Fire up the oven for these two recipes: Whole Baked Pumpkin and deliciously addictive Hee Cookies

Colin Fassnidge’s Whole Baked Pumpkin

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours

Serves: 8 - 10

Ingredients

1 whole small Jarrahdale (blue) pumpkin (2 ½ kg)

½ bunch sage

½ bunch rosemary

2 bay leaves

2 birds eye chillies, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, sliced

½ knob ginger, finely grated

1 tablespoon ground coriander

pinch nutmeg

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

GARNISH

1 pomegranate

Juice and finely grated zest of 2 lemons

½ bunch mint, roughly chopped

Greek yoghurt or goats cheese (optional) (I use Meredith Dairy Goat Cheese)

1 Preheat oven to 200C (fan-forced). Using a small sharp knife, carefully cut a small, saucer sized opening in the top of the pumpkin. Reserve the lid. Remove seeds from cavity.

2 Combine herbs, bay leaves, chillies, garlic, ginger and spices in pumpkin. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle pumpkin and lid with 3 tablespoons oil. Cover with the lid.

3 Fold a large piece of foil into a ring that will support the base of the pumpkin. Place ring onto a baking tray and top with pumpkin.

4 Cook in preheated oven for 1 hour. Reduce temperature to 170C. Cook for a further 30 minutes to 1 hour or until pumpkin is soft when tested with a knife.

5 Remove to a large plate or serving dish. Score the pumpkin into sixths and open pumpkin like a segmented orange. Pumpkin will open out like a flower. Drizzle with remaining oil and juice and scatter with zest.

6 To garnish pumpkin, cut pomegranate in half and scatter over the seeds with the juice, zest and mint. Dollop with cheese or yoghurt. Serve in the middle of the table warm or cold.

TIP: Turn any leftover pumpkin into a delicious pumpkin soup. Simply place the pumpkin, skin and all, in a saucepan and cover with chicken stock. Bring to the boil. Roughly blitz and serve with crusty bread.

Clarissa Feildel’s Hee Cookies

These eggless, melt in your mouth cookies are not only easy to make but they are deliciously addictive, made for celebrations during Lunar new year, Deepavali or Eid. The ingredients are pretty basic however the ghee in this recipe imparts a rich and luxurious scent. Their resemblance are almost like a traditional butter cookie.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Makes: 32

Ingredients

125g good quality ghee, melted and cooled

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

250g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

85g icing sugar

Pinch of salt

40g semolina

2 – 3 tablespoons milk or water

Glace cherries (diced finely) or toasted almonds (skin on and split in half), to decorate

1 Combine ghee and vanilla essence in a small bowl.

2 Sift flour, bicarb, icing sugar and salt in a large bowl. Stir in semolina.

3 Add melted ghee to dry ingredients a little at a time, kneading well until a soft and non-sticky dough. If dough is crumbly, add one tablespoon of milk or water at a time, kneading after each addition.

4 Preheat oven to 150C (fan-forced). Roll dough between your palms into bite-size balls and place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, allowing room for spreading. Flatten slightly and press on either cherries or almond halves, to decorate.

5 Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cooked. Cookies are not meant to be brown. They should be pale and crumbly with a melt in your mouth texture. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

TIP: Cooled biscuits can be stored in an airtight container.