Thomasina Miers' recipe for Thai curry with partridge and squash

My local market has been exquisitely decorated with squashes and pumpkins this autumn. I marvel at their knobbly, non-conformist shapes and sizes, and their stunning range of colours.

If ever there was a time for embracing variety in our vegetables, it is now: global seed companies are increasingly trying to shrink the varieties available to us, both to buy and to grow. Here, I am pairing the sweetness of squash with the gentle flavour of partridge.

Thai peanut coconut curry with partridge and squash

If you are squeamish about jointing a bird, ask a friendly butcher to help. I find this is a brilliant way to cook partridge or pheasant, yielding a tender, succulent bite.

Prep 20 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 4-6

3 partridges, jointed (or other small game birds, such as pheasant; use guinea fowl out of game season)
Salt and pepper
5 tbsp coconut oil
1 medium-sized squash, peeled and diced
4 shallots, peeled and finely sliced
1 stem lemongrass, tough outer layer discarded and roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 large thumb ginger, peeled
150g-200g good-quality red curry paste, to taste
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce

To serve
Peanuts, toasted and roughly chopped
Coriander leaves
1 plump lime, juiced

Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/gas 7, then season the partridge. Heat two tablespoons of the coconut oil in a deep, wide casserole dish and brown the partridge skin side down. You should do this in two to three batches, for a minute or two per batch. Set aside the partridge, tip the squash into the same casserole dish, season generously and stir to coat in the hot fat. Roast for 10 minutes while you make the sauce.

Put the shallots, lemongrass, garlic, ginger, curry paste and peanut butter in a blender or food processor with a tablespoon of water, and blitz to a paste. Warm the remaining coconut oil in a medium saucepan, gently fry the paste for seven to eight minutes, then add the coconut milk, 100ml water and fish sauce.

Take the squash out of the oven. Bring the sauce to simmering point, pour it over the squash and stir in the partridge legs. Roast for 10 minutes, then add the breasts and cook for a final 10-15 minutes, until the partridge is tender and the squash cooked through.

Serve on a bed of steamed rice, sprinkled with peanuts, coriander and fresh lime juice.

Beef rib boulangere recipe

It was the first properly cold morning of autumn when we set about making this deeply comforting dish. Layers of potato and cheap, bone-in meat for a night when the chestnut leaves are piling up in the lane outside the house. The hands-on cooking time here is minimal, involving little more than the slicing of onions and Maris Pipers, but the unattended cooking time, when the recipe gets on with things itself, is a good two hours. The dish is all the better for that, the flavours deepen and the separate elements – the meat, stock and potatoes – become, deliciously, as one.

During the layering of meat and potatoes I like to tuck in the stripped rib bones, and in so doing extracting every last bit of goodness and savour from them. On the side, a crisp white cabbage salad, perhaps (olive oil, white wine vinegar, dill), and some bread with which to sponge up the herb-stippled juices.

Serves 6
beef short ribs 1.4kg
olive oil 4 tbsp
onions 3 medium
thyme 8 sprigs
rosemary 4 bushy sprigs
bay leaves 4
black peppercorns 8
beef stock 2 litres
large potatoes 1kg

Cut the beef into ribs. Warm the oil in a large, deep-sided pan, then brown the ribs all over, taking care as they may spit and pop. Turn the ribs over with kitchen tongs as they colour, removing them to a plate when their fat is golden.

Peel and thinly slice the onions then put them into the pan in which you have just browned the beef, adding the thyme, rosemary, bay and peppercorns, and lower the heat to moderate. Let the onions cook, giving them the occasional stir, for about 20 minutes, until they are soft and light gold.

Return the beef ribs to the pan, together with any juices from the plate, then pour over the beef stock and bring to the boil. Lower the heat so the liquid quietly putters, partially cover with a lid, and leave for 1 hour or until the meat can easily be cut from the bones.

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Remove the ribs from the pan and pull the meat from the bones. Slice the potatoes thinly, using a mandoline if you have one, a large cook’s knife if not. In a large, shallow baking dish or roasting tin, layer the potatoes and the meat and onions, seasoning each layer as you go with salt and black pepper, then pour over the stock from the pan.

Bake for an hour to 90 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and giving.

Grilled leeks and spring onions with dolcelatte and pickled onions recipe

This is an intense starter with sweet, sour and oniony tones. A slice of good bread alongside is almost mandatory. The three main elements – the leeks and spring onions, the cheesy cream and the pickled onions – can all be made a few hours ahead of time (the cream needs refrigerating, mind) and put together at the last minute.

Prep 5 min
Cooking 25-30 min
Serves 4

½ red onion (about 60g), peeled and very finely sliced (use a mandoline if you have one)
1½ tbsp sherry vinegar
2 tsp caster sugar
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp coriander seeds
⅛ tsp black peppercorns, roughly crushed
¼ tsp pink peppercorns
½ red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 leeks, trimmed, cut in half lengthways and then into 6cm-long pieces (450g net weight)
60ml olive oil
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed, cut in half lengthways and then into 6cm-long pieces (75g net weight)
60g mascarpone
30g dolcelatte (or gorgonzola dolce)
1½ tbsp double cream
5g chives, cut into 2cm lengths

Put the first eight ingredients in a small bowl with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. Thoroughly massage the onions in the mixture, then leave to pickle for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Lay the leeks cut side up on a 25cm x 35cm oven tray and season with a quarter-teaspoon of salt and plenty of black pepper. Drizzle over two and a half tablespoons each of the oil and of cold water, and roast for 15 minutes, until the leeks are beginning to soften and blacken around the edges. Scatter the spring onions over the leeks, add a pinch of salt and half a tablespoon of oil, and return to the oven for eight minutes. Turn the oven grill to its highest setting, then grill the vegetables for four minutes until they are charred and soft, but not burned. Leave to cool.

In a small bowl, whisk the mascarpone, dolcelatte, cream, a pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper until combined and smooth.

Once the leeks and spring onions are cool, use a fish slice to slide them on to a serving platter (so keeping the leeks cut side up). Drop dollops of the cheese-and-cream mixture haphazardly all over the vegetables.

Combine the chives with the remaining tablespoon of oil, then dribble all over the top of the vegetables and cheese. Spoon on the pickled onions (including their pickling liquid and aromatics), and serve at room temperature.