British Apples Crumble , Tart and Roast

Last weekend we went apple picking . A patch by the railwayside amongst all the scrub land there are many abandoned  apple trees. I wonder if this was an orchard once because there are a lot of varieties from dark red to pale yellow now the area  is almost inaccessible and forgotten with the fruit groaning on the trees and falling to the ground.

Britain has more than 3000 varieties of native apples however data from Natural England showed orchards in  England have declined by 63% since 1950. In 2007  imported nearly 70% of our apples (Defra Basic Horticultural Statistics 2008).

However more and more community Orchards are being created up and down the country, more people are planting fruit trees in their gardens, micro cider-makers are flourishing, old traditional orchards are being valued and conserved by Natural England and others for the richness of wild life they support and thousands visit Apple Day events.

We picked a few kilos but I have needed to put in some time to make them into something nice  so a few recipes.

This tart is an homage to those beautiful french tart aux pommes , I had to leave the skins on because they were just too pretty , it takes time to layer them onto the pastry but it is quite meditative, you cannot eat just one slice perfect with a little whipped double cream .

Apple Tart

An apple tart

400g of apples ( half peeled & half skin on
100g of plain flour
50g of butter
20ml of water

1. Grease a 30cm fluted tart case
2. Preheat the oven to 190degC
3. Take the peeled apples add the cinamon , sugar and pour over the water
4. Cover & simmer until the apples have complete softened to form a puree
5. Meanwhile crumb togehter the butter and flour
6. Add the water to form a pastry and chill in the fridge for 20 mins
7. Finely slice the apples and place in water with a little lemon juice
8. Roll out and line the tart case
9. Line with greaseproof paper and lentils or baking beads
10. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes
11. Fill with the apple puree and lay over the sliced apple, bake for a further 30minutes

I adore apple crumble it is a taste of childhood and so simple to make I think everyone makes it in school cooking classes, it suit small hands to crumble the butter into the flour . But the taste of toasted crumble topping with sweet/sour fruit is divine espeically with some melting vanilla ice cream. So delicious I am wondering if I can justify it as a breakfast dish.

Apple Crumble

200g of apples peeled cored and roughly chopped
4tbsp of sugar
5 tbsp of water
1 tsp of cinamon

Crumble

25g of butter
50g of demara sugar
100g of flour
100g of rolled oats

1. Heat the oven to 180degC
2. Mix the apples with the water sugar and cinamon and place in an overproofdish
3. Crumb together the butter and flour
4. Mix in the oats and sugar
5. Cover the apples and place in the oven for 40 minutes until golden brown.

I even used them with a pork joint rubbed with fennel seeds and roasted with quartered apples that form an uncutous apple caramel sauce , delicious with the pork in sandwiches.

British Cheeses and Rosemary Oatcakes

It’s British Cheese Week from the 26th of September – 4th October 2009 , I am happily obsessed with cheese it perfectly ecompasses the regions of Britain.  I always go for the cheese course rather than a desert course .   Last night after a trip to the East Midlands Food Festival where stocked on many goodies including  some fabulous cheeses

From Right to Left ( Picture at the top)
Sparkhenhoe Red Leceister from the Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company is the only Leicester now being  made in Leicestershire. The first handmade cheese to be made on a Leicestershire farm since 1956. The beautifuly red colour comes from annatto , a natural plant dye obtained from a South American bush.  Sparkenhoe is an old Leicestershire name meaning gorsey nob. This relates to the farm rather than the cheese which taste nothing like the strange mushy orange red Leceisters you see in supermarkets. My lovely boyfreind even had a chat with them about a cheesemaking post they have available.

Lincolnshire Poacher continues to win awards on the eastern edge of the beautiful Lincolnshire Wolds made from unpasteurised milk matured for about 14 to 16 months. It is a very hard cheese with an upfront rich full flavour. Smoked and vintage versions are also available .

Finally Y-Feni ( named for the town where is is made Y-Feni/Abergavenny – for which I have a massive soft spot ) a mature cheddar cheese blended with whole-grain mustard and Welsh ale. I not usually a fan of cheese with bits added ( ginger,  apricots, even bizarrely christmas pudding apparently )  but this is just delicious and would make an excellent rarebit topping which presumably is where the inspiration comes from.

I even made some mini oatcakes incredibly easy to make nutty but not too crumbly, not sure why it has never occured to me to make something like this before much quicker than bread , they are cooled and ready to eat in 10 minutes.

