Apple rose petal cordial

Try adding this cordial to lemonade or soda, to biscuit or cake mixes, or to fruity jelly. To make a delicious rose lassi (an Indian yogurt drink), add 1 part cordial to 1 part water and 3 parts plain yogurt.

Apple rose flowers are highly fragrant and make a lovely addition to summer salads.

The easiest way to process the fruits for juices, etc., is to use a steam juice extractor. This is a 3-layer pan system which sits on a cooker with boiling water beneath, a juice collector in the middle and fruit in the top layer. With rosehips you can just halve or quarter the fruit and put the whole lot in the top pan – seeds, hairs and all. After about an hour you end up with a concentrated clear juice which can be bottled as it is or sweetened first.

To preserve for herb teas or as a spice, the hips should be halved, the seeds and hairs removed with a teaspoon, and the halved ‘shells’ dried (in a dehydrator if necessary) before grinding to a coarse powder.

Rose creams

This is a great recipe to make to keep children entertained, and can be made in other flavours using peppermint syrup, elderflower cordial or rose petal cordial on its own.

Rosehip syrup

Rosehip ripple ice cream

Rosehips are full of seeds and fine fibres, which need to be removed before consumption. There are different way to do this, one of which is to halve the hips and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. This method is very time-consuming and you may want to sieve the pulp after cooking anyway, to ensure all the fibres are removed. Alternatively you can cook the hips, whole or halved, in water, and then sieve them to remove the seeds and fibres – this tends to leave you with a little less usable pulp per weight, but is much quicker. This is the method used in this recipe. If you choose to de-seed with a spoon you will need slightly fewer rosehips, about 170g (6oz).

Place the rosehips in a heavy-based saucepan with the water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the hips have pulped. Remove from the heat and push through a sieve, discarding the seeds and skins, and collecting the fruit pulp in a bowl.

Return the pulp to the saucepan and add the sugar. Bring back to the boil, stirring all the time, and reduce the heat to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and put aside to cool.

Place the cream into a mixing bowl and whisk until stiff. Add the vanilla extract and the condensed milk and whisk again, mixing the ingredients thoroughly and aerating them. The little bubbles trapped in the cream mixture help to make the frozen ice cream soft.

Pour the cream mixture into a freezer-safe tub and divide down the middle with a spatula. Pour half the rosehip mixture into the groove and stir broadly in figure-of-eight motions, then add the other half and stir in around the edges of the tub. Put the lid on the tub and place in the freezer. The ice cream will be ready in a minimum of 3 hours and should be taken out of the freezer 10 minutes before serving.

Try this basic recipe with different fruit purées, such as haw, apple, pear, wineberry or autumn olive. The ice cream is very sweet, so you may not need to add sugar to the fruit – the contrast of sweet, creamy ice cream with a tart fruit ripple is just perfect!

Autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellata)

A top plant in the forest garden, this deciduous large shrub is an excellent windbreak, bee plant and nitrogen fixer, and also produces a crop of fantastic fruits.

When they first turn red, the fruits will still be slightly astringent, but this disappears on cooking or drying. Autumn olive jam and fruit leathers are always favourites on forest gardening courses.

The fruit contains about 8.3 per cent sugars, 4.5 per cent protein and 12mg per 100g vitamin C. It was recently discovered that they also contain high amounts of lycopene, a carotenoid pigment most commonly associated with tomato and considered an important phytonutrient, thought to prevent or fight cancer of the prostate, mouth, throat and skin, and to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The lycopene content of autumn olive fruit averages about 40-50mg/100g, compared with 3mg/100g for fresh raw tomato and 10mg/100g for canned whole tomato. Because of the high lycopene levels in autumn olive fruit, and the potential health benefits of this phytonutrient, there has been increased interest in commercial fruit production.

Autumn olive leafs out in late winter and retains its leaves late into the autumn, so as a shelter and windbreak plant it is excellent. The reddish speckled fruits ripen in September/October. An individual bush will ripen fruits over 3-4 weeks, and the ripe fruits can hang well on the bushes if birds don’t take them. There are also earlier- and later-ripening selections of autumn olive to make the season longer.

