With conkers in my pocket ...

Ideas to eat, cook, read, and drink this month

There are conkers in my pockets. They’re here, soft and shiny and tactile, as reliable as a set of keys. I’m a compulsive conker collector. I love it most when they can be pried from a full spongy hull very gently with the tip of a shoe, polished quickly by hand to remove any trace of white pith (though the intention really is to feel the softness), and dropped furtively in a jacket pocket like a stealthy autumn thief. Once selected they find their spot close to the seam and hang out there, to be encountered occasionally, felt reassuringly. Sometimes forgotten through the winter they’ll be rediscovered, withered and dry, when I unfold my coat next year.

So though the trees are still green, and summer, aberrantly, persists, conkers carpet the ground and with pavlovian predictability autumn arrives in the kitchen.

COOK

Tomatoes that haven’t had the opportunity to ripen will be turned into GREEN TOMATO JAM so that I can replenish our stash. The house must never be without it. Perhaps I will make some CHUTNEY too... [N&Q]

But this year there are also still plenty of ripe tomatoes to make this TOMATO CHUTNEY, a supporting act in one of Ottolenghi’s recipes which has (with good reason) become one of the most popular posts on Nettle & Quince. [N&Q]

Of course, it is the season for quince, it will be over in a blink. Jelly, membrillo, tagines, desserts, preserves, …, there is no getting around what to do with ALL THE QUINCE. [N&Q]

And, after hours and days spent in the kitchen cooking and preserving the fruit of the season, the best respite could be this four ingredient MARMITE SPAGHETTI. Ha! We are not a marmite family but I feel I absolutely must try this, one day when no one else is around…[Guardian]

DRINK

I’m not much of a morning drinker, perhaps because I don’t like mimosas, the usual culprit. But a BREAKFAST MARTINI, laced with marmalade, that is something I could imbibe before lunch... [Guardian]

BUY

How strange that I had not heard of this JAPANESE CONDIMENT until now. Can’t wait to get my hands on a jar. [NYT unlocked]

EAT OUT

These recently (re-)opened restaurants (and café) have captured my curiosity.

BAUDRY GREENE is a new café and bar by the team behind the The 10 Cases and Parsons, a deceptively inconspicuous fish restaurant in Covent Garden that I like a lot. From what I’ve seen, the latest venture feels like a cross between a French bistrot and Viennese café. I find this pretty irresistible.

I love The Marksman in Hackney and LASDUN, a restaurant by the same team inside the National Theatre (named in homage to the building’s architect) — a modernist room clad with concrete serving pub food — that sounds amazing. It opened last May.

Double reason to visit the necently reopened National Portrait Gallery: the lauded refurbishment but also its new restaurant THE PORTRAIT, which apparently has great food and great views too.

I made reservations for CHISHURU more than once in the last couple of years, all of which had to be cancelled for one reason or another. It’s less tempting to go to Fitzrovia than to Brixton for a meal, where the restaurant has just reopened in its new location, but it remains high on my list. Critic Jimi Famurewa in his review this weekend reassures that the changes don’t diminish the experience of the food.

READ AND LISTEN TO

The Big City Where Housing is Still Affordable [NYT unlocked]

“The two most festive things are abundance and calm.” Cook and writer Tamar Adler, author of An Everlasting Meal, gives weekly culinary advice on The Kitchen Shrink on Substack. Her RESPONSE and tips for ‘the Hostess with the Mostest … Anxiety’ is great. And valuable! [Substack]

Quelle horreur! as the French would say. Not a thing about a pumpkin spice latte sounds tempting, but THIS ARTICLE made me want to try at least a sip — I doubt I’d get through much more than that. [NYT unlocked]

And so, since we’ve landed here anyway… I’ve followed the pumpkin spice latte down the rabbit hole with the true rabbit hole that is the BLINDBOY PODCAST. So good.

Not a pumpkin spiced latte … :)

Happy Monday. Have a good week!