Posts Tagged With: bardsey apples

Windfall Apple and Oat Crumble – Simple Autumn Classic

Posted on October 3, 2015 by leroy watson

Windfall Apple and Oat Crumble

So the leaves are all turning burnt gold, auburn, crimson and the morning are crisp with deep powder blue skies. I love this time of year, wandering through dried leaves, staring into fires, wrapping up, rediscovering the delights of sloe gin and big, bombastic bakes!

Desserts or otherwise, its time to wake the oven up, it tends to be underused in the summer months and dust off our oven dishes. Autumn and winter mean we need warm hugs and serious sustenance in our bowls/ plates. It’s something of a survival mechanism and certainly leads to oodles of well-being. Cosy soul food!

Nothing says autumn more than the first crumble of the year. Your body knows what’s coming, the dark and windy time when we crave large plates of stodgy happiness to warm our wintery bones. We are enjoying a beautiful September up here on Tiger Mountain, but the nights are getting a bit chilly and crumble is the perfect antidote. Easing us into this time of year in the tastiest of ways.

Crumble’s beauty lie in their simplicity and the way they gobble up our autumn fruity abundance. This recipe is beautifully basic and can be taken in so many directions with addition of other fruits (think blackberries, damsons, mulberries, dried fruits etc) or flavourings (like elderflower, orange blossom, I’ve even tried a tahini and apple crumble which was a treat). Adding chocolate to a crumble has been tried and works like a dream. This recipe is a lovely foundation to add to as you see fit.

ORCHARD DREAMS

We are setting out a little orchard in the garden. The trees are young (bar our ancient looking plum tree and windswept crab apple) and normally offer scant fruit. My Snowdonia Pear Tree, a juvenile, was unceremoniously beheaded by a storm recently. Its tough going for saplings in these parts! Our little Bardsey Apple tree however is a rugged super star, branches laden every year with tart and juicy, vivid green apples. Not such great eaters (too much of a twang) but perfect when cooked. These apples were actually all windfall, saved from the fate of an army of slugs that camp out and descend like slimy vultures on any fruit that hits the deck.

APPLE ABUNDANCE

What to do with all those apples? If your, family members, neighbours, avid scrumpers know of an apple tree, I’m sure you’re asking yourself the same thing. Here are few little ideas for all those surplus apples:

Make a Tart Tatin (see below)
Cook into apple sauce and use on desserts and breakfast bowls. Apple sauce is also wonderful in baking, it helps to bind cakes etc together.
Make your own Apple Cider Vinegar or Apple and Mint Vinegar
Make Apple Vodka, Whiskey or Gin by steeping the apples in alcohol.
Try a Apple and Ginger Smoothie or Apple and Kale Juice
Add slices to pancakes and bread (works brilliantly with rye or spelt flours)
They make a great Raita
Chop them up and mix them into your muesli/ granola/ sprouted grains etc for breakfast.
Make Apple and Plum Chutney
Make Beetroot and Apple Sauerkraut or add to your favourite Kimchi recipe (there’s a nice one in Peace and Parsnips
Add them to stews, salads or soups
Spread them out somewhere, preferably on cardboard and keep them for as long as possible. Crunch and yum!
Make cider.

ALL APPLES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

When cooking with apples its worth tasting one first. They can be so varied and this is what I love about them. They are surely one of the finest things we grow in the UK and our traditional varieties offer up a fascinating and varied palate of flavours and textures to play with in the kitchen; some are flowery in texture and sweet, some crisp and tangy, we just need to find them the right home. I have to say that the best way to eat a good apple is to give it a little polish on our trousers or jumper (why do we do that?) and crunch into it. I like to eat the core and seeds as well.

Making this pud into a pure plant-based pleasure is a cinch, you’re really just substituting the butter in the traditional crumble with oil and some flax seeds, which offer a lovely nutty flavour and help to give the crumble a little bite and oodles of nutrition. I am also not great at using large scoops of sugar, I need gentle persuasion. You can probably make this with other sweeteners, but for once in the BHK, we’re going (almost) traditional.

