Nigel Slater’s recipes for baked pumpkin, and orange and poppy seed cakes | Meals

I continue on to try to eat my greens, but what I definitely want right now is golden food stuff. Deep bowls of chilli-spiked pumpkin soup lasagne with a shining ochre crust crisp-crumbed fishcakes or rooster wings, bronzed and burnished, warm from the oven will do.

And I’d like a shining pudding, way too, make sure you: steamed ginger sponge or Eve’s pud baked apples with honey and dried fruits or a tray of very little cakes spiked with lemon syrup, their surfaces glistening with candied peel.

This 7 days I baked cubes of pumpkin en papillot, as you could possibly do a piece of fish or some important, early Jersey royals.

The paper parcels gave the squash a probability to prepare dinner in its have steam, which then wafted out in a sugary, bay-scented fug as we tore the baking parchment open like an early Christmas current.

I made a properly spicy chilli sauce to pour into the opened package as effectively, providing our low-cost supper a faint feeling of theatre. A dish of steamed brown rice, freckled with black peppercorns and cinnamon, was the only addition.

There was a need for cake this week, as well – a craving which has been introduced on by the arrival of darkish evenings.

Delicate, citrus-soaked sponge cakes, with shards of candied peel, probably, as a delicate hint that the festive year is after once again but a handful of weeks absent.

Parchment-baked pumpkin, spiced tomato sauce

I’m not sure it matters which chilli paste you use listed here. I like the deep blast of warmth from Korean gochujang, but otherwise just use your favorite and regulate the amount accordingly. Tweak the amounts to fit your taste, bearing in brain that it desires to harmony the sweetness of the pumpkin. Serves 4

pumpkin or butternut squash 500g, peeled body weight
tomatoes 400g
olive oil 4 tbsp
bay leaves 8

For the sauce:
cherry tomatoes 400g
olive oil 2 tbsp
garlic 2 cloves
red chilli paste 2 tsp
white wine or cider vinegar 2 tbsp

Established the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Slash 4 items of baking parchment or kitchen foil roughly 30cm x 30cm.

Peel the pumpkin or squash. Cut the flesh into cubes around 2cm square and place them in a huge mixing bowl. Around chop the tomatoes and include them to the pumpkin flesh with the olive oil, bay leaves and a generous grinding of salt and black pepper.

Divide the combination in between the sheets of baking parchment, then pull the aspect edges in to kind a parcel. Secure the paper with string or a paperclip. If you are applying foil scrunch the finishes together to seal and position on a baking sheet.

Bake for 50 minutes till the pumpkin is tender and translucent.

Even though the squash bakes, make the sauce. Around chop the cherry tomatoes. Heat the oil in a vast, shallow pan in excess of a large warmth, add the tomatoes and let them prepare dinner until their skins soften and juices movement. Peel and thinly slice the garlic and stir into the tomatoes jointly with a minimal salt and a few twists of pepper. Keep on cooking, with the occasional stir, till the sauce is thick, then stir in the chilli paste and proceed cooking for 5 minutes, then stir in the vinegar and test the seasoning. If you desire, operate it by the blender for a silky finish.

Acquire the parcels from the oven, open just about every a person at the desk, so the sweetly scented steam wafts up and then spoon in some of the tomato chilli sauce.

Orange and poppy seed cakes

These golden cakes have excellent sweet-sharp notes. Serves 8

For the cake:
butter 225g, softened
golden caster sugar 225g
grated zest of 1 orange
grated zest of 1 lemon
plain flour 110g
baking powder generous 50 percent tsp
floor almonds 115g
eggs 4
poppy seeds 20g

For the syrup:
crystallised orange peel 50g
lemon 1
orange 1, modest
golden caster sugar 100g
bay leaves 2

You will need to have a 12-gap bun or muffin tin, each and every hole lined with baking parchment. Established the oven at 180C/gasoline mark 4.

To make the cakes, place the butter into the bowl of a food items mixer, incorporate the sugar and cream with each other until finally gentle and fluffy. Grate in the orange and lemon zest.

In a individual bowl, sieve collectively the flour and baking powder then stir in the ground almonds. Break the eggs into a modest bowl and beat flippantly. Little by little insert the egg to the butter and sugar. If it curdles a bit, add a spoonful of the flour and almond mixture. Continue on including the flour mix till thoroughly creamed then blend in the poppy seeds.

Transfer the mixture to the lined situations. Place in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes till a skewer, inserted into one particular of the minimal cakes, will come out without having any uncooked cake mixture hooked up.

Whilst the cakes are baking, make the syrup. Slash the crystallised citrus peel into matchstick-sized items. Finely grate the remaining lemon. Squeeze the lemon and the orange into a compact saucepan, include the caster sugar and the bay leaves and carry to the boil. Increase the strips of candied peel.

Remove the cakes from the oven. Even now in their scenarios, pierce them all above with a steel skewer or high-quality knitting needle. Spoon the reserved orange syrup and peel around the floor, letting the syrup trickle even though the holes. Go away the cakes to great and take out from their instances.

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