Although individual fruits are small (about 10mm/¼" across), they are borne in profusion, lining the branches thickly, and it is a fast crop to harvest by picking or by shaking the bushes. The fruits store for about 2 weeks in a fridge or can be placed straight into a freezer to use at a later date. In size and texture they are similar to currants and blueberries and can be used in the same way in desserts such as pavlovas and cheesecakes, in stewed fruit mixtures or on top of pastries.

Autumn olive & red onion relish

Autumn olive & blackberry tartlets

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F / Gas Mark 4)

Autumn olives, like other berries, contain small, hard seeds. They are no more noticeable than those in other berries, but if you would rather avoid them you can choose to make a purée topping from the autumn olives rather than using them whole, as described below.

For the pastry, work the butter into the flour to achieve a crumb texture. Add the caster sugar and stir in. Add the egg and combine all ingredients together into a single ball, adding a little milk if necessary. Wrap the ball of dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Dust a surface with flour and roll the pastry dough out to about 4mm (⅛") thick. Using the pastry cutter, cut out 12 discs of pastry and place them into the depressions of the cake tin. Prick each case with a fork, place a layer of foil or baking parchment over the pastry and fill with dried beans or lentils (baking beans), which will provide weight to prevent the pastry from lifting away from the bottom of the dish as it cooks. Bake for 15-20 minutes, remove from oven, and remove the beans and foil/parchment. Allow to cool in the tin.

For the crème pâtissière, combine the milk and vanilla essence in a saucepan and warm over a low heat until it begins to steam. In a mixing bowl combine the egg, sugar and flour to form a coarse paste. Slowly add the warm milk and whisk into a smooth liquid. Return the mixture to the saucepan and place over a low heat, stirring continuously with a whisk, until the mixture thickens.

While the crème is still hot, spoon it into the pastry cases, leaving enough space to put the berries on top. If using the autumn olives whole, arrange them on top of the crème and top with two or three blackberries. If you would prefer to make a purée, blend the autumn olives and sieve out the seeds and pulp to form a thick juice. Place the juice in a small saucepan with the sugar and cornflour. Over a low heat stir continuously until the purée thickens. Remove from the heat and spoon a little purée on top of the crème in each tartlet. Top with two or three blackberries and allow to cool.

Mix together the jam and hot water and glaze the tartlets with a pastry brush. Leave to cool and serve when ready.

Chestnuts (Castanea spp.)

Sweet chestnut is well known as a commercial crop in some countries, particularly in the Mediterranean, but increasing numbers of people are growing suitable selections in the UK and other cooler regions. It tends to be a more reliable crop than many nuts, because the trees flower in summer, so frosts are never a problem.

Fresh chestnuts are perishable and do not store well for very long – just a few weeks at cool temperatures in an airy place. To use them fresh in cooking, they need shelling/peeling. The easiest way to do this is to cut the nuts in half, then boil them for about 5 minutes, after which the half kernels should separate quite easily from the shell and thin inner shell.

If you dry chestnuts in-shell, they will store for years. The outer shells are brittle, so to shell them, put some in a bag or sack and whack it against the floor a few times; you can then pick out the kernel pieces from the mixture. The dry kernels should be soaked overnight and boiled for 40-50 minutes to cook (less if they are added to other recipes which are cooked further).

Chestnuts, as well as being a high-carbohydrate food, are a good source of vitamin C, and are high in minerals including potassium and manganese.

The nuts can ripen between late September and early November in the UK, depending on the selection. Obviously, further north, early-season varieties are more suitable, as these do not require a long growing season.

As with most nuts, chestnuts are harvested from the ground after they have dropped from the tree. However, they contain much more water (about 60 per cent in total) than other nuts, which makes them more perishable – this means it is more important to harvest daily, as chestnuts on the ground will start to rot more quickly. It is also important to use the nuts quickly, as – apart from drying (see page 40) – long-term storage is not easy. It is also worth sorting through your chestnuts to make sure there are none with holes in them, which indicates a pesky maggot inside.

