Crab Apple Fruit Cheese

Photo courtesy of Photography by Sadiq

Fruit cheese is similar to quince paste and can be made using the leftover pulp from crab apple jelly. Because apples are high in pectin the purée sets like cheese after cooking for a long period over high heat. A lovely condiment on crackers served with cheese and pickled onions. The best part is it keeps for several months and a nice little gift for friends and family round Christmas time.

5kg crab apples
granulated sugar
1 lemon

METHOD:
Put apples in a large heavy-base pot and add water until apples are just covered. Place pot over a  high heat and bring to the boil. Once boiling cook for about 20 minutes until apples are mushy. Line a large colander strainer with muslin then place strainer over a large bowl or pot, pour the apples into the strainer. Leave apples to cool, then cover strainer with chopping board and stand for 8 hours or overnight (with the apple liquid in the pot you can make crab apple jelly using the recipe above). Pass mushy apples through a fine sieve and discard the seeds and skin. Weigh the apple pure and add equal amount of sugar to a heavy-based pot. Squeeze in the lemon juice and stir all ingredients together, place pot over a medium-heat and bring to a boil. Once bubbling, turn the heat down slightly and stir every 5 minutes. After about 45 minutes of cooking the fruit cheese should be glossy and clumping together, remove from heat.

Cut about 8-10 square pieces of muslin cloth 20x20cm. To wrap the fruit cheese place a piece of muslin cloth in a tea cup and scoop a couple of large spoonfuls of fruit cheese into cup. Tie the four corners of cloth together making a nice neat ball. Repeat with remaining fruit cheese and line the fruit cheese along one half of a large tray. Place tray in a cool, dark place and prop a small plate under the side of the tray the fruit cheese is on. This will let the remaining unwanted liquid strain away from the fruit cheese and you should get a more firm set fruit cheese. Leave for 3 days, after which you can unravel as needed for consumption.

Pork-Belly Strudel with Cox Apples, Cobnuts and Savoy Cabbage

Photo courtesy of Photography by Sadiq

Once again I'm hooked on The Great British Bake Off, wherein a few weeks ago there was an episode on pastry and the technical challenge was to make apple strudel. I'd forgotten how difficult this was to make, even Mary Berry one of the judges confessed to buying pre-made filo pastry instead. However, I was so inspired by the challenge I decided to freshen up on my strudel baking. It took me nearly 2 weeks to perfect my pastry but after a lot of tweaking I think I've devised the perfect recipe and technique. You can, of course, use pre-made filo however. Or if ambitious, I suggest you to watch YouTube videos on how to roll strudel pastries.

For the filling I've used produce that is predominantly best during autumn such as cox apples, savoy cabbage and fresh cobnuts. These ingredients also go very well with my personal favorite pork-belly.
So act out your best Swedish chef impersonation and lycklig (Swedish for happy) baking.

Pastry:
350g strong flour
55g salted butter
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
150ml cold water
1 egg
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon bread crumbs
100g melted butter

Filling:
500g pork belly
200ml apple juice
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

4 cox apples
25g butter
1 tablespoon caster sugar

1 savoy cabbage
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
20 fresh cobnuts

METHOD:
Place pork in baking tray and pour over apple juice and olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Wrap tray with foil and place in oven set at 160ºC for 1 hour 20 minutes. Once cooked, leave to cool then shred the meat.

In a electric mixer with dough hook place flour, cubed butter, sugar and salt, beat together until butter has fully incorporated with flour. Add vinegar, water, egg and beat together for about 20 minutes. Brush a large piece of cling film with olive oil and scrap out pastry dough onto cling film and wrap. Leave pastry to rest for 1 hour.

Peel apples and remove core then slice into 1cm thick pieces, line a baking try with parchment paper and lay out apples. Break butter up into smaller bits place around apples, sprinkle with sugar and place in 160ºC oven with pork for 20 minutes.

Slice cabbage in half and cut out the core, then cut cabbage into 2cm slices. Put a large pot over a high heat and add olive oil, when oil is hot add cabbage and salt, cook for about 7-10 minutes until cabbage has fully wilted. Place a strainer over the sink and pour in the cabbage to remove any excess liquid.

Brush or spray a large clean bench or table with oil, then line the entire surface with parchment paper. Sprinkle working surface and rolling pin with a little flour, unwrap pastry and place in the middle of bench and dust the top with extra flour. Start rolling pastry out as flat as possible working your way round the bench to get an even and flat pastry, make sure there are no tears in the pastry. Dust with a little extra flour as you go, once you've stretched the dough as much as you can by rolling, leave pastry to rest for 10 minutes. Flour your hands and gently slide the knuckle side of your hands under pastry. By spreading your fingers and knuckles ever so gently, stretch the pastry and avoid getting any rips. I try to stretch pastry over the working bench edges, the weight of the pastry hanging over the counter helps to stretch the dough. Once the majority of the pastry is translucent brush gently with half of the melted butter and scatter over bread crumbs. Leave pastry to rest for a further 10 minutes. After resting, trim the thicker edges and make a rectangle shape out of the pastry. Then give pastry one last stretch and trim once more.

