Foodie Files

TV chef James Martin shares his culinary secrets with Weekend

PUMPKIN SEASON

It’s Halloween, so time for pumpkins, and roasting them in their skins is the best. Chop them like you’d segment a massive orange with the skin on, put the chunks on a tray with lots of olive oil and some star anise, ginger or sage. Set the oven to 200°C/ fan 180°C/gas 6, put them in for 45 minutes to an hour until they’re soft and eat on their own or with duck, chicken or fish.

FANCY SPUDS

Save a lot of hassle with jacket potatoes by cooking them ahead. Cut them in half, hollow out the centres and mix up the potato with crispy bacon and spring onion, season, and put it back in the skin. When you’re ready, put Taleggio cheese over the top and bake them in the oven for 20 minutes. Taleggio looks like Brie, but it melts and it’s amazing with potatoes.

PERFECT PARKIN

Yorkshire parkin was always a big thing for us on Guy Fawkes Night. My granny made the best parkin and she’d keep it in a tin on top of the fridge, but I’d climb up on a stool, so the tin was soon empty. People often think it’s like sticky toffee pudding, but it’s made with flour and oats so it’s more of a cake. The key to parkin is to make it two or three days ahead so that the sugar and golden syrup in it goes sticky, that’s how you want it.

EASY APPLES

When I was in the US I found some cool toffee apple papers. They’re sheets which look like stained glass but are actually caramel. You wrap them around apples and bake them, and the caramel moulds round the apple. I haven’t found them here, but toffee apples are so good they’re worth making from scratch anyway!