Chestnut & lentil pâté

Pheasant pot roast with quince & chestnuts

Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan. Add the onion, mushrooms and chorizo. Rinse the pheasant through with cold running water and place on its side in the middle of the pan, surrounded by the other ingredients. Over a medium heat, lightly brown the pheasant on both sides, then remove from the pan and place into a preheated slow cooker on high. If you don’t have a slow cooker you can use a casserole dish – pre-heat the oven to 150°C (300°F / Gas Mark 2)

With the heat off, add the flour to the pan and stir into the ingredients, coating them evenly. Now add the stock, slowly stirring it into combine with the flour. Finally stir in the quince purée and transfer the mix to the slow cooker, surrounding the pheasant. Add the chestnuts and herbs and replace the lid.

Cook for 3-4 hours in the slow cooker, or 1-2 hours in the oven, until the meat is fully cooked and tender. Periodically turn the pheasant and baste with some of the sauce to keep the meat moist. Check seasoning.

Serve with potatoes and steamed greens for a warming autumnal feast!

For the puréed quince:
Peel, core and dice the quinces (roughly twice the weight of whole fruit of the final weight of purée required); place into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and then simmer gently until the quinces are soft and drop off smoothly when you push a fork into them. Strain off excess water (you can leave in a little water for a finer purée) and blend with a stick blender until smooth.

Try this with other birds, such as wood pigeon or duck. The tartness of the quinces and the sweetness of the chestnuts complement their rich, earthy flavours.

Sweet chestnut pastry

Try this with puréed medlars to make chestnut and medlar tartlets:

Roll out half the above quantity of pastry to 4mm (⅛”) thick. Using a small round pastry cutter, cut out circles of pastry and push them into a 12-cup cake tin.

Spoon in medlar purée to half-fill the pastry cases. Peel and halve fresh chestnuts to garnish, and brush the pastry crusts and chestnuts with honey water (1 tsp honey + ½ tsp hot water).

Bake for 25 minutes or until the crusts have browned.

Quinceade

Roasted wild duck with haw and chestnut stuffing

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mark 2)

Take the prepared duck and rinse thoroughly, outside and inside, with cold water. Pat it dry with kitchen paper and place in the centre of a roasting tin.

To make the stuffing, put the bread, chestnuts and sage into a food processor and blend to a chunky crumb consistency. Fry the onion gently in a little oil until translucent (you don’t need to fry welsh onion). Transfer the onion and crumb mix to a mixing bowl and add the teaspoon of haw jelly, egg, salt and pepper to taste. Stir together well until you can form a ball with the mixture, ensuring the egg and jelly have been well combined. If your bread was very dry you may wish to add the hot water to get the mixture to stick together, but if your ball is firm you won’t need it – the cooking juices of the duck will moisten the stuffing as it cooks.

Using a tablespoon, spoon the stuffing into the cavity of the duck. Prick the skin in a few places with a sharp knife to allow the fat to self-baste the duck while cooking. Put 1 tablespoon of haw jelly into a cup, add half a tablespoon of hot water and stir until the jelly has dissolved. Using a pastry brush, glaze the duck liberally with the haw jelly, then lay the sage leaves across the top as a garnish.

Put in the centre of the oven and roast for 50 minutes, or until the juices run clear and the skin is well browned. Remove after 20 minutes to re-glaze and add some parboiled potatoes to roast around the bird. Allow it to rest on a carving board for 10 minutes after cooking. While the duck rests you can drain any excess oil from the roasting tin to make gravy, then return your potatoes to the oven at 200°C (400°F / Gas Mark 6) to crisp up.

Try this with pheasant and replace the haw jelly with quince jam, and the sage with rosemary.

Haw & apple strudel

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F, Gas Mark 5)

Prepare your haws by gently cooking them whole over a low heat for around 15 minutes. If they are fairly hard, add 1cm (½") of water to the pan and cover to simmer gently. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Once cooled, mash them with a potato masher or a pestle to release the pulp. Transfer to a large sieve and, using a pestle or a wooden spoon, push the pulp through the sieve into a bowl, a spoonful at a time, discarding the skin and seeds as you go (or use a Moulinex sieve as described on page 163). Put the pulped haws to one side.

