Mum went Scrumping

My mums staying at the moment, not only did she bring loads of fabric, magazines, a massive hamper, a beautiful bracelet, mugs, a spoon rest, cocktail glasses and loads more, she's given me a massive bag of apples! Someone she knows has four or five apple trees and is away for half of the year - if no one took the apples they would just rot. The lady is happy for people to take the apples so mum went round and collected six or so carrier bags full of apples. This is my bag -

The picture is quite deceiving I think - there's an absolute ton in there! I took the picture after taking some out for a crumble as well. The apples are huge!

Mum and I made a apple crumble last night, I'm going to find a few recipes for other things and probably freeze stewed apples this weekend.

First off, I peeled the apples and mum chopped them -

Then I stewed them with sugar, cinnamon and cloves with a little bit of water (excuse the state of the hob...)

 While I did that, mum made the crumble topping -

 Then, once the apples and topping were done I put everything in here -

Forty minutes later we had the most amazing apple crumble! It smelt fantastic too!

Here's the exceptionally simple recipe - 

Apple Crumble 

Ingredients

For the filling -
900g apples
25g brown soft sugar (I used dark but my recipe says light >.<)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves

For the crumble -
110g almonds, chopped
75g salted butter
175g self raising flour
1 dessertspoon cinnamon
110g demerara sugar

Method

Simmer the apples in a little water for 20 minutes or so, until they are all mushy. Stir in the cinnamon, cloves and sugar and simmer for another 5 minutes.

For the crumble, rub the flour and butter together until it resembles crumbs. Mix in the sugar, cinnamon and almonds.

Place the apple mixture into an oven proof dish, put the crumble mix over the top and bake for 30-40 minutes at 200ºc, until golden on top. Leave to stand for 10 minutes then serve with custard or cream or ice cream - whatever you want!

Yum!

Sausages Braised in Cider

Made this the other night, was wonderful!

Sausages Braised in Cider

6-8 pork sausages
200mls chicken stock
500mls dry cider 
3-5 celery sticks
3-5 carrots
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
Freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
Fresh or dried thyme
Tbsp plain flour

Heat a little oil in an oven proof casserole dish with a tight fitting lid and add your sausages. This is when disaster struck for me - the sausages completely fell apart... Ack! Fry them until they are browned all over

Remove the sausages once cooked, leaving all the juices behind. Chop up your onion, garlic and celery and place in the casserole dish and cook for a few minutes, until the onion starts to soften. 

 

Now stir in a heaped tablespoon of plain flour and coat all the veg with it. Slowly add the cider, ensuring to keep things stirred. Once the cider is all in, add the stock, again slowing while stirring. Then add your carrots, thyme and put the sausages back in.

  

Doesn't too good at this stage, I have to admit. I do promise that it will be a lot darker once its finished! Bring to the boil then place into the oven for 20-30 minutes. Serve with mash and green veggies such as peas. You can also fry up some apples in butter and garnish it with those.

No more pictures I'm afraid - as soon as it was out of the oven and onto the plates I was munching away! The smell is wonderful and too good to resist!

Apple Spice Cookies

With the three autumn harvest festivals coming up I'm going to be sharing a variety of tasty recipes using seasonal foods, starting with cookies and biscuits. Whether you make up a batch for your seasonal celebrations, as a gift for a loved one or just for a tasty snack with your afternoon coffee or tea, I hope these spiced cookies with an apple filling will be a hit with everyone!

Apple Spice Cookies

Ingredients

• 225g butter, softened
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp apple juice
• 280g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• pinch salt
• 100g dried apple, finely chopped

For the Filling

• 1 tbsp caster sugars
• 1 tbsp custard powder
• 125ml milk
• 5 tbsp apple sauce

Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg and apple juice. Sift the flour, cinnamon, mixed spice and salt into the butter mixture then add the dried apple and stir until combined. Half the dough, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 40 - 60 minutes (the closer to 60 minutes the better).

Preheat the oven to 190°C and line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Roll out the dough and cut out the cookies with a 5cm square cookie cutter and place them on the baking sheets ensuring that they are well spaced. Bake for 15 minutes or so, until they are golden brown. Leave to cool. 

To make the filling, mix the sugar custard powder and milk together in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring continuously until the mixture is thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the apple sauce. Cover the surface of the pan with clingfilm and leave to cool. 

One the cookies and filling are both cool, spoon the filling over half of the cookies and top with the remainder. Ta da! Lovely, sweet sandwich like cookies!

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I want to add a thank you to this post as well -  to the lovely Tamara  at Riding on a Broomstick who gave me this award -

Thank you! You made me all proud and happy that day and definately glad that I started this blog!

Recipe Share! Spaghetti Bolognaise

Spaghetti bolognaise is one of the first dishes that I ever cooked and in my opinion, its one of the simplest. Or at least it can be - some recipes call for all sorts of ingredients but as I prefer simple cooking, I've always kept this dish really simple. Although this is a meaty recipe, you can easily change the beef to quarn and remove the stock cubes to make it a veggie one, I often do this when my mum comes to stay as she's a veggie.

I thought as a bit of a change I'd type the recipe on a chalkboard, looks quite good I reckon!

Red Pepper Risotto with Camembert

I've seen this recipe, or variations of, on a number of websites and in magazines so its probably something you've seen before. I'm going to share anyway because I cooked it last night and oh my it was fantastic!


Red Pepper Risotto with Camembert

Serves 2

Ingredients:
Knob of salted butter
Tbsp olive oil plus extra for drizzling
1 onion, finely chopped
3-4 celery sticks, finely chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
1 cup white wine
2 pints chicken stock (or there abouts, sometimes I use more, sometimes less, you can use veg stock if you prefer)
4 red peppers
Pinch of Oregano
Black Pepper
Salt
Whole Camembert (this is a lot so you may want to reduce what you use, me and my OH love it though so tend to eat it all)

Method:
Preheat the grill to a medium to high heat. Cut the peppers in half, de-seed them then place on a greased baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a small amount of salt. Grill until blackened, remove then place in a bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm. Once they have cooled remove the skin and chop.

Heat the butter and oil in a large pan on a medium to high heat until the butter has melted, add the onion and celery and cook for five minutes or so, until they begin to soften. Add the rice and fry until the butter and oil has been soaked up by the rice. Pour in the wine and reduce. Once the wine has been reduced and absorbed by the rice add the oregano and begin to slowly ladle in the stock. Only add one ladle full of stock at a time, stirring constantly and not adding another ladle of stock until the previous one has been absorbed. Continue until the rice is soft. Just before the rice is cooked, add the red peppers and seasoning.

Heat the oven to 200C, place the Camembert (with rind) on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with black pepper. Place in the oven for 2-3 minutes, until the cheese melts.

Place the risotto on warm plates, the Camembert onto the risotto and serve with fresh crusty bread. Yum!

I took a photograph of the one I made last night, mostly because I cant ever seem to get the entire risotto red, like shown on most recipe websites. Excuse the presentation!

If you try this and like it or have any comments or suggestions don't hesitate to leave a comment! (Trying not to beg for at least one comment here lol!)