Seasonal Foods

Damsons and plums
Damsons are blue-black fruit which look like small plums. They can be eaten raw when ripe but there is as much stone as there is flesh. They are best cooked, which brings out their sweet, spicy flavour, and put into pies and crumbles, jams, jellies, ice cream, fools and sorbets. An old English recipe using damsons is damson cheese, which is a rich confection of fruit, potted and aged before eating. Many winemakers are eager to harvest the fruit for their home brew.

Blackberries
Blackberries can be gathered as soon as they ripen from red berries into dark, plump berries and can be eaten fresh (they only keep for a short time) or preserved into excellent jelly or jam - although the latter can be a bit 'pippy'. They are also delicious in pies, crumbles, ice cream, fools and summer puddings. They are a natural partner for the first of the cooking apples. Blackberry and apple jam and crumble are popular recipes. Blackberries also make an excellent match for rich or gamey meat such as venison, lamb or pheasant.

Autumn lamb
Autumn lamb is available until the end of October and tends to have more flavour than spring lamb owing to the maturity of the meat. It is the perfect partner to other autumnal produce such as orchard fruit and root vegetables. A butterflied boned leg of lamb cooks wonderfully on the barbecue for late summer days. Autumn lamb should be readily available from butchers and supermarkets. Look out for bright red meat and white fat as a sign of freshness.

Apples
Worcester Pearmains, Bramleys, Discoveries, Early Windsors and Cox’s Orange Pippins should all be making an appearance this month. Some of these are available in supermarkets, but searching out local growers and visiting orchards will give you an even wider choice and the apples should be at their freshest. Use Bramleys in pies and crumbles, or bake them whole with some brown sugar, butter and spices. Slices of caramelised apple also go wonderfully with meat, especially pork.

Partridge
A close relative of the pheasant, the partridge comes in several varieties. The British, or grey partridge, has delicate and tender flesh which, when young, is pale and full of flavour. It's a small bird, so a whole one feeds one person. It's best hung for a few days (the more it's hung the more gamey the meat becomes) and any good game dealer or butcher will sell partridge ready to cook. The whole bird can be roasted and served with its traditional accompaniments of game chips (homemade potato crisps, really thinly sliced), clear gravy and watercress but it's the plump breast of young birds that provides the best meat. The legs can be used in game pies or puddings.

Wood pigeon
Wood pigeon tend to feast on corn and other cereal crops and so, by the time autumn arrives, they make for fine eating. Young birds are the best for roasting to ensure tender meat, which is dark, very rich and gamey. Older birds get tougher with age and are best braised slowly with vegetables, or used for stock. The richness of the flesh is complemented by other strong flavours, such as gin, brandy and port, and by dried fruit, such as prunes, and it's good served with braised red cabbage, lentils or cabbage and bacon.

Brown trout
Brown trout can be hard to source as they are farmed on a very small scale but it's worth the trouble. The fish is really delicious; some argue the flavour is far superior to rainbow trout. You may have to take up fly-fishing to get hold of any brown trout but, however you get it, it's best cooked simply in a little water and wine, with a few herbs, so as not to mask its exquisite flavour.

Sweetcorn
By late summer young, tender sweetcorn starts to appear in the shops and markets. At their best, the husks should be green and fresh and the tassel at the end should be fine and silky to indicate that the corn has not long been picked. For the best flavour, sweetcorn should be eaten as soon as it's picked, a bit of a tall order unless you grow it yourself or go to a pick-your-own farm. Eaten when really fresh, you will enjoy the sweetness of the kernels which should be plump and juicy and full of flavour. Sweetcorn should be cooked in boiling water with a little sugar but not salt, as this can make the kernels tough. After cooking, season the cobs with salt and pepper and serve with lots of melted butter.


Also in season
duck
venison
oysters
cucumber
spinach
figs
grouse
mussels
sea bass
onion