Crumble is oh so simple but surprisingly many are still not great. Being too sweet or having a dry, floury crumble are two cardinal sins of crumble-hood. I like a nutty, crisp crumble. This is why crumble is always enjoyed best straight out of the oven. The longer its left, the more time for the crumble to loose its magic crunch. I like to add nuts and flax seeds to add even more flavour and bite. To avoid just a mouthful of floury sweetness, I like oats bound with a little flour. Simple pleasures are always the best!

So grab a fireplace, a large spoon and a nice crisp autumn night and enjoy this true British classic.

Recipe Notes

You can use gluten free flour and oats to side step gluten here.

The amount of sugar you will need depends on your apples. Ours are very sharp, so we went for 90g. Jane has a sweet tooth (see above) and was very pleased with the sweetness level with that amount.

Crumble is amazingly adaptable, make it well in advance or make a large batch of apple sauce and use for other purposes (see above). Crumbles also freeze brilliantly.

I don’t like going ott with cinnamon, I just like it somewhere in the background. Not a main player in a crumble. Add more if your a spicy crumbler.

Enough frivolity, lets crumble!!!!!!

The Bits

Apples

950g apples

60-100g light brown sugar (unrefined)

3 tbs water

1/2 – 1 teas cinnamon

Crumble

100g oats

20g flax seeds (ground)

75g mixed nuts (roughly chopped)

30g light brown sugar (unrefined)

70ml rapeseed/ olive oil

1 teas cinnamon

20g buckwheat/ wholemeal flour

Do It

In a saucepan, add all of the ingredients for the apples. Bring to a gentle boil and cook for 20 mins with a lid on or until the apples are tender and just falling apart.

Mix all of the crumble ingredients together in a bowl. Preheat oven to 200oC.

In a baking dish (approx 10″ by 8″), spoon in the apple sauce and sprinkle over the crumble mix until there is a nice thick layer.

Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, until the crumble is a dark golden colour and the apple sauce is bubbling away.

The Prequel (?) - Windfall Apple and Oat Crumble with lashings of custard

Serve

We had ours with custard. Mainly because we don’t have any ice cream in the freezer. If we had ice cream, I am sure there would have been a long debate about which way to go. Which way do you go? The timeless question. I think it depends on how the stars are aligned (or something). PS – It must be vanilla ice cream. Of course. Anything else would be utterly ridiculous.

Beach walking off all that crumble - Dinas Dinlle, near Anglesey

Foodie Fact

Crumble is food of the Gods and makes you happy:)

Categories: Desserts, Foraging, gluten-free, Recipes, Vegan, Wales | Tags: apple, autumn, baking, bardsey apples, crumble, dairy free, thebeachhousekichen, vegetarian | 9 Comments

Bardsey Island Apple and Plum Chutney plus the Tale of Johnny Appleseed

Posted on September 17, 2014 by leroy watson

Bardsey Island Apple and Plum Chutney

Its that time of year in the Beach House garden, when you step outside, you’ll probably find some form of fruit landing on your head. Its raining fruit! Jane very sensibly converted a load of our plums and apples into small pots of gorgeous chutney, I have to say my favourite bit is the label, all hand designed. Family and friends, may we introduce you to your Christmas pressie! Chutney bubbling is such a British autumnal pursuit, it seems heavily engrained in our consciousness, we were born here; on this fare island to conserve and pickle at will, then spread it all on a seeded cracker…….with a brew (cuppa tea).

