Chef Andrew Pern, of The Star Inn, Harome, comes up with some Halloween and Bonfire Night treats

Parkin is a Bonfire Night staple, in any case, and is always better made a fortnight ahead. If you have any left over, this can be converted into one of my all-time favourite desserts with the addition of rhubarb ripple ice and hot, spiced syrup, and preferably a shot of rhubarb schnapps to warm you through to the core.

The venison toad in the hole is always very popular. Take good quality venison sausages, such as the ones Derek Fox makes in Malton, pour over Yorkshire pudding batter and cook until crisp and golden. Serve with a jug of red wine-enhanced onion gravy, buttery mashed potato and a delicious pile of braised red cabbage, to which we sometimes add diced pineapple. Delicious.

Happy cooking and cheers!

Venison sausage "toad in the hole" with pickled red cabbage (serves four)

Ingredients For Yorkshire Pudding batter:

3 eggs 120g plain flour, sieved

300ml milk

Pinch of dried herbs

Seasoning

For red cabbage:

½ red cabbage, finely shredded

100g demerara sugar

200ml white wine vinegar

1 star anise

½ cinnamon stick

1 small dried chilli

8 roe deer sausages (or other venison sausage)

To serve: mashed potatoes and gravy

Method

To make the Yorkshire Pudding batter, first break the eggs into a bowl and whisk, then add the sieved flour and milk and whisk again until smooth. Pass through a sieve to ensure there are no lumps. Add the dried herbs and seasoning and leave to ‘rest’ in the refrigerator.

For the red cabbage, place all of the ingredients, with the exception of the red cabbage, into a pan and bring to the boil. Place the red cabbage into a bowl and pour the liquid over. Cover and allow to cool. Note: this can be kept in an airtight container for up to one month and, in fact, the flavours will improve if made ahead.

Next brown the roe deer sausages in a little cooking oil, in whichever tray the toad in the hole is to be made, ideally approximately 30cm x 20cm x 3cm. Once browned, add the Yorkshire Pudding batter to the hot tray and place in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 25 minutes, until the Yorkshire Pudding is crisp and golden brown, and the sausages are cooked through.

Serve with a good amount of the pickled red cabbage, some mashed potatoes and a gravy, which has been flavoured with orange or juniper for extra flavour.

Baked ginger parkin with rhubarb ripple ice cream, hot spiced treacle (makes a 20cm square cake – serves eight)

Preheat the oven to 140°C, Gas Mark 1

Ingredients

100g self raising flour

Pinch of salt

2 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp mixed spice

75g oatmeal

175g golden syrup

50g black treacle

100g butter

100g soft brown sugar

1 beaten egg

2 dessertspoon milk

Method

Sieve together flour, salt, ginger, nutmeg and mixed spice. Mix in the oatmeal. Melt down the syrup, treacle, butter and sugar and simmer, but don’t boil. Then stir in the dry mix and blend together. Add the beaten egg and milk to the mixture to create a soft almost pouring consistency. Pour into a greased tin. Bake for 1¼ hours until firm in the centre.

When cooked allow to stand for ¼ hour before turning out. This can then be served. However, if kept in an airtight container, it will, like a good wine, improve with age. For best flavour, leave for three weeks.

Rhubarb ripple ice cream (serves eight)

This can obviously be made in advance and kept in the freezer, no more than 48 hours to keep its flavour.

Ingredients

200ml full fat milk

250ml double cream

½ vanilla pod, split and scraped out

6 egg yolks

100g caster sugar

250g chopped slightly stewed rhubarb

Approximately 50g sugar to sweeten

Method

Use the first five ingredients to make a crème Anglaise mix, then cool down and churn in an ice cream machine. Meanwhile, sieve the stewed rhubarb and reduce down the juices. Make sure this is cool and add to the ice cream. When nearly frozen add the pulp to the ice cream to give the ripple effect then turn off the machine.

Hot spiced treacle

200ml golden syrup

10ml cider

½ tsp ground mixed spice

Mix the ingredients together and warm through.