Nigel Slater’s recipes for gooey roasted sweet potatoes and hazelnut cake with rhubarb and cream | Food

A slice of tender cake, a few crumbs fallen on the side, a spoonful of whipped cream and a small puddle of fruit. I don’t ask for anything extra at weekend tea time and am happy if such crumbs of comfort are offered as dessert on other occasions.

There is a cake and fruit for every season. An early summer, an almond sponge cake with a pool of cherries; in autumn, stewed plums, whose purple juice bleeds into a triangle of melting vanilla cheesecake. At this winter-spring time, a crumbled hazelnut cake, a pink tangle of rhubarb and a small mound of whipped cream – perhaps speckled with vanilla – will do the trick. If there is no fruit, I will eat my cake with apricot jam, warmed in a small saucepan and then poured over it, sticky and shiny.

I usually bake or simmer my rhubarb, but I’ve found that when it’s cut into small pieces and mixed with sugar, you can cook it under the broiler. You have to watch it carefully, but it’s a quick way to make your stems soft and sweet.

I stuck to the carb corner all week to counter the wet and cold weather. Sweet potatoes have the most tender flesh of all root vegetables. Baked, they puff up like a soufflé, exuding tears of dark caramel from beneath their soft skin as they’re ready. I balance the sugar with heat and salt – a paste of ginger, chilli and soy to brush over the roasted potato. I serve it with steamed rice (add a little lime juice while you eat) or pile the hot, sticky potato slices next to grilled chicken or maybe one or two baked mushrooms.

Hazelnut, rhubarb and cream cake

For 8 people

butter 250g
light muscovado sugar 125g
golden powdered sugar 125g
peeled hazelnuts 200g, plus a handful to finish
eggs 3
self-rising flour 65g
double cream serve

For the rhubarb:
Rhubarb 350g
Powdered sugar 3 tablespoons

You will need a 20cm deep cake tin with a removable base.

Cut the butter into small pieces and beat it with the sugars for a good 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape the mixture regularly from the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Preheat the oven to 160°C/gas mark 3. Line the bottom of the cake tin with baking paper.

Place a shallow frying pan over moderate heat, add the hazelnuts and let them color pale gold, stirring them so that they color evenly.

Using a food processor, grind two-thirds of the hazelnuts into fine crumbs – about the same texture as ground almonds – then set aside. Process the remaining nuts by grinding them a little less. Cut the extra handful of walnuts in half and set aside.

Break the eggs into a small bowl, beat them lightly with a fork, mixing the whites and yolks, then add them in 2 or 3 batches into the butter and sugar, beating well between each addition. If they curdle slightly, don’t worry, just add a tablespoon of flour. Pour in the two batches of processed hazelnuts and mix lightly, then the flour.

Transfer the mixture to the lined cake pan using a rubber spatula. Gently smooth the surface then distribute over the halved nuts. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, covering the surface lightly with foil for the last 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes before running a spatula around the edge to unmold it, then let it cool and unmold it. Let cool on rack.

For the rhubarb: heat a grill (in the oven). Cut the stems, cut them into small pieces – about 4cm each – rinse briefly with water, then mix with the sugar so that the stems are lightly coated.

Pour the rhubarb into a roasting pan (I line mine with foil, which makes cleanup a lot easier) and cook under the heated grill, fairly close to the element, for 5 to 7 minutes until the rhubarb rhubarb is tender and the sugar is golden brown. little.

Lightly whip the cream until it forms soft peaks. Serve slices of cake with the warm roasted rhubarb and a dollop of cream.

Sticky Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Use a nonstick baking dish or roasting pan, or perhaps line your pan with foil. Some steamed rice would be good here.

For 2 people

Sweet potatoes 2 ways
peanut or vegetable oil 2 tablespoons

garlic 4 cloves
fresh ginger 60g
I am willow 3 tablespoons
mirin 2 tablespoons
rice wine vinegar 50ml
flowing honey 3 tablespoons
dried chili flakes ½-1 teaspoon

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them in half lengthwise. Cut each half into 4 or 5 long segments, then place them in a roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and season lightly with salt. Roast them for about 25 minutes, until almost tender. Check regularly with the tip of a knife.

Prepare the vinaigrette: crush the garlic into a paste with a little salt. A pestle and mortar is suitable for this. Peel the ginger and grate it on a fine grater, then add it to the garlic. Using a fork or small whisk, add the soy sauce, mirin, and rice wine vinegar, then stir in the honey and dried chili flakes.

When the sweet potatoes are ready, generously pour the vinaigrette over them then return to the oven. Cook for another 15 minutes, watching carefully so that the vinaigrette does not burn. Serve hot, with sticky juices and rice if desired.

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