Annie Leibovitz I Ain't

Those of you who have read this blog before, especially at the beginning, might find it hard to believe that there are actually pictures of my food that I deem too bad to use. I take my photos with my phone right before we dig in and I have appalling lighting in my kitchen. I WILL sort myself out soon and get a decent camera, but for now, I've decided that I'd rather post my rather poor excuses for food photography than not post at all.

I nearly didn't post this recipe for rhubarb and apple crumble because I couldn't get a decent picture of it  (I made a mess serving it, bad lighting). Yesterday I made a 6-hour roasted and barbecued piece of belly pork that was probably the best I've ever had, but forgot (yes, forgot!) to take a picture of it on the plate and so will wait til the next time I make it to post it.

This crumble was a special treat for my husband who was sulking because his shiny new laptop that had been due to arrive was stuck in UK customs. Given the sheer scale of his geekiness, it's unlikely that it completely made up for his disappointment, but he certainly didn't mention it after he ate this. All of us agreed that this was my most successful crumble yet and that the rhubarb and apple is a serious winner.

The rhubarb is the first and only harvest we'll be able to get from our juvenile plants this year, so it was important that I make the most of it. The recipe is very simple and I think really makes the most of the rhubarb, which is at the height of its season here at the moment. Not including baking time, this is a quick dish to make and because of its rustic nature, is super, super easy.


 
Best Ever Rhubarb and Apple Crumble
serves 6, takes 90 minutes

4 stalks rhubarb
5 eating apples, such as Braeburn or Gala
1 knob of stem ginger in syrup, finely grated
100g (3.5oz) golden caster sugar
2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

For the topping:
175g (6.2oz)  plain flour
100g cold butter, cut into 1cm dice
30g rolled oats
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 170C (340F)
Cut the rhubarb into pieces approximately 5cm (2") long and peel, core and cut the apples into half-moon slices about 1" thick.

Sprinkle both with the sugar, flour, nutmeg and ginger, then mix well to combine. Leave the bowl to sit for 15 minutes while you prepare the crumble.

Put all of the crumble ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and pulse for 20-30 seconds until you have the texture of coarse breadcrumbs.

Arrange the apples and rhubarb in a baking dish, with the rhubarb at the top. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top in an even layer and then bake for 55-65 minutes, until you have a golden-brown top with a warm, syrupy bubbling around the outside.

Allow the lot to cool for about ten minutes before serving with custard or vanilla ice cream.

*I made a vanilla bean custard, cooled it and then folded in sweetened whipped cream. Holy CUSS! Is there a name for this already or did I just invent the most amazing dessert accompaniment EVER?

Rhubarb Crumble

Eating Apples

Being responsible for the diets of each of your family members is no small feat. Not only do you need to take everybody's likes and dislikes into consideration, you must also make sure that it's nutritionally balanced, varied and interesting, all while staying under budget. I think that we deserve free booze at the end of a grocery shop, as a reward for not giving up entirely or ending up in a clock tower with a semi-automatic weapon.  Free booze would work better for grocery stores than loyalty cards any day.

For me, one of the things I rarely get right is the quantity or selection of fruit that fills the bowl in the kitchen. If I buy two bunches of bananas, six apples and a kilo of grapes one week, All the apples and two bananas might get eaten, leaving the rest to soften and moulder on the counter.
The next week, two bunches of bananas might be gone in three days, while the apples turn dull and mealy. Oranges might be a hit for three weeks, only to inexplicably fall out of favour the very minute I buy three kilos on sale.
It's enough to drive a girl crazy!

One thing that IS nice about having all this left over fruit is that I can usually cook with it in one way or another. Cakes, sauces, crumbles and even chutneys are often thrown together when I know that they're past their eating best, which I think is sometimes why the guys leave it there in the first place. I mean what teenager wouldn't rather eat a piece of apple or banana cake instead of the whole fruit?

This cake is a very subtly spiced caramel apple upside down cake, with apple in the batter too. The spices are really only enough to enhance the mellow brown sugar flavour, rather than strong enough to really taste them, although if you like very cinnamony or nutmeggy apple, feel free to go crazy!

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake
Serves 12, Takes 1 hour, 40 minutes +cooling

8 eating apples, like Gala or Braeburn (whichever is local or in season)
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
about 8 cardamom seeds (out of their pods) crushed in a pestle and mortar
2 tbsp butter, softened
1tsp finely grated orange peel (optional if you don't have a fruit bowl full of oranges..)

250g (8.8oz)unsalted butter, softened
250g golden caster sugar
250g self raising flour (or plain flour with 1tsp baking powder)
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Turn your oven on to 170C (340F) and butter and line the inside of a 22cm (9") square or round cake tin.
Peel, quarter and core 5 of the apples and slice into sorta half-moon shape slices.
Mix the softened butter, spices, orange peel and the pinch of salt together in a large, heat-proof bowl. Toss the apples into this mixture to coat well. I put my bowl into a wok with filled-halfway with boiling water to help melt the sugar, butter and spices well and coat the apples nicely. You don't have to worry about dissolving the sugar, that will happen in the oven.
Tip the apples and sugar mixture into the cake tin and press to make an even layer. If you want to be fancy, you could lay them out in a pretty pattern, but I was making this cake just before midnight, so there was no cussing way I was about to do that.

