dried and vine fruits, the brandy and citrus zest and juice. Now mix the baking powder and flour together and fold them lightly into the mix.

Place the second sheet of pastry over the filling then press the edges of the two pieces of pastry firmly together to seal. It is important that they are well sealed, otherwise your filling will leak. Brush the top layer of pastry all over with the beaten egg, scatter with the nigella or sesame seeds then pierce a small hole in the centre with knife or the handle of wooden spoon. Place in the oven, the baking sheet on top of the hot, upturned one, and bake for 40 minutes till golden brown. The book begins on 1st November, however there are a couple of chapters of preamble. That's why I thought I would start thread one now, so that we have time to prepare and fully appreciate Nigel in All His Splendour come 1st November. The remaining fruit – bundles of joy, soft as a pillow, juicy as a xiaolongbao dumpling – should not be wasted. Leave to settle for 5 minutes before sliding off the baking sheet onto a serving board or dish, and slicing. A very personalstir-up of diary, memoir and cookbook, here are stories of Bonfire Night and Halloween, ofChristmases past and present, trips to the best Christmas Markets, shopping for decorationsand how to choose TheTree. There are mincepies and malt loaf, winter drinks and Christmas wreaths, candlelight and carols. This is mycelebration of the coldmonths from late autumn to well into the New Year,a day by day story of the winter solstice and its pleasures. I should add that if your idea of Christmas is all candy canes and fluffy kittens then this is not the book for you. (We should never forget that winter is as deadly as she is beautiful.) I have never enjoyed writing a book more than this.Lining the tin: Using the base of the cake tin as a template, cut a disc of baking parchment to fit neatly into the base. Now cut a long, wide strip that will fit not only around the inside of the tin, but a good 9cm above it. (For a 20cm cake tin that will be 66cm.) Place it around the inside of the tin. While the butter and sugars are beating to a cappuccino-coloured fluff, cut the dried fruits into small pieces, removing the hard stalks from the figs. Break the eggs into a small bowl, beat lightly with a fork, then add a little at a time to the butter mixture, beating continuously. (If it curdles, add a little flour.) Covering the top: Roll out the remaining almond paste with a rolling pin on a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Using the base of the cake tin as a template, cut a disc of paste that fits the top of the cake. Pot of gold: roast partridge with parsnips and smoked garlic. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer Nigel begins his Chronicles proper on 1st November, but there is a lovely, quite lengthy introduction we can dip into during the second half of October.

You will need a deep, 20cm-diameter round cake tin with a removable base, lined with lightly buttered baking parchment.It is as if my entire childhood was lived out in the cold months, a decade spent togged up in duffel coats and mittens, wellingtons and woolly hats. To this day, I am never happier than when there is frost on the roof and a fire in the hearth. I have always preferred snow underfoot to sand between my toes. It has long been a tradition in our house to have a fish pie on Christmas Eve. Every imaginable fish-in-a-crust – from a deep dish of creamy fish sauce with a crumble top to whole fillets of salmon wrapped in puff pastry – has been on the table the night before Christmas. This year we are having a new version with a filling you make in advance. Hot smoked fish and leek pie It is a pleasure to announce thatIn May 2018, The Christmas Chronicles was named winner of the Food Book of the Year in the2018 Fortnum and Mason Awards. From the BBC1 presenter and bestselling author of Eat, The Kitchen Diaries and Toast comes a new book featuring everything you need for the winter solstice.

Cut the leeks into rounds about 1cm in length and wash them in plenty of cold water. Bring the butter and water to the boil in a wide pan with a lid, then add the leeks. Cover with a piece of greaseproof paper, or baking parchment, and a lid. The paper will encourage the leeks to steam rather than fry. Making the cake: Set the oven at 140C fan/gas mark 3. Using a food mixer and a flat paddle beater attachment, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Don’t forget to push the mixture down the sides of the bowl from time to time with a rubber spatula. Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan until light brown, then cut each one in half.The best food writers combine beauty with practicality, and no one does it more elegantly than Nigel Slater' Jane Shilling, Daily Mail - BOOKS OF THE YEAR In The Christmas Chronicles, Nigel Slater has put together a wonderful compilation of recipes, notes and stories to see us through from the 1st November to the end of January. Covering everything we need to make the winter months bearable, Nigel has taken a classic approach to Christmas, and what could be more classic than a Christmas Cake? In this episode we’ll continue our tour of Nuremberg and take in the magnificence of the city’s Christmas windows. I’ll explain my deep, life-long love of the cold months, and give you my recipe for traditional mince pies to welcome in December… A welcoming drink, may I suggest, is not just about other people. Something good in a glass can be a rather lovely way to welcome our own arrival home. Finding a rare moment of peace and quiet, there are surely few greater joys than pouring ourselves a drink as we curl up on the sofa with a book after a long, hard day. It might only be a stolen few minutes, but I regard this time as deeply grounding. Something that, just for once, is about no one but ourselves.

Using the base of the cake tin as a template, cut a disc of baking parchment to fit neatly into the base. Now cut a long, wide strip that will fit not only around the inside of the tin, but a good 9cm above it. Place it around the inside of the tin. Put the apricots into a stainless-steel saucepan. Using a vegetable peeler, slice thin strips of zest from the orange and drop them into the pan. Add the star anise, brandy and sugar and bring to the boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Please note that there is a mistake in the recipe for Mince Pies. The quantity of flour in the pastry should read 300g, not 175g.My apologies.Possibly the best idea of all came about quite by accident. After a long day of photography for this book, I sat down with a glass of the apricot and fig liqueurs, accompanied by the plumped-up fruits. On the table was some gorgonzola, though it could just as well have been stilton, stichelton or any of the other blues. The marrying of the blue cheese and the velvety, wine-filled fruits was simply gorgeous. 5 November: Fire and baked pears DH went to a Nigel Slater book signing last December - he told me that he told Nigel that I read the relevant bit every night and apparently he looked delighted and said “that’s exactly how I intended it to be!”