Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s roasted parsnip and apple salad

(Source: Grauniad)

This substantial salad features a lovely combination of sweet and earthy flavours – apples and parsnips are such good partners. The garlicky dressing adds a little piquant edge and the nuts finish the whole thing off with a welcome crunch.

4 medium parsnips
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
4 dessert apples, cut into eighths, cores removed
4 good handfuls of salad leaves
50g lightly toasted hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans
salt and black pepper

For the dressing:

1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with a little salt
1 tsp English mustard
2 tsp clear honey
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp rapeseed oil

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Peel the parsnips, quarter them and remove the woody cores, then chop them into roughly 2cm pieces.

Put the parsnips on a large roasting tray (they should not be crowded), scatter with some seasoning and toss with the oil. Roast for 10 minutes, then take them out of the oven, give them a stir, add the apple pieces and return to the oven for about 15 minutes or until everything is tender and golden brown.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together. Check the seasoning.

When the parsnip and apple pieces are cooked, transfer them to a bowl and toss them in the dressing.

Arrange the salad leaves on four plates, top with the warm, dressed parsnip and apple, then finish off with the toasted nuts. Serve straight away.

Grouse broth

It’s such a shame to scrape grouse bones into the bin when there is still so much flavour left – a couple of grouse carcasses will make plenty of soup for four people.

For the stock:

carcasses of 2 grouse, chopped into 4 or 5 pieces
1 small onion, peeled, halved and roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
a couple of sprigs of thyme
4 juniper berries
1 tbsp vegetable oil
a good knob of butter
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp tomato purée
2l chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

To garnish:

2 sticks of celery, peeled if necessary and cut into rough 1cm squares
1 small leek, trimmed, cut into rough 1cm squares and washed
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into rough 1cm squares
a couple of leaves of green cabbage, cut into rough 1cm squares

Heat the vegetable oil in a heavy-based saucepan and fry the grouse carcasses, onion, carrot, garlic and herbs on a medium heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring every so often until lightly coloured. Add the tomato purée and chicken stock, bring to the boil, season and simmer gently for an hour.

Strain the soup through a fine-meshed sieve into a clean saucepan, reserving the bits of carcass. Add the celery, leek and carrot and simmer for about 15 minutes or until they are tender, then add the cabbage and simmer for another 5-6 minutes. Meanwhile, remove as many bits of meat from the grouse carcass as possible and add to the soup and simmer for a few minutes, re-season if necessary and serve.

Autumn squash soup with walnut pesto

There is an abundance of squashes and pumpkins on the market at the moment; the deep orange-fleshed varieties offer the best flavour and colour.

a good knob of butter
1 small leek, roughly chopped and washed
1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1kg ripe, orange-fleshed squash or pumpkin, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1.5 litres vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pesto:

40g good-quality walnuts, lightly toasted
50g fresh basil leaves and any soft stalks
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
a good pinch of sea salt
4 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan
2 tbsp freshly grated mature Pecorino (or use 6 tbsp Parmesan)
100-120ml extra virgin olive oil (preferably a sweeter variety)

To make the the pesto, put the walnuts, basil, garlic and salt in a liquidiser and coarsely blend. Add the cheese and blend again briefly, then transfer to a bowl.

Gently cook the leek and onion in the butter in a thick-bottomed saucepan until soft. Add the squash and vegetable stock, bring to the boil, season with salt and pepper then simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend in a liquidiser until smooth, then strain through a fine-meshed sieve. Re-heat the soup and adjust the consistency with a little vegetable stock or water if necessary and re-season with salt and pepper. Serve with a spoonful of the pesto on top.

Nigella Lawson’s redcurrant and mint lamb cutlets

This is a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s new book Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home, packed with ideas for the sort of food that makes life easier at the end of a long day in the time-strapped week, along with dozens of comforting recipes that help you unwind with family or friends. There are step-by-step pictures, and kitchen snapshots, some of them taken by Nigella Lawson in the course of writing the book.

My mother often used to make a kind of faux Cumberland sauce to go with lamb chops. She’d dollop some redcurrant jelly into a bowl, grate in a little orange zest and squeeze in a little juice, then stir in some freshly chopped mint, or dried mint if there were no fresh. Somehow, it worked, and this is simply a development along the same lines. Impatience, I have learnt, can be an inspirational prompt to the cook. Laziness is accounted for, greed rewarded: that’s a result.

1 x 15ml tablespoon garlic oil
6 lamb cutlets
juice 1 clementine/satsuma (approx 75ml)
1 x 15ml tablespoon redcurrant jelly
dash Worcestershire sauce
dash red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste
small bunch or packet fresh mint, finely chopped

Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the lamb for about 2-4 minutes a side, depending on how you like them and on the thickness of the cutlets. Remove the cutlets to a large piece of foil and make a baggy package, though sealing it tightly, and keep on a warm plate. Turn the heat down to low, then whisk in the clementine or satsuma juice, redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. Take the pan off the heat. Unwrap the foil parcel, divide the cutlets between 2 warmed plates, and pour into the pan any juices that have collected under the waiting cutlets. Whisk well, then pour this over the cutlets. Sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons chopped mint, and offer more on the table to eat with the supper.

Tomato, mozzarella and mint salad

This is good to take on a picnic.

1 small red onion, finely diced
300g baby plum tomatoes, halved
125g reduced fat mozzarella, torn
6-8 leaves fresh mint, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Toss together the onion, tomatoes, mozzarella and mint, and place in a lidded container. Mix seasoning and olive oil in a jar and add to salad at the picnic.

Grouse with polenta and girolles

This is an economical way to get four good starter servings out of two grouse. (You can do the same dish with wood pigeon.) Make the polenta the night before; once set, it will last a few days in the fridge.

2 oven-ready grouse
salt and freshly ground black pepper
100g butter, softened
a couple of tablespoons of vegetable or corn oil for frying
flour for dusting
120-150g girolles
1 tbsp chopped parsley

For the polenta:

500ml milk
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 bay leaf
a pinch of nutmeg
75g quick cooking polenta
75ml double cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper
30g freshly grated parmesan

The night before, make the polenta: bring the milk to the boil in a thick-bottomed pan, then add the garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper and nutmeg.

Simmer for 5 minutes then whisk in the polenta and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring every so often so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the cream and parmesan and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Line a small rectangular container with clingfilm and pour in the polenta. Leave to cool then refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 240°. Rub the grouse with butter and then season them. Place the two birds in a roasting tray and roast for 12-15 minutes, keeping them nice and pink, then leave them to rest.

While the grouse are cooking, turn out the polenta and remove the clingfilm. Cut into 1cm-thick slices and dust them with flour. Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan and add a knob of butter. Fry the slices of polenta for 2-3 minutes on each side on a medium heat until golden, then remove and keep warm.

Heat another frying pan with the rest of the butter and cook the girolles on a medium heat for a few minutes, seasoning them while they are cooking and turning them with a spoon. Add the parsley and remove from the heat.

Remove the legs from the grouse with a sharp knife, then carefully remove the breasts. Slice the breasts into 4 or 5 slices. Place the slices of polenta on warmed serving plates and arrange the breasts and legs on top. Spoon over the girolles.