3 Raymond Blanc Recipes To Get You Excited About Autumn

September marks the start of a new season, which means it’s time to start switching up our summery salads and berry pavlovas for some autumn produce. And who better to inspire us than one of the greatest chefs of the modern day, Raymond Blanc? The French chef and founder of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons has a brand-new cookbook, Simply Raymond Kitchen Garden, which is all about his seasonal, farm-to-fork ethos. We’ve picked out three of our favourite recipes from the cookbook below. 

Simply Raymond Kitchen Garden: Recipes From Raymond Blanc’s New Cookbook

Spiced Roast Pumpkin or Squash

A beautiful side dish to accompany many autumnal main courses. Or the roasted pumpkin or squash flesh can be tossed through cooked grains to make a salad or mashed with a fork and used as a filling for ravioli. At Le Manoir, we grow about twenty varieties of squash, such as the smaller butternut squash, the medium-sized Crown Prince and the truly delicious Delicata as well as large pumpkins right up to the humungous Muscat de Provence. So much is to be gained by storing pumpkins for a month or two (this is known as curing), as their flavours and colour will improve. 

• Prep: 10 mins 
• Cook: 45 mins 
• Serves: 4–6 

Ingredients:

• 1 small pumpkin or squash 1 orange 
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds 
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 teaspoon Madras curry powder 
• 2 pinches of sea salt flakes 
• 3 star anise 
• 2 cinnamon sticks (optional) 2 sage sprigs (optional) 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/gas 3½. 
2. Halve the pumpkin or squash, and remove the seeds with a spoon. Then chop the pumpkin or squash into eight to twelve wedges depending on size. (The skin may be left on or sliced off, and for some small squashes the skin can be eaten once roasted.) 
3. Peel the zest and juice the orange. And lightly crush the coriander seeds. 
4. Place the pumpkin pieces in a roasting tin (or on a baking tray) and drizzle with the oil. Sprinkle over the curry powder and lightly crushed coriander seeds and the salt. Lay the star anise in the tin and add the orange zest and juice. If using cinnamon sticks, add these too. Toss well. 
5. Roast for 45 minutes, turning the pumpkin pieces occasionally, until they are golden and the flesh is soft. If using sage, coarsely chop the leaves and add them in the last 5 minutes of cooking. 
6. Serve while hot in the skin or, if you prefer, scoop the flesh from the peel. 

Basque Style Cheesecake

This is the very best cheesecake I have ever tasted. A dessert much loved in the Basque Country (which straddles the border of France and northern Spain), it is so good that we put it on the menu at Brasserie Blanc. I have served the cheesecake with stewed blackberries, but it may be accompanied by any seasonal fruits or good-quality shop-bought preserves, such as cherries in kirsch. I like to make this cheesecake a day in advance so that after being baked in the oven it has plenty of time to chill in the fridge. It is not a great challenge to make, but it is certainly a dessert for that celebratory occasion. Our guests describe it as ‘a showstopper’. 

