Fantastic Fall Food

[Heather]

There's a nip in the air and the thoughts turn from heirloom tomatoes to heartier fare. I am looking forward to gathering around our table with steaming bowls of soup or hearty stews, pates & sausages, pumpkin muffins, and all of the baking I skip during the steamy summer weather.

What are you looking forward to cooking this fall?

[Waitman]

Pork butt braised in cider, calvados and gewurtztaminer.

Homemade sausage.

Souffles.

[cjsadler]

As much as I love all the fresh ingredients during the summer, fall is definitely my favorite cooking season. I'm glad I already don't have to worry about heating up my condo so much with the oven on. This year, I plan on doing a lot of braising and soup making. Finally trying a pate (and some rilettes) is on my list too. Might have to work on some bread baking as well.

[Tweaked]

GUMBO! I have several types I want to try making involving ham hocks.

Braising, braising, and more braising

Also the honey crisp apples at Eastern Market have been very good so far, juice, sweet, tart. I love apple season!

[Seanchai]

Beef Bourguignon and just generally cooking/braising with wine

Savory dishes involving pumpkin (actually, looking for some suggestions here)

Green pork loin chili

[Al Dente]

Braised short ribs. I already gave myself a preview of fall and winter with a couple of lbs of ribs, stock, capers, kalamatas, rosemary, onion and garlic.

Might have to make some more on Sunday...

[Heather]

Chris, if you find caul fat for the pate let me know.

Add lasagna, and hot apple cider to my list. And pork roast with homemade applesauce.

[Hannah]

Soups - pumpkin and/or butternut squash is the one we do most of, but French onion, bean, cauliflower, and potato have been known to make appearances.

[JPW]

All of the above.

Plus, it's time to start making loads of chicken stock again. Nothing better to smell on a blustery Sunday than a pot of golden love simmering slowly away.

[blakegwinn]

You have been watching too much Good Eats.

So, you'll be bringing that to the picnic, right?

Pumpkin or squash anything. And I have a serious weakspot for the pear/gorgonzola/nut combination. Pasta, dessert, roasted. Whatever. I used to LOVE getting pear/gorg. ravioli with walnut cream sauce at this little neighborhood spot in B-more in the fall. Anyone know of someone serving up something similar around the district. I am jonesing but don't feel like going to Baltimore all the time. Also I can't wait to just start buying quality homegrown apples at the farmer's markets again. I will eat 2-3 a day sometimes during the fall.

[chef4cook]

Yes! Fall is here! This is my favorite time of year. I'll be using all the squash family, Cabbages, Brussels sprouts!!!, Dried fruits, Goose and Duck Breast, Foie, Pates. I'll be braising beef,veal,lamb(as this is my favorite cooking method), Soups,soups,soups. I'm really looking forward to it.

[cjsadler]

And loads more duck confit, now that I know the EZ method for it works...

[Jacques Gastreaux]

Choucroute Garni.

[Pat]

Squash

Beef pot pie

Soups

[Pool Boy]

Braising, braising, and more braising

I agree!

Early fall is also obviously a great apple season. I hope to head to Larriland with my wife to pick some. It's always fun to try some apples off the tree to get a sense of what a given variety tastes like. That and there is NOTHING like eating an apple right off the tree. So fresh, so juicy, so tart and delicious.

[shogun]

Choucroute Garni.

What is a recipe not appearing in Larousse Gastronomique. I'll take 'Omission Commissions' for $400 please, Alex.

ETA: Unless it's the same thing as 'Sauerkraut a l'alsacienne'...looks like it could be. This is what I get for ever doubting

Edited September 24, 2006 by shogun

[Heather]

ETA: Unless it's the same thing as 'Sauerkraut a l'alsacienne'...looks like it could be. This is what I get for ever doubting

It should be the same or similar.

Jacques, let us know also what day for the choucroute. I'll bring the galette aux poires.

[zoramargolis]

Nothing better to smell on a blustery Sunday than a pot of golden love simmering slowly away.

Too bad it's a hot, muggy Sunday. I'm sure ready for summer to be over. Despite the heat/humidity, I've got my oven going--roasting garlic, beets, cippolini onions (separately, not together). And I've got a pot of fresh borlotti (cranberry) beans cooking on top of the stove--found those at Super H this week, and they are beauties.

[Chica Grace]

Fall Fall Fall & cooking? What do I cook? Definitely look forward to anything with Acorn or Butternut Squash - from soup, to pie, to whatever. And I'm loving the various greens - kale & cabbage. Oh, and how could I forget about beets! Love beets. Finally figured out how to work with them last year. so, I'm ready with some new recipes.

Now that I just finished all the tomato, & pesto sauce varieties for freezing - there isn't much room in the freezer left!