Place the apples into a spacious saucepan. Eating apples do not need sugar or water adding. Place over a low heat and cover, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes or until the apples have become soft. You can keep the apples fairly chunky for this recipe – just remove them from the heat before they break down completely. Add the haw pulp, sultanas and nutmeg to the apples and stir together well. The haw pulp binds the mixture and gives a pleasant rosy tint.

Put a sheet of baking parchment or kitchen foil on your work surface and lay out the first sheet of pastry. Brush the sheet with melted butter and carefully place the second sheet on top. Brush the second sheet and repeat until all sheets are on top of one another, stuck together with butter. Now place your fruit mixture in a thick line in the centre of the pastry. Fold the top edge over the fruit and brush with butter, then fold the bottom edge over and brush with butter, then fold in the side edges to close up the parcel. Using the paper or foil, gently roll the parcel upside down on to a greased baking tray to reveal what will be the top of your strudel. With a knife, cut slits widthways along the length of the parcel, brush with butter and sprinkle with the sugar.

Place the tray in the top of the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden and crispy. Serve warm with cream, ice cream or yogurt.

Try this with apple and medlar, apple and quince or apple and pear. Filo pastry is easy to find in most supermarkets, but if you have the time and the inclination, it is a good challenge to make it yourself. If you make a batch you can freeze it between layers of baking parchment in readiness for the tree fruit harvests.

Ricotta, honeycomb, hazelnuts

This recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a delicious way to eat hazelnuts. You probably won’t get honeycomb at your local supermarket, but good delis often stock it, and a small local honey producer will be able to sell to you direct; it’s also available online. It’s worth getting hold of some because it is such a treat: honey in its purest form, straight from the hive, untreated and pretty much as the bees intended it. The idea is to eat the whole thing, comb and all. The comb has a chewy, waxy texture and is perfectly edible, but you can discreetly discard the chewed comb once you’ve sucked all the honey from it, if you prefer.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F / Gas Mark 4)

Spread the hazelnuts out on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven for about 5 minutes, until they are lightly coloured and their skins are starting to split. Tip them on to a clean tea towel, fold the towel over them and give them a vigorous rub. This will remove most of the skins – don’t worry if a few bits remain. Alternatively, you can remove the skins by tipping the hazelnuts into a sieve and rubbing the tea towel over them, so the bits of skin fall through the sieve.

Divide the ricotta between shallow serving bowls. Break or cut your honeycomb into four roughly equal pieces and place on the ricotta, trickling over any honey that has escaped from the comb too. Scatter over the hazelnuts. Admire the irresistible tripartite simplicity of what you have just compiled, and serve with a smile.

You can use a thick, rich natural yogurt instead of the ricotta, or plain fromage frais. And, of course, you can use a good runny honey without the comb.

Hazelnut & mulberry shortbread

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, Gas Mark 2)

Toast the hazelnuts in the oven for 5 minutes on a baking tray. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Once cooled you should be able to remove the skins easily by rubbing them between your fingers or as described opposite. Transfer the skinned nuts to a food processor and roughly chop so that you have varying sizes of hazelnut chunks.

Using a spoon or an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar until soft and light. Sift in the plain flour, chestnut flour, allspice and salt. Using your fingertips work the ingredients together until they form a soft crumb texture. Add the hazelnuts and mulberries, and if the mixture seems too dry add a little more butter and mix into the dough. Keep the mixture loose and crumb-like until you feel you have the right consistency to form a cohesive, malleable ball. Take care not to overwork the mixture, and be as gentle and sparing as possible with your mixing to keep the dough light. When you are happy with the consistency, gently press the dough together into one ball.

Transfer to a flour-dusted surface and press the ball into a flat disc. Using a flour-dusted rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1cm (⅜") thick. Cut out biscuits with the pastry cutter, then gather up the excess dough into a ball, roll it out and cut again. Line a flat baking tray with baking parchment and carefully transfer the biscuits to the tray using a palette knife.

Bake for 20 minutes in the centre of the oven. If your oven is hotter at the back, you may want to turn the tray halfway through to prevent those at the back from burning. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. When cool, dust with icing sugar.

Squirrel with wild mushrooms & hazelnuts

As one of the biggest hindrances to a good hazelnut crop is the grey squirrel, it seems fitting to put them together in this hearty autumnal stew!

