Seasonal Food

The Sweeper

Just posting on the "my favourite food" thread, couldn't pick one thing and started thinking about all the things I like cooking and eating, and how I like them. It quickly became apparent that I was working through the seasons when I was choosing food, so I figured I'd post up this.

I like to eat what's seasonal, and cook with what's seasonal. There are some things that I like cooking and eating all year round of course, but still, shepherd's pie with a pint of lager in a 30-degree summers day, for lunch in a beer garden, doesn't quite fit for me. So here's a list of seasonals I think are fab...

Winter

Long, slow, one-pot cooking or roasting at this time of year for me. Curries are also good in the cold weather. Favourites include roast lamb, beef, pork and chicken, game if I can get it. The next day is cooking with the leftovers - shepherd's pie, spicy parsnip soup, stew of any variety.

Spring

I think February/March are dull months for anything seasonal - the things that thrive in Winter have gone spongy and soft, the things that grow in Spring are too young yet to be really appreciable. These are months where we eat lots of pasta. Lasagne, carbonara, spaghetti. Then eggs - omelettes, spanish omelettes, french toast. Seafood can be a winner if it's fresh and isn't overpriced, but what to put it with? Cabbage is good in spring (but not with fish).

Summer

Salad salad salad fruit salad salad salad and for special occasions, PAELLA!!! Anything that can be cooked in 30 minutes or less. Lots of rice. Chop it, stirfry it, season it, have it with rice or buttered noodles. Beans and peas - don't bother cooking them, they're great raw. And PROPER salad. Not iceburg lettuce with some watery vinegarette on it. Robust dressings, with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, pepper, salt, the interesting contents of the condiment cupboard. Toasted pine nuts and curls of hard parmesan in rocket and crunchy vegetable salad. The only thing the oven might go on for in four months is baked potatoes. Sirloin steak on the griddle, which has to be this time of year because it's so smokey every door and window in the house has to be opened!

Autumn

My favourite season. Everything is excellent. Seafood, meat, vegetables, grains, pulses, fruit. And the weather lends itself to your cravings - you get both warm and cold evenings alternating in Autumn, so you can go from salad to stew in the same week if you want. If you've eaten properly over the summer, you're still feeling healthy and hearty, you might be looking forward to Christmas and still hanging on to July. Mushrooms, pumpkins, squash are all fab. Lamb is my favourite in Autumn.



Altogether, I think my least favourite season for cooking, shopping, and just generally, is Spring. Between now and Easter I'll spend most of my time wishing the days away. Anybody got any good suggestions for what's nice at this time of year?

luckat

And *s*t*r*a*w*b*e*r*r*i*e*s* fresh from the garden in summer.

We've lost a lot in losing the true seasonality of food. We no longer greet the first spinach or fresh summer lettuce with delight. About the only foods that are really seasonal are Christmas chestnuts. Even "new" potatoes aren't really recognised any more.

CJhaughey

Yes I think that people have generally lost their connection to the land, Unless you actually grow some of your own food then you don't realise how much the season affects what you should be eating.
I would also point out that Autumn and early Winter are great for picking fungi, nothing better than fresh Chanterelles in November!

Shabadu

I bought a punnet of raspberries yesterday expecting dissapointment- but damn it they looked so good. I have to say, they were delicious. Stirred em into porridge- I actually regret it now because they were too good to be drowned by porridge and honey. I normally try to stick to local in season veg, but you know, a bit of foreign out of season soft fruit is very cheering on occasion.

MAJD- for spring eating, I normally go for the warm salad sort of thing, like the following:

Throw some cherry tomatoes (I know, not seasonal) into a roasting pan. Sprinkle w/ salt, pepper, balsamic or red wine vinegar, an olive oil. Roast in super hot oven until soft and splitting. Stir into baby spinach & roquette with some crisp bacon, shaved parmesan or crumbled feta, chopped anchovies. Serve with crusty bread or a roast sweet potato.

Grill some salmon. Make a dressing by blending clove of garlic, fresh tarragon, wholegrain mustard, salt and pepper, vinegar & olive oil. Stir into chopped still warm new potatoes and some finely chopped red onion. Have w/ some nice baby gem and loads of lemon.

Sauté a chopped onion in some olive oil until soft, throw in a tin of flageolet beans. Stir through a crushed clove of garlic and some red wine vinegar. Serve w/ leaves and a grilled lamb chop.

