Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Good Autumn Food


Peter the eater

Recommended Posts

Labor Day feels more like a New Year's Day than January first -- the end of the summer, back to school, back to work, new goals and objectives. My summer ended with a flurry of banquets, weddings and dining out that have left me replete with delicious memories.

Harvest season is a good time for food resolutions. I'd like to be reminded of, or discover, ingredients that are:

  1. delicious
  2. healthy
  3. versatile

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh lucky you to have all those wonderful chillies and tomatoes, I so envy you. We have too short a growing season here even courgettes are stunted wee things.

To me Autumn is back to comfort food cooking, Oxtails are coming in now, fat and unctuous and lovely spirals of beef skirt for long slow braising, beef hough for 'tattie soup' and scrag end of neck of local lamb, very cheap and such a sweet meat, for hotpots topped with potatoes cooked to a gooey, almost toffee, consistency. I search out the young hazelnuts still on the tree and green for a real cobnut treat served with a good Stilton cheese and sloes for the Christmas Sloe Gin are not to be missed. Rowan berries for the jelly to go with the Christmas Goose abound now - sounds like I should get to work :huh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have too short a growing season here even courgettes are stunted wee things.

To me Autumn is back to comfort food cooking, Oxtails are coming in now, fat and unctuous and lovely spirals of beef skirt for long slow braising, beef hough for 'tattie soup' and scrag end of neck of local lamb, very cheap and such a sweet meat, for hotpots topped with potatoes cooked to a gooey, almost toffee, consistency. I search out the young hazelnuts still on the tree and green for a real cobnut treat served with a good Stilton cheese and sloes for the Christmas Sloe Gin are not to be missed. Rowan berries for the jelly to go with the Christmas Goose abound now - sounds like I should get to work :huh:

Lindsey, your words make me long for the Old Country although I've yet to go. The growing season here is around 120 days and there's plenty of fog. I got one eight ball zucchini from three plants, but the tomatoes did well in the new greenhouse.

Does potted hough fit the second criterion "healthy"?

Cobnut and sloe sound like winners. Rowan berries are also something with which I'd like to experiment. Hmmm . . . . jelly, cordial or brew?

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sweet potatoes and yams! I can think of 50 uses...

This time of year, I bake them whole (usually 5 at a time) and have them for breakfast. They're very filling (I can easily skip lunch and the sleepies that follow if I have a sweet potato for breakfast), low calorie, nutritious, easy to bake, and they make the kitchen smell as good as fresh bread.

Fooey's Flickr Food Fotography

Brünnhilde, so help me, if you don't get out of the oven and empty the dishwasher, you won't be allowed anywhere near the table when we're flambeéing the Cherries Jubilee.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be thinking a smoked or slow roasted Boston Butt or pork shoulder (preferably bone-in, skin-on). Shred it. On buns on a last day of summer; in posole; on tortillas with the last of the summer's tomatoes and peppers.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made my first stew of the fall last night. Adapted from rick Bayless's "Salsas that Cook", it has garbanzos, black beans, sweet potato, onion, bell pepper and zucchini in a base of tomato sauce and one of his smokey salsas made with guajillos and anchos, tomatillos and tomatoes. Served it over rice, with a little sour cream and cilantro and it is delicious!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pumpkin....anything pumpkin!!

slow cooking stews

This is my favorite time of the year foodwise!

"I eat fat back, because bacon is too lean"

-overheard from a 105 year old man

"The only time to eat diet food is while waiting for the steak to cook" - Julia Child

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have too short a growing season here even courgettes are stunted wee things.

To me Autumn is back to comfort food cooking, Oxtails are coming in now, fat and unctuous and lovely spirals of beef skirt for long slow braising, beef hough for 'tattie soup' and scrag end of neck of local lamb, very cheap and such a sweet meat, for hotpots topped with potatoes cooked to a gooey, almost toffee, consistency. I search out the young hazelnuts still on the tree and green for a real cobnut treat served with a good Stilton cheese and sloes for the Christmas Sloe Gin are not to be missed. Rowan berries for the jelly to go with the Christmas Goose abound now - sounds like I should get to work :huh:

Lindsey, your words make me long for the Old Country although I've yet to go. The growing season here is around 120 days and there's plenty of fog. I got one eight ball zucchini from three plants, but the tomatoes did well in the new greenhouse.

Does potted hough fit the second criterion "healthy"?

Cobnut and sloe sound like winners. Rowan berries are also something with which I'd like to experiment. Hmmm . . . . jelly, cordial or brew?

Oh no not potted hough, fresh stuff from the Butcher's ours is fairly lean here and truly delicious slow braised till soft and slightly sticky.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I browsed through the whole thread, and I don't think chestnuts have been mentioned. No chestnut lovers here?

Another excellent suggestion. I'm a chestnut lover, just read my sig line. :smile: For some reason, chestnuts are only a Christmas thing we eat off the woodstove with egg nog. This should change, I recall reading of their virtues -- no cholesterol, low fat, better than almonds in some way . . .

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Japan, chestnuts are huge around this time of year, as exemplified by Mont Blanc.

And, don't forget wild mushrooms! My son and I are going to go mushroom gathering on one of the five consecutive national holidays (Sep. 19 through 23), dubbed "Silver Week". Hopefully, we can get some honey mushrooms and hanaiguchi mushrooms!

And, sanma (saury), as Kristin mentioned somewhere else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Using maple syrup, bought at our local farmers market.

Dutch oven cooking, preferably over a campfire. Pots of beans, hopefully their Rancho Gordo ones, but a good pot of regular northern or navy

beans will suffice.

Baked apples, stewed pears.

Risottos, warm and comforting.

Breads, warm from the oven.

Spending more time in the kitchen, recipes that require more steps.

Cheese - milk's leap toward immortality. Clifton Fadiman

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Red beans and rice, with andouille sausage. Carbonnades a la flamande. Moussaka. Vegetable beef soup. Chili. Tagines of chicken or lamb with Middle Eastern spices. Roasted stuffed chicken.

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Japan, chestnuts are huge around this time of year, as exemplified by Mont Blanc.

And, don't forget wild mushrooms! My son and I are going to go mushroom gathering on one of the five consecutive national holidays (Sep. 19 through 23), dubbed "Silver Week". Hopefully, we can get some honey mushrooms and hanaiguchi mushrooms!

And, sanma (saury), as Kristin mentioned somewhere else.

My son and I went mushroom hunting on Monday. Some photos can be found here. We got five hanaiguchi but no honey mushrooms :sad: . Anyway, we had a very good time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me, the start of fall is always a wake-up call to preserve the fragile treasures of summer to liven up a long winter season. Autumn food is delicious, but with summers so short here, I'm in no rush to start fall cooking.

So between bites of end-of-season tomatoes and beans, I've been freezing pesto--adding a chunk to a simple vegetable soup in January will make me and my friends very happy. Similarly, I'm making and freezing compound butter w/ tarragon from my garden to top steamed green beans or make Julia Child's casserole roasted chicken with tarragon on a snowy February day.

But I will say that when I finally give up and accept my fate, one of the first things I make in the autumn is roasted butternut squash w/ garlic. Likewise, I really enjoy my first bowl of fresh brussel sprouts drizzled with brown butter.


Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...