[xcanuck]

All of the above.

Plus, it's time to start making loads of chicken stock again. Nothing better to smell on a blustery Sunday than a pot of golden love simmering slowly away.

Mmmm...stock... I just put in an order with one the vendors at the SS farmer's market. She's promised me a couple of leg's worth of beef bones for making stock/demi-glace and roasting marrow! I've made Vietnamese-style pho stock once before and am looking forward to making gallons of the stuff. Perfect on a blustery day.

Getting the smoker going this fall is going to be nice, too. So much more enjoyable tending to a smoker all day when it's not in 95F heat. I'm hoping to do a brisket this Saturday.

What else?....Pie (once i get over my fear of making crust)...squash/pumpkin soup...

[grover]

I was grown up in Seoul, Korea so fall food reminds me of Harvest Full Moon Festival (Aug 15 in lunar calendar). It is one of the biggest Holiday of the year in Korea, China and Japan. (because we share the lunar calendar) It will be early October this year. We use the harvested friuts/grains for the festival such as rice, chestnut, date, persimon, pear and so on. My mom prepared a table for our ancestors and my dad hosted the ceremony in the morning and we ate.

The typical Korean fall food is:

Song-Pyun (Little crescent shape rice cake - pine leaf is steamed with the rice dough)

Taro root soup

Yak-Sik

(mixed rice with date and chestnut and steamed with brown sugar, sesame oil and soy sauce)

[Venerable Bede]

my fall dishes tend to fall along the lines of chili and butternut squash soup, and pies. . apple, pecan and pumpkin (and lots of jack daniels). just seems much more fall-ish for me.

course, i live in san francisco now, so i don't really get a fall anymore.

for a pumpkin pie, i basically roasted a cut in half sugar pumpkin, scooped out the flesh and put it into a blender to puree it. . .then, added the spices and whiskey to it for the filling.

[jm chen]

Well, hello, Molly; it's so nice to have you back where you belong.

Other than braising like mad, I'm looking forward to trying out all the various farmer's market squash options -- delicata, kabocha, and beyond. Last fall/winter I got in a bit of a butternut rut.

[hillvalley]

Sometimes a few peppercorns, sometimes celery, but I almost never have any celery because I hate buying a large bunch of it and then throwing most of it away. Sometimes I'll buy some chopped celery from a salad bar to avoid that.

Try picking up a celariac at the farmers market. It adds a depth of celery flavor that is unlike any other.

For the record, fall is my least favorite season for veggies and most cooking, after winter. I'm not a squash fan and would rather eat a berry than a root anyday. I guess I'm looking forward to braising some short ribs, making a lasagne, etc. but I would rather be enjoing spring peas than fall apples.

[Waitman]

I don't like to put garlic in chicken stock. If I want garlic in the dish where I am using the stock, I will add it later. But there are a number of applications for the stock where I don't want the flavor of garlic.

Ironically, this reminds me a a great soup for a fall afternoon: garlic soup. Get your chicken broth roughly where you want it, and then slow cook it with a few -- ok, a lot -- of roast garlic. Let it cool a bit, strain, and then whisk in egg yolks. Get some crusty bread into the picture however you prefer and enjoy with a rustic red wine.

On the larger stock question, I like to roast my carcass first, to get a more, you know, "roasty" flavor which I prefer even in more subtle uses. Also, if you're near a Hispanic market, oicking up a big old hen -- gaillina, I bleive they're called -- gives you more bird at a lower cost per pound, and a nice rich flavor, as well.

[Ilaine]

To ask a really stupid question (a specialty of mine), what are you guys using for pumpkin? I bought a small pumpkin (labeled for cooking as opposed to carving) for the pumpkin orzo I made Saturday night. Between hacking my way in, scooping all the seeds and chipping away with the paring knife to get a few scraps, I ended up with just enough stuff that ultimately didn't taste, well, pumpkiny, but rather like squash. Do you folks use the canned pumpkin puree or did I do something particularly dim?

Pumpkin is squash. I have read that a lot of canned "pumpkin" is really canned cushaw (squash).

The densest, sweetest, meatiest squash around is kabocha. If you are going to use puree anyway, just put it on one side, cut off the stem, and then split in half with a little stab and then a rocking motion. Scoop out the seeds and bake cut side down.

Peeled and cut-up butternut chunks are sold at the better grocery stores like Wegmann's. I think butternut squash tastes a lot like pumpkin, but actually nicer.

Or even better, of course, buy a stewing fowl, which they seem to have reliably at Bestway (at least the one in Mt. Pleasant). I see no reason to dismember a fowl to make stock from it, although obviously if you leave it whole you need a deep pot.

