Autumn Dishes: A foodie thread

OMG. I am seething with jealousy!!! Seattle is a notorious "foodie" sort of place, but is there wild boar anywhere on a menu (that I can afford)? Nooooo... Is there anything like sturm to drink? Nooooo.... Can we buuy wild mushrooms out of paper cones - or even out of plastic bins - on the main drag? NOOOOO!!!!! (quiet sniffling.....) Okay. I have recovered, a little. And my mouth is watering for a nice big plate of choucroute garnie.

Cinghiale (wild boar) in Italy-one of the few things I miss about living there !

Hands down it's truffle season! Fall is my favorite time of year for Italy and France because every restaurant has a featured truffle dish. A close second is duck confit. Throw in a first course of foie gras, and I don't care if I see any sights for the rest of the day.

Here the seasons bring more changes in fresh fruit than in the weather. Honey sweet grapes and seedless watermelons are being supplanted by giant juicy mangoes, sweet pomegranates, fresh figs and dates.

Chanterelle, or Pfifferlinge mushrooms are my favorite fall menu item. I like making a cream sauce with creme' fraiche and a herb mixture and serve it all over fresh new potatoes. Kind of fond of all the cabbage family too, from cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and my fave, red sour cabbage. Onion tart is good this time of year too. At the markets, I like the fresh apple juice, pear juice, or raspberry juice on offer. Some of the applewine gardens also offer the fresh apple juice, called süsser or apfelmost in the fall before they turn it into applewine. When the kids were little we used to go out and pick up chestnuts and walnuts in the parks. We love eating roast chestnuts in the fall.

In Poland, a friend insisted that I try bigos - hunter's stew. Her description was not promising; bigos consists of kielbasa (not my favorite as I'm a vegetarian), cabbage, sauerkraut, and onions, all slow-cooked for several days. At first, I ate it only to be polite. But I found it to be strangely appetizing, in fact, quite tasty. It's not something that I crave, but if I ever find myself back in Poland on a cold day, I would certainly welcome a bowl - that is if it's still available. The slow cooking for several days part of the recipe is apparently against EU rules.

Jo - Onion tart is my favourite! You gave me a great idea for dinner on Saturday! Also agree about red cabbage. Might be my favourite vegetable. Regarding the Begus... One thing I have noted is that sour kraut is a completely different animal over here from what you can typically buy in the States. Over here, even my daughter eats it, and that's saying something. One thing I love about Austria is that they are really big into soups in the autumn and winter; everything from simple broths to dumpling soups. My favorites are pumpkin cream soup and garlic cream soup. Which reminds me: pumpkin is another fall specialty in Austria. Pumpkin seed dressings on salads. Breads and rolls rolled in pumpkin seeds. Pickled pumpkin. And, as I said, cream of pumpkin soup which is really nice after a chilly walk in the woods. I'm thinking we won't see the roast chestnut stands until at least October.

Once the fall arrives I will begin making my all-time favorite goulash suppe... I have tried dozens of recipes until I finally found a recipe that tastes like what I had in Germany and Austria. I will make a pot of it and serve it with some wonderful grainy bread and perhaps a salad... I never tire of it, so i eat the leftovers for days on end.

Pumpkin Soup and federweisen! Should be white asparagus season coming up soon too. Yum.

Oh my gosh, the best meal ever, when I was in Salzburg in November. I had pumpkin soup that was out of this world! The waitress was laughing at me when I scooped the rest of the soup with a piece of bread! The bowl looked like it was never used! lol! Also, something else made of pumpkin, there was a thin layer of pumpkin skin rolled up with rice and raisins inside, and that was so yummy! If I ever go back to Salzburg, I would go in November again because it's the only month they have the pumpkin dishes! I lucked out on the weather!

Rachel, your post made me laugh. It is just the middle of Sept. and Asparagus season isn't until May. It was a bit early this year cause it was so warm this past spring, but still, it was only April when the white asparagus hit the markets.

I really miss the blackberry season. Going out and picking pound after pound of berries and making my favourite jam!!! But I do organize the St Martin Lantern Parade here in Calgary, Bowness Park on Nov 11 at 5.30 pm. And fortunately, right at that time chestnuts arrive in the stores and we have chestnuts roasted at the open fire. I cheat a bit, though, prep them at home and pre-bake them in my oven. That way they re-heat much quicker at the bonfire.

We are recently back from a trip that included Austria and loved all of the pumpkin dishes - pumpkin gnocchi, pumpkin strudel (as an entree not a dessert,) and pumpkin quiche. My favorite though was the cheesy, creamy au gratin potatoes with chunks of pumpkin that I ate on a crisp Sunday evening at the Amerlingsbeisl near the Spittelberg Quarter in Vienna. It was perfect! I learned from the kind diners at the next table that pumpkin seed oil is delicious for cooking, salad dressings, and even as a topping for vanilla ice cream - something new to me! I was able to find some pumpkin seed oil I returned home. Enjoy the Feast of St. Martin! Makes me wish we were back in Vienna!

I love savory pumpkin dishes, didn't know it featured so heavily in German/Austrian cooking. Might have to check out the menus of some traditional restaurants. So wait, it's OK to eat the chesnuts that fall on the ground at a park? My first idea when I saw them was "OMG YUM" but then given how expensive they are at the market I figured if they were safe to eat everyone would be collecting them.

We gather chestnuts and walnuts all the time. Just don't mistake the buckeyes for chestnuts. They do look different and have a different kind of spiky "package" around them. Chestnuts are really spiky, as in they hurt, while the buckeyes aren't as pointy. The shape of the nut itself looks different too. I never buy chestnuts, have always gathered them to roast in the oven.

Yet another reason that you can consider yourself lucky to live in Europe, Jo. Here, there are no chestnut trees whatsoever. Neither the ones with the unedible fruit nor the ones which would give you the ones you can roast and eat. And no blackberries to pick either. I have to buy them if I want to eat any. Have I told you the story of my last import of blackberries into Calgary? We were on the Canadian Westcoast and I picked and ate tons of them. Wanted to take a few back home but wasn't quite sure if I could take them as a carry-on onto the flght. So I called Air Canada Customer Service and asked if I could bring 2 pounds of blackberries in my carry-on. "Oh yes, 100% no problems with that" was the first reply I got. Really? I repeated my question as I was surprised that there was no issue at all. "Yes, any electronic items like these can be carried onto the plane" .... I was laughing so hard I had a tough time to continue talking. And even after I mentioned that "no, I mean the blackberries you can eat" the friendly customer service rep was clueless. "What are you talking about?" was his response. In the end, I played it saved and put them into my checked luggage. We had vanilla pudding with blackberries at home the day after we returned home ;-)

Well we have chestnuts trees here,, and I love the roasted,, but last night the ones i did were too dry and mealy ,, I usually "roast" them with a bit of water and wrapped in foil ,, so they come out moist and sweet, but decided to try dry roasting last night and wasn't as happy with results,,Does anyone know if I just did them too long, or if a bit of moisture is the key ?

Had my first batch of roast chestnuts yesterday evening. They were excellent. A couple of years ago I got a mealy batch that put me off them for a while. Glad last nights were good. It was nice having a bag of hot chestnuts in my coat pocket on a cold evening. Friday November 11th is the St Martins celebration. We have pre-ordered the traditional roast goose, dumplings and red cabbage at our neighbourhood wine tavern. I can't wait! And the first Christmas Markets will be opening the following week! However, it doesn't seem quite cold enough for hot spiced wine yet. We've had a very mild, long, lingering Autumn.