Place the seasoned flour in a shallow dish and roll the squirrel pieces in it until well covered.

Add the butter and oil to a spacious, heavy-based saucepan and place over a medium heat until the butter has melted. Add the onion and mushrooms and fry for about 2 minutes, until they begin to soften, then add the garlic and fry for 1 minute more. Add the squirrel pieces and brown lightly on all sides. Add a tablespoon of the remaining seasoned flour and stir in until it disappears. Gradually add the wine, stirring continuously, and simmer on a high heat for about 2 minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer. Add the herbs and hazelnuts and cover the pan.

Leave the pan to simmer on a low heat for 1 hour, and occasionally check that there is enough liquid to cover the meat and vegetables; add more stock if necessary. After 1 hour the meat should start to come off the bone. If it is still clinging to the bone continue cooking for up to 30 minutes, checking occasionally until the meat is really tender. When ready, remove the pan from the heat, stir in the cream and season to taste.

Serve with boiled or mashed potatoes and some seasonal greens.

Hazelnuts are more palatable cooked than raw – roasting lightly is one of the best ways. Like this they are also a fantastic snack food!

Wineberry & apple mint sorbet

This basic sorbet recipe works well with any fruit or combination of fruits. You may need to alter the amount of sugar you use, depending on the tartness of the fruit you choose, and some fruits will benefit from being cooked so that you can make a smooth purée. Delicious combinations include blackcurrant and apple, wineberry and melon, and autumn olive and mulberry.

Wineberry meringues with hazelnuts

Try this with other forest garden berries or a mix of several, including autumn olives, mulberries, blackcurrants or raspberries. You could use other nuts, too, and try blending these to a coarse powder and folding them into the meringue mix before cooking, for a different texture.

Medlar & walnut slices

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F / Gas Mark 5)

Place the medlars in a saucepan with the water and 3 teaspoons of brown sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer until they break up. Remove from the heat and strain off the water, then place a sieve over a bowl and push the pulp through with a wooden spoon, leaving the skin and seeds in the sieve to be discarded. Put the pulp to one side while you make your dough.

Slice the butter into a mixing bowl, add the caster sugar, ground walnuts and cinnamon and sieve in the flour. Rub the ingredients together to form a crumb, then make a space in the middle of the mixture and add the egg. Using a wooden spoon gradually mix the crumb into the egg to form a dough. Stir in milk a splash at a time until the dough reaches a thick ‘dropping’ consistency. Place half the dough into the centre of the greased baking tin. Level out the dough across the tin using a spatula. Now spoon the medlar pulp on top and spread over in an even layer.

Sprinkle half of the chopped walnuts over the medlar layer and cover with the second half of the dough mix. This forms a sandwich of two layers of dough with medlar and walnuts in the centre. Finish by sprinkling the top with the remaining chopped walnuts and the brown sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool, then slice into squares and store in a sandwich box for snacks and teatime treats.

Try this with haws instead of medlars. This version is based on a traditional recipe using mincemeat as the middle layer, but works well with tart, pulpy fruits such as medlars and haws, with a little spice such as cinnamon or nutmeg and some chopped nuts.

Toffee medlars

Try this with chestnuts and walnuts. Peel or crack the nuts and add them raw to the sugar and butter mix, then bake as above. For a sweet snack with a lower glycaemic index, use honey instead of sugar as follows:

60g (2oz) butter
2 tbsp honey
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the honey and spices and stir together until combined. Add your medlars and/or nuts and stir together, coating with the honey mixture. Transfer to a baking dish and bake at 180°C (350°F / Gas Mark 4) for 15 minutes.

Oaks(Quercus spp.)

Acorns of all oak species can be used for food, but most of them contain high levels of tannins, which are poisonous so must be removed before eating.

A number of cultures have depended on acorns as a staple in the past, and luckily there are still several well-documented ways of removing tannins. Cold-water leaching (described overleaf) is a good method and leads to minimal nutrient loss. You can also boil chopped acorn meal in water for faster removal, but you will lose more nutrients that way.

Acorns provide a complete vegetable protein and are high in carbohydrates. They contain 16 amino acids, appreciable amounts of vitamins A and C, and significant quantities of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur.