With cheese I like  a little chutney fortunately there was an excellent selection at the food festival

Rosemary Oatcakes
200g rolled oats
6 tablespoons plain  flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chopped rosemary leaves
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 heaped tbsp of  unsalted butter
150ml of milk

1. Preheat oven to 190degC
2. Put the oats into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
3. Add flour, salt, pepper, rosemary, baking powder, and butter and pulse until mixture resembles crumble meal.
4. Add milk and pulse until a dough forms
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1mm thick cut into 5cm rounds
6. Arrange oatcakes on baking sheets ( they don’t spread so cam be quite close
7. Bake in middle of oven 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly brown
8. Transfer oatcakes to a rack and cool completely.

Carrot and Poppyseed & Beetroot and Ginger Cake

I knew I was getting old when despite the warm weather at Green Man I abstained from my usual cider and developed an obsession   Tea and Cake stall- Cafe Dish who could resist tea in a proper up scones, ginger cake, & carrot cake since then I  have been wanting to get into some proper cake baking

Finally last weekend what finally got me off the sofa and weighing out ingredients was some furious tweetage from ,  Helen at Food Stories and Lizzie at Hollow Legs as they baked up a storm for their  MacMillan coffee morning a great idea where you host a coffee morning to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Relief, their site lets you find one close to you

Now we are not really allowed to cook anything anymore that doesn’t use something from the vegebox , so I opted to include some rood veggies , Beetroot and Carrot using recipes this  adapted from a BBC Good Food Recipe it’s unbelievably light and moist, but this time turned into those perfect for a coffee morning sandwich cakes.

If you leave the icing off these cakes will keep for longer and can be frozen.

I took the carrot cake into work to save my waistline , it looked slightly worse the wear for its train journey but was still demolished by our team not suprising given the 6 cups of tea each we drink .

Carrot Cake

175g light muscovado sugar
175ml sunflower oil
3 large eggs , lightly beaten
200g of grated carrots (about 4 medium)
3 tbsp of poppy seeds
Grated zest of 1 large orange
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Icing
8 heaped tbsp of soft cheese
2 tbsp of icing sugar

1 tsp of poppy seeds to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180C , line two 8in round sandwich cake tin with baking paper
2. Beat together the sugar eggs and oil Stir in the grated carrots & poppy seeds
3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients together
4. Split the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack.
5. Mix together the icing ingredients in a small bowl you don’t want to beat them two hard, layer the sandwich pieces together and ice the top.
6. Final sprinke with poppy seeds

Beetroot and Ginger Cake

As above but replace the carrot with grated beetroot and add 2 tsp of ground ginger . Leave out the poppy seeds. You can also mix a little ground ginger into the icing mix approx half a teaspoon.

Chard and Cheese Tart

I am home alone this weekend which means eating , sleeping and after a couple of glasses of wine manic cleaning which leads to clearing out the fridge.  I find tarts or quiches are a great way to use up food from the fridge you just need some eggs and a little pastry which I can whip in seconds.

The first use-up ingredient was a bag of chard , I have a terrible history with chard, once a month a huge bag arrives in the vegebox, Despite its beauty, I always picture eating it as a  cow chewing through cud, so terrible vegebox confession one in three packets turns to slime .

Also in the fridge a block of very smelly cheese , a Munster from Natoora parcel some months ago . I do not belive in sell-by or use by dates , I think they improve with age.

Reading Nigel Slaters recipes in this weekends Observer he includes hemp seeds in a recipe and I remembered we had a packet for making flapjacks , I figured they would make a delicious addition to pastry and they definitely added a nutty crunch.

The result was a light tart/quiche the strong cheese heated through deliciously with the chard without any bitter green taste , the pastry falling apart.

