5 in Season Ingredients for September
With long walks on golden leaves, autumn brings with it beautiful fresh produce you can make the most of. We're covering foraging for mushrooms, and some seasonal fruits to bake with.
Figs
The delicious sweet flavour of a fig offers plenty of versatility when it comes to recipes.
This recipe by Tom Aikens for a fig tart with cinnamon ice cream is simply divine, and you can always make the ice cream ahead of time to take off a bit of the pressure. Take a look at the recipe here.
You could also try incorporating them into leafy salads, or baking/poaching them for a rich and intensely-flavoured simple dessert.
Apricots
It's the last chance for seasonal apricots in September. This Tesco recipe places apricot at the heart of a traditional cherry recipe, and with great results. Their apricot and raspberry clafoutis is a showstopper of a dessert (view the recipe here).
For something a little simpler, this apricot butter recipe (view it here) is brilliant with crackers, ricotta, or even just on toast.
Savoy cabbage
There's a good supply of UK savoy cabbage right now. It pairs brilliantly with bacon thrown into pasta.
This recipe from Sabrina Ghayour's book 'Bazaar' is a Persian-inspired vegetarian recipe, a little like a risotto but using basmati rice (view it here). It's a lovely creamy, citrusy dish we can highly recommend. This cabbage, potato, and bacon soup is also a great way to keep your lunches interesting (view the recipe here).
Wild mushrooms
If you're keen on foraging for mushrooms, this Woodland Trust Guide is a good place to get started. Make sure you know what you're doing and have a good identification guide to avoid any poisonous mushrooms. It's also worth checking if they need any particular preparation prior to eating, and make sure you leave plenty for the wildlife too!
Raymond Blanc can get you started with your mushrooms with this fricassee of wild mushrooms (view it here), while this New York Times seared wild mushroom recipe (view it here) is a simple staple.
Blackberries
Blackberries have been a little early this year, possibly due to warmer weather back in Spring. Blackberries are great in warming wintery recipes, so you can always freeze them ready to use later on in the year too.
We couldn't possibly talk about blackberries without a blackberry crumble recipe, and Raymond Blanc's recipe takes the hat for us (view it here). These blackberry and apple turnovers are also a huge hit (view them here), along with these blackberry pie bars (view them here) that you can eat on the move- perfect!