Cider is not only in season, it's in fashion. Gaymers now has four Orchard Reserve ciders, including Stonesbrook from Dabinett, and Harry Masters Jersey apples, a dry, sparkling cider. There's Newton's Vale, medium and made of four English cider apples, and Stewley, again medium and good with roasts and casseroles or Cheddar cheese. Cider is exceptionally good with autumn foods. Why not try the salad of apples and plums with young leaves, Exmoor blue cheese and walnut dressing devised by Michelin-starred Richard Guest, chef at the Castle Hotel, Taunton, Somerset?
2 Edward plums or 3 Victoria plums
1 Pixford, Scrumptious or Cox's Pippin apple
10 walnuts, blanched and lightly toasted
2tbs walnut oil
Exmoor blue cheese
Handful washed young salad leaves
Sherry vinegar, sea salt, black pepper
Optional watercress
Cut plums and apples into thin wedges, sprinkle them with crumbled walnuts, walnut oil, vinegar and seasoning. Toss them and arrange them on plates. Crumble Exmoor cheese over dish and add a few sprigs of watercress.
-
Five frankly enormous mansions, including one with its own private swimming lake, as seen in Country LifeSometimes bigger really is better.
-
Playing the fool: The rich history of tarot and how it satisfies our desire for transcendenceOnce an elaborate art form that entertained 15th-century Italian nobility, tarot cards have evolved into a tool of divination. A new exhibition shines a light on their history.