Chard and Cheese Tart

5 handfuls of chard ( I used rainbow) finely chopped
3 eggs
75g of flavoursome cheese ( mature cheddar, stilton)  roughly chopped
100ml of milk
Salt and Pepper

Wholemeal Pastry

100g of wholemeal flour
2 tbp of hemp seeds
50g of butter
20ml of water
Pinch of salt

1. Line an 8inch diamter tart case with greaseproof paper
2. Make the pastry , crumb together the wholemeal flour , hemp seeds salt , and butter
3. Add the water to form a dough
4. Roll out to a few millimeters thick and line the tart case

Filling

1. Beat together the eggs and milk
2. Add the finely chopped chard and cheese
3. Season with salt and pepper
4. Pour into the tart case
5. Bake at 180degC for 25 minutes until the filling is set

Blackberry and Apple Galette and Cake

Managed a lovely walk not to far from home on Saturday, just round the corner in fact. I busied myself picking blackberries. Growing up I was regularly press-ganged into service,  gathering blackberries, fungi , mussels , bricks from skips and I expect a level of foraging focus, with no thought for personal safety this is perhaps why my lower legs are now covered in bites and nettle stings. Is it wrong I am starting to get a slight buzz from the nettle tingle.  LBF has a more relaxed (less obsessive) approach proferring just a few handfuls of berries and  observing the native wildlife.

I was so busy giving my foraging work ethics lecture that it was up to LBF to spot a  fruit laden apple tree on the way home and filled the rest of my bag with apples, avoiding the wasps eating the rotten apples

Perhaps it was the excitement of some fresh ingredients but I woke up very early on Sunday morning before dawn in fact , but after sunrise I sat on the patio peeling apples, drinking tea and catching up on the Archers. By the time LBF surfaced at 11.30am I was a picture of domesticity and had decided to make a couple of cakes, one to take down to the folks next weekend and one for us should I need a sugar hit in the week.

Apple and Blackberry Galette

Galette is a pie for those that cannot make pies all it requires it the ability to gently gather together pastry and pinch, the result is attrative money bag shaped pie this works for soft fruits like nectarines , peaches and plums too.

Pastry
200g of plain flour
100g of butter
40ml of cold water

1 egg yolk to glaze

1. Rub the butter into the flour to form breadcrumbs
2. Add the water slowly to form a dough
3. Place in the refridgerator for at least 20 minutes

Apple and Blackberry Filling

200g of apples
200g of blackberries washed
2 tbsp of demara sugar
1 tbsp of cinamon

Peel the apples , core and finely slice
Mix with the cinmon and sugar and leave for 20 minutes

To form the galette

1. Roll out the pastry in a disk shape til 5mm thick, lay onto a flat baking sheet onto a sheet of baking paper
2. Place the apples into the centre of the disk and pile high with the blackberries
3. Gather the pastry up around the apples a pinch at the top forming an open sack
4. Brush the pastry with the egg yolk
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180degc for 40 minutes

Blackberry and Apple Cake

Blackberry and Apple Cake , I used this recipe from BBC Good Food , but I trippled the amount of apple, though I thought this might make it too moist it worked fine. I love these kind of cakes , thick slices with cups of tea.

Beetroot and Goats Cheese Tart

There is lots of beetroot around at the moment it sweetness is lovely in salads but here I wanted to make it the star of the show in a lazy Sunday lunch.

Beetroot and Goats cheese love eachother and I was tempted to use thyme as the classic triad in the combination . However I decided to break with tradition and use a little sage and  fennel , the combination worked well the sage is earthy and works well with the beetroot and I love the hit of crunchy fennel seeds. The wholemeal pastry has a much nuttier texture than plain pastry adding a lovely note next time I would add a little walnut oil to the pastry.

Beetroot and Goats Cheese Tart

200g of beetroot cut into quarters
2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
50g of hard goats cheese ( or feta)
3 tbsp of fresh sage finely chopped
1 tbsp of fennel seeds

Wholemeal Pastry
100g of wholemeal flour
50g of butter
10ml of water
Pinch of salt

1. Crumb the butter into the flour & salt
2. Add the water and form a dough.
3. Leave in the fridge while you prepare the beetroot
4. Place the beetroot quarters in a roasting pan with the balsamic vinegar and drizzle of olive oil
5. Season with salt and pepper and roast at 180degC for 20 minutes
6. Roll out the pastry and line a 30cm diameter greased metal tart dish
7. Place in the the lined case in the oven for at least 10 minutes
8. Meanwhile crumble the goats cheese and mix with the sage , and fennel seeds season well with salt and pepper
9. Remove the beetroot and pastry case from the oven
10. Fill the case with the beetroot and goats cheese
11. Return to the oven a bake for a further 15 minutes

