Double Ginger Oat Biscuits

The weather took a turn at the weekend. With a nip in the air, that first sign of autumn officially hit my daughter and I as we cycled along the coast. With her strapped on the back bicycle seat, it was blue noses all round by the time we got back home. Oh how I love the first chills of autumn.

When the first leaves have been kicked around in the back garden, nothing makes me happier than a bit of comfort baking. It is even better now that I have a very enthusiastic mini sous chef to help stir things up. On Sunday it was King Biscuit Time. Me being King Biscuit, and Time being the small amount of time it takes to knock up a good biscuit dough and shove them in the oven. Home-made biscuits are just fabulous.

We decided on some good crumbly oaty ginger biscuits. Ginger biscuits with a bit of a sting, rather than the tepid taste you often get from the commercial ginger biscuit. So lots of good ground ginger along with a few stem gingers finely chopped, to add a chewy spicy surprise into each bite. We also had a new set of biscuit cutters to try out, and it was sous chef Cerys' job to do the cutting. Ginger stars, men, flowers, circles and hearts a-plenty were soon adorning the kitchen tops, and after a 15 minute blast in the oven, the kitchen was lifting with beautiful home baked ginger smells.

The hardest bit about making biscuits with your little ones is stopping them eating the biscuits with the same enthusiasm they made them with. As you can see in the picture, sous chef Cerys risked the odd burnt finger in an effort to snaffle a few before they had the time to cool down. King Biscuit Time makes for good times all round. Roll on the next chilly Sunday.

Double Ginger Oat Biscuits
Makes approximately 20

125g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground ginger
4 stem gingers, finely diced
3 tbsp syrup from the stem gingers
50g oats
50g dark muscovado sugar
75g butter or margarine

1 - Pre-heat the oven to GM4/180C/Fan 160C.
2 - In a large bowl, sift in the flour and ground ginger. Mix in the oats, sugar and stem gingers, then add the butter and rub until it resembles large breadcrumbs. If it is a little dry, add more butter.
3 - Finally, add the syrup and combine thoroughly. You should be left with a semi-soft dough.
4 - Roll out onto a floured surface about 1cm thick, and cut out your shapes. Place onto a buttered baking sheet and place onto a high shelf. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack and watch out for little hands reaching up before they are cool.

Slow Roasted Cumin and Chilli Vegetables with Minted Lamb

I sense exciting times around the corner. As much as I love the summer and the bounty of edible goodies that comes with it, it is the Autumn that gets me most excited. Thanks to the odd weather we have had this year, early root vegetables are beginning to poke their heads out of the soil, and it is this most versatile of vegetable that has my creative juices flowing.

Take a turnip, swede, beetroot, carrot or a parsnip. Mash it, boil it, roast it or braise it. Either way, it will taste wonderful. And that is what I love about them. Cheap and plentiful, easy to prepare, and you don't need to be a top chef to get the best out of them.

Roasting is by far my favourite technique. Slowly roasting a root vegetable seems to tease out their natural sugars and achieves beautiful soft sweetness. Blend them at this stage with a little stock and you have an amazing intense soup. I took a whole load of roots and slow roasted them with a little cumin and chilli. The spice and the heat seem to compliment a slow roasted root and somehow makes them taste even better.

I also threw in a couple of late summer vegetables from the hot house, peppers and courgettes, as well as a tin of borlotti beans. A couple of lamb leg steaks with mint and lemon roasted for the final 20 minutes made for a superb one tray supper, the vegetables soaking up any leaked juices to add to the already fabulous sweet slow roasted flavour.

Slow Roasted Cumin and Chilli Vegetables with Minted Lamb
Makes one baking tray worth

1 turnip, peeled and cut into large chunks
3 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 beetroot, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 onion, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 courgette, cut into large chunks
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into large chunks
1 tbsp cumin seeds1 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 lamb leg steaks
1 lemon
A handful of fresh mint, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tin of borlotti beans
Olive or rapeseed oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 - Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C, GM4.
2 - Place all of the vegetables except for the courgette into a large baking tray. Slice the lemon and squeeze one half over the vegetables, putting the lemon half into the tray. Scatter on the cumin seeds, chilli and seasoning along with a good glug of olive or rapeseed oil. Combine thoroughly and then place on a high shelf in the oven. Roast for 1 hour.
3 - Whilst the vegetables are roasting, place the mint, garlic, a little oil and seasoning into a bowl. Rub the lamb with the marinade and leave for 30 minutes.
4 - After one hour of roasting, turn the heat up to 200 degrees C, GM6. Place the courgette into the roasting tray and gently toss. Place the lamb steaks on top and put back into the oven for 20 minutes.
5 - Pour in the beans, warm through for a further 5 minutes then serve.

Crab and Salmon with Fennel Cream

Listening to the legend that is Keith Floyd at the weekend, somebody asked him what his favourite food was. He then proceeded to list off a 3 course meal with complimentary fine wines which had us all drooling. His choice of food, which was turned into the food he would eat if he was faced with a firing squad, was all British. For somebody as intelligent and well travelled as Mr Floyd, it was superb to see good old British tucker getting his number one choice.

This then had my mind turned to what my meals would be if faced with the firing squad. As I love most things, it is an incredibly difficult question to answer. Like my other love, music, my mind changes on what I want to listen to or eat depending on my frame of mind. One day it may be something that takes a few hours of preparing and cooking, the next it may be rarebit on toast.

One ingredient that would have to feature in there though is crab. In my opinion, it is far superior in flavour to its expensive cousin, the lobster. Just a plain old crab, boiled and served with bread and butter and a mustard mayonnaise. You cannot get anything more simple yet it tastes truly magnificent and costs very little.

This dish is not British in origin, but it celebrates the sublime flavour of crab within a pasta sauce. Complimented with a little fennel and bulked up with salmon or trout, it takes 5 minutes to make and satisfies crab fans on every level. Making this kind of food strengthens my opinion that the best food is the food that takes the least time. And if faced with the firing squad, you won't have long to gobble it all down. Bang bang. So tell me, what would your final meal be?

Crab and Salmon with Fennel Cream
Serves 2

Half a fennel bulb, sliced finely
2 tbsp olive oil
1 glass white wine
100ml creme fraiche (low fat works fine)
Crab meat from one whole crab, cooked
1 medium fillet of salmon or trout, cubed
Juice from half a lemon
Fresh dill
Salt and pepper

1 - Boil a pan of water and cook your pasta of choice, I used tagliatelle. Whilst the pasta is cooking you can start and finish your sauce.
2 - Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan. Add the fennel and cook for 1 minute until softened but not coloured. Add the white wine and reduce by half.
3 - Add the creme fraiche and bring to the boil. Then quickly turn down the heat so it just bubbles, you need to make sure it does not split. Add the crab and salmon and stir thoroughly. Cook for 1 minute. Add a squeeze of lemon and a good handful of freshly chopped dill. Taste for seasoning.
4 - Stir in the pasta and serve with optional Parmesan cheese.