Most October menus start in the wrong place. They start with a recipe and then go looking for ingredients. In Illinois this month it works better the other way around: walk past the market tables, notice what is piled highest, and cook that. The season is not subtle. The heavy, keeping things have arrived, and right now they are at their best.
What is in season in October
University of Illinois Extension keeps a seasonal produce chart for the state, and its October column reads like a dinner party already half planned. Apples, bell peppers, cabbage, garlic, greens, horseradish, onions, potatoes, pumpkins, spinach, squash and sweet potatoes are all in season, and all of them stay on the list into November. October adds a shorter, more fleeting list: cauliflower, grapes, herbs, lettuce, radishes, turnips, and the last of the eggplant and tomatoes.
Read the two lists together and a plan falls out. The October-only things are delicate. They want to be eaten raw or barely cooked. The things that last into November are dense and forgiving, and they get better with time in a pot or an oven. A good fall dinner party menu uses both: something crisp and cold to start, something slow and deep in the middle.
The fall dinner party menu
If you want the case for why fall is the easiest season to host, the first cold night makes it. This is the shopping list version: five dishes, one market run, every one of them built on the October list.
Starter: radishes, turnips and cold butter. Slice radishes and small turnips thin and lay them over soft lettuce leaves on your biggest platter. Put out good salted butter, flaky salt, and a bowl of sour cream with fresh horseradish grated in. People wrap, swipe, dip and talk. It takes ten minutes and nobody needs a fork.
Main: pork shoulder braised with cabbage, apples and onions. The one real cooking project, finished a day early. The card is below.
First side: roasted squash and sweet potatoes. Cut both into big chunks, toss with olive oil, salt, whole garlic cloves and a few sprigs of herbs, and roast hot until the edges char. Serve it warm rather than hot, with a squeeze of lemon.
Second side: crushed potatoes with greens. Boil small potatoes until tender, press each one flat with the bottom of a glass, and fold through spinach or chopped greens wilted in butter and garlic. Their only job is to soak up the braising liquid.
Dessert: roasted grapes over ice cream. Roast grapes on a sheet pan with a spoon of honey until they slump and burst, about twenty minutes. Spoon them warm over vanilla ice cream. It looks like a plan. It is four minutes of work.
Pork Shoulder Braised with Cabbage, Apples and Onions
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 to 4 lb boneless pork shoulder, cut into 4 large pieces
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large onions, sliced
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 tbsp whole grain mustard
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 2 tbsp cider vinegar
- A few sprigs of thyme or sage
- 1 small head green cabbage, cut into 8 wedges
- 3 firm cooking apples, cored and quartered
Method
- Salt the pork well, the night before if you can. Heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium high and brown the pieces hard on every side, about 12 minutes. Move them to a plate.
- Turn the heat to medium, add the onions and a pinch of salt, and cook until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic for a minute, then stir in the mustard, stock and vinegar.
- Return the pork, tuck in the herbs, cover, and braise in a 300掳F oven for 2 hours.
- Nestle the cabbage and apples around the pork, cover, and braise 45 minutes to an hour more, until the pork pulls apart and the cabbage is silky. Cool, then refrigerate in the pot for up to two days.
- On the day, lift off the set fat, rewarm covered at 300掳F until hot all the way through, an hour or two depending on your pot, and taste for salt and vinegar. Serve from the pot.
What to make ahead, and in what order
The order matters more than any single recipe. Working backward from a Saturday dinner:
Thursday: braise the pork. Let it cool in the pot and put the whole thing in the fridge. It tastes better on day two, and the fat sets on top where you can lift it off in one piece.
Friday: peel and cut the squash and sweet potatoes and keep them covered in the fridge. Slice the radishes and turnips and store them in a container of cold water so they stay crisp. Grate the horseradish into the sour cream.
Saturday afternoon: roast the vegetables, boil the potatoes, roast the grapes. Two hours out, the braise goes into a low oven. When the doorbell rings, all that is left is crushing potatoes and wilting greens, ten minutes at the stove with a drink in your hand.
How to shop a Chicago market in October
Green City Market in Lincoln Park, at 1817 N Clark St, is open Wednesdays and Saturdays in October, and the Saturday market keeps going through November 21 this year. For this menu the Wednesday trip is the smarter one, because it leaves Thursday clear for the braise.
Go with your list sorted by weight. Squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage and apples go in the bag first. Lettuce, herbs and radishes go last, on top. Ask the grower which apples hold their shape in a long braise, because not every variety does. If the cauliflower looks better than the squash on the day, swap it in and roast it the same way. The menu bends. The season decides.
Shop for what is piled highest. That is the season telling you what to cook.
Cook it now, while the table is small
Most of this menu, the squash, cabbage, apples, potatoes and greens, stays in season into November, which is where the year is heading: toward Friendsgiving and a longer table. October is the rehearsal. Six friends, one pot, a Thursday you spend cooking so that Saturday you get to sit down. Pick the date, send it today, and let the season do the heavy lifting. One good night buys the next.