Writer Diana Henry: Growing up in Northern Ireland makes me appreciate the food I have now

Plus recipes for pumpkin tarts, beef pie and an autumnal upside-down cake

Food writer Diana Henry has updated her 2005 cookbook, Roast Figs, Sugar Snow (Chris Terry/PA)

Food writer Diana Henry will never cease to be amazed by pumpkins, because they just weren’t something she encountered growing up in Northern Ireland.

She first fell in love with the idea of pumpkins in primary school, when her teacher read out books from the Little House On The Prairie series, set in the American Midwest in the late 1800s.

When revisiting the books as an adult, she discovered they were “full of food” – including pumpkins.

“They’re about making stuff that you’ll be able to have in winter, about ‘putting stuff up’, as they say there. So preserving, drying, all that kind of thing,” says Henry, 59.

(Chris Terry/PA)

“In Northern Ireland when I was growing up, we didn’t have pumpkins – I never saw a pumpkin or cooked with a pumpkin until I moved to England.

“When it came to Halloween and things like that, we used turnips. So, pumpkins have never stopped enchanting me, because the girls in the Little House sit on the pumpkins that were kept upstairs in the attic area, they would be there right through winter.

“It just seemed like quite a magic ingredient, the pumpkin.”

Diana Henry’s pumpkin tarts with spinach and Gorgonzola

Gorgonzola cheese gives these tarts a kick.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 45 mins

Total Time

 60 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• For the pastry:

• 225g plain flour, plus more to dust

• 175g butter, chilled and chopped

• Sea salt flakes

• For the filling:

• 450g pumpkin or squash

• Olive oil

• 450g spinach, coarse stalks removed

• 2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk

• 275ml double cream

• 50g Parmesan cheese, finely grated

• Freshly grated nutmeg

• 200g Gorgonzola cheese

• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. For the pastry, put the flour, butter and a good pinch of salt into a food processor and pulse-blend the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add just enough very cold water to make the pastry come together. Wrap it in foil or clingfilm and refrigerate for about half an hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C fan (375F), Gas 5.

3. Cut the pumpkin or squash from top to bottom into broad slices, remove the inner stringy bits and seeds, then peel. Brush lightly with olive oil and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until just tender. Turn off the oven. Put the spinach into a large saucepan, cover and wilt in the water left clinging to it (about four minutes over a medium heat). Drain well and leave to cool.

4. Make the custard by mixing together the eggs, egg yolk, cream and Parmesan. Season well. Roll out the rested pastry on a lightly floured surface and use it to line six individual tart tins. Chill for another 30 minutes (or just stick them in the freezer for about 15 minutes).

5. Preheat the oven again to 180C fan, Gas 5. Prick the bottom of the tarts with a fork, line them with baking parchment and put baking beans or ordinary dried beans on top. Blind bake for 10 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and cook the pastry cases for another five minutes.

6. Cut the pumpkin into small slices, about 10 centimetres long and one centimetre thick. Squeeze every last bit of water from the spinach and chop it up. Season both of these and add some freshly grated nutmeg to the spinach. Spread the spinach over the bottom of the tart cases, then add the slices of pumpkin and dot with nuggets of Gorgonzola.

7. Pour the custard mix over the tarts and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and the custard feels only just set when you put your forefinger in the centre of a tart. Leave for 10 minutes to let the custard finish cooking and set a little once you have taken it out of the oven.

8. Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry is published by Aster. Photography by Jason Lowe. Available now.

Henry – who has a weekly column with The Telegraph, and has been writing cookbooks since the early 2000s – says her upbringing makes her more grateful for all the different types of food you can get now.

“My mum was a great cook, but there were just things you couldn’t get in Northern Ireland. And I’ve never stopped appreciating that. I think it was quite good in a way, to grow up in a place where what you could get was limited.

“It’s not like now, where you can get anything by just using your laptop and the mouse. The other thing is, we didn’t travel really, because in those days you had to go via Belfast, and then you had to fly to London to be able to go anywhere else.”

That’s why Henry – who is now based in London – used books to travel the world instead, particularly snowy, cold countries.

“As soon as you could get to Scandinavia on a cheap flight, I was there… I started exploring the whole area.”

Her obsession with colder climes has seeped into her cooking, including the recipes in Roast Figs, Sugar Snow – a reissue of her 2005 cookbook – complete with new recipes and a foreword from British food writer Nigel Slater.

Dishes include a Swedish apple, almond and cardamom cake, Danish roast pork and a rich risotto from northern Italy.

Diana Henry’s pecan and pear upside-down cake recipe

Ground ginger gives this cake a warming feel.

Servings

10

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 40 mins

Total Time

 60 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• For the fruit and nuts:

• 75g unsalted butter

• 115g caster sugar

• 350g firm pears (about 2)

• 140g cranberries

• 75g pecans

• For the cake:

• 120g unsalted butter, softened

• 200g caster sugar

• 2 large eggs, separated

• Drop of vanilla extract

• 210g self-raising flour

• 1tsp baking powder

• 1tsp ground ginger (optional)

• 175ml full-fat milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C fan (375F), Gas 5.

