TIts salad is wonderfully perfect as part of a festive spread, or an easy lunch meal with some crusty bread on the side; it’s really worth grabbing a pot of bean butter too. Meanwhile, the table is the bread and butter of football dreams: indulgent, grown-up chocolate jaffa cake half melting – just ask the bear to give you a jar of marmalade from the hat. It is best eaten minutes after coming out of the oven, but you can run it the day before and refrigerate before cooking. Any leftovers are wonderful for breakfast.
Winter Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Bean Butter, and Pomegranate (pictured above)
As before, cook the pumpkin the day before and marinate the beans overnight, then heat and put on a plate together the next day. It is nice warm from the oven or at room temperature.
Prep 15 minutes
Cook 30 minutes
Servants IV as main6 as a side
1 small butternut squashpeeled, deseeded and cut into 1½cm cubes
5 tbsp oil
2 tsp he Hanout
1 tsp heated sea salt
2 small red onions (or 1 large), shaved and each in eight equal wedges
Juice of 1 lemonPlus 3, strip the cupid (use a speed peeler)
3 garlic clovesShaved and finely divided
570g jar of bean butter; drained and washed (or at most a 700g jar if you have that size)
30g flat leaf celerythey fell roughly
30g of corianderthey fell roughly
200g of fetacut into 1cm cubes
From the seeds 1 pomegranate
75g pistachiosroughly chopped (if you can find the Sicilian greens, so much the better)
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Roast the pumpkin, two tablespoons of olive oil, ras el hanout and salt in a tray large enough to hold everything in one layer. In a small bowl, toss the onion wedges with the juice of half a lemon (this will help it retain its color), add them to the pumpkin tray, then roast for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, pour the remaining oil, garlic and lemon into a large frying pan over a high heat, and let the garlic brown without stopping for two to three minutes. Add butter beans, cook, stirring occasionally, for six to seven minutes, remove from heat.
Once the squash is ready, butter the beans and herbs in a bowl, then dress them with the remaining lemon juice. Taste and adjust salt as needed, top with feta, pomegranate and pistachios, and serve hot or at room temperature.
Chocolate-orange brioche cake
I like to use this brioche, because its innate high butter ratio saves you from having to put butter on the dough, plus it tastes like a nicely spiced orange custard.
Prep 15 minutes
Soak 2 hrs
Cook 25 minutes
Servants 6-8
250ml double cream
250ml full fat milk
1 clementine juice finely grated cupidoplus shaved and shredded cupido 1 extra clemency garnish (optional)
100g 70% dark chocolateThey fell beautifully
20g of cocoa or cocoa powder
4 eggs
60g of sugar
400g sliced briocheThe rush was torn
125g fine cut marmalade
Creme fraicheTo serve
Put double cream, milk and clemency in a saucepan, bring to a boil, immediately remove from heat. Add the dark chocolate, leave for two minutes, then whisk vigorously until the chocolate has melted.
Tip the cocoa powder into a bowl, pour in a few tablespoons of hot chocolate milk and whisk until smooth. Add the egg yolks and sugar, and beat again until glossy. Gradually add the milk chocolate and clementine juice, and whisk until incorporated.
Arrange half of the torn brioche in a single layer in a round, medium-sized baking dish or roasting tin. Pour in half of the chocolate custard, then evenly with the marmalade. Arrange the remaining pieces of brioche on top, then pour the remaining custard evenly over it. let the brioche sit at room temperature to soak for two hours, or cover and refrigerate if you plan to cook it later or the next day (in which case take it out about an hour before you want it to cook).
Preheat the oven to 170C (150C fan)/340F/gas 3½, then cook the soup for 25-30 minutes, until crisp on top and melting inside – after sitting on the counter for two hours before cooking, mine was a delight to self-suck but after a night in the fridge you are more to stagger than to tell.
It now needs a little more than the creme fraiche on the side, but you can decorate it by using a quick tip to give it a generous second, then dividing it into a plate. Pop these in a bowl of boiling water for three minutes, then run under cold water and cool before drying. Scatter the football just ahead.