I use a smaller bird and boil just long enough to cook (about an hour). Save the broth and boil another chicken in that.

I love the resulting broth.

[Heather]

Anyone know an inexpensive source for duck? I am thinking rillettes this weekend.

[Waitman]

Anyone know an inexpensive source for duck? I am thinking rillettes this weekend.

We got some good ducks at Great Wall. About $10/pop. How about Han an Reum up your way?

[Heather]

We got some good ducks at Great Wall. About $10/pop. How about Han an Reum up your way?

Oh yeah...I forgot about them. Bet I could get a reasonable pork shoulder too.

Another fall favorite: Break out the Raclette pan! Boiled potatoes, sausages, stinky melted cheese, and a green salad. Maybe some warm apple cider. The kids love the little individual melting pans and wooden paddles.

[sunshine]

Pork and pork products cooked many different ways. Sausages and lentils. All kinds of risottos. Just made a shrimp risotto using Stanley Tucci's mother's recipe from an old issue of Saveur magazine. Thanks for some great ideas.

[Heather]

I picked up my first butternut squash of the season yesterday, for squash soup, and a few pumpkins for our front step. Another fall thing we look forward to - carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds.

[JPW]

I picked up my first butternut squash of the season yesterday, for squash soup, and a few pumpkins for our front step. Another fall thing we look forward to - carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds.

Made my first batch of butternut squash soup last weekend. Also, my first boeuf bourgignon.

Used to do the whole pumpkin seed thing as a kid. You've motivated me to roast some this year.

[hillvalley]

Oatmeal with lots of brown sugar

[Heather]

Joe, Peanut will love it.

Hill, we are weird in that we eat hot cereal year-round. Yes, oatmeal in July.

[Meaghan]

Chestnut soup (particularly Marcel's), creamy mushroom soups (you'd be a fool to miss Kolumbia's version topped with sweetbreads) and any puree of rooty veg (hot and buttery, I say).

bisous,

Souperstar

[Heather]

I love mushroom soups, but no one else in my family does.

The pears seem not so sweet this year. Very disappointing.

Roasted brussels sprouts with lardons.

[blakegwinn]

I love mushroom soups, but no one else in my family does.

The pears seem not so sweet this year. Very disappointing.

Roasted brussels sprouts with lardons.

Made Risotto last night and dropped in a bit of gorgonzola cheese, walnuts and some apples I had softened up a bit. Topped it off with some pork just to get some protein. Turned out pretty well I was happy with it. I love that combination of apple/pear and gorgonzola with nut. I even got a seal of approval from my girlfriend after sneaking it past her (doesn't like gorgonzola).

[Heather]

The ingrates. You can come over to my house and make mushroom soup any time you please.

Yeah, that'll show 'em.

Wild mushrooms, with cream, thyme, sherry and brown chicken stock. Thinking about that might be enough to get my appetite back.

[JLK]

I'm in the oatmeal year round camp (and on the flip side, I take my coffee iced year round too). I have already braised short ribs once and like a lot of you, I'm looking forward to butternut squash soup and rissoto as well. Looking for a good apple cake recipe.

[mdt]

Choucroute Garni.

What recipe do you use? I was eyeing the one in Bourdain's cookbook and was wondering where to get the various sausages. Although I guess I could make my own.

[cjsadler]

What recipe do you use? I was eyeing the one in Bourdain's cookbook and was wondering where to get the various sausages. Although I guess I could make my own.

A couple of the recipes I looked at called for smoked pork chops (store bought). Where can these be found?

[TSE]

A couple of the recipes I looked at called for smoked pork chops (store bought). Where can these be found?

Safeway sells Smithfield brand smoked pork chops, though I haven't actually tried them. My guess is that they're bascially like smoked ham, so that might be an acceptable substitute.

[squidsdc]

I'm in the oatmeal year round camp (and on the flip side, I take my coffee iced year round too). I have already braised short ribs once and like a lot of you, I'm looking forward to butternut squash soup and rissoto as well. Looking for a good apple cake recipe.

I made the apple cake from the Sept 13th Post this weekend. Unfortunately, Mr Squids does not like apple cake--but my office does! ( I had to bring it in, or else I'd eat it all myself It disappeared in less than an hour) The recipe had a few issues, so let me know if you plan on making it, and I can tell you what did and didn't work for me. RECIPE

[DanCole42]

It's that time again! Hooray!

Gonna try me some mulled cider this year...

[Heather]

It's hard to get psyched for fall food when it's still 90 degrees.

It's stock-making time: veal, beef and chicken. We're down to a single pint of veal stock in the freezer. Fortunately I made enough duck rillettes last fall to keep me in duck fat for the forseeable future.

