Sunday 22 August 2010

One week to go......

With only one week left before we fly to Canada for the Fisa Rowing World Masters, training has taken priority over everything else (and my healthy diet has gone out of the window as I am in need of lots of calories right now!).  Training at least once and mostly twice a day does take its' toll and with work being super busy too, I will be relieved when we get to Ontario and can just focus on racing.
So, despite my trying to offer healthy options for our apple harvest, today I decided to treat myself to something a little more indulgent!


Tart Tatin
This may not be the healthiest apple recipe but it is certainly one of the tastiest.  And despite how impressive it looks, it is very simple to make.

50g unsalted butter, diced
100g light muscovado sugar
3-4 eating apples, peeled and cored and thickly sliced
225g puff pastry

             Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.
            Place the butter and sugar in a medium sized ovenproof frying pan and heat slowly to dissolve the sugar.  Raise the heat and let the mixture bubble and caramelise for a few minutes.
       Take the pan off the heat and place the slices of apple in the pan, making a spiral around the outside then working in towards the middle.
        Place the pan back on the heat and cook for another 8-10 minutes while you roll out the pastry.
        Roll the pastry to a circle that is just slightly bigger than your pan.  Take the pan off the heat and place the pastry on top of the apple, tucking the edges inside the pan.
       Cook in the oven for 15-18 minutes until golden then remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
       Turn out using a plate placed over the pan, then turn them both over together.

Saturday 14 August 2010

Harvest Time?

At the beginning of spring this year, my neighbours Colin and Audrey and I decided we would like to have our own, shared allotment.  We got very excited at the prospect of spending sunny Sunday afternoons digging up wonderfully fresh crunchy carrots and picking succulent fruits from the many bushes we would plant.  And then our dreams were shattered......by an eight year waiting list for local allotments!  I am patient, but even I can't wait that long for a good meal!
So we had to resort to our very small gardens - Colin and Audrey were far more focused on the task than I, and experienced the delights of fresh salad leaves, the aforementioned carrots and lots more besides.  I, on the other hand, am still waiting for my tomatoes to turn from emerald green to ruby red!
However, also in our street is Ness, who has a apple tree that is positively straining to hold itself up under the weight of all the apples - and she doesn't cook - what a result!
Colin suggested we should see how many recipes we could make with Ness's apples (don't worry, I will not make you suffer all of them!).  Colin instantly went for the rich, indulgent Apple and Olive Oil Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting from Ottolenghi's first book Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.  As I am trying to avoid both wheat and dairy, my recipes have tended to be a little healthier, but obviously equally delicious!

Summer (wheat and dairy free) Crumble


900g cooking apples, peeled and chopped
2 oranges, segmented
125g strawberries, chopped
1 tbsp honey
100g oats
few fresh mint leaves
25g walnuts
25g cashew nuts
15g hazelnuts
55g light brown sugar
50g coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 180°C/360°F/Gas mark 5.
Place the apples, orange segments and strawberries in a baking dish and spoon over the honey.
Blitz the remaining ingredients in a food processor until you have a crumble mixture.
Spoon over the fruit and bake for 35-45 minutes until golden. 



Ginger Baked Apples

4 cooking apples, cored
3 knobs of stem ginger, diced
2 tbsp of stem ginger syrup
140g Cherry Active dried cherries
45g walnuts
1 tbsp freshly chopped mint leaves
2 tbsp honey

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4.
Place the cored apples into an ovenproof dish.
Mix together the ginger, dried cherries, walnuts and mint then stuff the mixture into the holes of the cored apples, sprinkling the remainder around the apples.
Pour the stem ginger syrup and the honey over the apples then cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes, or until tender.



Sunday 8 August 2010

Another Italian Break

Last weekend I was invited to visit one if the most beautiful areas in Italy - San Gimignano in Tuscany.  Stunning countryside, really friendly people, and obviously most importantly for me, amazing food.
Not only we were spoilt by staying in a converted farmhouse just a (very!) steep stroll down from the gorgeous town of San Gimimgnano, with an enormous kitchen that was once the cow shed (it still had the original eating troughs all along one side of the very large kitchen), but the gardener of the property insisted I visit his allotment for fresh produce - I was in heaven.  From that moment on, nobody else was allowed in the kitchen!  Interestingly everybody was very happy with that arrangement, and couldn't believe that even on holiday I wanted to cook.  What I can't believe is why people don't cook - if you want great food it is the only way (unless you want to eat out at restaurants every night, but even that surely would get boring?!).  My bounty included courgettes topped with brightly coloured flowers, celery, beautiful multicoloured large tomatoes, basil, radicchio, cucumber and  red rose for each of the signoras!  Our own garden was full of apple and plum tress that were dripping with fruit, so plum crumble was also on the menu more than once.
There is one thing that I could not make at home as well as the locals, and that was the local ice-cream at Gelateria dell'olmo - the best I have ever tasted.  Even the dairy-free was so creamy and luscious you would be hard pushed to know the difference (I sampled quite a few........for research purposes obviously!).  I figured my run up the hill and around the town walls every morning allowed me a few tastes of local produce - by the end of the week I realised running around twice may only just about cover it!!