The beginning of autumn is a time of harvest. From squash to sweetcorn, blackberries to damsons, and arable crops aplenty, it’s both celebratory in its abundance and reflective of the year’s achievements.
Without doubt, there’s a lot of good eating – but the allotment owners and veg box subscribers among you will have more seasonal British produce than you can shake a trowel at.
So, recipe swap has come to the rescue. It’s been a distinctly global affair, from LeftoverLiz’s Provencal petit* farcis and Siobhan McGuiness’ warmly spiced courgette loaf to RuthJandSarahN’s German “fruit in dressing gowns”, which was a stylish opening gambit for my windfall apples.
Each recipe is wonderfully versatile – I followed Janice Pattie’s bramble and peach meringue slice recipe once, then made it a second time to use up some Victoria plums and red currants.
The winning recipe from Claire Davies ticks all the boxes: imaginative, adaptable and easy to make. I can’t imagine a vegetable that wouldn’t work well with these south Indian flavours, and will certainly be introducing some winter veg to the recipe as the year goes on.
The winning recipe: harvest thoran
Thoran is a Keralan style stir-fry and a simple way to cook freshly harvested vegetables. Here I combine classic British summer vegetables with the spices and flavouring of south India – mustard seeds, chillies, curry leaves and coconut. It can be served as a side dish with a curry or alongside grilled fish or meat, your choice. Once you get the gist of a Thoran you’ll be surprised at how many types of vegetables work so well with a few simple flavours – cabbage, green beans, carrots, beetroot and did I mention courgettes? The trick is to not overcook the vegetables, they should be crunchy.
Claire Davies, St Leonards on Sea
Serves 4
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
10-12 fresh curry leaves
1 tsp urad dhal (white lentils)
1 onion, peeled, halved and finely sliced
1 green chilli, halved lengthways
½ tsp turmeric powder
250g courgettes, or other crunchy veg, sliced into rounds
250g runner beans, sliced diagonally into 2-3cm pieces
A pinch of salt
25g fresh grated or desiccated coconut
1 Heat the oil in a pan over a medium flame. When hot, add the mustard seeds. As they start to pop, add the curry leaves and the dhal. Cook, stirring, until golden. Reduce the heat a bit and add the onion and chilli. Cook the mix until the onions have softened.
2 Add the turmeric, then the courgettes and runner beans. Cook the vegetables for 5 minutes or so, regularly stirring. If it’s sticking, stir in 1 tbsp water. Taste and add a pinch of salt, if needed.
3 When veg is cooked, turn the heat off, stir in the coconut and serve.
Apfel im Schlafrock (apples in dressing gowns)
When I was a child I loved the vision of my mother’s apples in their dressing gowns – Apfel im Schlafrock – pastry-covered windfalls enclosing a magical pocket of jam. You can also make a daintier version using nectarines or plums. The juice oozes a bit, but this adds to the charm of the dish.
RuthJandSarahN, via GuardianWitness
410g plain flour
A pinch of salt
200g dairy-free soft margarine
130g ground almonds
70g soft, light brown sugar
30g vanilla sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon, grated
1 tbsp very cold water
For the filling
8 tsp jam
4 apples or plums, halved
120g marzipan
1 egg white, beaten, to glaze
Caster sugar, for sprinkling
1 Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Rub in the margarine with your fingertips to form fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the ground almonds and sugars. Gradually add the egg and yolks, vanilla extract and lemon zest, plus enough water to form a soft dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
2 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 1–1.5mm thick, and cut out eight circles with a 12cm fluted cutter. Brush the centre of each with 1 tsp jam. Stone the fruit and place a ball of marzipan in each cavity, then lay them face down in the centre of each pastry circle. Score the skin of the fruit 3–4 times, and brush with egg white. Wet the edges of the pastry circle and bring them together in the centre to form a ball around the fruit. Decorate with a leaf cut from any excess pastry.
3 Glaze with the beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Carefully transfer the pastry parcels on to two trays and bake for 30–35 minutes until golden. Serve warm with cream or custard.
Petit* farcis
You’ve ploughed the fields and scattered – or other good people have on your behalf – and now it’s time to reap the harvest. There’s so much lovely fruit and veg out there – this recipe makes it the star of the show, rather than the side.
Leftoverliz, via GuardianWitness
Serves 4
2 medium onions, peeled, top and tailed
2 tomatoes
2 small courgettes
2 small aubergines
2 peppers
5-6 crisp rolls or 180g fresh breadcrumbs
60ml milk
1 tsp minced garlic
250g smoked bacon lardons
60-80g hard cheese, such as pecorino, grated
Salt and black pepper
1 First, prepare the veg. Put the whole onions in a steamer or colander over a pan of simmering water. Cut a lid from the top of the tomatoes, scoop out and reserve the seeds. Leave the rest upside down to drain over a sieve. Halve the courgettes and aubergines lengthways, scoop out the flesh to form a trench, reserve it, then place the veg shells in the steamer alongside the onions. Cook for 10 minutes, then halve the peppers, take out the seeds and add to the steamer for another 5 minutes.