[pizza man]

hopefully we will have some Spaetzle with sauerbraten, marrow dumpling soup..bratwurst, cabbage and noodles..

Gott in Himmel, It's German season. Hope the wife can be convinced to cook.

[southdenverhoo]

Where I live now, in the 28th year of my exile from the Virginia Piedmont, it's fresh roasted New Mexico green chiles. Hatch or reasonable facsimiles, say Deming, for mild, and the little Pueblos (bigger than a jalapeno, smaller than a Hatch) for a little manageable heat (won't burn your mouth, will induce little beads of perspiration on your forehead), all up and down Federal Blvd. and Sheridan Blvd. on Denver's West Side, from maybe mid-August through mid-October, people are roasting these things under tents in parking lots, in big cylindrical baskets that rotate (powered by a firm twirl of a hand crank) over twin about-a-gazillion-BTU propane burners, which char the outside skin perfectly for quick removal (after steaming in the bag). Sparks fly as the stems and skins catch fire, and the aroma is heavenly. They throw these in Hefty bags, a bushel basket per Hefty, and the chiles steam in that bag for the ride home. Maybe 20 bucks a bushel, but the second bushel's free. Either take one, or take two, it still costs 20 bucks... (10, sometimes, as the season winds down)

I always used to make big batches of green chile, and salsa, and freeze the rest, until I read a reminiscence in our local weekly, Westword (same folks who publish your City Paper) where the author remembered what his mom used to do immediately upon returning home with her still-warm chiles.

And that was: spread mayonnaise on two slices of toasted white bread. Peel (and the charred husks come RIGHT off), stem, and seed as many chiles as you can reasonably stuff between those two slices of bread (Hatch chiles are pretty big and meaty, 5-6 whole chiles is about right), and voila (or I guess, esta aqui): Warm green chile sandwich!

[Seanchai]

Where I live now, in the 28th year of my exile from the Virginia Piedmont, it's fresh roasted New Mexico green chiles. Hatch or reasonable facsimiles, say Deming, for mild, and the little Pueblos (bigger than a jalapeno, smaller than a Hatch) for a little manageable heat (won't burn your mouth, will induce little beads of perspiration on your forehead), all up and down Federal Blvd. and Sheridan Blvd. on Denver's West Side, from maybe mid-August through mid-October, people are roasting these things under tents in parking lots, in big cylindrical baskets that rotate (powered by a firm twirl of a hand crank) over twin about-a-gazillion-BTU propane burners, which char the outside skin perfectly for quick removal (after steaming in the bag). Sparks fly as the stems and skins catch fire, and the aroma is heavenly. They throw these in Hefty bags, a bushel basket per Hefty, and the chiles steam in that bag for the ride home. Maybe 20 bucks a bushel, but the second bushel's free. Either take one, or take two, it still costs 20 bucks... (10, sometimes, as the season winds down)

I always used to make big batches of green chile, and salsa, and freeze the rest, until I read a reminiscence in our local weekly, Westword (same folks who publish your City Paper) where the author remembered what his mom used to do immediately upon returning home with her still-warm chiles.

And that was: spread mayonnaise on two slices of toasted white bread. Peel (and the charred husks come RIGHT off), stem, and seed as many chiles as you can reasonably stuff between those two slices of bread (Hatch chiles are pretty big and meaty, 5-6 whole chiles is about right), and voila (or I guess, esta aqui): Warm green chile sandwich!

Very evocative, thanks. I'm just waiting until the first crisp weekend here in Charlottesville to make my version of green pork loin chile, which is really just a bastardization of Rick Bayless' tomatillo salsa recipe. Tastes damn good to my inexperienced taste buds.

[Pat]

I just cooked up a wonderful batch of applesauce from this recipe. I used 6 lbs. of McIntosh apples and doubled everything else except the lemon peel and sugar. I used only 1/4 cup light brown sugar for the entire amount of sugars called for. I don't generally like adding sugar to applesauce, but this worked out well. I also cooked the applesauce long enough that it mostly fell apart on its own and didn't need further processing beyond smooshing some apple pieces with a wooden spoon. The only glitch is that I couldn't find the pieces of lemon peel to remove them at the end .

In years past, I often made applesauce in the fall, but I hadn't made it a number of years and couldn't even remember the process. I like this recipe, though.

[zoramargolis]

Very evocative, thanks. I'm just waiting until the first crisp weekend here in Charlottesville to make my version of green pork loin chile, which is really just a bastardization of Rick Bayless' tomatillo salsa recipe. Tastes damn good to my inexperienced taste buds.

Then, all you need to add is some hominy, and you've got posole--one of my favorite Fall/Winter dishes.