FOOD:Vegetarian gratins are wholesome, but just a little indulgent, too. Perfect as the evenings draw in, writes Domini Kemp
AROUND THIS TIME of year, I get that pang of guilt that it's time to really knuckle down for a few months. Now that "summer" is over, the kids are back in school and the roads are jammers, it feels like it's the right time for tightened belts and early nights. This also means lots of healthy, vegetarian dishes, plenty of reading, and no more sneaky pieces of dark chocolate, red wine and crap telly. It's all a bit depressing, and I'm a devil for procrastinating such wholesome choices, because when the weather gets nippier and the evenings shorter, the idea of comforting, rib-sticking food takes hold.
It's hard to ditch everything at once, so I try to lull everyone into this abstemious way of life gradually. The first to go on my list are meat, wine and chocolate, and any food that requires ketchup on tap. Butter is severely limited, steam-frying and grilling is tolerated, and daily brisk walks are encouraged. I try to add spirulina (which tastes like smelly pond-scum powder) to all beverages, pour Omega 3, 6 and 9 supplements over solids, squirt milk thistle at grown-ups, and hide the remote control. The heating is policed, cold showers become de rigueur and moaners are told to buck up, and put on a jumper, which I bet Queen Elizabeth tells her family, when they complain of the cold in Buckingham Palace. For some reason, child, husband and cat have said they're moving to Brittas until next spring, but they've promised to write home.
Sanctions have to be gradual, because when you take away such tasty foods, you have to relinquish a little in the sin stakes. Carnivores can cope with vegetarian dishes when they're hearty and satisfying, so it's important to put extra effort into making everyone eat their greens.
Both these veggie dishes are tasty enough to serve as the star attraction, but if you really have to have some meat, sausages would go exceptionally well with the sweet potato gratin, and the fennel would be nice with a very plain roast chicken, the idea being that if you're serving something fairly rich and creamy, then balance it out with something lean. But my favourite way to eat them is with a green salad and a hunk of bread. I reckon a few more weeks of good behaviour and I'll be ready for steak frites, red wine, dark chocolate and my glittery, winter hot-pants.
Baked fennel gratin (serves 4)
3 fennel bulbs
200ml cream
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
Bunch of oregano leaves, finely chopped or a few sprigs of thyme
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Knob of butter
Handful of fresh breadcrumbs
40g Parmesan, finely grated
Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas four. Cook the fennel in a large pan of boiling, salted water for about 15 minutes, or until it is tender. Meanwhile, heat the cream, garlic and oregano or thyme in a small saucepan, until it just comes to the boil. Turn off the heat, add the lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper to taste, and set aside for the flavours to infuse. When the fennel is cooked, drain it, rinse until cool and leave to dry. Generously butter a small- to medium-sized gratin dish or shallow casserole, and then cut the fennel into slices approximately two centimetres thick. Layer the fennel slices in the gratin dish, pour the cream over them and top with the breadcrumbs and Parmesan. Cover with a lid or tin foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Sweet potato gratin (serves 4-6)
This recipe has been slightly adapted from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook(Ebury, £25).
6 sweet potatoes (total weight approx 1.5kg)
Handful sage, roughly chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thinly
Salt and pepper
Few knobs of butter
300ml cream
Preheat an oven to 200 degrees/gas mark six. Wash the spuds and thinly slice them. Layer them in a medium-sized gratin dish and layer the sage and garlic throughout. Season very well with salt and pepper. Dot the spuds with the butter and loosely cover with foil. Bake for about 30 minutes. Take the spuds out of the oven, pour the cream on top, remove the foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes until the cream is starting to brown on top.