Feeding the masses

A few weeks ago I went for dinner with my boss and one of our advisors , Dave, after a couple of glasses of wine Dave mentioned a conference  his university were running and invited us to the fringe event buffet to be held in his flat in Exeter.
“We are not sure who is doing the catering?”
Quick as a flash my boss said with a slightly evil glint in his eye,  “You should get Becky to do the food”, not for the first time I thought it may have been a mistake to tell my boss about my blog.
However we were eating dinner at the Anchor and Hope , I was in foodie paradise and did I mention the wine.
so somehow I found myself saying,  “Alright then, no problem”

A few weeks later  I was busy wondering how I am going to make a buffet for 40 people, 200 miles from my home. I decided on large trays of salad which could be prepared during the day, that would mean once prepared I could enjoy the party, thankfully Ikea sell large plastic tray for just 99p though I looked a bit strange buying twelve of them.

Dave welcomed me at 7am and showed me the basics , like the crazy Star Trek oven and once the ingredients arrived, only missing a few items , requiring a little innovation on my part. Later after many hours of chopping , roasting and grilling and with a new found respect for Masterchef contestants I loaded the fridge with groaning trays of food.  Cooking such large volumes of food requires serious patience and organisation what I wouldn’t give for a prep chef.  In fact after 6 straight hours on my feet  I managed to forget to photograph all the salad in the excitement of the party starting but they included

• New Potatoes in vinagrette
• Grilled chicken with steams green beans ,grapes and tarragon in a lemon dressing
• Salmon with lentils and wilted spinach.
• Grilled Courgettes with Mint and Feta.
• Roasted Aubergine, Peppers , Artichoke Hearts, Olives and Goats Cheese with basil leaves and balsamic vinegar
• Roasted Butternut Squash with toasted chick peas , chilli , grilled haloumi with fresh coriander and tahnini dressing (recipe below)
• Marinated Beetroot with rocket , thyme, toasted walnuts in a creamy horseradish dressing (recipe below)

For pudding I had a flash of inspiration in the morning and decided that with a some international visitors,  I wanted to give them a  homage to a Devon cream tea layering up fresh strawberry jam , whipped cream and fresh strawberries

It was really lovely seeing everyone eating my food and I blushed a lot at the compliments and shared many recipes. An American said he had been dreading English food , our reputation proceeds us , but my food had changed his impression completely. I don’t think I will be going professional just yet, or ever, but I am really glad I challenged myself.

Roasted Butternut Squash with toasted chick peas , chilli , grilled haloumi with fresh coriander and tahnini dressing

1. Cut the butternut squash into 1cm cubes, place in roasting dish and drizzle with oil, salt and pepper.
2. Cut the chillis in half and remove seeds , roast with the butternut squash for 20 minutes at 190degC
3. In a seperate tray toss the chick peas in a little oil and paprika & cook in the oven for the same time as the butternut squash
4. Slice the haloumi in 1/2cm thick slices , heat a griddle pan and grill the haloumi until brown on both sides and firm
5. Add mix the haloumi with a little fresh lemon juice let it down with a little water
6. Lay the squash , chickpeas together on the tray and layer over the haloumi roasted chillis and some fresh coriander .
7. Dress with tahini dressing

Marinated Beetroot with rocket , thyme, toasted walnuts in a creamy horseradish dressing

1. Boil the beetroot for 20 minutes til soft still warm dress with a little pepper , olive oil and  balsamic vinegar.
2. Toast the walnuts in the oven at 190degC  or in a hot pan for a few minutes
3. Mix together equal parts horseradish and creme fraich add a few springs of thyme
4. Layer beetroot and rocket on on a tray with scatter over the walnuts and dress with the horseradish dressing
5. Delicious served with cold roast beef.

Scones

225g self raising flour
55g butter
25g caster sugar
150ml/5fl oz milk

Method
1. Heat the oven to 220C
2. Rub the butter into the flour
3. Stir in the sugar and then the milk to get a soft dough.
4. Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a round 2cm thick. Use a 2cm cutter to stamp out rounds and place on a baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.
5. Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden.

Fresh Strawberry Jam

200g of strawberries sliced
20g of sugar

1. Bring the strawberries to a gentle simmer til they have broken down
2. Add the sugar
3. Leave to cool

Strawberrys, Brownies and Meringues cheating with readymade meringues this was a big hit with a bowl of cream on the side.

