Game is the big treat of autumn: free-range and seriously delicious, it is full of protein and virtually fat-free; being somewhat out of fashion, it is also great value. Young birds are tender and have a delicately earthy taste (gone are the days when birds were hung for days on end to get faintly “high”) and, once cooked, you can make a stock with the bones, providing the base for other healthy, winning dishes. I love game in salads, as they allow the meat to shine without drowning it in a rich sauce. An apple charlotte feels like the perfect follow-up: use as many varieties of apples as you can find, variety being the spice of life.
Roast partridge, prune, chestnut and bitter leaf salad
You can use any game bird here. Partridge has the gentlest flavour, so is a great introduction to game. Pheasant works, too, but you will only need a pair, while grouse and teal are a more extravagant treat. And if you want those lovely autumnal flavours without diving in headlong, use guinea fowl or a plump young chicken. Serves six.
120g prunes, chopped
150ml medium-dry amontillado sherry (or marsala)
4 partridge
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil, for frying
2 large rosemary sprigs, leaves stripped
8 rashers streaky bacon
1 large red onion, peeled, halved and finely sliced
100g chestnuts
2 heads each of chicory and baby gem
1 bag watercress
2-3 tbsp sherry vinegar
Extra-virgin olive oil
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Soak the prunes in the sherry for 15-20 minutes. Season the partridge generously, and heat a large frying pan on a medium-high heat. Once good and hot, add a splash of oil and brown the birds all over; you may have to do this in batches. Transfer to a baking dish, breast-side-up, lay rosemary on top of the breasts and drape each bird with two rashers of bacon each, with the herbs wrapped tightly underneath the bacon (some rosemary will go astray in the baking dish – all the better). Roast for five minutes.
Meanwhile, add another splash of oil to the same frying pan, and gently sweat the onion for five minutes, to soften. Add the prunes, sherry and chestnuts, swirl to deglaze the pan, season and tip into the partridge dish in the oven. Roast for a further five to seven minutes, until just done – the juices should run clear when you insert a skewer into the fattest thigh.
Set the birds aside to rest for 10 minutes and put the baking dish on a highish heat. Reduce for a minute or two, squishing the prunes lightly to release their sweet juices into the sauce, then adjust the seasoning.
Rip the salad leaves into a large bowl, season lightly and dress with the sherry vinegar and three to four tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Pull the meat off the bones in large pieces and toss in the sauce. Pour meat and juices over the leaves and serve at once.
Apple and ginger caramel charlotte
This can last well into the week for a sneaky evening sugar rush, but the real pleasure comes from it emerging from a hot oven with a crisp, buttery shell and dark, caramelly apple inside. This ain’t no shrinking violet. You will need a one-litre ovenproof pudding bowl. Serves six to eight.
1.25kg eating apples (ideally a mix)
100g caster sugar
150g butter
35g stem ginger, finely sliced, plus 2 tbsp syrup
½ tsp ground ginger
2 big splashes calvados (or brandy)
A squeeze of lemon
6-8 slices white bread
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Peel, core and cut the apples into roughly 3cm chunks.
Put the sugar and 40g of butter in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Leave to melt and, as it begins to turn golden, shake to get rid of lumps, then watch like a hawk until it starts to darken – swirl the pan to disperse the darkening patches. When it’s a deep chestnut colour, quickly and carefully (it may spit a little) add the apples, stem ginger and syrup, ground ginger and calvados. Turn down the heat and cook for 10 minutes, or until the apples start to collapse. Stir vigorously until you have a textured puree and season with a squeeze of lemon.
Melt the remaining butter over a low heat. Remove the crusts from the bread and cut the slices into large rectangles. Dip them lightly into the butter and use to line the base and sides of the pudding basin. Overlap the slices so there are no gaps. Spoon the apple into the bowl and cover the top with the remaining bread, also dipped in butter. Press the bread down on to the apples and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden.
Leave to cool slightly, then run a knife around the sides and turn out on to a plate. Serve hot, with copious amounts of cream or ice-cream (or, as my father would insist, both).
And for the rest of the week…
Rescue the leftover bones from the plates (yes, really), and make a stock. Cover with water and simmer for 90 minutes with the usual carrot/celery/onion/peppercorn combo, plus any herbs you have to hand. It will make a risotto with a great depth of flavour: think chestnut mushrooms, oxford blue and thyme; onion squash and sage; or radicchio and sausage. Make a delicious toastie with any bread you haven’t used: butter the outside of the slices, and heap the inside with grated parmesan (or gruyère) and a few anchovy slithers, then toast. Soak leftover prunes in your tea of choice and eat on yoghurt with honey and a few nuts or seeds.
• Thomasina Miers is co-owner of the Wahaca group of Mexican restaurants.
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