Brown butter butterscotch apple pie, fig and blue cheese flatbreads and lamb with labneh, crispy freekeh and roasted roots
My kitchen smells like autumn, and yours can too
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Hello my friends, and welcome to this monthly drop of my brand new, seasonal recipes, exclusive to this newsletter and fresh from my kitchen. If last month’s Something For the Weekend recipes were about clinging on to the fading moments of a late summer, these creations are about embracing autumn in all its burnished golden glory. And what a glorious time it is for the home cook! I love the rituals that are reignited again at this time of year in my own kitchen, now I no longer feel the FOMO pull of summer’s sweaty clutches. I’m talking about things that are a little slower and a bit more hands on: the act of kneading dough or stewing apples, turning my attention to making labneh, crafting comforting pies, delicate pastries, and rustic breads - all the joyful kitchen things that call to me with this change of season as the orchard fruits pile up in their bowl on the table.
Over the past couple of weeks, while I’ve been working on these recipes for you, the aroma of roasting root vegetables has mingled with the garlicky sear on lamb chops, and the warmth of cinnamon melting into brown buttered apples has cut the crisp air that creeps inside when the dog slips out. It’s all been a little bit magical, and a reminder that there’s plenty still to look forward to, even if summer is now feeling like it’s behind us. I’m proud of these recipes, which are all based around peak season ingredients whose flavour speaks so boldly, the small effort required in the method results in huge rewards for the eater.
Take the fig flatbreads, which you really need to make as a lunch, starter/snack or light supper. At their core is the blissful combination of sweet, jammy roasted figs with salty blue cheese cream, a blast of fragrant, woody rosemary and the earthy crunch of walnuts. Such simple but perfect harmony. I’m calling them ‘flatbreads’ rather than pizza because the method and shaping required here for the dough is very straightforward, and more life-friendly than it would be if I were making pizza - and the results are plump, pillowy, tender breads that pool with molten cheese and fig juices, just begging you to dip the crusts in. Added to that, I actually think this works really well baked ahead eaten at ambient temperature, and while I’m also a fan of cold pizza in certain circs, I probably woudn’t suggest serving it to your friends, whereas this, I totally endorse.
Then there’s the lamb and roast root salad - a perfect early autumnal sharer, in which the lamb chops are brined in the whey created from straining the labneh, keeping them succulent, tender and gorgeously juicy, just perfect when effortlessly flash fried (in a matter of minutes) and served on a cooling slick of herb-marbled labneh. I’ve gone for chops here because lamb has so much flavour right now, and while we’re on the cusp of roast season, we can still get away with smaller cuts of meat treated carefully and jazzed up with hearty salad sides. There are few steps in this recipe, but each one is simple and in terms of hands-on cooking, this is a total breeze - much of the crucial stuff - like the labneh, brining and roasting - happens in the fridge or oven, freeing you up for other things. Here, carrots and beets are roasted in a special spiced dressing until intense and sweet, and freekeh is also roasted at the end to bring nutty depth and satisfying crispy edges. This recipe is also brilliant because if you’re veggie, you can simply leave out the lamb and serve the spiced root salad with the labneh, and perhaps some toasted seeds and nuts for added protein.
The apple pie is a fever dream realised. I’ve been fantasising about apple pie ever since we came back from our friends’ house a few weekends ago laden with bags of sweet and delicious homegrown apples, and I wanted to give my usual apple pie a new spin, so I combined it with some of my favourite flavours: brown butter, butterscotch, and roasted, salted pecans. The result is a melting apple filling, punctuated with rich, textured pecans and slick with glossy, beautifully spiced butterscotch sauce, all encased in a flaky, crisp sour cream pastry pie crust. I like to serve this with pouring cream or good quality custard, and it brings smiles all around the table.
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And now we must get to the recipes. Do drop me a line below to let me know how you get on with them, I can’t wait to see you making them. Thanks so much for reading and supporting my newsletter, there is so much more to come.
Fig, walnut and blue cheese flatbreads
Makes 2 medium sized flatbreads, serves 2-4
These flatbreads are very forgiving and can be easily scaled up if you need to make more. They are lovely eaten at room temperature or slightly warm, reheat really well and can even be frozen - either at the dough stage or after baking and cooling. To reheat once baked, just warm through in a low oven. Other favourite toppings of mine are creme fraiche with black garlic and fried mushrooms, anchovies with cherry tomatoes, capers and red onion, and mozzarella with parma ham and sliced red chilli.