Mum bought me a Bardsey Apple tree for my birthday back in May. We are preparing a rockery out the back for it to live, but it has thrived this summer after missing the storms and gales that robbed the blossom from our more established apple trees. Bardsey apple trees are very special, all can be traced back to the ‘Mother’ tree on Bardsey Island, off the rocky tip of the Llyn Peninsula (the eyebrow of Wales when you look on the map). The Llyn is like Devon or Cornwall 20 years ago, especially the North Coast and Jane and I love to camp over there on the beaches and do some seal watching (they’re massive and quite sociable). The Llyn is a special place and all roads over there lead to the mythical Barsdesy Island. I wrote an article on my other blog about it, Bardsey Island – Island of 20,000 Saints and there is plenty of info here about Ian Sturrock and his single handed resurrection of the Bardsey apple tree. Ian discovered it growing beside an old house on the isolated outpost and ancient pilgrimage site. After testing the tree, he realised that it was completely unique, nothing like it in the world. Since then Ian has grafted and grown probably thousands of the trees and exports them as far a field as the U.S. and Japan. It amazing to think that we are eating almost extinct apples!

The original Bardsey ‘Mother’ Tree

The Bardsey Apples themselves are succulent and golden and a very good ‘all rounder’. They go great in a pie and a have a lovely sweet and sour twang to them, nice crunch too. Our little tree has done a great job this year, its young branches heavy laden with apples for most of the summer, it has even survived the regular gales we get up here (even in summer!), Jane and I have had to pick it up a few times after finding it blown across the front garden! Proper gales up here on Tiger Hill!!!!

Other than the apples, this year has seen a bumper crop for fruits of all varieties. I have never seen or tasted blackberries like it, huge and super sweet and fragrant. Our plum tree has gone made, its branches full of plums, reminding me of an abundant Mediterranean grape harvest, not a craggy, long suffering plum tree cowering behind a dry stone wall. Add to that a huge raspberry harvest earlier in the year and from a fruity perspective, we’ve had a ball!!!!

I’m not sure how Jane dreamt this chutney up, we have been experimenting whenever we have gluts of things in Spain and Wales. Whatever happened in the pan, it worked, this chutney is well balanced between sweet and sour and had gorgeous occasional chunky surprises like the soft raisins or a lump of plum.

Good organic apples are essential here as apples grown non-organically are normally treated with high levels of pesticides which you cannot get rid off, even after a good rub on your jumper. Heres an article we wrote about the ‘The Dirty Dozen’ – The 12 worst foods to buy non-organic, not exactly a light read, but worthy information that we regularly incorporate into our fruit and veg foraging escapades. Organic apples also have a habit of tasting loads better. As usual, we are lucky sorts, having a bumper crop down at Trigonos has also meant that we can keep things local this year. I absolutely love apples and Judy’s Discovery’s are up there with some of the tastiest, crunchiest apples I’ve ever scoffed.

I think its probably worth making this all organic actually, especially if your giving it to loved ones as a gift (that seems to be what we end up doing with chutneys and jams). Our bodies love organic food and non-organic food puts serious pressure on our digestive systems, liver and kidneys, to try and deal with the poison. Its a strong word I know, but pesticide is undoubtedly a poison and when we eat non-organic, we have to deal with it somehow. We fully appreciate that unless you are rather wealthy, very devoted or have an organic small holding/ farm, being 100% organic in life is a tall order. We are mainly organic and there is something intangibly wonderful about starting the day with a 100% pure organic juice/ smoothie. It probably all in the mind, but I am (almost) literally floating around the place after one of those beauts, charged with energy, it certainly cleans out your tubes.

Our little Bardsey Tree (thanks Mum!) – Awaiting a proper home in the back garden

If you live anywhere near a farm or even better, someone with an orchard, knock on their door with a hefty chocolate cake and get into some gentle chatter about how you enjoy apples and wondered if they liked cake. Trade could happen and you may end up with bags filled with proper apples to make into things, eat whole or have a go at Apple Hooch (basically crush or juice the apples, leave in a clean bucket with a light covering and taste after a week, then everyday after that. Eventually it will ferment and become alcoholic and you have just made the easiest and probably one of the healthiest forms of booze known to humankind.)

You can buy pickling spice from most shops, even the supermarkets have it. If you are just making this as a one off, you can use roughly 1/2 teas of the following whole spices (namely, not ground): coriander, cloves, mustard, dried ginger, chillies, all spice and wrap them in a bit of muslin. If you don’t have them all, add a little more of the others although I would go easy on the cloves and all spice unless you love ’em dearly.

