Nigel says: “Cabbage comes in many forms, and for me this brassica’s finest moment is when the leaves are shredded and fermented into sauerkraut. I have made my own, involving salt, a weight and a wait, but the commercial brands are usually good. I say usually because I’ve had a few horrors. For the record, those with the fewest ingredients are the best. Ideally just cabbage and salt. You are looking for something pure, clean and refreshingly sour. A tiny bowl containing a tangle of sauerkraut is a daily thing for me, in the way that kefir or yoghurt is. I like sour things.

Sauerkraut’s uses are manifold. A mound of it will slice through the fattiness of a roast duck, the vegetable’s inherent astringency making the meat seem even sweeter; a spoonful will add vigour to a Savoy cabbage sauté and it makes an interesting addition to a bowl of buttery winter gnocchi. A year ago, I introduced it to a sweet pumpkin roast, with cream and grated gruyère. A butternut squash would have worked as well. A dinner of sweet and fudgy squash, piercingly tart cabbage, sweet onions and cream. It was hands-down one of the most delicious plates of food I ate all year.” 

Serves 3

Ingredients

• 3 small orange fleshed squashes
• 30g butter
• 1 tsp thyme leaves
• 2 medium to large onions
• 3 tbsps olive oil
• small bunch parsley
• 250g sauerkraut
• 150ml double cream
• 125g grated gruyère

Method

Set the oven at 200°C. Cut the squashes in half and use a spoon to remove the seeds and fibres. Place the squash hollow side up in a roasting tin, then divide the butter and thyme between them. Season with salt and black pepper and bake the squashes for 45 minutes to an hour until the flesh is soft and giving.

While the squashes bake, peel and finely slice the onions. Warm the oil in a deep pan, over a moderate heat, add the onions and cook until pale gold and soft. Expect this to take a good 20 minutes, stirring regularly. Roughly chop the parsley, then stir into the softened onions. Remove from the heat and add the sauerkraut, cream and cheese.

Nigel says: “Making something to eat is one of the great joys of my life, but that doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally welcome a dinner where the preparation time is almost zero. I have a chicken supper that fits neatly into that scenario, where peppers roast till silky and on the verge of collapse, where their juices mingle with those of roast chicken. The sweetness is spiked with sour lemon and cool mint. A dinner that is as much about the juices on your plate as about the meat. You will need good bread to mop them up.”

Serves 3

Ingredients

• 4 romano peppers
• 2 orange or yellow peppers
• 400g cherry tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves
• 6 chicken thighs
• 6 tbsps olive oil
• 1 preserved lemon
• small handful mint leaves

Method

Slice the romano peppers in half lengthways, remove any seeds, then cut each half into two short lengths. Do the same with the orange or yellow peppers, then put all of them in a roasting tin. Add the cherry tomatoes, left whole. Set the oven at 200°C.

Peel the garlic cloves, flatten them with a knife and add them to the roasting tin. Place the chicken thighs, skin side up, among the peppers, pour over the olive oil and season well with salt and black pepper. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until the chicken is golden brown and crisp and the peppers are soft.

Halve the preserved lemon and scrape out and discard the flesh. Chop the lemon shells into small pieces, then add to the juices in the roasting tin and continue cooking for a couple of minutes. Put the chicken, tomatoes and peppers onto plates, then chop the mint leaves and stir them into the juices in the roasting tin. Spoon the juices over the chicken and peppers and serve.

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 500g ripe plums

For the cake:

• 200g butter 
• 75g light muscovado sugar 
• 75g golden caster sugar 
• 100g skinned hazelnuts
• 4 eggs 
• 150g self-raising wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch of salt

For the icing:

• 150g icing sugar 
• 3 tsp lemon juice 
• 6 cardamom pods 
• a pinch ground cinnamon 
• 1 tsp sesame seeds 
• 2 tsp poppy seeds
• 2 tsp dried rose petals

Method

Set the oven at 160°C. Line the base of a 23cm springform baking tin with baking parchment.

Halve and stone the plums and set aside.

Make the cake: dice the butter, then put it in the bowl of a food mixer with the sugars and beat for a good five minutes till light and fluffy; the colour of latte. Regularly push the mixture down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure even creaming.

While the butter and sugar cream, toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan, watching carefully and moving them round the pan so they colour evenly. Grind to a fine powder in a food processor. Beat the eggs lightly with a fork, then add, slowly, with the paddle turning, to the butter and sugar. Combine the ground hazelnuts, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt, then add to the batter, mixing it together thoroughly.

Scrape the batter into the lined tin and gently smooth the surface. Place the plums on the surface of the cake. They will sink into the cake as it bakes. Bake for 55 minutes to an hour, until the cake is spongy to the touch. (Test for doneness with a metal skewer. It should come out a little damp, but without any raw cake mixture sticking to it.)

Remove the cake from the oven and leave to settle for 20 minutes. Run a palette knife around the inside of the tin to loosen the cake, then carefully undo the spring clip and transfer the cake to a plate.

Make the icing: sift the icing sugar into a bowl, stir in the lemon juice and add a little water – just a drop or two – if necessary to bring it to a thick pouring consistency. Crack the cardamom pods, remove the black seeds and grind them to a fine powder, then stir into the icing. Stir in the ground cinnamon and pour over the cake. Lightly toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan until golden, then mix them with the poppy seeds and dried rose petals and scatter them over the icing.

If your plums aren’t perfectly ripe, cook them briefly first.

• 500g unripe plums
• 30g butter
• 250ml unfiltered apple juice

Halve and stone the plums. Melt the butter in a shallow pan and add the fruit, cut sides down. Pour in the apple juice and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the plums are translucent and tender to the point of a knife. The apple juice will have virtually disappeared. Watch the fruit carefully towards the end of cooking, making sure it doesn’t collapse.

Remove from the heat and continue as above.

A Cook’s Book by Nigel Slater (£30, Harper Collins) is out now