Chestnuts, apples, woodland flavours—and homemade ice cream
There is something happening outside the windows of La Maison de la Grange.
The evenings are becoming cooler, the light is changing, and after a wonderfully busy first summer, we are beginning to see the first signs of autumn arriving in the Creuse.
And, naturally, I am already thinking about food.
One of the pleasures of offering Table d’Hôtes is that the menu doesn’t have to stay the same throughout the year. In fact, I don’t think it should. What appears on our table should tell you something about where you are and what season you are experiencing.
Autumn in the Creuse is going to give us plenty to work with.
Chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and the flavours of the forest
As we move into September and October, our menus will gradually become warmer and more rustic.
Chestnuts—or châtaignes—are something I am particularly looking forward to experimenting with. They can find their way into a silky autumn soup, accompany pork or poultry, appear in a stuffing, or simply be roasted.
Walnuts and hazelnuts will appear too: scattered over salads, paired with cheese, baked into cakes and combined with autumn fruits.
And, of course, there are the woodland mushrooms.
When cèpes and girolles are available, they are exactly the sort of ingredient that can change what I had planned for dinner that evening. A mushroom tart, an omelette, chicken with cèpes or simply mushrooms sautéed with garlic and parsley need very little embellishment.
That is how I would like our autumn Table d’Hôtes to work.
Cook what the season gives us.
Apples, pears and pumpkins
The beautiful fruits and vegetables of late summer won’t disappear overnight.
September will be a transition. We’ll still have tomatoes, courgettes and peppers alongside the first squash, apples, pears and nuts of autumn.
As the evenings become colder, expect more soups and veloutés: butternut squash with toasted hazelnuts, pumpkin with crème fraîche, perhaps chestnut and mushroom.
Our main courses will become a little more comforting too.
There may be roast chicken with herbs and seasonal vegetables; pork cooked with apples and cider; potatoes roasted with garlic; gratins; braised vegetables; sausages and lentils; or one of the wonderfully rustic dishes of this part of France.
And I certainly want pâté aux pommes de terre—the traditional Creuse potato pie—to make an appearance.
This is not going to be fussy restaurant food.
It is the sort of food I want to smell cooking when I come inside on a chilly evening.
Then comes the cheese…
I have now learned this lesson.
Cheese first. Dessert second.
Those who have read my previous adventures in learning French dining customs will know that I discovered this after cheerfully placing both on the table at once and receiving some wonderfully expressive looks from our older French guests.
I won’t make that mistake again.
Autumn cheese boards will have plenty of opportunities for seasonal accompaniments: walnuts, good bread, perhaps an apple or pear preparation, followed—after the cheese has been cleared away—by dessert.
See? I’m learning.
And about that dessert…
This autumn, there will be ice cream.
Yes, even when the evenings become cooler.
I’ve been experimenting with homemade ice creams, and the changing seasons open up an entirely new collection of flavours.
The one I am particularly excited about is:
Chestnut ice cream.
Creamy, slightly nutty and unmistakably autumnal, chestnut makes a beautiful ice cream and feels completely different from the bright fruit flavours of summer.
I can already imagine it beside a warm apple tart or caramelised pears—or simply served on its own with a little something crisp alongside it.
Then there are all the other possibilities.
Apple and cinnamon. Pear. Hazelnut. Walnut. Vanilla with warm seasonal fruit. Perhaps caramel. And there will undoubtedly be flavours that begin as one of my kitchen experiments and unexpectedly become favourites.
That’s half the fun.
From the garden, market and neighbours to the table
One thing I am learning very quickly about rural life in France is that sometimes the menu begins with what suddenly appears in your kitchen.
A basket of apples.
A particularly beautiful squash.
Fresh walnuts.
Something discovered at the market.
Or something handed over by a neighbour because there is simply too much of it.
Those are not inconveniences to a Table d’Hôtes menu—they’re opportunities.
If we have wonderful apples, perhaps they become a tart for dinner, compote for tomorrow’s breakfast and something to accompany pork the following evening.
If chestnuts are plentiful, they may begin in a soup and return a few days later transformed into homemade ice cream.
That’s the kind of seasonal kitchen I would like to create here.
What might be on the table?
If you’re joining us for Table d’Hôtes this autumn, you might begin the evening with an apéritif and a few small bites before settling around the table.
Perhaps there will be a velouté of pumpkin and roasted chestnuts to begin.
Then pork with apples and cider, potatoes and seasonal vegetables.
Next comes the cheese course—with bread and perhaps walnuts or a simple green salad.
And then…
A warm apple tart with a scoop of homemade chestnut ice cream.
Coffee or tisane afterwards.
No rushing.
By then it will be dark outside, the evenings will be cooler, and hopefully nobody will be particularly interested in getting up from the table.
A new season around our table
Our first summer taught me an enormous amount about running a Chambres & Tables d’Hôtes.
Autumn will teach me something different.
Summer was about open windows, salads, fruit, cold drinks, guests coming and going on long days of sightseeing—and trying to survive the heatwave.
Autumn feels as though it will be about coming home.
Returning from a day exploring the Creuse as the temperature drops. Walking into a warm house. Smelling something that’s been slowly cooking. Sitting down with a glass of wine. Meeting the other people around the table.
And discovering what we’ve made from whatever autumn happened to give us that day.
So bring a sweater.
Come hungry.
Settle in.
Autumn is coming to our table.
And yes, there will be chestnut ice cream.Helen
Host, La Maison de la Grange – Chambres & Tables d’Hôtes
Saint-Martial-le-Mont, Creuse, France
