What's in Season: October
Squash, game, the first proper apples. October is when the kitchen starts earning its keep.
Summer cooking is assembly. Slice a tomato, add salt, take the credit. October asks a little more of you. The oven goes back on, the pans get heavier, and things are allowed to take their time.
The reward is a month of genuine abundance. Here is what to buy, what to do with it, and what to cook this weekend.
Vegetables
Squash and pumpkin. Skip the carving pumpkins, which are mostly water and ambition. Buy Crown Prince, delica or butternut instead. Roast in wedges with the skin on, or blitz into soup with sage and brown butter.
Roots. Celeriac, beetroot, parsnips and the first Jerusalem artichokes. Celeriac is the overlooked one. Roast it whole, salt-baked, for two hours, and carve it at the table like a joint.
Brassicas and leeks. Cavolo nero, kale and leeks are coming into their own. Cavolo nero wants long cooking with garlic and good oil. Leeks want butter and patience.
Wild mushrooms. Ceps, chanterelles and girolles are around for a few more weeks. Buy them from someone who knows what they are doing. Fry hot in butter, add garlic and parsley at the end, put on toast. That is the whole recipe.
Fruit and nuts
Apples and pears. British apples are at their peak now, and supermarket shelves still somehow favour imports. Look for Egremont Russet, Cox and Spartan at farmers' markets. Pears like Conference and Comice want eating the day they give slightly at the neck.
Quince. Hard, fragrant and inedible raw. Poach slowly in sugar syrup until they turn the colour of rosé, or make membrillo for the cheese board. One bowl of them on a table will scent a whole room.
Chestnuts and cobnuts. Kentish cobnuts are nearly over, so eat them now with a hard cheese. Chestnuts are just arriving. Score, roast, peel while hot, and accept you will burn your fingers.
Blackberries. Folklore says not to pick them after Old Michaelmas Day, on 11 October, because the devil has spat on them. The real reason is that they turn watery. Either way, the season is done.
From field and sea
Game. Pheasant season opened on 1 October, joining partridge and grouse. Venison is good all autumn. Game is lean, cheap if you find a decent butcher, and has lived a better life than most meat. Pot-roast pheasant with bacon, cider and apples. Do not overcook it, or it will tell you.
Mussels. The old rule is to eat them only in months with an R. It still holds for flavour. Steam with white wine, shallots and cream, and serve with too much bread.
Native oysters. Rock oysters are around all year, but native oysters are a September-to-April treat. Eat them raw with a squeeze of lemon, and nothing else, if you want to be taken seriously.
Three things to cook this month
Mushrooms on toast, properly. Sourdough, fried in butter. Wild mushrooms on top, a splash of sherry, a spoon of crème fraîche. A weekday supper that feels like a weekend.
Squash and sage risotto. Roast half the squash for texture, cook the rest into the rice until it collapses. Finish with brown butter and crisp sage. Serve in shallow bowls, eat on the sofa.
Baked apples. Core Bramleys, fill with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and a few chopped chestnuts. Bake until they sigh. Serve with cold custard. Nobody has ever been disappointed by this.
