Nigel Slater’s autumn recipes to take time over | Autumn food and drink (2024)

Pumpkin with rice and beetroot

Lasagne aside, the most famous of layered recipes is probably biryani, where meat and rice is pressed down in a pot with onions and spices and often enclosed in a pastry crust. To say it’s a lot of work is an understatement. It is one those dishes I tend to leave to restaurant cooks.

Serves 4
onions 2 medium
groundnut oil 4 tbsp
ginger 60g
chilli flakes 1 tsp
pumpkin 1.5kg
white basmati rice 300g
saffron 2 pinches
green cardamom pods 12
peppercorns 8
bay leaves 4
cinnamon 1 stick
beetroot 200g

Peel and roughly chop the onions. Warm 3 tablespoons of the oil in a deep pan then add the onions and cook over a low to moderate heat. Grate the ginger and stir into the onions with the chilli flakes, and let them continue cooking until the onions are soft and golden brown – a good 25 minutes.

Peel the pumpkin, cut into large pieces, then steam for 15 minutes till soft. Drain and mash with a vegetable masher or fork. Stir in black pepper and a little salt.

Remove the rice from the heat and leave to rest without removing the lid. Coarsely grate the beetroot and set aside. Lift the lid from the rice and stir briefly with a fork to separate the grains.

Now assemble the dish. Pour the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil into the dish then add one third of the rice followed by a third of the pumpkin. Scatter a third of the onions over the pumpkin then half of the beetroot. Now continue layering until all the rice, pumpkin, onion and beetroot is finished.

Bake for an hour at 200C/gas mark 6.

Crab and avocado cream

Serves 4
avocados 3 ripe
lime juice 4 tbsp
red chilli 1 large
cucumber ½
white crab meat 250g
brown crab meat 250g
coriander leaves 3 tbsp, chopped

Peel and stone the avocados, then put the flesh into the bowl of a food processor. Squeeze in the lime juice. Halve, seed and finely chop the chilli then add to the avocado and process it all to a smooth, pale green paste.

Peel the cucumber, core with a teaspoon and discard the seeds, then cut first into thick strips then into small cubes and fold into the avocado cream.

Check the white and brown crab meat for any remaining shell, then fork the chopped coriander through the white meat.

Loosely layer the avocado and white and brown crab meats in four glasses or small dishes, chill for half an hour and serve.

Spinach and feta filo

Serves 6
spinach 600g
dill 30g
feta 400g
mozzarella 375g
dried chilli flakes 2-3 tsp
butter 105g
filo pastry 6 sheets (about 250g)
nigella seeds 2 tsp
poppy seeds 2 tsp
sesame seeds 2 tsp

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Wash the spinach, then, with the leaves still wet, place it in a large saucepan over a moderate heat. Cover tightly with a lid and let the leaves cook in their own steam for a minute or two till wilted. Tip them into a colander and squeeze out any moisture.

Roughly chop the spinach and the dill and mix them together. Coarsely grate the feta and mozzarella into the spinach and dill, then season with black pepper and the chilli flakes. Melt the butter in a small pan.

Roll the pastry away from you, covering the filling and forming a long cylinder. Transfer to a baking tin.

Now repeat with the remaining three sheets of pastry and the remaining filling. Place the second roll close to the first. Brush with the last of the butter then sprinkle with the nigella, poppy and sesame seeds.

Bake for about 20 minutes till the pastry is pale gold, then serve immediately.

Beef rib boulangere

Serves 6
beef short ribs 1.4kg
olive oil 4 tbsp
onions 3 medium
thyme 8 sprigs
rosemary 4 bushy sprigs
bay leaves 4
black peppercorns 8
beef stock 2 litres
large potatoes 1kg

Cut the beef into ribs. Warm the oil in a large, deep-sided pan, then brown the ribs all over, taking care as they may spit and pop. Turn the ribs over with kitchen tongs as they colour, removing them to a plate when their fat is golden.

Peel and thinly slice the onions then put them into the pan in which you have just browned the beef, adding the thyme, rosemary, bay and peppercorns, and lower the heat to moderate. Let the onions cook, giving them the occasional stir, for about 20 minutes, until they are soft and light gold.

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Remove the ribs from the pan and pull the meat from the bones. Slice the potatoes thinly, using a mandoline if you have one, a large cook’s knife if not. In a large, shallow baking dish or roasting tin, layer the potatoes and the meat and onions, seasoning each layer as you go with salt and black pepper, then pour over the stock from the pan.

Bake for an hour to 90 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and giving.

Pistachio brittle and raspberry mille-feuille

To decorate
icing sugar 3 tbsp
raspberries 125g

You will need a small, lightly oiled baking sheet and two large baking sheets, one of which is lined with baking parchment.

Set the oven at 220C/gas mark 8. Put the sugar in a non-stick shallow pan over a low to moderate heat. Watch very carefully as it melts, then, when it is golden, add the shelled pistachios. As the sugar darkens to a deep bronze, tip the mixture out onto a lightly oiled baking sheet and leave to cool.

Roll out the pastry to a rectangle measuring 28cm x 33cm. Transfer to the baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Place a second sheet of parchment on top, then cover with the second large baking sheet. Place a heavy roasting tin on top then bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove the roasting tin, baking sheet and top layer of parchment, then continue to bake for a further five minutes or until the pastry is deep golden brown and very crisp.

Break the pistachio brittle into large pieces and reduce to coarse crystals using a food processor. If you prefer, pound the brittle to crumbs with a pestle and mortar.

Whip the cream until thick. Crush the raspberries with a fork and fold them into the cream together with three quarters of the crushed nut brittle. Cut the pastry in half lengthways and trim the edges, crushing the trimmings to crumbs with a knife.

Place one of the two sheets of pastry on a serving dish or board. Spoon the cream, fruit and nut filling on top, smooth the surface flat pushing the cream right to the edge of the pastry, then cover with the second piece of pastry. Press down lightly on the cake with your hands or a baking sheet to settle the layers of cream and pastry.

Smooth the edges flat with a palette knife, then cover the sides with the reserved pastry crumbs, pushing them in with the knife.

To decorate, mix the reserved brittle with the icing sugar, then scatter over the top of the cake. Place the remaining raspberries along the top and serve.

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