Taste Britain Magazine - September 2009

September is here and what a fantastic month for produce it is. The growing grounds of the United Kingdom are literally bursting with life thanks to the hot summer we have had. Compared to last year's wash out we have been blessed with sacred sunshine this year, making our fruit and vegetables all the more plump and tasty.

Soft berries such as gooseberries, red and white currants and strawberries are almost at an end but thankfully the hardier raspberry survives to remind us that summer isn't quite over just yet. And with autumn just around the corner comes the first of the colder climate fruits in apples and pears and wild fruits such as bilberries, bullace, elderberries and damsons. British tomatoes are fat, fragrant and so much better than a force grown variety flown from another country.

You can take your pick of a vast array of available vegetables with courgettes, beetroot, chard, fennel and runner beans at their absolute best. If you have a greenhouse you may be lucky to be picking your own peppers; from the common and larger sweet pepper to the smaller and hotter chilli pepper. The woods and forests with their secret nooks and crannies are also awash with life with a huge selection of wild mushrooms to choose from. If you are lucky enough to come across some wild mushrooms ensure that you get them thoroughly checked out by an expert before consuming.

As well as life on land, our surrounding seas are teaming with life in this great month of produce. Our fishermen are still hauling in the mackerel, a fish that is greedy for most things making it easy to catch. The mackerel is probably the most underrated fish for taste and value for money. Large meaty brown crabs cling to our shorelines and again, this crustacean is one that gives you so much more pound for pound value for money than the lobster.

September also marks the start of game season with grouse, pigeon and mallard being taken from the skies and rabbits in their hundreds from the ground. Cheap, delicious and sustainable, we should view game more positively and take advantage of this great season for wild food.

Starters

Ruby red beetroot deserves so much more than being stuffed into a jar with a harsh pickling liquor. Beautiful to look at with its cylindrical lines and deep colours and with a unique ‘earthy' flavour, this misunderstood root vegetable should be pride of place on the plate. Roasted until tender and sweet, sliced thinly in a salad or perhaps gently fried in olive oil for a ‘posh' crisp, the beetroot is a vegetable that should be treat with great respect. This starter teams up the sweet roasted root with a taste bud awakening dressing and an iron packed leaf in the chard. If you have the leaves intact on the beetroot replace with them instead.

Roast Beetroot, Chard and Caper Salad
Serves 4 as an accompaniment or 2 as a main course

6 whole beetroot, peeled and cut into quarters
2 tbsp olive oil
4 handfuls of Swiss chard, cut up roughly

For the dressing
2 tbsp capers, rinsed
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
A handful of fresh mint, roughly chopped
Salt and Pepper

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C, GM6.
2 - Place the beetroot into an oven tray and toss with the olive oil. Roast for 30-40 minutes until tender and beginning to colour.
3 - Wash the chard and with the water that clings to it, place into a hot pan or wok. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly until wilted.
4 - Combine the beetroot and chard in a serving dish. Mix together the dressing ingredients and pour all over the vegetables.

A good mushroom soup is hard to beat and the field mushroom is meaty and packed with flavour making it perfect for a warming soup. Cooked until caramelised and blended with hardy thyme and some good stock and things get even better. I sometimes like to make more of a meal with my soups and although this one needs nothing more than good crusty bread to ‘dunk' in, a topping of crisped black bream takes it to another level. Look out for bream in all good fishmongers. Arguably tastier than the over-eaten sea bass it is cheaper and more sustainable too.

Field Mushroom and Thyme Soup with Black Bream
Serves 4

1kg field mushrooms
4 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1 whole clove of garlic, unpeeled
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 litre vegetable stock
150ml single cream or crème fraiche
2 fillets of black bream
Salt and pepper

1 - Roughly chop up the mushrooms. Heat the oil in a large pan and add the mushrooms, onion, garlic clove, thyme and a good grinding of fresh black pepper. Cook off until the water has evaporated and the mushrooms are beginning to caramelise.
2 - Pour in the stock. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the garlic clove.
3 - Pour into a blender and puree until you have a smooth consistency.
4 - Return to a clean pan and pour in the cream or crème fraiche. Bring to the simmer and stir thoroughly. Taste for seasoning.
5 - Slice the fillets into 2 pieces. Season. Heat up a little olive oil in a pan and add the fish skin side down. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the skin is golden. Turn and cook for a further minute. Place a piece of fish into the soup and serve.

Mains

One of my favourite cheap eats at this time of the year is the wood pigeon. This is a lovely little warm salad of sorts, a nice introduction to anybody who has never had pigeon before and still harbours suspicions. People do tend to look at game as something too strong flavoured but I encourage people to taste a whole variety of game before forming an opinion. The wood pigeon is meaty and sweet and cooked a little rare it goes so well with sweet roots such as squash, salty crisped bacon and crunchy seasonal hazelnuts. Be game and give it a go.