As with most nuts, acorns are harvested from the ground. The first acorns to drop from a tree will usually have holes drilled in them and are being consumed within by nut weevils, so do not harvest these! Ideally clear them away before the good acorns start to fall. If you have poultry they will love to consume any weevil larvae emerging from the infested nuts.

Acorn preparation

After harvesting acorns, leave them in a cool, dry place for 1-2 weeks. This will encourage the kernels to shrink slightly, making shelling easier, and allow the tannin levels to reduce.

Shelling acorns can be done in a number of ways. For a fairly small number – as required in the recipes here – just cut each acorn in half lengthways with a sharp knife, and the two halves of the kernel will fall out freely. For larger quantities you can crush the acorns on a wooden board with a wooden mallet or piece of wood – this is messier and you have to separate out the bits of shell afterwards. If the acorns have been dried, you can put them through a nut-cracking machine (either hand-cranked or powered).

Removing the tannins from acorns is easy, and is no more trouble than (say) the sprouting of seeds.

Grind the acorn kernels into small pieces (2-6mm – less than ¼") in a coffee grinder or food blender. Half-fill a large jar with the acorn meal and fill to the top with fresh water. Place in a fridge. Then empty off the water from the top half of the jar and refill with fresh water twice a day for 3-4 days. Initially the water will be brown, as the tannins leach out of the acorns, but it becomes clearer day by day. After 3 or 4 days, the tannins have all gone, and the acorn meal can be drained off and then used.

You can leach tannins more quickly by repeatedly boiling the acorn meal and draining, but you are likely to lose many more nutrients this way, and the acorn meal also ends up a much darker-brown colour.

To make acorn flour, spread the acorn meal on a non-stick baking sheet to allow it to dry, and mill it into flour. Hawos (see Resources section) make fantastic small stone mills.

Starch extraction

Extracting the starch involves an adaption of the leaching method described above. As you pour off the tannin water from your soaked acorn grits, pay attention to a creamy, cloudy substance in the water – this is the starch. Stop pouring once this starts to flow, top up with fresh water and soak again for a few hours. To keep the starch, you have to leach the acorns for longer (as you are not pouring off as much at each change of water), ensuring that you do not pour any of the cloudy starch out in the process. After a few days, when the acorns are ripe, fill the container with water once more, stir well and allow to settle for 1 hour. Pour the clear water off and pour the cloudy water into a separate bowl, add fresh water to the acorns and allow to settle again, adding any cloudy water from this second round to the first.

Allow the starchy water to stand for 1 hour then separate, pouring off the clear water, and you should be left with an off-white, slightly sticky substance which can be dried in a very low oven or dehydrator to make acorn starch flour.

Acorn shortbread cookies

Acorn soup

Try this with chestnuts seasoned with tarragon and thyme for a rich, sweet alternative.

Acorn pâté

Try this with other nuts instead of acorns. It works very well with chestnuts and walnuts, and you could liven it up with some dried redcurrants or berries, and your own combinations of herbs.

Acorn starch panna cotta

This and the following recipe, both from Toni Spencer’s Acornucopia project (see www.theferal kitchen.com), work well together. The first uses the starch of the acorn only. The second (overleaf) uses the acorn meal or the ‘leftovers’ from extracting the starch, without having to dry it.

This panna cotta recipe is inspired by the traditional Korean ‘Dotorimuk’ (dotori meaning ‘acorn’; muk meaning ‘jelly’), usually cooked unseasoned and served in a spicy savoury sauce. In Korean supermarkets it is sold ready-made as a block of jelly.

Mix the flour and water in a bowl and leave for 10 minutes.

Whisk well and pour into a pan. Bring to a simmer and stir on a low heat for 20-30 minutes. It will thicken suddenly, so keep stirring! Pay attention to the bottom and sides of the pan when stirring, and use a metal spoon (you may need to whisk a little to begin with).

Near the end, add the flavourings, oil and sugar and cook for another few minutes. Stir well.

Fruit can be crushed or crumbled and mixed in at this point, or placed on top of the desserts while they set. Ladle carefully into ramekins or dessert glasses, and leave to set in the fridge for 6 hours or overnight.

