what's in season: september

Brighton (September 2012)

End of Summer

An agitation of the air,

A perturbation of the light

Admonished me the unloved year

Would turn on its hinge that night.
I stood in the disenchanted field

Amid the stubble and the stones,

Amazed, while a small worm lisped to me

The song of my marrow-bones.
Blue poured into summer blue,

A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,

The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew

That part of my life was over.
Already the iron door of the north

Clangs open: birds, leaves, snows

Order their populations forth,

And a cruel wind blows.

Stanley Kunitz 1905 - 2006(from The Collected Poems of Stanley Kunitz. © 1953)

lost in france: my salade lyonnaise

salade lyonnaise (bacon and egg salad)

After walking around a small town in southern France for what seemed like hours, we still hadn't found either our friends we were meeting for lunch. We are lost in France and not in a big-haired, floaty chiffon 1970s soft focus kind of way; no birds singing, bands playing or people dancing (just the rumble of traffic and me scowling). I am hot, dusty, and footsore and, possibly more importantly, I haven't eaten for more than three hours. Quelle horreur! 

nigel slater's roasted courgettes with thai-style minced chilli and lime pork

 nigel slater's roasted courgettes with thai-style minced chilli and lime pork

Apart from charcuterie, pork doesn't have much of a place in my kitchen, for no other reason that I just don't think it tastes of an awful lot. However, occasionally pork mince gets a workout in meatballs and recently in burgers for the barbecue. I had a little mince left over and was looking for an idea of how to use it up.

So when in doubt and looking for a little bit of inspiration, as ever I turn to Nigel Slater. This time to Tender, Volume 1, since I also have a glut of courgettes to use up. Since Tender is organised by vegetable, it was only a matter of minutes, page 290 and "baked marrow, minced pork" that I had my recipe.

roasted halibut with chermoula sauce

roasted halibut with chermoula marinade

One of my favourite marinades is from Morocco. There are hundreds of variations of chermoula, a marinade typically used with fish, which is essentially a mixture of oil, herbs and spices which can be used with whole, filleted or grilled fish.

What you need is a good balance between the sharpness of lemon and sweetness of the honey. The herbs and spices should be quite subtle and aromatic rather than punchy. But whichever way you cook the fish, roasted, steamed or fried, it will taste fabulous as it absorbs these flavours.

summery sausages and caramelised onions with crushed buttered peas

summery sausages and caramelised onions with crushed buttered peas

It's one of those days when the weather doesn't know whether it's Arthur or Martha; we've had three seasons in one day. The morning started bright and fresh as spring, before segueing into a drizzly autumn, returning to a splash of summer and now settling, halfway between the three, as if controlled by some malevolent weather swing-o-meter. Just a normal summer in England again.

smoky chargrilled aubergine salad

smoky chargrilled aubergine salad

There is a dish on the menus of Turkish restaurants called Hünkar Beğendi. I don't read Turkish, but I understand it to mean "the Sultan's Delight"; a simple lamb stew served on a bed of creamy aubergine puree. But whenever I see these words, I translate them in my head as "whole hunk of love on a plate" because this peasant adores the stuff.

what's in season: august

summer vine tomatoes

You to me
Are sweet as roses in the morning
And you to me
Are soft as summer rain at dawn, in love we share
That something rare

The sidewalks in the street
The concrete and the clay beneath my feet
Begins to crumble
But love will never die
Because we'll see the mountains tumble
Before we say goodbye

My love and I will be
In love eternally
That's the way
Mmm, that's the way it's meant to be
Concrete and Clay by Tommy and Brian Parker (Unit 4 + 2), 1965

a cooling summer essential: cacik (turkish cucumber, herb and yoghurt sauce)

cacik (turkish cucumber, herb and yoghurt sauce)

I've always loved plain old yoghurt. I like to use it as a marinade and meat tenderiser, or with fresh fruit for breakfast. Having a cooling yoghurt and cucumber condiment such as raita has always accompanied my curries. But I have to confess that the Turkish Cacik or Greek Tzatziki yoghurt and cucumber sauces had always left me a bit cold. And then I had my light bulb moment.

hot-smoked salmon salad with mustardy crushed new potatoes and summer green vegetables

hot-smoked salmon salad with mustardy crushed new potatoes and summer green vegetables

It's too hot to think and too wet to shop (dear god, I think I might need water skis to get down to Kentish Town High Road). The cupboards are almost bare but I do have some fresh new potatoes from a friend's garden, lots of fresh herbs from my own garden and some rather wizened looking broad bean pods as well. 

a cooling summer courgette soup

a cooling summer courgette soup

A cooling summer soup is a welcome way to use up a summer glut of courgettes. This vegetable's beautiful delicate flavour is perfect in a chilled soup and I thought would be a really good way of cooling down on a baking hot day. I've read somewhere that you can cool yourself down by not just drinking cool drinks but eating cold food. I think this may be right - well it certainly worked for me!

mouthwatering velvet chicken and summer vegetable stir fry

velvet chicken

If you have ever wondered why the stir-fried chicken at your local Chinese restaurant is so much more moist and succulent than the version you make at home, the chances are that there is a really simple reason. It's a Chinese cooking technique beautifully known as "velveting".

some are hot and some are not! padrón peppers: the vegetable equivalent of russian roulette!

tapas: padrón peppers

Pimientos de Padrón are tiny bright green peppers from the Galician region of Spain which look like small green peppers or even mild green chillies. And that's part of the thrill, because although they taste like mild and sweet peppers, some of them pack the heat of chillies . . . just not all of them.

It is said that one in 20 padrón peppers is a hot one. In Galicia there is a saying "Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non," which means "padrón peppers, some are hot and some are not." So try them if you dare!