I knew I was going to marry my husband before I met him. My brother described him, and I knew. My now husband was, at the time, simply the brother of someone with whom my brother served on a submarine. (Are you following?)

The older brothers were friends and, over the course of their twenties, they married other friends (now my sisters-in-law), and then the younger siblings (me and the husband) married. For a time, we all lived on a single street. The next generation are all a combination of offspring, nieces/nephews and godsons to all six of us.

Of course, we do not see enough of each other any more. Most recently, there was a funeral, but it’s hardly the same. So when we finally managed to all be in the same place at the same time, with the sun out, it was always going to be a rather wonderful party.

You aren’t going to be interested in the family gossip, so I am sharing an autumnal party menu with you. Almost all involved the wood over, although it absolutely doesn’t have to (a conventional oven will do everything), and I frequently wished I was doing it the easy way over the course of the evening.

Any of the recipes below are absolute crowd pleasers, but the only absolute non-negotiable is sweet peas on the table. Bix were beautifully with a few different sorts of Briza.

Firstly, there’s a quick video, and then the recipes. Let me know if you try any of them, and how you get on.

Starters

Wood oven flatbread & dips

I am forever grateful to Kat Goldin for making sourdough easy for me. I had tried every other way before I discovered her method and I have simply never looked back.

For flatbreads, I just make the same batch that I usually do for a single loaf, but when I get to the shaping stage, I split the dough into six balls, and put them in a floured tray.

 

Ingredients

200g active 100% hydration starter

400g water

650g organic bread flour

15g salt

 

METHOD

First thing in the morning of the day you will need it, mix all the ingredients together. It’ll be a shaggy mess, but this is fine.

After an hour, take one edge of the shaggy mess and lift it up and over the rest of the dough. Turn the bowl a quarter of turn, and do it again. And twice more.

Leave it for an hour again, and repeat.

After doing this a couple of time over three hours.

Once the three hours is up, use a dough scraper to cut off a sixth of the dough, and shape it into a small ball. You might need a lot of flour at this stage, but try not to dry it all out too much.

Put the ball into a tray dusted with flour.

Repeat five more times.

Cover the tray with a damp tea towel and put in the fridge until an hour or so before you are due to cook them.

Take them out and let them come back to room temperature. Use a tortilla press or a floured rolling pin to create round flatbreads (although my youngest niece requested a heart shape, and then she took a picture of it) and then cook. I did them on the base of the wood oven, but on a hot cast iron skillet or an Aga hot plate will do just as well.

 

The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight do an amazing range of garlic butters which go amazingly, melted on top of one of these sourdough flat breads. Alternatively, serve with a range of dips.

 

I have no dip recipes for you. I got mine from Waitrose.

 

Mains

Anna Jones Squash lasagne from One Pot, Pan, Planet

 

Ingredients

690g tomato passata

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

A good pinch of dried chilli flakes
400g canned green or Puy lentils, drained (or 250g

home-cooked)
1⁄2 a butternut squash (pumpkin; about 600g), peeled and grated
50g black olives, pitted and chopped

2 tbsp capers
Finely grated zest of an unwaxed lemon 

A small bunch of basil, leaves picked

2 (125g each) balls of mozzarella (vegan optional)

250g dried lasagne sheets

 

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C. In a large bowl or jug, mix the passata with the oil, half a teaspoon of flaky sea salt, the chopped garlic, chilli flakes, drained lentils, grated squash, chopped olives, capers and lemon zest. Tear the basil leaves in half.

2. Spoon a quarter of the sauce into an ovenproof dish roughly 20cm x 30cm (I use an oval roughly the same size), tear over a third of one of the balls of mozzarella, then cover with pasta sheets. Repeat for another

two layers: a quarter of the sauce, a third of a ball of mozzarella, a layer of pasta.

3. Finish with a final layer of sauce, then tear over the whole of the second ball of mozzarella, sprinkle with salt and pepper, top with the basil, and drizzle with a little more olive oil.

4. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the mozzarella is deeply golden. Serve with a sharply dressed salad (I mix lemon juice, cider vinegar, mustard and extra-virgin olive oil, and toss through a bowl of green leaves).

 

Notes:

Now, we all know that lasagne is a great make ahead dish. However, If you assemble it but don’t cook it, then I find the pasta curls or just goes soggy. So, I made this and cooked it for 20 minutes or so until it was nearly done and then planned to finish cooking it in the wood oven. All the benefits of the flavour but less of the jeopardy of trying to cook it all from scratch. When I took it out of the cooker, I thought it looked a bit boring, so I did grab half a block of Grana Padano and put a good layer on the top. Highly recommend. If I’d had any breadcrumbs, I’d probably have added them too. 

If I had one criticism of this, I would say that it needed cooking longer and slower than I had the scope for. However, everyone (even the non-cheese lovers) adored it. By the time I served it, we were eating by candlelight and lots of people expressed surprise that it wasn’t a traditional lasagne.

 

Butter bean, artichokes & fillet steak

This recipe doesn’t exist on the internet, it is exclusive for those old school cooks amongst us who wouldn’t be seen dead without a tomato-spattered cookbook by our side. From Flora Shedden’s Supper, this combines many of my favourite things into something that truly is greater than the sum of its parts.

Serves 2. I doubled, and there was a lot. 

Ingredients

Drizzle of olive oil

150g of onions (Flora recommends a mix of spring onions and shallot; I went for just shallots, and yes, I got them pre-diced and frozen from Waitrose)

4 garlic cloves, finely sliced

100g white wine

1x 400g tin of butter beans, drained 

285g artichoke hearts in oil, drained. Reserve the oil for making mayonnaise or salad dressing

200g of chicken or vegetable stock

Salt & pepper

For the steak

200-300g steak

50g butter

Thyme sprigs

4 garlic cloves

Salt & pepper

 

Method

Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook slowly until soft. Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes until everything is soft and just turning golden. Add the white wine and turn the heat up a little. Once the white wine has reduced a little, add the butter beans and artichokes, and stir through until well-coated. Add the stock, season a little, then reduce the heat. Simmer for 15 minutes, ensuring the artichokes and butter beans don’t over-cook. 

Meanwhile, prepare the steaks. Allow them to come to room temperature. Heat a medium cast-iron pan over a high heat until just smoking. Season the steaks with salt and pepper and place in the pan. Cook on either side for a few minutes, then continue to cook and flip every minute or so. Once the steaks have a good colour to them, I like to add butter, thyme and garlic together and use the melted butter and the herbs to baste the steaks. 

Once cooked, set aside in a deep plate and pour the cooking juices, herbs and garlic onto the steaks. Cover and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes. 

To serve, spoon the hot bean mixture into shallow bowls, slice the steak and place carefully over the top and spoon over any resting juices. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil, then add some parsley if desired. 

Notes:

Even with 200g of white wine, this does seem a bit of a waste of opening a bottle. No-one else in the house drinks white wine so it really was just for this. Flora says you can sub with extra stock, but I don’t recommend it. The wine absolutely made this recipe. 

That said, it was quite liquid, even after it had cooled. I was going to strain some of the broth off but what with one thing and another, I never had time. Absolutely no-one complained, and this got a lot of compliments, juice and all. However, next time, I would serve with mashed potato or bread. 

I used jarred butter beans. I’m not sure I could tell the difference by the end of it all so I’d probably go for tinned next time.

 

Roasted greens & labneh

When I first planned the menu, this dish was going to be roasted greens with ajo blanco from Flora Shedden’s Supper but I used all the flaked almonds in the crumble topping and I’d over-bought yoghurt, and so I had to do a last minute switch, and it became roasted greens on labneh. If you want to know about labneh, you need to talk to Gill Meller. Page 23 of his root, stem, leaf, flower. 

