Seasonal
Sections

September

Keep the meal. Change the season.

Two seasons share the table this month. Chiles are at their best and about to be gone. The first squash and the first apples arrive while it is still eighty degrees out — and in a warm year, mahi-mahi is running off the coast. Buy from both sides. September is the only month that lets you.

The September basket

This is what I'd bring home.

Feeds one big appetite for a week: every dinner, and lunch from the leftovers most days.

Roasting chiles 8 poblano or Anaheim Buy more than you think. They shrink by half. Stuffed chiles, tacos, the weekend fish Tomatillos 1 lb Salsa verde takes ten minutes and no recipe. Salsa verde, the simmer, tacos Cilantro 1 large bunch The herb that arrives as basil leaves. Salsa verde, slaw, everything Limes 5–6 Heaviest and cheapest they'll be all year. Everything, at the end Delicata squash 2 The first fall thing worth buying. The sheet pan, rice bowls Apples 4–5 Eat them raw. Julian's, if your store has them. Slaw, picadillo, breakfast Table grapes 1–2 lbs Peak. Keep them cold and eat them cold. The drink, breakfast, dessert

Proteins

Mahi-mahi fillets 1½ lbs Mahi is firm and mild, so it can take a bold rub — roasted chile, garlic, lime — and a hot pan, and still taste like the fish. The weekend meal, tacos, a rice bowl
Ground beef 1 lb Rich ground beef wants something sweet and something sharp cooked into it — diced apple and roasted chile turn it into picadillo. Stuffed chiles, a rice bowl, tacos
Boneless chicken thighs 2½ lbs Simmered in tart salsa verde, the acid tenderizes the thighs and their fat rounds out the sauce. Neither is as good alone. Simmered in salsa verde, the sheet pan, tacos

Also buy 2 carrots, 1 white onion, corn tortillas, 8 oz Monterey jack, 1 can whole tomatoes

From your kitchen rice, black beans, eggs, Greek yogurt, olive oil, neutral oil, garlic, white or apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, black peppercorns, bay leaves, dried oregano, honey

Around $30–45 for the produce and $45–60 for the three proteins, all from one well-stocked supermarket. Everything in this edition is on these lines — nothing else to buy.

→ All 8 ingredients, in full
The meals

What do you feel like tonight?

Start with the protein, pick a way to cook it, then a flavor. Every combination comes out of the same shopping list.

Mahi-mahi Chile-rubbed, in tortillas · Tacos · Rice bowl Best Green · Pickled
Ground beef Stuffed chiles · Rice bowl · Tacos Best Sweet and crisp · Pickled
Chicken thighs Simmered in salsa verde · Tacos · Sheet pan Best Green · Smoky
No meat tonight Cheese-stuffed chiles · Eggs in salsa verde · Delicata and black beans Best Smoky · Green
September's four flavors
  • Green Salsa verde + cilantro A spoonful of salsa verde, cilantro leaves torn over the top.
  • Pickled Escabeche + a little brine A spoonful of the jar with its brine. Crunch and acid.
  • Smoky Charred chile strips + lime Strips of roasted chile, lime squeezed over.
  • Sweet and crisp Apple + lime + cilantro Shredded apple tossed with lime, salt, and cilantro. A slaw in thirty seconds.
House Flavor

Escabeche

One jar. Three weeks of acid and crunch.

  • Spoon it over a rice bowl.
  • Pile it on tacos.
  • Stir it into beans, brine and all.
  • Set it next to the stuffed chiles.
→ Make one jar
The drink

Golden Hill Agua Fresca

One drink. Make it while the grapes are cheap.

Grapes, lime, salt, ice

→ Make the drink
The weekend meal

Chile-rubbed mahi-mahi, salsa verde, and warm tortillas.

One meal should feel like the reason you went shopping. In September, it's firm local fish painted with roasted chile and charred in a hot pan — the way it's done down the Baja coast.

Mahi-mahi, roasted poblano, salsa verde, tortillas, escabeche

→ Make the weekend meal