'Tis the season for earthy rustic meals to fill you with inner warmth. Play to your seasonal strengths by basing meals on local, seasonal fruits and vegetables such as sweet potatoes and tangy rhubarb.
Jacket sweet potato with chorizo cous cous
Flip the usual meat-heavy meal by making sweet potato the star, with spicy chorizo the bit player. Slow-roasting really intensifies the almost honeyed sweetness of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes.
4 medium sweet potatoes, around 250g each
1 tbsp vegetable oil
200g cous cous
2 tsp butter
1 tsp ground cumin
sea salt and pepper
225ml boiling water or stock
200g peas
100g baby spinach
2 hot chorizo sausages
100g feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp toasted pumpkin or sesame seeds
1 lemon cut into wedges
1. Heat the oven to 190C. Prick the sweet potatoes, coat with oil and place on a tray covered with baking paper. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours or until tender when pierced.
2. In a heatproof bowl, combine the cous cous, butter, cumin, sea salt and pepper. Add 225ml boiling water or stock and stir through. Cover with foil and place on the bottom shelf of the oven for 10 minutes.
3. Cook the peas in simmering salted water for 1 minute, add the spinach for 15 seconds, then drain. Peel the chorizo sausages, chop the meat and fry until lightly crisped. Set aside any pan juices for serving.
4. To assemble, fluff up the cous cous with a fork. Add the peas, spinach, chorizo and feta, olive oil and lemon juice, sea salt and pepper and lightly toss.
5. To serve, cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthways and pile the chorizo cous cous on top. Drizzle with chorizo pan juices, scatter with pumpkin seeds and serve with lemon wedges.
Serves 4
Rhubarb and pomegranate tart
Tangy rhubarb and golden pastry is a heavenly match, but it gets even better when the tangy juices mingle with the sugar and self-caramelise the tart.
800g rhubarb stalks
2 sheets ready-made puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
4 tbsp castor sugar
icing sugar for dusting
1 pomegranate, seeded
1. Heat the oven to 220C. Wash the rhubarb and trim the stalks, discarding leaves.
2. Cut one pastry sheet in half to form the two tart bases, and brush edges with beaten egg. Cut strips from the remaining sheet of pastry and form a raised border on the two tart bases. Brush the raised borders with beaten egg.
3. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, as the juices will run and burn. Trim the rhubarb into lengths that will fit neatly across each tart, and arrange on top. Scatter with sugar, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the pastry is golden and the rhubarb is soft.
4. Scatter with pomegranate seeds (and juices) and serve with thick cream or ice-cream.
Serves 4