For food heaven, eat seasonal and local
18/01/2018
Seasonal cooking is a phrase that gets bandied around a lot but what does it actually mean?
Put simply, it means cooking with locally sourced ingredients when they are at their best. And their best is when they are ready for harvest, at maximum freshness and flavour and usually at their most cost effective too.
That’s because food that is not in season locally usually has to be grown in hot greenhouses or shipped in from other parts of the world, which all has an impact on both texture and taste.
Produce that is grown for shipping must be harvested early and chilled so it doesn’t decompose before reaching its final destination and there’s a good chance it won’t ripen as well as it would where it was being grown.
Britain’s natural larder offers new crops of some of the most delicious produce with every passing month. Think tangy fresh rhubarb in March and sweet juicy strawberries in June; earthy wild mushrooms in September and rich gamey venison in December. We’ve got lots of fantastic produce in and around the Windsor area too.
Sourcing seasonal local produce for a restaurant means we can up your cooking game too because ingredients that are available at roughly the same time usually complement each other brilliantly.
That’s why in April you can pull together a fantastic dish of spring lamb, wild garlic and Jersey Royals to produce a fantastic plate of food heaven.
The benefits of eating seasonal and local food go far beyond flavour. It’s great for the environment too. Importing out of season produce costs more in terms of hard cash and a carbon footprint.
Here at Windsor Grill, we offer a changing list of daily specials that make the most of the best produce on offer at the time. So as the leaves turn, temperatures drop and the long nights draw in, we serve up the ultimate in delicious comfort food.
A starter of warm salad of wood pigeon, bacon and wild mushrooms on grilled polenta with truffle dressing perhaps, or maybe a hearty soup of cauliflower
When winter warmers are the order of the day we might offer a 10 hour slow roast short rib with celeriac puree & roast beets, before getting ready for the fresh vibrancy that are delivered by the ingredients of the spring and summer months.
Whatever the time of year, we’ll always do our best to let the ingredients do the talking.
If you’re interested to see what’s in season, there are some good resources online.
http://www.lovebritishfood.co.uk/british-food-and-drink/fruit-and-vegetables