For a weekendy dinner: Crush fresh chillis, garlic and ginger. Mix w/ soy sauce and worcesteshire sauce, and a spoon of honey. Rub all over sirloin steak and leave to room. Mash spuds w/ some roast chilli oil. Super heat griddle pan and cook steak. Serve w/ mash and wok fried sugar snaps, mangetout & baby corn.

Ok- so not strictly seasonal, but this is what I like to eat in the Winter/Spring transition.

The Sweeper

That all sounds good actually Shaba. Esp. the cherry tomato dish. Except I'm now seeing roasted those, spinach, rocket, bacon and slices of goats cheese melted onto crusty bread...

Shabadu

Ooo- That sounds good. Another thing I like to go for at this time of year is a good omelette, or a soufflé if I'm in that sort of mood. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsal has a lovely soufflé recipe- Basically you grate and soften some young courgettes in butter, stir into bechamel w/ a good big handful of grated parmesan, then fold it into your egg-whites and bung in a hot oven.

The Sweeper

Soufflé scares me. It smacks of collapse and failure.

The Sweeper

Shabadu wrote:

Throw some cherry tomatoes (I know, not seasonal) into a roasting pan. Sprinkle w/ salt, pepper, balsamic or red wine vinegar, an olive oil. Roast in super hot oven until soft and splitting. Stir into baby spinach & roquette with some crisp bacon, shaved parmesan or crumbled feta, chopped anchovies. Serve with crusty bread or a roast sweet potato.

Okay, tonight's variation on this theme that was teh win...

Chuck cherry toms, on the vine, onto a roasting pan, and roast until soft and splitting.

Take one cooked beetroot, some goats cheese and some garlic salami. Slice the beetroot and goats cheese into rounds. Layer salami, beetroot and cheese in stacks onto a slice of crusty bread. Throw into the oven for the last 8 mins of the tomato roasting.

Serve over a rocket & spinach salad with a balsamic dressing and with a pine nut, sunflower seed and pumpkin seed mix.

Took 20 mins including 10 mins oven warming time. It was essentially glorified cheese on toast, but it was really, really excellent!

Subbed mature cheddar for goats cheese on himself's as well (oh hater of goats cheese) and the verdict from that corner was also teh win.

frobisher

I had an amazing omelette yesterday. 4 large free rangers (proper ones, no supermarket nonsense) stirred loosely with a dab of milk poured into a pan off par boiled organic potatoes. Hand torn strips of baked ham, more Irish cheddar than is decent (diced in the mix, grated on the top), cooked until the edges were still just wet then whipped under the grill to get that cheese bubbling.

Great food for this time of year.

Shabadu

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

Okay, tonight's variation on this theme that was teh win...

Chuck cherry toms, on the vine, onto a roasting pan, and roast until soft and splitting.

Take one cooked beetroot, some goats cheese and some garlic salami. Slice the beetroot and goats cheese into rounds. Layer salami, beetroot and cheese in stacks onto a slice of crusty bread. Throw into the oven for the last 8 mins of the tomato roasting.

Serve over a rocket & spinach salad with a balsamic dressing and with a pine nut, sunflower seed and pumpkin seed mix.

Took 20 mins including 10 mins oven warming time. It was essentially glorified cheese on toast, but it was really, really excellent!

Subbed mature cheddar for goats cheese on himself's as well (oh hater of goats cheese) and the verdict from that corner was also teh win.

Yummers- may just do that tomorrow. Tonight we had this all in one type dinner w/ mushrooms & courgettes sautéed + onions, garlic & herbs. Meanwhile baby spuds boiling w/ green beans & broccoli steaming on top. Threw tin of tomatoes, red wine + balsamic in on mushrooms. Reduced, added crumbled spuds & veg. Popped in oven dish, topped w/ cheese and baked till bubbly. Not really a gourmet dinner, but really hit the spot, plus loads left over for the feller to bring into work.

The Sweeper

Eeeeeenteresting... that sounds like a lasagne-like concept but with spuds instead of pasta...

tonight's dinner at ours will be baked salmon with baked squash and parship puree and boiled baby new pots crushed with sea salt, parsley and butter and a small side of steamed green beans from above the pots I think. Am hoping the whole thing takes 45 mins start to finish including oven heating time, or less.

Am vaguely wondering what to bake the salmon with, as opposed to leaving it plain.

frobisher

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

Am vaguely wondering what to bake the salmon with, as opposed to leaving it plain.

Bake it with love.

Tazz T

Bake the salmon in tinfoil like a bag so it steams with a knob of butter and lots of lemon or white wine - garnish with chives.

Comes out gorgeous that way.

A cheap and equally good summer alternative is sea trout - fantastic done like this just replace the white wine with rose.