His recipe is asparagus, but I went for broccoli and green beans (as per Flora Shedden’s original recipe). 

Ingredients

2 tbsp skin-on almonds

1 tbsp sunflower seeds

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp tamari soy sauce

Pinch chilli flakes (optional)

Rosemary sprig, leaves picked

10-12 asparagus spears

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to drizzle

Warmed flatbreads to serve (optional)

For the labneh:

500ml natural yogurt

½ tsp salt

Handful fresh mint

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

You’ll also need…

Sheet of muslin or thin cotton cloth

 

Method

To make the labneh, put the yogurt in a bowl with the salt and stir well. Set a sieve over another bowl and line it with a square of clean muslin. Spoon the salted yogurt into the centre of the cloth, then gather up the sides and secure with string/elastic band/clips. Transfer to the fridge (still in the sieve and bowl) for 8-12 hours or overnight.

Turn out the thickened labneh into a large, clean serving bowl. Pick the mint leaves from the stalks (discard the stalks). Set the smaller leaves aside and slice the larger leaves into thin ribbons. Stir the sliced mint into the labneh with the olive oil and some black pepper. Set aside while you prepare the asparagus.

Put the almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and half the cumin seeds in a small dry frying pan set over a low heat. Add the tamari, chilli flakes, if using, and rosemary, then set over a low heat. Cook, stirring regularly, for a few minutes until the nuts and seeds are dry, toasted and fragrant.

If you plan to cook your asparagus on an open fire or barbecue, make sure it’s hot before you begin. Trim the woody base from each spear, then set the asparagus on a plate. Trickle over the olive oil and season with salt, pepper and the remaining cumin seeds. Cook the asparagus for 2-3 minutes on each side or as long as it takes to char the spears nicely. (Alternatively, cook the asparagus in a hot griddle pan for a similar length of time.)

Arrange the asparagus over the labneh, then scatter over the toasted nuts and seeds and reserved mint/leaves. Serve with a drizzle of oil and some flatbreads, if you like.

Notes:

Asparagus is out of season for much of the year, but there’s plenty of other vegetables to use, like the broccoli I used. Something with a bit of texture though, I wouldn’t try chard. 

I put the vegetables in a roasting tray and roasted them in the wood oven, and I added halved lemons, cut side down, in the oil. Once the vegetables came out, I squeezed the lemon halves over the labneh and the vegetables. 

I also completely ran out of time to do all sort of tamari loveliness. Walnuts toasted in a dry pan much less faff and just as lovely. 

 

Roasted potatoes with rosemary, garlic & lemon

There’s no recipe for this, it’s a chuck everything in a tray sort of thing. I always do baby potatoes rather than a cut up Maris Piper, but that’s mostly because I think they look better, and all that skin is wonderful in a wood oven. Go heavy on the garlic (don’t peel the cloves, just squeeze the garlic out once the roasting has finished) and add as much rosemary as you can bear. Mine was looking incredible, until the oils in the rosemary went up in flames and I was left with some charred needles.

Use a vegetable peeler to take some zest off an organic unwaxed lemon and throw that in the tray too. I find if you put lemon halves in (as above) the moisture makes the potatoes a bit soggy. 

 

Puddings

Plum crumble & ice cream

I go to bed with Nigel Slater, I lust over his Instagram, and I photograph his books, but I confess to only trusting Delia with a crumble recipe. I don’t know if there’s a typo in his Fruit edition of Tender but I just can’t get on with it. Delia’s is utterly, utterly reliable in all things. 

I increased the quantity by 50% again and this was the perfect amount for a kilo and a half of Victoria plums. The plums were, however, prepared according to the adorable Nigel’s instructions.

Hot spiced plums

Ingredients

punnet of English plums, stalks removed

good sprinkling of unrefined caster or granulated sugar

good sprinkling of light muscovado sugar

few whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1 fresh bay leaf

good quality vanilla ice cream, to serve

Method

Place the whole plums into a large shallow pan over a medium heat and sprinkle over both types of sugar, adding more or less depending on the sweetness of the fruit and how sweet your tooth is.