Pigeon, Squash and Beetroot with Hazelnut Dressing
Feeds 4

1 squash, deseeded, halved and sliced thinly
1 tbsp olive oil
8 rashers of streaky bacon or Parma ham
1 tbsp olive oil
2 beetroots, sliced thinly
500ml Sunflower oil
8 skinless pigeon breasts
2 tbsp fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
4 handfuls of hazelnuts, crushed
2 tbsp cider vinegar
3 tbsp apple juice
4 handfuls of watercress

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 200C, GM6. Put the squash onto a baking tray and toss with the olive oil and a little seasoning. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.
2 - Heat a little olive oil in a non-stick frying pan then add the bacon or Parma ham. Cook on both sides until crisp and golden. Reserve on kitchen towel.
3 - Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan until. Place in a piece of beetroot and if it floats to the top instantly, it is ready. Place in the beetroot in batches and cook for 5-6 minutes until crisp. Remove and set aside on kitchen towel.
4 - Toss the pigeon breasts in the oil, thyme and a little salt and pepper. Heat up a pan until hot then place in the pigeon. Cook for 2-3 minutes each side then put aside to rest for 2 minutes. Slice each breast diagonally into 3 pieces.
5 - Keep the pan on the heat and put in the hazelnuts. Toast for 1 minute, and then pour in the vinegar and apple juice. Bring to the boil then turn off the heat.
6 - To plate up, arrange the watercress on a plate. Place on a few slices of squash, followed by the pigeon. Tuck in the beetroot crisps then drizzle on a little of the hazelnut dressing.

When I was a lad we used to love it when the mackerel season began. With nothing more than a simple spinning rod, a weighted line and a hook with foil wrapped around it, we would spin for hours bringing in large numbers of this greedy fish. I probably didn't appreciate the mackerel for what it was when I was younger but now I do. Oily, flavoursome and moreish, the mackerel thankfully bypasses the food trends and continues to be amazing value for money. The aniseed flavour of fennel goes with most fish and for this meal, a citrus sauce cuts through the oil of the fish to make for a perfect blend of flavours.

Mackerel on Watercress Crushed Potatoes with Orange and Mustard Braised Fennel

400g King Edward Potatoes peeled and cut into 2" chunks
50g Watercress chopped roughly
2 Mackerels, gutted, cleaned and filleted and skin slashed several times
1 Fennel bulb
500ml Orange juice
1 tbsp English mustard
50g butter
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

1 - In a heavy based pan, melt 25g butter and 1 tbsp olive oil. Slice the fennel bulb lengthways into 1cm slices. Place into the pan and colour on all sides, then pour in the orange juice and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer with a lid on for 10 minutes or until you can push a sharp knife through without too much resistance.
2 - Reduce the orange juice until thickened; add the mustard, 25g butter and season.
3 - Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the potatoes. Boil until tender and drain. Return to the pan and crush with a fork. Stir in the watercress, seasoning and a good knob of butter.
4 - In a non-stick pan, bring a tbsp olive oil to a shimmering heat. Add the seasoned mackerel fillets skin side down and hold with your fingers for a few seconds to ensure the skin catches. Cook for 2-3 minutes until golden. Flip and cook for 10 seconds. To check your fish is cooked, put a knife into the thickest past of the fillet; the flesh should come apart easily.
5 -Serve the mackerel on a spoonful of crushed potatoes with the fennel on the side and a good pouring of delicious orange and mustard sauce.

Side

A very simple accompaniment which works perfectly with fish is a stuffed tomato. In Provencal French cooking it is called a Tomate Farci and is often a de-seeded tomato stuffed with pork or beef, or both. Delicious on their own, my version is stuffed with finely chopped meaty mushrooms. They are great for a hot summer's day and a delight for vegetarians and meat eaters alike. Ensure you sweat the mushrooms off well so that the water evaporates. This means that the stuffing does not shrink and the flavour intensifies.

Stuffed Tomatoes

2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
200g mushrooms finely chopped (Any combination of wild mushroom would be great)
2 shallots finely chopped
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
1 tbsp each of fresh thyme and parsley, finely chopped
2 tbsp dry cider
Salt and pepper
4 Tomatoes

1 - Pre-heat the oven to 180C/GM 4
2 - In a frying pan, heat some olive oil and add the shallot, mushrooms and garlic. Cook and stir until you have colour and the mixture has reduced in size.
3 - Add the cider and cook for 1 minute, then finally add the fresh herbs and a little seasoning.
4 - Pour a little oil onto the tomatoes and rub onto the skin.
5 - Cut off the tops of the tomatoes, take out the seeds with a spoon then stuff the tomatoes with the mixture. Put the tops back onto the tomatoes. Place on a high shelf of the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the skin is just starting to colour and slightly curl.

Dessert

The Italians call this Semifreddo. I call mine ‘almost ice.' Dead easy to make and ready in an hour, this is the kind of thing we seem to be buying ready made and spending a fortune on. With only 4 ingredients I have to ask, why? You can get some bargain punnets of raspberries at this time of the year. A quick crushing with a fork and mixed into some sweetened yoghurt before ‘semi' freezing is all that is required to make a lovely refreshing ice for the family. I've kept this on the low fat scale but feel free to up the calories and replace the natural yoghurt with Greek yoghurt and the crème fraiche with whipped double cream. It is a dessert after all.

Raspberry and Vanilla Swirl
Makes 4 glasses

250g raspberries
1 vanilla pod
250g natural yoghurt
250g Low fat crème fraiche
100g honey (or sweeten to taste)

1 - In a large bowl, crush the raspberries with a fork. Drizzle a little into the bottom of 4 glasses.
2 - In a separate bowl, split the vanilla pods and scrape in the seeds. Beat with the crème fraiche and yoghurt until it thickens slightly.
3 - Fold in the raspberries and honey then tip into the individual glasses. Place into the freezer and leave for 1-2 hours until slightly frozen.