2. Melt the butter and sugar for the fruit and nuts in a heavy-based ovenproof saute pan, 25cms in diameter, over a low heat. Peel and core the pears and cut them into slices, about 1cm thick, then place them on top of the butter and sugar. Cook these over a gentle heat until just tender, then whack the heat up and cook them until lightly caramelised. Scatter the cranberries and pecans on top and gently mix all the fruit around. Turn the heat off, but don’t let the pan get cold.

3. For the cake, cream the butter and sugar and add the egg yolks and vanilla. Mix in half the flour along with all the baking powder and ginger, if using. Add the milk and then the other half of the flour. Mix until smooth.

4. Whisk the egg whites until they form medium peaks. Add one tablespoon of the beaten whites to the batter to loosen it, then, working quickly, fold in the rest with a large spoon.

5. Spread the batter over the fruit and nuts in the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 35–40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the sponge comes out clean.

6. Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out, but no longer, or the caramelised fruit will stick to the pan. If this does happen, carefully lever the pears off the pan and lay them on to the cake with their dark, caramelised sides facing upwards.
   Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry is published by Aster. Photography by Jason Lowe. Available now.

“Everybody uses the word ‘comforting’ about food these days, I see it all the time,” Henry says, but for her, colder weather dishes have to have the same elements – no matter where around the world they come from.

“I think they have to give you the sense of wellbeing, cosiness… Just imagine if we lived in California, we’d have hot weather stuff all year round. How awful!

“You really want a drop in temperature and you want that thing of being in the kitchen with the windows steamed up, having come back from a long walk, which means you’re allowed to eat something slightly calorific.”

Autumn has now begun, and it’s undoubtedly Henry’s “favourite” season.

“With the arrival of autumn, I think cooks retreat to the kitchen – and they’re really glad to be there,” she says.

Diana Henry's beef pie with wild mushrooms and red wine

Wild mushrooms bring this autumnal dish to life.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 40 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 50 mins

Total Time

 2 hours 30 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1kg braising beef, cut into large chunks

• 30g dried wild mushrooms

• Groundnut oil

• 350g baby onions, or small round shallots, peeled but left whole

• 50g butter

• 1 celery stick, finely chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

• 30g plain flour

• 300ml red wine

• Leaves from 3 thyme sprigs

• 3 bay leaves

• 300g fresh mushrooms, sliced

• 3tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley leaves

• 320g puff pastry for 1 big pie, 600g for 6 small pies

• 1 egg, lightly beaten

• Sea salt flakes and

• freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Dry the meat well with kitchen paper (if it’s wet it won’t brown properly). Put the dried mushrooms in a heatproof bowl and pour enough boiling water over to just cover. Leave to soak for 30 minutes.

2. Heat two tablespoons of oil in a heavy-based casserole and brown the beef in batches: it is very important to cook it in batches otherwise the meat will not colour well. Remove each batch as it’s done. Add the baby onions or shallots to the pan and lightly brown them, adding a little more oil if you need it. Reduce the heat, add 20 grams of the butter and all the celery and garlic, and sweat for 10 minutes. Return the meat, with any juices, to the casserole. Season well and, over a low heat, add the flour. Stir everything round until it is well coated. Cut up the mushrooms and add to the pot with their soaking liquid (strain the liquid through muslin, as it can be gritty). Add the red wine, thyme and bay leaves and bring to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat, cover and cook over a very gentle heat for one-and-a-half hours, stirring every so often. Take the lid off for the last 15-20 minutes to reduce the liquid. You need thick juices for a pie, so, if they’re too thin, remove the meat and mushrooms and boil to reduce the sauce.

3. Melt half a tablespoon of oil and the remaining butter in a saute pan and cook the fresh mushrooms briskly over a high heat so that they get well coloured. Season and let the mushrooms cook until they exude their liquid and it evaporates. Stir the parsley and the cooked fresh mushrooms into the meat and check the seasoning. Leave to cool completely.

4. Put the meat in one large or six small pie dishes and roll out the pastry to fit the dish(es). Cut a strip or strips large enough to go around the edge or edges. Brush the edge(s) with water and press the strip on. Dampen this with water and cover the pie or pies with their lids, pressing the pastry down. Trim off the excess, knock up the edges and crimp them, if you like, or just press with a fork. Use the remaining pastry to decorate, making little holes in the top for steam to escape. Brush with the beaten egg and chill for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 190C fan, Gas 6.

5. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes for one large pie, or 25–30 minutes for smaller pies. Serve immediately.
   Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry is published by Aster. Photography by Jason Lowe. Available now.

“The ingredients change… I’m just thrilled pumpkins will be there, it seems right to eat lentils again – and pears, apples. I think some of my favourite ingredients really are autumn ingredients. it’s my favourite time of the year to cook.”

This autumn, Henry already has her mind set on pumpkins.

“I’ve just found a recipe for Hungarian pumpkin soup,” she says. “I’ve not done this before – I’ve got lots of pumpkin soup recipes, but this has got a little bit of vinegar as well, so it cuts that sweetness. That sounds good.

“Home food is what I’m really interested in – the things that come from a country… I love that connection you get between other home cooks in other countries.”

(Aster/PA)

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry is published by Aster. Photography by Jason Lowe. Available now.