Lay cabbage down one end of the pastry and top with apples, shredded pork and shelled cobnuts then season with salt and pepper. Brush the pastry edges with extra butter. Starting at the end of the pastry with filling, gently lift parchment paper and roll pastry down the bench creating a cylinder cigar shape. Holding both ends of the parchment paper, carefully lift the strudel onto a baking tray, trim the parchment paper and tuck the ends under strudel. Brush strudel with butter and place in oven set at 180ºC for 40 minutes. After baking for 20 minutes brush with more butter. Once cooked pastry should be crisp and no soggy bottoms, leave to rest for 15 minutes before slicing into 6-8 pieces.

Monkfish Curry with Wild Cabbage and Worcester Apples

Photo courtesy of Photography by Sadiq

This dish is based on my favorite fish curry recipes, I discovered a lovely recipe for monkfish curry in one of Skye Gyngell's cookbooks. It's not often I follow someone else's recipe, however I do love the way Skye cooks and her books are wonderful. Until she left Petersham Nurseries, it was my favorite restaurant in London and to overcome my withdrawals since she's left, I've been delving into her books.

This version of Skye's monkfish curry is served with peppery foraged wild cabbage. I've also added worcester apples which are currently in season and brown shrimp to balance out the sweet and tart of the apples—a lovely alternative to rice and bread.

800g monkfish sliced into 2cm chunks
400ml coconut milk
400g canned plum tomatoes
1 red onion
25g butter
1 small bunch coriander with roots
3 cloves garlic
2 red chillies
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 lime

1 wild cabbage
8 worcester apples
60g brown shrimp
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil

METHOD:
Peel and thinly slice the onion, put butter in a large heavy-based pot and place over a low-medium heat to melt. Add the onion and cook gently until onion softens and turns translucent. Place a small fry pan over a medium heat and add the fennel seeds, coriander seeds and mustard. Lightly toast the seeds until fragrant, remove from heat and ground into a rough powder using mortar and pestle then add to onions. Peel and crush the garlic, dice the chillies, finely slice the roots of the coriander and add all three ingredients to the onion along with fish sauce, palm sugar, torn kaffir leaves and juice of the lime. Turn heat up to medium and cook for 5 minutes, add the plum tomatoes and turn heat up until sauce is just bubbling. Cover pot with lid and turn heat down slightly, cook for 20 minutes, stirring periodically.

Cut the apples into quarters and lay over baking tray then drizzle with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Place apples in oven set at 180ºC for 15 minutes. Remove the large stalk base of the wild cabbage, wash the leaves and slice into 2cm width strips. Place a large pot with lid over a high heat and add a good dash of olive oil, once hot cook the wild cabbage with a good pinch of salt (you may need to do this in 2 batches). When the cabbage is cooked it should have wilted and be a vibrant green colour and still slightly crisp along the center stalky center, not black.

Once the sauce has cooked, add coconut milk and turn up the heat slightly, when the sauce is just simmering stir in the monkfish and remove from heat. Leave to stand for about 4-5 minutes, the heat of the sauce should be enough to cook the fish, making it tender and soft.
Serve the fish curry over a bed of wild cabbage and cooked apples, garnish with brown shrimps and torn coriander leaves.

Apple, Celery, and Curry Muffins

Here's another savoury muffin variety that smells amazing when baking. I have to concentrate and make sure my mouth is closed when these start to bake as I tend to dribble (not a pretty sight). Now the days are getting shorter and apple season is apon us this is a novel way of using apples in a savoury treat. The ultimate comfort snack.

450g plain flour
100g salted butter
2 eggs
100ml milk
100ml butter milk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon curry powder
70g grated cheddar
1 large stick celery
1 bramley apple
Small handful coriander leaves chopped
Cracked pepper

METHOD:
Melt butter and leave to cool slightly, place flour, baking powder, soda, curry powder and a good cracking of pepper into a large mixing bowl and roughly combine. Peel the apple and grate then add to the dry ingredients along with the cheese and coriander, stir till apple is coated in flour. Wash the celery stick and slice into 4 lengthways then roughly dice into small cubes, add to the mixing bowl.
Beat the eggs into butter and fold into dry mixture along with buttermilk and milk. Using a butter knife cut the dry and wet ingredients together gradually till just under combined. Grease a 12 hold muffin pan with either spray oil or butter and evenly spoon the mixture into pan. Bake muffin at 180oC for 25 minutes till golden brown, once cooked leave to stand in pan for 10 minutes before removing.

