Nigel Slater’s recipes for mushroom pilaf, lemon and mint, and date cake with miso icing

Nourishing mushrooms and a rich, dark cake for these cold days

I am deep in the thick of winter cooking, where every meal owes its heart and soul to the grains and pulses in the cupboard and where sweet treats tend to come in the form of tobacco-brown cakes packed with dried fruit. I love this sort of cooking: brown rice pilaf and risotto, earthy, ochre-hued bean soups, and cakes spiced with black treacle, dried apricots and dates. Winter food for the coldest days of the year.

The store cupboard is working hard right now. The lentils and bulgur wheat, couscous and beans that sit quietly on the shelf all summer are getting their moment in the low winter sun. This week has seen a couple of bean soups on the table, a pilaf of brown rice and mushrooms. In the cake tin is an old-fashioned fruit loaf, heavy with brown sugar and sticky with dates. I kept it tightly wrapped, somewhat teasingly, for 24 hours before slicing, as you might a ginger or Dundee cake. It was worth the wait.

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