Nigel Slater’s recipes for grilled herring, tomato and pomegranate, and blackberries and toasted oatmeal

As temperatures begin to fall, comfort and spice warm up the kitchen

I am not yet ready for the slow blip-blip of a simmering casserole or the puttering of a steamed sponge pudding on the hob. Full-on winter cooking can just back off for a few weeks. Yet there is no denying the season is marching on a pace and I find myself needing spicy, smoky notes in my main dishes and a level of comfort-cooking in my desserts that no seasonal fruit alone can offer.

This wet autumn – will it ever stop raining? – has given me a fancy for oily fish, its skin toasted and smoky from time spent under a hot grill. I can rarely resist a shining mackerel on the fishmonger’s ice, but a more sustainable choice, and just as delicious, is herring. The best of this week’s fish dinners (there have been a couple) were those where our catch had been grilled with a mustard and harissa paste, the fish taking on a glossy golden sheen from the dressing in the heat.

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