Jonogold Apple Salad with Mature Cheddar and Valencia Dressing

I was going to publish my lamb salad recipe next but seeing as its not healthy I decided to type up another of this weeks highlight. I'm sure you've had too much roast and chocolate this long weekend anyway.  
Jonogold or Jonagold apples are a cross between golden delicious and blush crimson varieties of apples they have a crisp, tart and juicy texture and great pickled and served with aged cheddar and drizzling of sweet orange dressing.

4 jonogold apples
1 red onion
100ml white wine vinegar
100ml water
50g sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
2 cloves garlic
1 dried red chilli
2 valencia oranges
1 tablespoon dijon
100ml vegetable oil
100ml extra virgin olive oil
200g unpasteurized mature cheddar
50g walnut halves
70g rocket washed

METHOD:
Peel the red onion and garlic, slice into circles and place in a large pot with vinegar, water, sugar, salt, bay, peppercorns and chilli.
Put the pot over a high heat and bring to the boil, in the mean time slice the apples into 8's and cut out the core. Once the liquid is boiling add the apples and cook for 2 minutes and remove from heat and leave to cool.
To make the dressing measure out 100ml of the pickling liquid used to cook the apples and place in a sauce pan with the juice of valencia oranges.
Put the sauce pan over a high heat and boil till the liquid reduces to a sticky honey like syrup. Place the reduction in a food processor with mustard and blend together for 1 minute then start to pour in the vegetable oil bit by bit followed by slowly pouring in the olive oil. The dressing should resemble a orange translucent mayonnaise.
Finally cut the cheese into 1cm cubes then its time to construct the salad. Lay out half the rocket over a serving platter followed by half the apple piece with bits of the onion and garlic as well. Then break up some walnuts in your hand and scatter over the salad followed by some cubes of cheddar, finally a drizzle of dressing and repeat the layer and serve soon as possible.

Bramley and Calvados Muffins

Bramley apples are excellent for cooking with and retains most of its nutrition even after cooking. However nutritional value is canceled out in these muffins because they are cooked in a swanky french apple based brandy. Best eaten hot with butter and a cardiac arrest.

450g plain flour
200g golden caster sugar
100g unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50ml butter milk
100ml milk
50ml calvados plus extra for brushing
2 bramley apples
1 cinnamon stick

METHOD:
Cut the apples into quarters and remove the core then cut the apples into 1cm cubes and place in a small sauce pan with cinnamon stick and calvados, place over a low heat and cook till the apple is just tender, remove from heat and cool. Melt the butter and stand to cool for a few minutes, in a large mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda then roughly blend together. Add the buttermilk, vanilla, apples (discard the cinnamon stick) with liquid. Beat the eggs into the butter and add to the mixing bowl along with milk and using a butter knife cut through the wet and dry combining together till just under combined. Grease a 12 hold muffin pan and evenly divide the mixture between the pan and sprinkle the tops of the muffins with a little extra sugar and bake in preheated oven set at 180oC for 25 minutes. Once cooked brush the tops of the muffins with calvados and leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Baked Beans

If you've ever wondered what real baked beans are then here's a hearty tasty and orginal verson of the Heinze institute. Use butter beans as they give a lovely fluffy velvet texture and serve with loads of fresh coriander. 

410g can chopped tomatoes

400g can butter beans

1 brown onion

1 apple

1 clove garlic

1 sm knob ginger

1 sm bunch fresh coriander

4 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup water

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp sugar
Cracked pepper

Method:

Turn the oven on to 180oC, peel and finally dice onion and garlic and place in a baking dish. Peel the apple and grate and the chop into a semi mush and add to onions do the same with ginger. Add to the baking dish tomatoes, drained and washed butter beans, crushed root of the fresh coriander, cumin, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, pepper and water mix all the ingredients then cover with foil and bake in oven for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes.

Serve with warm crusty bread and garnished with fresh coriander leaves.

Hazelnut and Rosemary Brussels Sprouts with Savory Apple

I know many of you will hate brussels sprouts as much as I hate popular baby names. Probably because your mother or grandmother over boiled these wonderful bitter sprouts, I like to saute brussels in a savoury, nutty and sweet medley which makes them delicious and palatable. This winter lets make the unpopular, Popular!

500g Brussels sprouts 100g hazelnuts

2 apples (red delicious or egrmout russets)

1 brown onion

2 stalks of fresh rosemary

25g butter

125ml cooking white wine or apple cider

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Roughly dice the onion, remove the rosemary from stalk, roughly chop the hazelnuts and rosemary together. In a large cooking pot melt the butter on a medium high heat then add onion, rosemary, and hazelnuts cook on a medium heat till the onion becomes translucent and hazelnuts start to brown. Wash the Brussels sprouts and stir into the pot coating the sprouts with sautéed mixture, add the wine or cider and cover. Peel and grate the apples add to the sprouts, cook for 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper before serving.