Autumn warmer

It has gone very cold and dark all of a sudden, so comfort food is on the menu. And by comfort food I mean stodge. I think this was designed for autumn, the colours reflect what is happening outside, in a ‘crisp autumn morning’ rather than a ‘bloody hell it’s miserable’ kind of way, and it is really warm and satisfying.

Half of this dish is basically Nigella’s double potato and halloumi bake, served, to up the stodg-osity, with polenta. Really it probably shouldn’t work but, like chip butties, I think it does. To make it even more seasonal you could use pumpkin instead of, or along with, the sweet potato.

For the bake
1 sweet potato, chopped into large-ish chunks
1 potato, or a similar amount of new potatoes, cut into slightly smaller chunks
1 onion, cut into six long ways
4 cloves garlic, in their skins
8 mushrooms, whole or halved
8 peppers from a jar
3 tbsp olive oil
½ block of halloumi
Salt and pepper

For the polenta
½ cup quick cook polenta
2 cups water
Salt
Few slices halloumi, diced up
Pinch cayenne
½ tsp smoked paprika
Salt and pepper
Knob butter

Pre-heat your oven to 200C.

Put the potatoes, onion, garlic, mushrooms, peppers and oil in a large baking tray, give it a good grind of pepper and mix everything up. Put it in the oven for 45 minutes.

After 45 minute, whack the heat up, and top the bake with the halloumi and put back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Meanwhile bring out 2 cups of water to the boil, pour in the polenta in a slow steady stream, stirring continuously. Cook for 1 minute (you want it to be soft) then remove from the heat and stir in the other ingredients.

To serve, put a blob of polenta on two plates, and top with the bake. Eat and then relax, feeling very full and happy.

Serves two greedy people.

Pumpkin and Tarragon Soup

Very excitingly I recently got a pressure cooker. I was lured in by the idea of making dhal from scratch in 5 minutes - maybe it is my rebellion against the slow cooker thing. Anyway this was the first thing I cooked in it, and based on this alone, I think me and my pressure cooker are going to be very happy together. And it is very shiny - I do like new toys.

The recipe came out of the book that came with the pressure cooker, which I obviously then tweaked a bit. I must say I never thought to put pumpkin and tarragon together (I usually just go for sage) but it really really works. The tarragon (which I think is my current favourite herb) just makes it all very savoury, which can be a challenge with pumpkins; I didn’t even feel the need to add any parmesan.

1 onion finely, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tbsp oil
750g pumpkin, peeled and chopped into chunks
250g potato, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp tarragon, chopped
850ml stock
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp yoghurt (or use cream and also add a squeeze of lemon)

Start by frying the onion and garlic in the oil until the onion if soft. Then add the pumpkin, potato, tarragon and 600ml stock and season. Bring to 12lb pressure, cook for 5-6 minutes and then reduce the pressure quickly. If you are making the soup in a pan cook for around 30 minutes or until the pumpkin and potato is soft

Liquidise the soup, then add the remaining stock and yoghurt and check the seasoning.

Eat in warmed bowls with lots of crusty bread.

Makes around 6 portions