2 Meanwhile, crumble the crisp rolls into a bowl, add the milk and set aside.
3 Fry the courgette and aubergine flesh along with the garlic and the bacon until it is cooked. Add to the bowl with the crisp rolls and the juice from the tomatoes. Take the veg from the steamer and pat dry.
4 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Using your thumbs, push the central core from the onions. Chop this up to add to the stuffing. Mix well and adjust the seasoning to taste.
5 To assemble your farcis, spoon the stuffing into the various veg, place on a lightly oiled tray, sprinkle with cheese then bake for 20 minutes, until the veg is tender and the cheese is golden.
Peach and bramble meringue slice
By now, the peaches, nectarines and foraged brambles, like blackberries, are sweet and full of flavour. I’m lucky living on the farm, that I can simply step out of my back door and down our lane to pick some ‘brambles’. Here in Scotland there are not quite enough ready to make jam or jelly, but there were just the right amount to add to a tray baked cake.
Janice Pattie, via GuardianWitness
Serves 10-12
For the cake
175g butter or soft margarine
225g self-raising flour
1½ tsp baking powder
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 peaches or nectarines, skinned and diced
50ml milk (optional)
75g blackberries (brambles)
For the meringue
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
1 Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease and line a 30 x 22cm tin.
2 Beat the butter or margarine, flour, baking powder, sugar, eggs and vanilla together for about 2 minutes, until well mixed. Gently fold in the peach or nectarine pieces; you might need to loosen the mix with a little milk.
3 Spoon the mix into the tin. Smooth the top, press the brambles into it.
4 Bake for about 35 minutes, until the cake has shrunk from the sides of the tin and springs back when pressed in the centre with you fingertips. Don’t let it get too dark; you will be returning it to the oven later.
5 Turn the oven down to 160C/325F/gas mark 3. Put the egg whites in a bowl, and beat with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add the sugar a spoon at a time, whisking well until all the sugar has been used. Spread the meringue over the cake and bake for 10 minutes until firm and pale brown.
6 Leave to cool in the tin. When cold, cut into squares. The cake is moist and delicious with the sweet fruit pieces adding a soft lusciousness and the meringue a light crispy texture. You can make the cake without the meringue and it would be almost as good, but the meringue really enhances it.
Spiced courgette loaf
This is delicious for afternoon tea with lashings of butter. It is also healthy enough to justify serving for breakfast, either freshly made for a leisurely day off, or made the day before for a rushing-out-the-door grab-something busy morning.
Siobhan McGuinness, via GuardianWitness
Serves 10
3 eggs
75 g golden caster sugar
4 tbsp oil
225g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
50g mixed nuts, roughly chopped
25g sunflower seeds
25g pumpkin seeds
2 courgettes, grated
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Line and grease a large loaf tin, or two medium-sized ones. Beat the eggs and sugar together. Then beat in the oil, 1 tbsp at a time.
2 Sieve together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. Save the remnants in the sieve to sprinkle over top of loaf before it bakes.
3 Beat the flour mix into egg mix, 1 tbsp at a time. Then mix in the nuts, seeds and courgette.
4 Spoon into the baking tin. If you like a crispy top, sprinkle with any flour left in the sieve. Bake the loaf for 45 mins to 1 hour, until golden on top and a skewer poked into it comes out clean.
Hedgerow preserve
Blackberries, damsons and raspberries are in abundance now. A mixture of hedgerow and allotment harvest can be made to enjoy in the months ahead. Bursting with flavour, homemade jam can be swirled into ice-cream, spooned over yoghurt or thickly spread on freshly baked scones.
FarawayVisions, via GuardianWitness
Makes around 1kg
500g mixed blackberries, damsons and raspberries (If you can’t find damsons you’ll need the juice of a lemon to add pectin which is crucial to ensure the jam sets)
500g granulated sugar
1 Rinse the fruit and count the damsons. Place a saucer in the freezer, then put the fruit in a stainless steel pan and warm over a medium heat until it softens.
2 Scoop out damson stones until you have as many as you counted earlier. Add the sugar. Turn up the heat and boil for 10 mins. Check if the jam has set by dropping a spoonful on to the frozen saucer. If the jam forms a skin, it’s set.
3 Pour jam into warm jars and seal immediately. The jam will store in a cool dark place or the fridge for a year.