This dish is delicious served with whipped cream, melted chocolate or wild fruit coulis.

Acorn burgers

This recipe, also from The Feral Kitchen (see previous page), is very flexible. You can substitute carrots or parsnips for the beetroot (beetroot gives a good pink/meat-like colour) and use any kind of bean. For example, you could use chickpeas and spices to create falafel. This recipe can take more or less acorn depending on availability and taste, and will work without egg.

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F / Gas Mark 5) if baking the burgers.

Slowly fry the onion, celery and garlic in olive oil until soft, adding the herbs and paprika midway. Grate the beetroot, strain off all the juice and put both aside.

Put aside 100g (3½oz) acorn meal. Put the rest into a pan with a pinch of salt, pepper, 1 tbsp oil and the beetroot juice and cook for approximately 20 minutes, stirring regularly and topping up with water if necessary to keep it moist.

In another bowl, blend the beans and tomato paste roughly with a potato masher. Once the acorn and beetroot mix has cooled down, mix everything (except the flour) in a large bowl with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Form into patties and coat each one lightly with flour.

Fry in olive oil on a medium heat for approximately 12 minutes each side, or bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 190°C (375°F / Gas Mark 5).

The burgers are delicious served with roast garlic tomatoes, sautéd wild greens and home-made chutney. This mix freezes well.

Quince & apple tart

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F / Gas Mark 4)

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy, then gently beat in the egg.

Sieve in the flour and salt to cover the mixture, then use your fingers to fold it in gently to form a doughy ball. It is important not to over-knead the pastry. Press it into a disc shape and put it in the fridge.

Roughly slice the apples and two of the quinces into a saucepan, discarding the cores, cover with water and sprinkle with the sugar. Put over a very low heat and cover with a lid. Simmer gently until the apples have become pulpy and the quince is soft. Cut the remaining quinces into quarters and core. Slice them lengthways to get long slices 3-5mm (up to ⅛") thick. Put in a bowl, cover with water and a little lemon juice and put to one side.

Grease the flan dish with a little butter and dust with flour. Take the pastry from the fridge and roll out on to a flour-dusted surface. Roll the pastry into a 30cm (12") circle. Pick the pastry up by rolling it on to your rolling pin, lay it over the flan dish and press it gently into the sides of the dish. Slice off the excess with a knife. Place a layer of foil or baking parchment over the pastry and fill with baking beans to weight it. Prick the base with a fork to prevent air bubbles forming. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven, remove the foil or parchment, and allow to cool. When the quinces and apples are soft, remove from the heat and strain off excess water. Mash into a rough purée and spread into the bottom of the flan dish. Now arrange your raw quince slices into two circles, as pictured above, slightly overlapping. Brush the top of the fruit and the pastry crust with some melted butter and bake for a further 20 minutes at 190°C (375°F / Gas Mark 5).

Slice and serve hot or cold with cream or yogurt.

Try this with pear and haws: the same quantity of pears as quinces in this recipe, and around 300g (10½oz) raw haws. Prepare the haws as for Haw & apple strudel (page 166) and add to stewed pears to spread on to the bottom of the pastry crust, then layer sliced pears on top.

Poached quinces with chestnuts & toffee medlars

This recipe can be made with a slow cooker or on the hob in a large heavy-based saucepan. It will take around 1 hour 30 minutes in a slow cooker; 30 minutes on the hob. Preheat your slow cooker to ‘Low’.

Put the apple juice, sugar, spices and half the water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Peel the quinces and cut into halves, removing the core with a teaspoon to leave a small oval cavity. When the syrup has come to the boil, turn it down to a low simmer. Stir the cornflour into the remaining water to form a smooth paste and slowly add to the syrup, stirring constantly until it thickens. Pour the syrup into the slow cooker or large saucepan and add the quinces and chestnuts, roll and cover them with the syrup, and put on the lid.

Quinces are hard fruits and stay firm when cooked. Push in a fork, lift the quince from the pan and if it slides off it’s done. If it sticks at all it needs longer.