• Prep: 15 mins 
• Cook: 25–30 mins 
• Serves: 8 

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened, for greasing the tin 
• 1 lemon, for zesting
• 550g cream cheese 
• 175g caster sugar 
• 4 eggs (preferably organic or free-range) 
• 250ml double cream 
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Bean Purée or 4 teaspoons shop-bought vanilla bean paste 
• 20g cornflour 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7 (here, it is best – but not essential – to use the fan-assisted oven). 
2. Use your fingertips to rub the soft butter around the inside of a springform cake ring (or mousse ring) with a diameter of 20cm so that the greaseproof paper will stick to it. Now line the inside of the ring with a large sheet of greaseproof paper, making sure it fits neatly into all the edges and the base of the ring. Place the lined ring on a baking tray and keep aside. 
3. Zest the lemon and keep the zest to one side. In a large bowl, whisk together the cream cheese and caster sugar until smooth. Add the eggs and whisk again to an even consistency. Next, pour in the double cream, add the vanilla and lemon zest and sift in the cornflour. Whisk again, ensuring there are no lumps in the mixture. Pour this mixture into the prepared tin. 
4. Bake for 25–30 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven until the top has that distinctive dark sheen of traditional Basque cheesecake. Halfway through cooking – and depending on your oven – you might need to turn the cheesecake 180 degrees so that it is evenly browned. (Chris’s photograph is a good guide to what the cheesecake top should look like.) The sides of the cheesecake should be slightly firm and the centre should have a gentle wobble. 
5. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and set it to one side to cool (it will continue to cook as it cools). Place the cooled cheesecake in the fridge for at least half a day or overnight to firm up. 
6. To serve, remove the springform cake or mousse ring and gently peel back the baking paper. Serve slices of the cheesecake with lightly stewed blackberries, if you wish, or a fruit preserve of your choice. 

To serve (optional): lightly stewed blackberries or shop-bought preserves such as cherries in kirsch.

Lightly Stewed Blackberries 

• Prep: 5 mins 
• Cook: 5 mins Makes: about 150g 

Ingredients:

• 150g blackberries (fresh or frozen) 3 tablespoons water 
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar 

Method:

1. On summer days, a simple dessert can be made with any berries that are lightly stewed like this, and then served at room temperature (or chilled) with cream or ice cream. It is a good way to avoid waste and use up berries, whether they are fresh or taking up space in the freezer. I serve these blackberries with the Basque-style Cheesecake on page 240. 
2. Lightly stew the blackberries with the water and caster sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Taste and add a little more sugar or water if necessary. Leave to cool and keep in the fridge until required. 

Lamb Navarin

• Prep: 20 mins 
• Cook: 2½ hours 
• Serves: 6–8 

Ingredients: 

• 2 white onions 
• 8 garlic cloves 
• 2 carrots 
• 2 sticks of celery 
• 5 tomatoes 
• 100g pitted olives, green or black (optional) 
• 1 shoulder of lamb, off the bone (about 1.2 – 1.4kg) 
• 4 pinches of sea salt flakes 3 pinches of ground black pepper 
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 thyme sprigs 
• 2 rosemary sprigs 
• 2 tablespoons plain flour 1 litre chicken stock
• To finish (optional): ½ bunch of parsley

Method:

1. Peel the onions and garlic, and coarsely chop the onion into 2cm pieces. Chop the carrots and celery into similar-sized pieces. Quarter the tomatoes. If using olives, drain them from the brine. 
2. Cut the lamb shoulder into pieces of about 3–4cm and season them with a couple of pinches of salt and black pepper. 
3. Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/gas 3½. 
4. Now to the cooking… begin by browning the lamb. Do this in two batches so that you don’t overcrowd the pan. Heat half the oil in a large casserole dish (or large sauté pan, about 30cm in diameter) over a medium-high heat. Lay the pieces of lamb into the hot oil – again, don’t overcrowd the pan – and brown for 6–8 minutes, until they are browned on all sides. Transfer them to a large plate or bowl. Brown the remaining lamb pieces in the same way. 
5. Next, in the same pan heat the rest of the oil over a medium heat. Sweeten the onion, garlic, carrot and celery for 5 minutes, then add the tomatoes, olives (if using), thyme and rosemary and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper. Finally, add the flour, stir well and cook for a further 2 minutes. 
6. Return the browned lamb pieces and juices to the casserole. Pour in the chicken stock and gently mix. Cover with a lid (or foil) and place the casserole on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 2 hours. 
7. Serve from the casserole at the table and just before serving, chop the parsley, if using, and scatter it over the navarin. Serve with boiled new potatoes or crusty bread and perhaps a red wine from Rioja or Côtes du Rhône. 

Recipes extracted from Simply Raymond Kitchen Garden by Raymond Blanc (Headline Home, £26)