Two dishes this weekend definitely bridging the summer to autumn divide. One is a delicious fresh watermelony-salady thing, the other is onions, tomatoes, meatballs, pasta - autumnal, in other words. I've just run through my recipe books trawling for stuff I fancy cooking this autumn. It'll turn out to have way too much squash in, but it'll give me ideas for the next three months or so of menus.
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| My Process, for posterity |
The summer dish is emphatically summery - I made it first in July, unfortunately on the day I put my back out. I'd already done the marinade and the chicken was in the oven, so I did actually get to eat it, but there's no denying this is a terrible dish to try to eat while lying on your back. It is much nicer from a lap.
Buttermilk chicken with watermelon salad
MARINADE ALERT - and a long one. You're meant to marinade halved chicken thighs for 12-36 hours in buttermilk, garlic and salt. I think I just about made 12 hours this time. Then dredge it in breadcrumbs and oven bake 30 minutes. Finish with a spice mix of sumac, pul biber, coriander and fennel seed - a double pinch of each, and use half on the chicken.
The salad is far quicker - just chunk up watermelon, mix with watercress, dress with lime and honey and probably some other stuff but I couldn't be too bothered. But you do use your second half of the spice mix in here. It's good stuff. Add some greens - maybe watercress.
The two bits go together really well but they are hard to plate together - juicy salad is juicy.
Autumnally speaking, we're on Greek meatballs with tomato
This is a recipe that also comes in two parts but this one isn't written with such awareness of the annoyances of cooking. The spice mix is about the same, but you are directed to make it twice. One part says "use half an onion" and the other "use a small onion". Reader, you can work this out.
Meatballs: pork and beef or lamb mince mixed with half an onion (grated), garlic, an egg, and spice mix (plenty of cumin and paprika, a decent whack of cinnamon - keep some to add to the sauce), chopped parsley, seasoning. Oven bake for about 10 minutes.
Tomato sauce: soften half an onion, add more garlic, add thyme, add the spice mix, add a tin of tomatoes. Bring this lot to the boil, and simmer 10-15 minutes. Add a smidge of sugar if needed. Combine the sauce and the meatballs once both have had some initial cooking time apart, and give them another 10-15 minutes together.
Serve with orzo or rice or something. Or a watermelon negroni, if it happens to be a bank holiday and you happen to have some watermelon left over from when it was summer last week.
I've got a weird conferency week coming up, with some evening events, and it generally feels a bit less than the super-efficient start of term week that means proper September. But it's coming.
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