Birthday Burgers

When the lovely boyfriend asked me what I wanted for my birthday dinner,  I think he was a bit surprised when I said burgers. I blame the bloggers some of my favourite food bloggers (Antics of Cylcing Cook & Dinner Diary ) have been making lovely burgers recently a  mix of colourful garnishes,  melting cheese or crispy onions.

Despite my penchant for all things BBQ, we haven’t managed to get round to making to having burgers, yep kebabs, grilled fish ,  steaks , asparagus but not BBQ, I not sure why I know it is really easy , when I was little we never had McDonalds we had McMummy, homemade burgers in homemade rolls.

I even sent a tweet out asking people for their hint and tips on their burgers to help in out. I was busy all day on my birthdaygot home at 8pm  to find the BBQ lit , burgers resting in the fridge and a bread dough ready made for home-made buns. I insisted on being allowed to  make the buns before I was relegated to the garden with a glass of Cava.

Burger Garnishes

For me burgers are a lot about the garnishes plenty of spicy
horseradish and gerkins and admittedly a gentle dousing of ketchup so
much garnish that the burgers were about three inches high

Red Onion

Sliced Beef Tomatoes

Lettuce

Horseradish Sauce

Gerkins

Sliced Matured Cheddar

Ketchup

Beckys Birthday Burgers

500g of Derbyshire Beef minced
1 large salad (spring) onion finely chopped
1 tsp of wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp of chopped parsley
Salt & Pepper

1. Combine all the ingredients
2. Divide the mixture into 4 and shape into burgers
3. Refridgerate for at least half an hour
4. Grill on the BBQ or under a hot grill for 4 minutes on each side

Burger Bun Recipe ( from all recipes)

cheated by throwing it into the bread maker to knead but the full recipe is pretty simple and they take just 15 minutes to bake once the dough has proved etc.
I add some fennel and poppy seeds to top of the bun.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

About a month ago we went to The Longshaw Estate run by the National Trust.  It has as most National Trust sites do a tea shop. While these tea shops have expanded their ranges in the last few years into sandwiches , juices and salads.Traditionally what they always did was very good cakes served in hip-busting portions.

I was really looking forward to a cake at the end of a lovely long walk . So I could almost feel my bottom lip wobble as I  watched the last piece of lemon and poppy seed cake go to the person in front of me.  Never a person to let go of things I have been thinking about lemon poppy seed cake ever since , it just took me a while to find poppy seeds.

I went through a couple of recipes and ended up putting this together from a few around . I was a bit worried as it seemed a very wet mix but it produced a moist sticky topped cake with the bite of the poppy seeds.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake 

Makes 9 large squares

250g butter
250g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 lemon – zest and juice
4 large eggs
5tbsp poppy seeds
150ml milk
250g self-raising flour

1. Soak the poppy seeds in the milk for at least 1 hour.
2. Heat the oven to 150degC.
3. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper.
4. Cream together the butter, sugar , vanilla essence , lemon zest and juice.
5. Beat in the  eggs, poppy seeds & milk.
6. Finally fold in flour.
7. Pour the mixture in a lined tin and bake for 45 minutes.
8. Leave it to cool and cut into squares

Smokey Squash and Black-eye Bean Stew

Sunday night I was putting lambshanks in the oven and anticipating a meaty meal on Monday decided we would go vegetarian for Sunday night . I need something that could go in the oven so opted for a smokey squash & bean stew

Smokey Squash and Black-eye Bean Stew

400g of orange squash ( butternut or golden) skinned and chopped into 1cm cubed
200g of  black eyed beans ( soaked in cold water overnight for 12 hrs)
1 pint of vegetable stock
1 small onion diced
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 tbsp of smoked paprika
400g of tinned plum tomatoes
Handful of fresh parsley finely choppeed
2 tbsp of olive oil

1. Fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil
2. Add the stock ,paprika, squash and tomatoes and bring to a simmer
3. Place in the oven a cook for one hour
4. Finally stir in the parsley and serve with a scattering of feta cheese and warm bread

I was so wowed the delicious looking Focaccia and simple recipe shared by Jules ( Domestic Goddess In Training ) That despite being quite unsuccessful with this bread before ( last one could have been used as floor tile) I decided to have a go.I followed the recipe exactly  ( with the addition of a hanfuld of fresh rosemary .

Spending the day hanging out at home it was fantastic to give the bread plenty of time to prove covered in the sunshine. The  result after just  20 minutes cooking was a delicious airy scented bread.