Seasonal recipes: From plum tart to tomato chutney

As the weather and colours outside change, so must our ingredients and with that, our palates. Autumn brings preservatives, rich fruits and meat, root vegetables, slow cooking and full spices

A deep, rich and lightly spiced chutney brightens cold cuts and cheeses

Tomato, chilli and ginger chutney

This spicy tomato chutney recipe is the perfect accompaniment to cold cuts and cheese, or could be slathered on a sandwich or burger. Serve it with veggie burgers, where the fiery chilli and tangy tomato chutney acting as a pepped up ketchup.

800g of tinned chopped tomatoes
2 red chillies, deseeded
2 banana shallots, chopped
15g of fresh ginger, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
450g of caster sugar
200ml of white wine vinegar
1 tsp mustard seeds
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Drain the chopped tomatoes through a sieve placed over a bowl. Reserve about a quarter of the juice captured in the bowl, discarding the rest (or save to use in a stew or bolognese). Place the roughly chopped chillies, shallots, ginger and garlic in a blender and blitz to form a smooth paste. Transfer to a heavy-bottomed saucepan along with the sugar, vinegar, mustard seeds and reserved tomato juice.

Bring the mixture to a boil over a medium heat then simmer until reduced by a third. Add in the reserved drained tomatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Turn the heat down slightly and cook gently for about 1–1.5 hours until the chutney is thick and shiny. Allow to cool before serving. The chutney can be stored in a non-metallic container in the fridge for up to 1 month.

Sweet potato gnocchi with tomato sauce

This brilliant sweet potato gnocchi recipe has a tasty twist, using these beautiful orange spuds instead of regular potatoes, served with a super simple tomato sauce. Using pasta flour will give the gnocchi a featherlight finish. If you're looking to make this recipe suitable for vegetarians, replace the Parmesan with a vegetarian cheese.

Sweet potato gnocchi

500g of sweet potato
90g of strong bread flour
2 egg yolks
2 tsp dill, chopped
2 tsp tarragon, finely chopped
2 tsp chives, chopped
30g of unsalted butter
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of black pepper
iced water, to cool the gnocchi

To serve

200ml of passata
50g of Parmesan, grated
50g of rocket
50g of flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of hazelnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 4. Bake the sweet potato until cooked through, approximately 1 hour. While still warm but cool enough to handle, use a blunt knife to remove the skin. Use a fork to break up the sweet potato and then allow to cool slightly

Sift the flour over the sweet potato and use your hands to mix in well. Add the yolks, herbs and salt and pepper, mix together to form a dough. Add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Roll out the dough into long sausages, approximately 1cm thick. With a sharp knife cut into 2.5cm wide dumplings.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Drop in the gnocchi and cook for 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and place into iced water - this will stop the cooking process immediately. Drain well on kitchen paper iced water, to cool the gnocchi.

Heat the butter in a frying pan and once it starts to foam, add the gnocchi and cook for 1 minute. The gnocchi should take on a nut-brown colour. Warm the passata in a small pan until hot. Divide the gnocchi across 4 plates, pour over the hot passata sauce. Finish with shavings of Parmesan cheese, rocket, parsley and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately.

Plum tart with vanilla ice cream

This surprisingly simple plum tart recipe makes a beautifully dainty dessert, with rich frangipane and puff pastry forming a fantastic base for the sweet plums. Brushing the tarts with vanilla butter adds a wonderfully rich depth of flavour to the dish. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

8 plums
100g of butter
100g of sugar
100g of ground almonds
5g of plain flour
100g of eggs
200g of nibbed almonds
250g of unsalted butter
2 vanilla pods
250g of plum jam
500ml of water
500g of puff pastry
Demerara sugar
vanilla ice cream

To make the frangipane, soften the butter in the microwave to a very loose consistency. Place in a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment beat until creamy, incorporating the sugar in gradually. Mix the ground almonds and flour together. Alternating between the two, add small amounts of the dry mix to the butter, followed by the eggs so the mix remains light and fluffy. Mix in the nibbed almonds at the end.

To make the vanilla butter, soften the butter and scrape the seeds from the vanilla pods into the softened butter. Mix to combine and keep at room temperature whilst cooking the tarts. For the plum glaze, gently heat the jam and water, stirring occasionally until the jam has dissolved. Pass through a fine chinois. To prepare the tart bases, gently roll the pastry on a flat floured surface to an even 2–3mm thickness. Leave to rest in the fridge for a minimum of 10 minutes.

Cut 10cm diameter circles out of the pastry then prick these all over with a fork. Store the bases between individual parchment paper in the freezer until required. Preheat the oven to 210°C/gas mark 7.

Spread a thin layer of frangipane evenly across the tart base, leaving a neat rim around the edge. Quarter and remove the stones from the plums and slice the flesh as thinly and evenly as you can. Take care arranging the plums around the tart, tightly overlapping all the way round like the spokes of a wheel. Brush over the plums with the softened vanilla butter and sprinkle with Demerara sugar.

Bake each tart in the oven on a separate piece of parchment paper for 6 minutes. Brush again with vanilla butter and sprinkle with more sugar. Place another piece of parchment paper on top of the tart and carefully flip it over – baking the tarts upside down will help to colour the plums whilst also helping the pastry stay crisp.

Bake the tarts upside down for a further 10–12 minutes until pastry is golden brown and very crisp. Carefully flip the tart over and rest on a wire rack to prevent the pastry from softening. Brush with plum glaze to give a nice shine and serve with a ball of vanilla ice cream.

These recipes originally appeared on The Great British Chefs. For more recipes, visit greatbritishchefs.com