The fall season in Kentucky can become a series of culinary acrobatics, twists and turns that jolt us out of our summer reverie and force us into cooking contortions we haven’t experienced in a long time.
Many “pulled muscles” result, some of which can be happy accidents on our menus, while others are quickly tossed and hopefully forgotten. In my many years of seasonal adjustments, realizing that fall follows summer, it still takes me a few beats to settle in.
It stings when you realize that the tomato has taken on a different flavor profile, more “wine” than “grape” as the late summer fermentation process takes hold and the full summer tomato is shutting down for the season.
Squash and zucchini are also fading, not only in color but also in the texture of the vegetable itself. Firm and moist in the summer, the seed packets are now drier, and the flesh is starting to “string out”, and become tough. Your versatility, once boundless, starts to shrink into a few precious preparation hours. This sliver of time always presents a challenge for cook and chef alike, inevitable, immutable, and ripe with possibilities.
Yes, you read that last sentence correctly; “ripe with possibilities.” Out of the ashes of all that we love of the summer, we need to learn once again how much potential each season holds and embrace it. We have little choice if we want to continue to eat local, and support local growers, producers and the business’s that sell local products.
The challenge is not so much with our abilities, skill sets or affinity for fall or cool weather foods, but rather our reluctance to give up summer. I believe it’s one of the very valid reasons why we can, pickle, dry and freeze. It also drives our guilty need sometimes to eat out of season, hoping for summer lightning to strike in November. It won’t.
In every other way, we are preparing for fall and winter. We change our wardrobe, fertilize our lawns and bring in our more tender plants.
Farmers realize that they have a closing window, so their “yard work” is tenfold, and they still manage to produce cool weather vegetables that they planted two months back. They accept every season, that there is an end to every growing cycle. They aren’t cheating Mother Nature, just taking what she gives them, up to the final hours of the final day.
And after that they move on, realizing that summer comes every year, you just have to wait.
Those of you that read my column on a regular basis might guess what’s coming next; a long list of fall vegetables that you should really check out. But my challenge to you all this time is to visit a farmer’s market in the next few weeks. Walk down the aisles and look at what’s available.
Yes, there are still tomatoes and squash, but what else? Perhaps some of the same vegetables you saw at the spring markets, back again like magic, looking smooth and new, refreshed by a summer’s nap. These are the cornerstones of fall cuisine in Kentucky, and if you want to cook and eat in season, with all the inherent advantages, you need to become familiar with them all.
I don’t like beets! Try them roasted with some black pepper, butter and sorghum. Chard is too leafy and light. Dress it with olive oil and garlic and grill it!
Carrots are just for stock. Cook them a la Anglaise with honey, fennel and salt, you’ll fall in love.
There are plenty of recipes to ease you in, and plenty to move you to the next level. Flavor combinations are but a few of the miracles of food in general, and you haven’t lived until you have fall spinach with pickled radish, fresh goat cheese and sautéed shiitake mushrooms. If all of these dishes sound odd to you then this is the season to step up your “fall game.”
Make it a point to get outside your comfort zone when it comes to new things, and I promise you that a completely new level of eating local will be yours.
If these recipes are old news, well then it’s time for you to start a new phase in your seasonal cooking and eating. Your challenge is to go abroad, to other countries and cultures, explore their cuisines and see the wide range of methods they use to stay in season.
Stews of cracked wheat, fall peppers and walnuts, borscht done several ways, none of which may be mainstream, rich mushroom dishes that run the gamut from familiar stroganoff to pickled mushroom sauces for grilled fish.
There are ways to go beyond the simple and direct to encompass all of this new season’s product in ways that perhaps would convince some skeptics that your local eating doesn’t have to end with a cookout on Labor Day, but can satisfy and warm you all the way back around to the gateway of a new summer.
John Foster is an executive chef who heads the culinary program at Sullivan University’s Lexington campus. A New York native, Foster has been active in the Lexington culinary scene and a promoter of local and seasonal foods for more than 20 years. The French Culinary Institute-trained chef has been the executive chef of his former restaurant, Harvest, and now his Chevy Chase eatery, The Sage Rabbit.
To read more from Chef John Foster, including his recipes, click here.
