Toffee Apple Crumble

Oh my, this might just the best thing I have eaten all winter. I am not usually a huge fan of desserts, and particularly those stick-to-your-bones, winter warming desserts so many people love in the cold weather but the flavours in this crumble are unbelievable morish. A dessert, perfect for february when local produce is running low and pickings are thin at the farmers markets. Waiting for spring to arrive with its new season rhubarb and asparagus isn't quite so hard with recipes like this at your fingertips. Rich caramel brings out the best in the apples and a little oatmeal in the topping adds extra crunch and nuttiness to the crumble, all that is missing is a jug of thin cream to drizzle over.

Toffee Apple Crumble

100ml water

225g granulated sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
30g butter
1kg apples, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
250g blackberries or other berries

75g plain flour
100g oatmeal
150g butter
150g sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4

To prepare the toffee apples, put the water and sugar, syrup and butter into a saucepan and heat till simmering.  Reduce the heat after the sugar has melted and add the apples and cook, stirring gently, until just soft. Put the apple mixture into an ovenproof dish, dot with blackberries and set aside.

To make the crumble, rub the flour, butter and sugar together in a bowl with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir through the oatmeal then sprinkle the crumble evenly over the toffee apple mixture and bake in the oven for 20mins, or until golden and bubbling,

Serve with a drizzle of cream or custard.

Late Summer Meals in Ten Minutes or Less

This post should be labelled Very Late Recipes for Summer... I've been thinking about it for weeks now... Does your day-to-day cooking need a shake-up? Mine really does, I feel like I have started to rely on a few recipes for my weekday family food and I am getting bored and stuck in a rut. I've spent the last couple of weeks combing my notebooks, scraps of paper with ideas written on, cookbooks with yellow sticky notes popping out the top and have tried to come up with a week of fresh new ideas.

This blog is less formal recipe - more a bit of inspiration and some fresh ideas to bounce around the kitchen. There is a big myth about eating well that it has to take a lot of thought to shop for and ages to prepare... This is my next week's worth of dinners: I'll add some salad and crusty bread and hopefully these will feed a famished family after a day in the late summer sun.

• Tomato Bread Salad (pictured above) - sprinkle some cubes of day old crusty bread with a few glugs of olive oil and put them in the oven to crisp while you throw a salad together of fresh tomatoes, cucumber, red onions, basil and feta cheese. Top with the croutons and toss with a vinegarette of olive oil, salt and pepper and red wine vinegar. Defininitely substantial enough for a main course. You can also throw everything but the feta in a blender and make a mean gazpacho, top it with the crumbled feta to make it a little more filling.

• Take a bag of fresh mussels, throw in a big pot with a glass of white wine, two chopped fresh tomatoes and a pinch of chilli flakes. Bring to the boil and steam until the mussels are open. Sprinkle with parsley and serve over spaghetti.

• Open up some good quality sausage skins (I used spicy pork) with scissors, stir-fry the meat a couple of minutes till cooked through. Add a glug of cream, a tablespoon of mustard and bubble for a minute or two. Serve over a baked potato with a green salad on the side. 

• Cook up a big pan of scrambled eggs, season with salt and pepper. While they are cooking, chop a salad of  fresh tomato, feta or grated cheddar cheese and fresh chilli. Serve the eggs and salad on a wrap topped with a little sour cream and coriander. 

• Take some giant Portabello mushrooms, top with blue cheese and a drizzle of cream. Grill for a few minutes until golden and served ontop thick toast to soak up the lovely juices.

• Open a tin of cannelinni beans, toss with some crushed garlic, the juice of a lemon, a glug of olive oil and some freshly chopped parsley...  then dollop on some crusty bread and top with a little smoked salmon.

• Cook pasta bows and toss with with good pesto, peas and parmesan... ooh and you can add some cooked prawns for added protein.

• Mackerel pate - blitz in a blender a pack of cooked peppered mackerel fillets, a 250g tub of cream cheese and the juice of a lemon. Spread the pate on toast and serve with cornichons, pickled onions and a side salad. 

• In a pan, throw a packet of instant noodles, cook for a few minutes in chicken or vegetable stock then stir in a tablespoon of Tom Yam paste (Thai spicy soup paste) and half a bag of baby spinach leaves then bubble for a minute or two until the leaves have wilted. Toss in a handful of cooked chicken or prawns if you have some lying around.