September recipes live or die by whether they actually understand the season, and Thomasina Miers understands it. She doesn't pretend summer is over and she doesn't pretend it isn't winding down. The grilled turmeric chicken and the cardamom apple tart sit on either side of that threshold without forcing a decision. The chicken marinade is the more considered of the two. Blitzing onion, garlic, fresh chilli, and ground spices into a paste before adding kefir is a real technique — the food processor does work that a simple whisk can't, and the result is a marinade that coats rather than drips. Turmeric, garam masala, and kefir is a well-worn trio, but the optional chilli powder selection (Kashmiri for mild, ancho for rounded heat, cayenne for punishment) shows recipe-writer intelligence: that single parenthetical makes the dish adaptable without requiring rewriting. The raita instruction earns its place too. Squeezing the cucumber through a sieve isn't fussy — it's the difference between a sauce and a puddle. Noting that the cucumber water is 'a delicious drink' with salt and pepper is the kind of detail that separates a writer who actually cooks from one who develops recipes in the abstract. The tart is the bolder move. Shop-bought puff pastry is not a shortcut here — it's a clear-eyed decision about where the effort should go, which is into the cardamom sugar. Bashing the pods, discarding the green husks, and grinding the black seeds with sugar to release the oils is a small piece of technique that pays back in flavour. The three-stage bake (220°C blast, then 200°C finish) and the ground almond base that absorbs pastry-softening juice are the structural details that make the difference between a soggy tart and a crisp one. If there's a friction point, it's the apple quantity: '5 medium sharp, crisp apples (about 450g)' for a 320g sheet of puff pastry that you then roll larger sounds like it could be tight. The overlapping arrangement requires patience and a little spatial confidence. This is not a recipe to attempt while distracted. Both dishes serve 4–6 and 6–8 respectively, which means they're calibrated for sharing — dinner-party scale without dinner-party anxiety. The chicken works as a weeknight cook if the marinating starts in the morning. The tart is a weekend project that looks more involved than it is. Taken together, these are recipes from a writer who has worked out what September actually asks for: flavour that justifies firing up the grill one more time, and a pudding that makes autumn feel like an arrival rather than a surrender.
