last weeks
30min
Maitake tempura
Tear maitake into clusters, dip in a barely mixed batter of 1 egg, 200ml iced water and 100g flour, and fry at 170°C until the frills are crisp.
savoury
Explore
Ingredients — what's just in, what's at its peak, and what it brings to a dish.
October at the market
The one to chase · just in
Ginkgo nuts
Bitter, chewy.
Make · Chawanmushi · 45 minPour a custard of 1 part egg to 3 parts cold seasoned dashi over shelled, boiled ginkgo nuts, prawn and mitsuba, and steam at a bare simmer for 12–15 minutes until it just trembles.
Goes with egg · dashi · salt
Cook it Poetry and Rites ginkgo · Chawanmushi · 2 dishes here
What to make while it's here
just in
1day
Membrillo
Cook peeled quince with an equal weight of sugar and a little lemon over low heat until garnet and stiff, about 3 hours, then set in a tin overnight.
sour
last weeks
1h
Sea buckthorn curd
Cook 150ml pressed sea buckthorn juice with 150g sugar, 3 eggs and 100g butter over a bain-marie until it coats a spoon, about 80°C, and strain.
sour
just in
3months
Sloe gin
Freeze 500g sloes, then bottle them with 250g sugar and 1 litre of gin, shake every few days, and strain after 3 months.
last weeks
1day
Satsivi
Pound 300g walnuts with garlic, blue fenugreek, coriander and dried marigold, loosen with chicken stock, pour over poached chicken, and leave overnight to set cold.
rich
just in
overnight
Celery Victor
Poach whole celery hearts in chicken stock for 15 minutes, cool them in it, then marinate overnight in a sharp vinaigrette and serve with anchovies.
just in
5days
Marrons glacés
Peel chestnuts, poach them tied in muslin until tender, then steep in vanilla syrup, boiling it and adding more sugar each day for 4 days until they're glassy.
last weeks
1h
Cobnut praliné
Toast skinned cobnuts at 160°C until golden, pour over a dry caramel of their weight in sugar, then blitz the cooled brittle to a smooth, runny paste.
last weeks
2days
Green fig spoon sweet
Score small, hard green figs and blanch them in fresh water three or four times to draw out the latex, then simmer in a 1:1 syrup with lemon and rest overnight before jarring.
sweet
last weeks
1week
Gari
Slice young ginger paper-thin, blanch for 30 seconds and salt it, then cover with a hot pickle of 200ml rice vinegar and 60g sugar — the pink tips colour it — and keep a week.
hot
just in
6weeks
Hoshigaki
Peel firm Hachiya persimmons, leaving the stem, hang them on string somewhere cool and airy, and massage gently every few days for 4–6 weeks until a white sugar bloom forms.
sweet
2days
Piquillos rellenos de bacalao
Soak salt cod for 48 hours, fold it flaked into a stiff béchamel, fill roasted piquillos with it, flour and fry them, and serve in a sauce of blended piquillos.
The deep shelves — not the season, the craft
Coming in November
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