Kitchen Confidential
What I’m cooking with...
This is the time of year when you put on your first woollies and think about lighting the fire. As the nights draw in, we want something comforting to eat – food that offers a degree of warmth. For me, October is all about berries. Huckleberries are the most intense, extraordinary little berry; similar to blueberries but far nicer. I make sure I get as many as I can lay my hands on. Unfortunately this is only ever one batch from one grower once a year. That’s it. However, they cook and eat so well that I’d advise you to have a go at growing your own. Remove the deep purple berries from the spray and cook gently with a bit of sugar and vanilla and you have a heavenly compote to ladle onto cakes, ice cream or to serve with cheese. Elderberries and sloes are gorgeous and delicious this month too. Damsons make fantastic preserves. Look out for late-season blackberries still hanging on hedgerows. They are tiny but so flavoursome and make wonderful compotes, pies and crumbles. Rosehips are around too, which I love making into a fragrant, sweet and sticky syrup for cakes. Lightly crack the rosehips and bring to the boil in water with sugar, a couple of bay leaves, a strip of lemon peel and some vanilla. Leave this mixture to infuse in the fridge for a week, then strain (don’t press) it. Bake a delicious almond or pistachio cake and saturate it with the syrup. Quinces are coming in and apples and pears are in abundance, as are freshly cropped walnuts and hazelnuts – they are the most delicious things. Wild mushrooms should be in plentiful supply – so get out there to look for some. Consider yourself very lucky if stumble across ceps – the king of wild mushrooms. I like to prepare them by lightly frying in a little butter with garlic, salt, parsley and lemon and serve them heaped on a thick slab of toast. In October we also have birds and lots of them. The whole lot are in this month – all the various grouse, partridge, quail, squab, widgeon, mallard, pheasant… I love cooking and eating game birds. There’s also rabbit: the poor old bunny gets such a bad press but it’s fantastically versatile and perfect for a comforting autumnal pie.
For the full feature, including a list of seasonal ingredients, see the October issue of Food and Travel magazine
