 veal shanks 250 gr. apricots 1 large onion 2 carrots, diced 2 celery sticks cut small 2-3 small yellow turnips (peeled and cubed). Optional The seeds from 7-8 cardamom pods …