Add enough water to cover the fruit halfway up, then drop the cloves, cinnamon stick and bay leaf into the pan. Bring to a simmer, then cover the pan with a lid and reduce the heat. Cook for 6-7 minutes, until the plums have collapsed a little bit and the juices have mixed with the sugar.

 

At this point, I realised that, even though I had been very stingy indeed with the water when I set the plums stewing, there was a lot of liquid at the end. I couldn’t risk a soggy crumble, so I put the whole lot through a sieve. What to do with plummy cooking liquor? Champagne cocktails, obviously. 

For the crumble:

4 oz (110 g) whole almonds, skin on

3 oz (75 g) chilled butter, cut into small dice

6 oz (175 g) self-raising flour, sifted

2 level teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 oz (110 g) demerara sugar

Method

Make the crumble, which couldn't be simpler, as it is all made in a processor. All you do is place the butter, sifted flour, cinnamon and sugar in the processor and give it a whiz till it resembles crumbs. Next add the almonds and process again, not too fast, until they are chopped. 

If you don't have a processor, in a large bowl, rub the butter into the sifted flour until it resembles crumbs, then stir in the cinnamon, sugar and almonds, which should be fairly finely chopped by hand. 

Now simply sprinkle the crumble mixture all over the plums, spreading it right up to the edges of the dish, and, using the flat of your hands, press it down quite firmly all over; the more tightly it is packed together the crisper it will be. Then finish off by lightly running a fork all over the surface. Now bake the crumble on the centre shelf of the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Leave it to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving, then serve it warm with custard or pouring cream. (I went for ice cream, because that is what Nigel suggests going with the hot spiced plums.)

Notes:

I had a bag of flaked almonds and I didn’t have any whole ones, so this is what I used. I think they were better, but add them right at the very end so they don’t get made too small by the food processor. 

Roasted stone fruit & brown sugar pavlova

Anna Jones again. What a stalwart she is.

Serves 8-10

ingredients

For the meringue
4 eggs
150g golden caster sugar
50g soft brown sugar
Salt

For the fruit
2 peaches, stoned and quartered
4 apricots, stoned and halved
4 plums, stoned and halved
150g strawberries, halved
A few sprigs thyme, leaves picked
2 tbsp runny honey
4 bay leaves
Juice and zest of 2 limes

For the yoghurt
200ml thick Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp vanilla paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tbsp honey

Method

Heat the oven to 150C/300F/gas 2. Separate the eggs and put the yolks to one side for another use. (You can use them for mayonnaise, custard or add them to whole eggs when you’re making scrambled eggs to make them extra rich.)

Make sure the bowl of your stand mixer is very clean, then whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.

Add the sugars and a pinch of salt and whisk on the highest setting for about five minutes, until all the grains of sugar have disappeared – rub the meringue with your fingertips; if you can still feel the grains, keep going.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and spoon the mixture into the middle of the tray, use the back of a spoon to make a circle roughly the size of a large dinner plate (about 24-26cm in diameter), then use the spoon to make it lower in the middle and a little higher around the sides. Once you have a shape you like, use your spoon to create waves and peaks in the meringue, which will look great when it is cooked. Bake for an hour, until golden on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Take the meringue out and turn up the oven to 200C/390F/gas 6. Toss the fruit in the thyme, honey, bay leaves, and the lime juice and zest, spread on a baking tray and roast for 20 minutes, until everything caramelises. Depending on the ripeness of your fruit, you may have to roast some of it longer. You are looking for the fruit to soften in the middle and to caramelise a little at the edges. Set aside to cool.

Mix the yoghurt with the vanilla and a couple tablespoons of the liquid from the roasting pan. Once everything is cool and you are ready to eat, pile the yoghurt on to the meringue, and top as artfully as you like with the fruit.