If your planning on keeping this chutney for a while you will need very clean jars. We keep a stash in the garage, a decent jar for us is a real gift! Janes method of jar sterilising works every time and we regularly keep chutneys for months without any obvious microbial issues.

Big BHK Love to all happy chutney bubblersX

Gorgeous plum-age

The Bits – 8 Medium Jars

750g tomatoes (peeled and chopped)

500g apples (hopefully from a local tree – chopped into small chunks)

120g Onions (chopped)

400g plums (stones removed)

15g pickling spice (tied in a muslin bag)

15g mustard

10g salt

150ml apple cider vinegar

110g sultanas

130g light brown sugar (unrefined)

Some of the lovely assembled bits

Do It

Put tomatoes, onions and apple into a pan and stir, on medium heat, until they start to soften. Add a little water to stop it sticking if you need to. Then wrap the pickling spice in a muslin bag and add to the mixture, stirring as it simmers.

Blend the mustard and salt with a little vinegar and stir it into the mixture. When the ingredients have softened add the sultanas, sugar and remaining vinegar.

Continue to simmer, stirring often until you have a thick smooth chutney.

Chutney bubbling

While that is going on, sterilise your jars. Give them all a good wash in hot soapy water, rinse and dry. Put your jars on a baking tray and place in an oven, turn on the heat to 180oC. Leave for 10 minutes and then pop in the lids (make sure the’ye not plastic!) and leave to warm up for between 5-10 minutes. Remove them and leave to cool for 5 minutes.

The jars will still be hot so use a kitchen cloth to handle them. Pack the chutney into the hot jars, wiping away any spillages around the lip. Screw the lid on tightly, pressing the ‘button’ down on top. This should make an airtight seal as the chutney cools. Store for 2 months or longer before opening. If you can resist its fruity charms!

Serve

Chutneys go with almost anything, but we found that this went like a dream with home-made loaf toast, or a breakfast pan-bread. Try it on the side with salads, or generously lathered on crackers with fresh sliced tomatoes and salad leaves as a midday snack! We have also paired this chutney, with great success, with a Goan style curry (one with tamarind/ lemon in to make it a little tarty). Bascially, you’ll find any excuse to eat this type of chutney!

We Love it!

Sweet and sour, can be eaten at anytime of day on almost anything, we can find little to not like about chutney, especially when its falling from trees! Money does not grow on trees, but chutney does and it tastes alot nicer than a fiver (that’s 5 British pounds).

Danger – Plums falling!

Foodie Fact

“An apple (or two) a day……..”

Apples are part of the rose family, a surprisingly comprehensive family of fruits and nuts including almonds, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, pears and….roses.

We all know that apples are beautifully sweet, but this does not mean that the sugar is doing us harm. Apple contain phyto-nutrients that actually regulate our blood sugar levels. Apples have good levels of fibre, but due to the unique mix of chemicals within apples, this decent level of fibre is transformed into benefits that would normally be associated with foods containing vastly higher levels of fibre (long winded description, but cool non-the-less!) Apples also allow us to absorb more goodness from our foods in the large intestines. Apples do contain vitamin C, but not loads, they do however boast a load of polyphenols (which actually act as a sunscreen and are the main reason why apples brown so easily) and most of these chemicals acts as strong antioxidants. Regular munching of apples will also lower bad cholesterol.

JOHNNY APPLESEED

The coolest story we know about apples is that of Johnny Appleseed (aka Johnny Chapman) who lived in the U.S. in the 1800’s. He spent a large portion of his life wandering barefoot around the country, some say 100,000 sq kilometres, sowing apple seeds as he went which provided early settlers with food. He was a generous and caring nurseryman who placed huge significance on the symbolism of the apple and conservation of nature. Folk who plant many trees and conserve nature are surely worth remembering, in our eyes they are the real heroes.