On favorite fall foods & dining together
It’s a peculiar thing how people automatically assume that meals at my house are always elaborate affairs. Yes, with the very rare exception of an occasional pizza unceremoniously devoured on the couch while watching a favorite show (happening tonight, but replace ‘favorite show’ with ‘scary movie’), my meals are certainly cooked with good ingredients – wholesome, real food such as whole grains, legumes, an abundance of vegetables and little to no oils – but ease is high on my priority list, as is eating at the table.
In her essay, Love in a Dish, one of my favorite authors, M.F.K. Fisher*, wrote: “There can be no warm, rich home-life anywhere else if it does not exist at the table, and in the same way there can be no enduring family happiness, no real marriage, if a man and a woman cannot open themselves generously and without suspicion one to the other over a shared bowl of soup as well as shared caress (…). Then and only then, they will find that they can face each other warmly and gaily across the table again, and that even that steak-and-potatoes, when they have been prepared with a shared interest and humor and intelligence, can be one of the great pleasures which leads to another, and perhaps – who knows – an even greater one.”
The seemingly simple act of sitting across the table from your beloved is about so much more than just sharing a meal. It is an opportunity for eyes to meet, words to flow and hands to reach across the table. Eating together, intimately, as a couple, is one of the best antidotes to separation, and having children is no reason for that to stop. We’ve always eaten at the table, but after our daughter was born, we made a point of having a date night at home every Saturday, with candlelight, vintage French records and a bottle of good wine. She would enjoy her favorite dish with us about an hour before we sat down to eat, and when she was done, she would go up to her room, to sleep when just a child and be a moody teen who refused to go to sleep later on. Though she’s been out of the house for four years now and we still eat every meal at the table, we’ve kept that Saturday tradition alive. In fact, we’ve extended it to include Friday and Sunday. So even though we’re having pizza and a movie tonight, we’ll open a nice bottle of wine at the table first and share a few glasses with a nibble (in this case a Vino Nobile de Montepulciano with truffle tapenade crostinis).
Weekends bring that luxury of having more time to cook more elaborate meals, like a steak-frites with porcini and cognac cream sauce (the plant-based version for us these days), a fancier pasta dish, a risotto with beautiful seasonal vegetables bought at the farmers’ market, or a hearty stew come the colder months. (I’ll probably be making the season’s first mushroom bourguignon this Sunday. See recipe at the end of this post.)
On weekdays, meals are on the table in under 20 minutes, and I’m a fan of batch cooking, which means that on some night, dinner will only require some gentle reheating. So no, the fact that I write about food doesn’t imply that I spend hours in the kitchen every day creating restaurant worthy multi-course dinners. Give me the simple food that tastes great and doesn’t require a whole lot of fuss. But give it to me in the presence of my husband.
I have a comfortingly vast repertoire of easy meals, which I vary according to the seasons. With fall, my attention especially turns toward mushrooms and pumpkins. In fact, for lunch yesterday I sautéed a handful of mixed mushrooms with shallots, garlic, a whisper of thyme and a pinch of red chili flakes. Piled onto a piece of rustic, well-buttered toast, it’s one of my favorite seasonal delights. The somewhat chewy texture of mushrooms makes them a great meat replacement, too. If you blitz chestnut mushrooms in a food processor, you can use the mushroom mince to replace ground beef in chilis and pasta sauces.
Though there’s nothing wrong with cultivated mushrooms, and I’m quite happy that they’re readily available year-round, nothing fills me with more delicious anticipation than seeing the first harvest of wild mushrooms at the market on an early fall morning.
The way nature’s edible bounty can be beautifully reflected on your plate is one of the many reasons I urge you to eat according to the rhythm of the seasons. Would you wear shorts or a breezy dress to Christmas dinner? Serving strawberries in winter, when they haven’t seen real sun and taste like water, is the same level of madness. Wild mushrooms taste and smell deeply earthy and are a delight to cook with. One of my favorite variety is chanterelles. Their apricot hue, reminiscent of fall leaves, and fruity aroma, make them absolutely irresistible. One of the first ways I’ll use them when fall rolls around is in a risotto with cream and arugula. Bear in mind that chanterelles, delicious as they are, can be a chore to clean. Their gill-like ridges can be especially gritty and require a gentle brushing. As silly as this may sound, a baby toothbrush, especially designated for this purpose, works really well. You’ll also need to trim off their woody ends and use them on the day of purchase as they tend to spoil quickly and don’t do well sitting around. Not that this ever happens at my house.
