As we are all gearing up for the fall clock change that will bring shorter days and longer nights, we prepare for accompanying changes that comes with it. Cooler temperatures. Crisper air.
Warm sweaters and warm drinks. The shift in the amount of light that will define our upcoming days will be perceptible. With it, other — perhaps less perceptible — changes come.
One way in which the shorter days and longer darker nights impact me pertains to cooking. Fall cooking changes shift into new spheres, just as the days’ light diminishes.
Suddenly with the clock change, that ven diagram intersection of overlapping seasons we might have felt and enjoyed until now-a little bit of summer, a little bit of fall, seems, like a train conductor officially calling out a stop, to instantaneously call out, “Fall!”
Until now, the season felt somewhat amorphous and indistinct. Once the clock changes, it’s a distinct demarcation of seasons: Fall is here.
Time for my Le Creuset obsession (or rather, I should say, former obsession — those Dutch ovens I nabbed at outlets or other sales are heavy)! to re-appear, and start cooking longer simmering soups and stews on the stovetop.
Those cauldrons bubbling away on the stovetop serve more than the purpose of the pleasure of knowing a long-simmering dish working its magic in all that time it takes for the broth to enrich the vegetables and tenderize other star ingredients will take until it will become that night’s delicious dinner.
It also serves as a vehicle of keeping a little flame lit, giving off heat and spreading warmth in the apartment. In my building there’s always that awkward phase in the fall when it’s not quite cold enough and the heat has not yet been turned on for the season, yet it’s still not quite as hot as before, when the hum of an air conditioner in a New York City apartment is the primary auditory feature of the building.
Colorful root vegetables start making their way into the markets and into our kitchens. Squashes in all colors and shapes start becoming ubiquitous. And deep oranges and golds seem to light up the produce we purchase and prepare.
Pears, so inherently elegant and luxurious with their long, curved neck, and lengthening dark stems, are so beautiful in addition to their lovely taste that definitely says “autumn.” When you slice a pear vertically, so the pear retains its shape, it always reminds me of a musical instrument, perhaps the mandola or lute. It’s almost as though if it had a couple strings stretched across it over those two little black seed spots, you could start plucking a pear for its music.
In the summertime, I barely think about pastry dough in any form. Come this time of year, though, and my desire for wrapping and swaddling foods in basket weaves and other designs, seems to flower overnight.
I’ve travelled away from my need and desire to create everything in the kitchen from scratch. I’ve grown to embrace shortcuts and kitchen hacks, savoring the time saved. So using purchased pie crusts or pastry doughs, instead of slaving to create my own, it’s fun to form different cookie cutter shapes to decorate an autumnal apple or other variety of pie.
As the rain is falling outside, coming indoors and appreciating that feeling of slowing down and cocooning, you can feel that prelude to winter pervading the air.
Slicing and dicing away, halfmoons, matchsticks, and coin shaped fruits and vegetables will all be turned into foods and other dishes that will nourish us and keep us warm. The longer processes of cooking this season demands, does somehow reflect a heartier and more nourishing feeling of contentment.
I just hope I am fit enough to get that Dutch oven down and get started. Then again, moving those heavy pots around the kitchen is a work out in and of itself. Actually, I think I will be counting that as part of my weightlifting regiment.
As I said before, there’s nothing like that feeling of fall arriving and slowing down a bit before official winter hibernation sets in.
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