Peel the remaining 3 apples and grate the flesh off all the way down to the core, then put the grated apple in a colander and set aside for a few minutes while you:

Cream the 250g of butter and the caster sugar together for several minutes until pale and fluffy, then beat the eggs in one at a time, mixing each in well before adding the next.

Squeeze out as much of the excess liquid as you can from the grated apples, then add them to the butter/sugar/eggs mixture, stirring just enough to combine well.
This mixture will look rather curdled and unattractive, but fear not, it will be fine.
Sift in the flour and baking powder, stir well and then add the vanilla. Don't work the batter more than you need to, as you'll toughen the flour. Tip the batter in over the top of the apples and spread into an even layer, with a bit of a crater in the centre to compensate for rising.
Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely before turning out (unless you want hot brown syrup running everywhere...)

I sprinkled the top with a little coarse cane sugar before I cut it but to be honest, it didn't add anything, so I'd leave it off next time.
Apple Cake

Offally Good Surf and Turf

Given that my husband is an annoyingly picky eater, it came as a bit of a surprise when we discovered that he really likes black pudding. The first time we went to Thomas Keller's Bouchon in Las Vegas was on the evening of our wedding (yes, we got married in Vegas) and Drew ordered the boudin noir with caramelized apples and pommes puree. I was convinced that he wouldn't like it, but he enjoyed it so much, he ordered it on two subsequent visits, which I think is an insane thing to do when you're presented with other such amazing dishes....
Black pudding isn't something we tend to buy very often, but whenever we come across a nice looking one at a farmers' market we'll snap it up. Last weekend, at the farmers' market in Newbury, Oxfordshire pork farmers Eadles had some beautiful stuff on display, including a lovely bit of black pudding that Drew quickly grabbed.

Often, I'll cook it as a part of a full English breakfast or similar but tonight I thought I'd something similar to his favourite dish with the caramelized apples and potatoes but with a few tweaks.
It seems that these days, whenever you see black pudding on a gastro-pub menu, it's been paired with scallops. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I mean they're a lovely pairing of tender and sweet with more dense and earthy but I wanted to try something a little different.

A prawn cake sounded like a nice idea to me, as well as a spring colcannon made with spinach instead of kale or cabbage. I used an eating apple (Cox) to garnish, as cooking apples disintegrate too easily. A Braeburn, Gala or Jazz would work very well.

It goes without saying that the quality of ingredients is hugely important. This is not the time for Tesco Value black pudding (but then, when IS the time for Tesco Value ?) And it's important not to use prawns which are already cooked. Save your prawn shells and freeze them for later use in stocks or sauces.

Black Pudding with Prawn Cakes, Caramelized Apples and Spring Colcannon
Serves 2, takes 1 hour or a little more

300g (10.5oz) free range black pudding
1 tbsp olive oil

For the Prawn Cakes:
250g uncooked prawns, shelled and deveined
large handful rocket, (arugula) chopped
1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp coarse, panko-style bread crumbs
1 egg white

For the Colcannon:
400g good mashing potatoes, such as Accent or Desiree
100g fresh spinach, washed
pinch, freshly grated nutmeg
2 tbsp butter
100 ml cream
50 ml milk (approx)
salt and pepper to taste

For the Apples:
1 nice eating apple, peeled peeled and cored, cut into 8ths
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Put all of the ingredients for the prawn cakes except for the breadcrumbs into a food processor and pulse a few times until just chopped and combined, but not a smooth paste, tip into a bowl and stir in the breadcrumbs.
Put a sheet of cling film on a baking tray, then smear the inside of a 5cm (2") ring mould or cookie cutter* with a little oil and set it on the cling film. Spoon 2 level tbsp of the prawn mixture into the mould and spread out evenly. Lift the mould and repeat 7 more times until you have 8 small, round patties on the sheet. Refrigerate these while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Peel the potatoes and boil in a pan of liberally salted water for 12-17 minutes, until tender to the tip of a knife, then drain completely and set aside until cooled a little then put them through a ricer.

While the potatoes are boiling, cook the black pudding and the apples.

Remove the casing from the black pudding and slice off eight pieces about half an inch thick.
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a moderate heat and fry the black pudding for 2-3 minutes per side, until slightly crusty/crunchy around the edges and well browned. Move to a plate and keep warm in a low oven.

Meanwhile, heat a small frying pan over a medium heat and sprinkle the sugar into the pan. When the sugar begins to go golden brown, add the butter and stir well, then add the apple pieces. Cook the apple in the caramel for a few minutes before tossing to turn over and cook all over. When just tender, tip into a bowl and put in the warm oven with the black pudding.

Put a little butter in the large frying pan that you cooked the black pudding in and heat over a medium flame. When the butter and residual oil is nice and hot cook the prawn cakes for a couple of minutes until golden brown on one side, then turn over and finish on the second side.

While the prawn cakes are cooking, melt the 2 tbsp of butter over a medium heat with the salt and pepper and the nutmeg. Once the butter has melted, add the spinach and stir in well until soft and wilted, then add in the riced potatoes and stir in the cream. Stir the mixture well, adding enough of the milk to make a soft but not sloppy mixture. Test for seasoning, then serve the prawn cakes and black pudding with a spoonful of the colcannon and the caramelized apples.

*You don't NEED to use a mould, you can just form roughly round patties with teaspoons or your fingers dipped in cold water.

Black Pudding