It’s winter, cold outside, and when I get home from work with my hungry brood it is already dark (how depressing is that?). You walk in the door, drop the bags, and then the next dilema is what to feed all of the hungry mouths that include the palate of a 10 month old, and one of a very stylish and sophisticated 39 year old (ah hemmmm).

Well…I just found it. Totally delicious that we had guests over the other day, and they kept eating it, and the kids liked it, Tom liked it, I liked it. Plus it’s not expensive or difficult in any way and takes about 30 mins from start to finish. My kind of meal.

Derived from the food cook eat book, which only uses parsnip (and was delicious), I tried this recipe today with a dutch twist (think stampot – which consists of a myriad of root vegetables).

Ingredients

• 2 parsnips peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 carrots as per above
• 1 potato
• Similar amount of pumpkin, as per above

• 4 rasher of bacon (obviously this is optional if you are a vegetarian)
• 3 tablespoons of butter (or oil)
• 2 French shallots, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• Pinch of cayenne pepper (to taste – if you have kids you can put it on the top just for the grown ups)
• 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoons cream

• Salad leaves (summer) or steamed vege’s (winter)

What you will need

• Medium size saucepan
• Small size frying pan
• Plate to flip the cake

What to do

1. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, and boil the root vegetables for 15 mins until tender. Drain them well
2. Melt butter into the frying pan and cook the bacon and then the shallots
3. Add the garam marsala and cayenne pepper
4. Mash all of the ingredients in the pan
5. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter, and then flatten all of the ingredients into the saucepan
6. Cook for 5 or so minutes on moderate heat, until you can see the sides colour
7. Place a plate on top and flip the cake over
8. Put some more butter in the saucepan and gently slide the cake into the saucepan
9. Cook the other side for a similar amount of time

To make the dressing

1. Add the mustard, honey and cream to the empty saucepan and heat to melt the butter
2. Pour into a serving dish
3. Plate up with steamed vegetables or salad greens, and drizzle the mustard sauce over the top. Yummy.

Serves 4