Writer Diana Henry: Growing up in Northern Ireland makes me appreciate the food I have now

She first fell in love with the idea of pumpkins in primary school, when her teacher read out books from the Little House On The Prairie series, set in the American Midwest in the late 1800s.

When revisiting the books as an adult, she discovered they were “full of food” – including pumpkins.

“They’re about making stuff that you’ll be able to have in winter, about ‘putting stuff up’, as they say there. So preserving, drying, all that kind of thing,” says Henry, 59.

“In Northern Ireland when I was growing up, we didn’t have pumpkins – I never saw a pumpkin or cooked with a pumpkin until I moved to England.

“When it came to Halloween and things like that, we used turnips. So, pumpkins have never stopped enchanting me, because the girls in the Little House sit on the pumpkins that were kept upstairs in the attic area, they would be there right through winter.

“It just seemed like quite a magic ingredient, the pumpkin.”

Diana, who grew up in Coleraine and Portrush and is the daughter of the late north coast businesssman Robin Henry, who formerly owned Farm Fed Chickens, has a weekly column with The Telegraph. She has been writing cookbooks since the early 2000s and says her upbringing makes her more grateful for all the different types of food you can get now.

“My mum was a great cook, but there were just things you couldn’t get in Northern Ireland. And I’ve never stopped appreciating that. I think it was quite good in a way, to grow up in a place where what you could get was limited.

“It’s not like now, where you can get anything by just using your laptop and the mouse. The other thing is, we didn’t travel really, because in those days you had to go via Belfast, and then you had to fly to London to be able to go anywhere else.”

That’s why Henry – who is now based in London – used books to travel the world instead, particularly snowy, cold countries.

“As soon as you could get to Scandinavia on a cheap flight, I was there… I started exploring the whole area.”

Her obsession with colder climes has seeped into her cooking, including the recipes in Roast Figs, Sugar Snow – a reissue of her 2005 cookbook – complete with new recipes and a foreword from British food writer Nigel Slater.

At its core, Roast Figs, Sugar Snow is a book about cold weather and warming recipes.

“I have always absolutely adored snow. When we were little in Northern Ireland, I think there were two falls during my entire childhood.

“Everything is white, normal life stops – because it can’t not, people can’t walk on the streets or they can’t drive a car. I like the way the place becomes something different under that blanket – so I like snow, and I also like the fact it means you have to look for food that’s robust.”

This is definitely represented in the book, with recipes from colder climes all over the world – Irish stew, Vermont baked beans, Danish roast pork, Swedish apple, almond and cardamom cake, and more.

“Everybody uses the word ‘comforting’ about food these days, I see it all the time,” Henry says, but for her, colder weather dishes have to have the same elements – no matter where around the world they come from.

“I think they have to give you the sense of wellbeing, cosiness… Just imagine if we lived in California, we’d have hot weather stuff all year round. How awful!

“You really want a drop in temperature and you want that thing of being in the kitchen with the windows steamed up, having come back from a long walk, which means you’re allowed to eat something slightly calorific.”

Autumn has now begun, and it’s undoubtedly Henry’s “favourite” season.

“With the arrival of autumn, I think cooks retreat to the kitchen – and they’re really glad to be there,” she says.

“The ingredients change… I’m just thrilled pumpkins will be there, it seems right to eat lentils again – and pears, apples. I think some of my favourite ingredients really are autumn ingredients. it’s my favourite time of the year to cook.”

This autumn, Henry already has her mind set on pumpkins.

“I’ve just found a recipe for Hungarian pumpkin soup,” she says. “I’ve not done this before – I’ve got lots of pumpkin soup recipes, but this has got a little bit of vinegar as well, so it cuts that sweetness. That sounds good.

“Home food is what I’m really interested in – the things that come from a country… I love that connection you get between other home cooks in other countries.”

Diana was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, and had a double mastectomy and chemotherapy before getting the all-clear – then, in 2020, discovered she had a rare autoimmune disease called vasculitis.

“My lungs haemorrhaged basically, and I was in the ICU for six weeks on a ventilator – [it was] the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. It’s been hard getting over that… I thought because I’m such an energetic person, with will and determination I could be completely fine within a few weeks – but it has actually taken two years to feel like myself.”

She says her brushes with death have shifted her thinking.

“It’s moved work to the side. It’s always been very central to me, and that doesn’t mean it’s not central anymore – but I’m not willing to work 14-hour days any more to get books done. I just won’t do it.”

Plus, it’s made her live more in the present.

“But the first walk I took nearby when I had cancer – [I realised] I hadn’t noticed the trees on this route. I don’t look up, I have tunnel vision. I think I saw the world differently.”

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow by Diana Henry is published by Aster, priced £22. Photography by Jason Lowe.