Kate Humble's latest cookbook Home Made celebrates beauty of artisan products

TV presenter Kate Humble’s latest cookbook Home Made, celebrates the beauty of artisan, handmade products – all of which are used in food and cooking in some way. Here are three of her recipes.

Cauliflower Curry

Kate Humble created this recipe after being inspired by professional vegetable grower and custodian of Moor Park Garden in Wales, Ben Ward.

Apparently cauliflowers are fiendishly tricky to grow though. “Luckily there is nothing tricky about this curry, which makes the most of the cauliflower’s ability to carry flavour,” says Humble.

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Kate Humble's Thai-spiced fish stew recipe. Picture credit: Andrew Montgomery/PAKate Humble's Thai-spiced fish stew recipe. Picture credit: Andrew Montgomery/PA
Kate Humble's Thai-spiced fish stew recipe. Picture credit: Andrew Montgomery/PA

Serves 4. Ingredients: 1tbsp cumin seeds; 1tbsp mustard seeds; 4 curry leaf sprigs (optional); 1 red onion, thinly sliced; Flavourless oil or ghee; 4cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated; 4 garlic cloves, finely grated; 2tbsp curry powder; 450g tomatoes, chopped, or a 400g can of chopped tomatoes; 1 cauliflower, cut into florets; 250ml vegetable stock; Sea salt and freshly ground; Black pepper; A handful of fresh coriander, to garnish

Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat.

Add the cumin and mustard seeds and the curry leaves, if using. Cook until the seeds start to pop, then immediately add the onion, a big pinch of salt and a glug of oil or 1 tablespoon of ghee and stir well. Cook over a medium-low heat for 10–15 minutes, until the onion is softened and turning golden.

Stir through the ginger and garlic and cook for a further minute. Then add the curry powder and stir through to mix.

Tip in the tomatoes with a pinch of salt and mix well. Cook for a further 5 minutes over a medium heat, until the tomatoes are collapsed and soft.

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Stir through the cauliflower and another good pinch or 2 of salt, mixing really well so that all the florets are coated in the spices. Add the stock, cover and bring to a simmer.

Simmer for 15–20 minutes, stirring now and again, until the cauliflower is tender. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Sprinkle the coriander on top and serve with steamed rice and mango chutney.

Autumn winter board

Who says sharing boards only have to be cured meats and cheeses? Kate Humble’s version is a display of spiced, colourful fruits to finish off a meal.

And the best part is they don’t require much effort at all.

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Serves 4-6. Ingredients. For the brown sugar meringues: 2 egg whites, at room temperature; ¼ teaspoon lemon juice; 150g light muscovado sugar, at room temperature. For the fruit board: 2 clementines, peeled and sliced horizontally; 2 persimmons, sliced; A handful of blackberries; 2 pears, quartered, cored and sliced; 100g Physalis, in their husks; 2 balls of stem ginger, plus 1tbsp syrup; 150ml Greek yogurt; Zest of 1 unwaxed orange or 2 clementines; 75g pomegranate seeds

Preheat the oven to 120°C, Gas Mark ½, and line two baking trays with baking paper. In a large, very clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with a handheld electric whisk (or you can use a stand mixer) until frothy. Add the lemon juice and continue to whisk until doubled in size.

With the whisk still running, slowly add the sugar one spoonful at a time, whisking constantly until all the sugar has been added and you have reached a glossy stiff peak. Spoon the meringue mixture into a piping bag fitted with a one centimetre nozzle.

Secure the baking paper to the trays using a dot of meringue mix in each corner, then pipe meringue mix onto the trays at intervals, leaving a small gap between each. You are aiming for meringues that are about two centimetres wide at the base. To achieve a point at the top, pipe vertically down onto the tray, release the pressure and pull the piping bag upwards as you do so.

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Bake for one hour in the oven. Then turn the oven off, leave the door ajar.

5. Once ready to serve, arrange all the fruit in a lovely pattern on a board, except for the pomegranate seeds, which you’ll use later.

6. Finely chop or grate the stem ginger balls and mix into the yogurt along with enough syrup to sweeten it to your liking. Dot the ginger yogurt over the fruit, or serve it in a small bowl for dipping.

7. Crumble the meringues over the top, then finish with a sprinkling of the orange zest and the pomegranate seeds.

Thai-spiced fish stew

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“This is heaven in a bowl and needs no more introduction than that,” says Kate Humble.

Serves 4. Ingredients: 300g firm white fish, cut into chunks; 200g raw peeled king prawns; Flavourless oil, such as sunflower; 2 lemon grass stalks, trimmed and bashed; 3cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated; 4 garlic cloves, sliced; 3 spring onions, sliced; 1 long red chilli, sliced; 1tbsp tomato purée; 150g cherry tomatoes, halved; 160ml coconut cream; 500ml fish or vegetable stock; 1tbsp fish sauce; 1tsp sugar; 1tbsp tamarind paste; 250g sugar snap peas; Leaves from a small bunch of Thai basil; Sea salt and freshly ground; Black pepper

Put the fish and prawns into a bowl and sprinkle over 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix well and leave to one side for up to 1 hour.

Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat, add a dash of oil and stir the lemon grass, ginger, garlic, two-thirds of the spring onions and the chilli over the heat until the garlic turns light golden. Add the tomato purée and stir for a further minute.

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Tip in the tomatoes, the coconut cream and the stock and mix to combine.

Then stir in the fish sauce, sugar and tamarind and bring to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, bearing in mind the fish with its salt will be added shortly. More fish sauce will give a saltier flavour, extra tamarind will increase the sour.

Add the fish, prawns and sugar snap peas and mix through. Simmer gently for a further 3–4 minutes, or until the fish is only just cooked through.

Remove the lemon grass stalks and discard. Serve in bowls, scattered with the basil and remaining spring onion.

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