With a slow cooker, check after 1 hour, taking care as a lot of steam may come out as you lift the lid. They shouldn’t take longer than 1 hour 30 minutes. On the hob, check after 20 minutes and make sure they are simmering gently. They shouldn’t take longer than 40 minutes. When checking, you can spoon a little syrup over the tops of the fruits.

When the quinces are cooked, take them out of the syrup and place 2 halves on to each of 4 dessert plates. Place a medlar into each cavity and surround with chestnuts. Finish by spooning some of the spiced syrup over the fruits, and serve warm with cream or yogurt.

Try this with pears and walnuts using the same cooking times. You could also use wine or sherry instead of apple juice, as follows. Just bring the ingredients to the boil in a small pan, stirring continuously:

150ml (5¼fl oz) red wine or sherry
200ml (7fl oz) water
50g (1¾oz) brown sugar

Sweet cicely fruit salad

Szechuan pepper (Zanthoxylum schinifolium)

All members of this genus can be used as spices, but this one is particularly good. It forms a large rounded shrub, and is one of several Zanthoxylum species that have the name ‘Szechuan pepper’ attached to them. The leaves and fruits of this species have a wonderful citrus fragrance to them.

The leaves are used for flavouring, especially when young. The main crop, though, is the fruits – or, to be specific, the dried fruit ‘shells’ surrounding the black seeds. When the fruits ripen in September, the ‘shells’ turn red and split, revealing the seed within. The whole lot is then harvested, and the seeds optionally separated (they are tasteless). They need a little drying in our climate to store well. The spicy red shells are peppery and aromatic, like the leaves, and can be used directly in cooking, or ground as a spice.

The peppers are rich in essential oils (notably terpenes, which give the citrus flavours), and like black peppers they aid digestion. Note that most pepper mills do not grind the thin papery shells very efficiently; they can sometimes need shaking between grinding, or you can use a pestle and mortar.

Szechuan pepper is often used in China in the form of flavoured salt: toast or dry-fry equal amounts of coarse salt and peppercorns until the mixture just starts to smoke. When the mix is cool, grind to reduce to a coarse powder and use instead of salt and pepper. This is excellent on almost everything and Mark Diacono particularly recommends it on chips!

Chinese five-spice powder is frequently used in Szechuan cooking, especially with chicken, duck, pork and goose. It is a mixture of star anise, fennel, cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns and cloves, toasted for a few minutes then ground to a powder. It is usually used either as a spice rub on the meat or is added to the breading for fried foods.

Szechuan chicken

Szechuan & shiitake stir-fry

This Chinese-style dish comprises shiitake and oyster mushrooms in a simple aromatic marinade made with fresh Szechuan peppercorns, stir-fried with seasonal greens and walnuts.

Place the Szechuan peppercorns into a bowl and gently bruise them with the back of a wooden spoon. You will hear them crack as you do so, and shiny black seeds will emerge from the red fleshy casing, releasing a lovely aroma. Add the boiling water, honey and soy sauce. Tear the lemon balm leaves and add them too, stirring all the ingredients together until the honey has dissolved. Cover the dish with a tea cloth and leave to stand for at least 20 minutes.

Next, strain the marinade through a sieve into a large bowl. Add the mushrooms to the marinade, turning them in until completely covered. The mushrooms will absorb the flavours and release them when cooked. Cover with a tea cloth and leave to marinate for 20 minutes.

Add the onions, greens and walnuts to the marinade. Put a wok on to a high heat and pour in the vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, add your mixed ingredients and stir. Stir-fry on a high heat for about 8 minutes, or until the vegetables are at your preferred softness. Ideally the greens should not wilt too much, but just soften to an emerald green colour. Stir continuously, ensuring the sauce has covered all of the ingredients.

Serve straight from the wok on to rice or noodles.

Try this with chicken or tofu. Cut two chicken breasts or a 255g (9oz) block of fresh tofu into long strips. Marinate in the Szechuan marinade with 150g (5¼oz) mushrooms for at least 1 hour, or preferably all day in the fridge. Heat the oil in a wok, remove the chicken or tofu from the marinade and stir-fry on a high heat for 3 minutes before adding the other vegetables.

Forest garden nut roast

Walnuts are, of course, a fantastic food just eaten raw – try adding them to muesli for breakfast.