Pumpkins and all varieties of squash are not only a wonderful source of beta-carotene, but their sweet taste makes them perfect for sweet and savory recipes.
Certainly at the top of my most cooked pumpkin and squash recipes is a spicy curry with chickpeas, for which I owe the inspiration to one of my food gurus, Nigella Lawson. The curry (which she officially refers to as ‘hotpot’), has become my own over the years. I simply start by sautéeing a roughly chopped onion in a little olive oil. I then add a few tablespoons of Thai red chili paste and a few teaspoons of garam masala. I tip in about 3 cups of chopped pumpkin or butternut squash (sweet potatoes work well, too), about a cup of vegetable stock and 2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce. When the pumpkin is tender, I tip in a can of drained chickpeas and a can of coconut milk. I let this cook without a lid for about 10 minutes and then I serve the curry with a scattering of fresh parsley.
In this month’s column for Reader’s Digest UK, I wrote about pumpkins (read it here) and shared a few ideas.
I’ll be using them a lot in the coming months and will post food photos on Instagram which I hope will inspire you.
For now, here’s the recipe for the mushroom bourguignon I’ll be making this weekend. Consisting of mushrooms in a dark and velvety wine sauce, this dish will fill your house with the most delicious aromas as it cooks.
Though I’m now trying to cook without oil or fat, making an exception is imperative here as butter (plant-based, in my case) is necessary to thicken the sauce and fry the mushrooms. I should also point out that mushrooms should never be washed as they absorb water like a sponge. Simply wipe them down with a damp cloth, soft brush or paper towel. You’ll also notice that I fry the mushrooms in two batches. As with beef, you do not want to crowd the pan when cooking. This will cause the mushrooms to sweat instead of brown.
If you have the time, I suggest preparing this a day in advance as it will really boost the flavors, but this isn’t really necessary. Serve the dish with mashed potatoes, mashed root veg or macaroni cooked in broth. A glass of wine – for me, a Pinot Noir – is highly recommended
Mushroom bourguignon
Serves 2
Ingredients:
15g dried porcini
3 knobs of plant-based butter
150g oyster mushrooms, chopped
250g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
3 shallots, 1 roughly chopped, 2 quartered
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, sliced at an angle
Fresh chopped herbs of your choice (I used thyme & rosemary)
1 tbsp tomato paste
200ml strong, hot vegetable stock
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
200ml red wine, preferably a Pinot Noir
Few drops of (vegan) Worcestershire sauce
Freshly cracked pepper
Chopped flat-leaf parsley, to serve
Instructions:
Soak porcini for 15 minutes in hot water.
Heat a knob of butter in a frying pan and sauté half of the mushrooms for 5 minutes until browned. Transfer to a plate, heat another knob of butter and fry the rest of the mushrooms. Place them on the plate as well.
Heat a knob of butter in a casserole and sauté the shallots, garlic, carrots and herbs for 5 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste.
Stir in flour very well, then add hot stock while stirring. The sauce will thicken.
Add the wine, porcini, half of the cooked mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce and pepper.
Reduce the heat, cover and gently cook for 45 minutes.
Add the rest of the mushroom, turn up the heat and cook uncovered for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Serve with mashed root veg or cauliflower mash and scatter with parsley.
*One of the greatest American food writers (who also happened to be a huge Francophile and lived in Aix-en-Provence) was M.F.K. Fisher. Her culinary essays, in which she uses food as a metaphor for life, are exquisitely crafted and a pleasure to read. If you’re not familiar with her work, one of the best books to start with is Love in a Dish, a charming collection of culinary experiences that will take you to French villages and even explain how the love of food can save a marriage! A wonderful weekend read.