Food
Raymond Blanc’s top five autumn ingredients (and what to cook with them)
by Christine Faughlin
If you ask Raymond Blanc, the French chef behind Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire, autumn is one of the most exciting seasons for cooks. As the weather cools, the kitchen fills with earthy roots, crunchy apples, beautiful beans, squash and an abundance of mushrooms.
Ask him to pick a handful of favourites and you’ll quickly be given a tour of the season’s best – with no end in sight. Here, we whittled his list down to the five ingredients he thinks you should be cooking with right now.
1. Celeriac
It might not win any beauty prizes, but celeriac is the ingredient Raymond clearly has a particular affection for. ‘It’s so versatile,’ he says. ‘You can do so many dishes with it. You can purée it, you can fry it, you can bake it.’ He suggests using it as the filling for pastry dishes alongside ingredients such as apple or spinach, or serve it raw, grated and dressed simply.
Try our celeriac and apple slaw recipe
2. Beetroot
If you’re growing your own beetroot, says Raymond, there’s a knack for making sure you get the most flavour. ‘Let them grow big and get all the flavour before you harvest them,’ he says. ‘Don’t take them too small, they’ve got no flavour.’ He suggests cooking beetroot slowly for a couple of hours, then peel it once cool enough to handle. From here, it can be finely chopped and dressed with a simple French-style dressing. ‘Use mustard and olive oil, loosened with a little water to help emulsify it.’
Try our roasted beetroot dhal recipe
3. Beans
Raymond is especially enthusiastic about British beans, singling out varieties like flageolet. ‘Flageolet beans are the best flavoured beans,’ he says. If using dried, Raymond recommends rehydrating them before cooking gently with herbs such as thyme, bay leaf and sage, and finishing with either olive oil or butter. ‘It’s beautiful,’ he says.
4. Apples
If there is one fruit Raymond is especially passionate about, it’s the apple – and particularly British Cox’s Orange Pippin. ‘My favourite apple of all time,’ he says. He recalls tasting and comparing around 20 varieties before discovering just how highly he rated the British apple, but he takes issue with the British distinction between ‘cooking’ apples and ‘eating’ apples. ‘In France, every apple can be used for anything – for roasting, for pan-frying, for baking, for tarte Tatin.’
5. Squash and pumpkin
‘Squash is amazing,’ he says. But make sure you leave it somewhere for around a month after buying or harvesting, to get the best flavour. ‘More water comes out and there’s a concentration of flavour,’ he explains. His favourite variety is Muscat de Provence, a large, ribbed pumpkin with greyish skin and an intense orange flesh – ‘it makes the best soups ever!’ he says.
Try our pumpkin soup recipe
