Good Old English Apple Crumble ! ©
Special request from Maria in Crete !
Easy
6 Persons
Oven 180.C/350.F
30-40 minutes
Ingredients
A little butter to grease bowl
675 g cooking apples
100 g white or light brown sugar
150 g plain flour or self raising
75 g butter
75 g caster sugar
1 tsp powdered ginger
grated rind of lemon and a lime
Method
Pre-heat Oven : 180.C/350.F
1. Grease a 1 liter pie dish.
2. Peel and core the apples. Slice and place in saucepan, adding the sugar and finely grated lemon rind. When grating the lemon and lime, grate it only twice in each place as you move around the lemon/lime, as it is the ‘zest’ you want and not the pith, which is bitter.
3. Pour in 50 ml of water, place a piece of grease proof paper over the apples and cover tightly with the lid. Simmer on a medium heat until the apples are soft. 5-10 minutes depending on the apples. Test with the tip of a knife.
4. Spoon the apples together with their liquid into your prepared buttered dish and set aside.
5. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and drop in your small cubes, (1.cm x 1.cm) of cold butter. If the butter is too soft, it will not crumble so well, because the heat of your finger tips will melt it too quickly.
6. Now with both hands, slide your finger tips down the side of the bowl, opposite one another and lift up small quantities of the flour and butter, momentarily rubbing between your fingertips and then letting go. The higher in the bowl you do this the lighter the crumble and you continue doing this in brief continuous actions, until all the flour and butter resemble bread crumbs.
The idea is to rub each handful briefly and let go, so as not to over heat the butter and then pick up another handful. It can take up to five minutes. At first you will feel you are not getting any where and you will be tempted to rub each handful for longer, but don’t ! In the photo, I am using only one hand, as the other is taking the photo !
7. Add the caster sugar and powdered ginger and briefly mix in lightly with a fork, so as not to make the crumbs stick together.
8. Pour the crumbs over the apple mixture, leaving a pointed mound in the center. Clean around your dish with kitchen paper and place the center of the oven.
9. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until just beginning to brown on top. If it bubbles to vigorously at the sides, turn the oven down to 150.C
VARIATIONS : Instead of apples, use 675 g of damsons, pears, plumbs, rhubarb or raspberries. These are equally delicious, if not more so !
COOKERY TERM : “Zest,” is the outer most part of a lemon, lime orange, skin. See “Cookery Terms” in ‘Recipe’ List.
For those of you who do not know what powdered ginger looks like.
Souffle Glace au Citron ©
Celebrating 3,000 views and thanking you all very very much !
Now this is My most favourite recipe…….no mine , no mine, no mine…….:) They know who they are !!!
For the adventurous cook! A challenge well worth the trouble, because it is AMAZING !!!
Ingredients
2 med lemons
6 eggs
200g caster sugar
400ml double cream
2 lemons for decoration
50ml whipped cream for piping
This is the most AMAZING recipe and is worth every second of time spent making it!!
Method
1. Prepare a Souffle bowl, diameter 16 cm X 7cm deep. This will contain 1.2 ml. This is important if you want to have the nice effect of the Souffle rising above the bowl. (Otherwise you can just pour it into a large bowl, in which case no paper collar is needed either.)
2. Tie a collar made from greaseproof paper, double thickness and tie it REALLY tightly around the bowl, to come up about 7 cm above the rim. Add a second band of string and use cello-tape to ensure you have a perfect tight cylindrical cone, rising above the Souffle dish. If a little Souffle mixture, does escape, you can always “Carve” it into shape, when it is frozen, like I did, because I did not pay enough attention to this part!!!! An extra pair of hands is really useful for the tying !
3. MAKE ROOM IN FREEZER, trim top of collar if necessary, as I did.
4. IMPORTANT: Put saucepan of water on to boil, having chosen your glass bowl, which will later sit on the top, with out touching the simmering water.
5. Grate the lemon peel on the ‘fine grater’ and squeeze the lemon juice.
6. Place the egg yolks in the bowl you have chosen to put over the simmering water.
7.Place whites in another very clean bowl, see note.
8.Place cream in large bowl.
9. Beat whites until stiff peaks, beat cream until thick like mayonnaise.
10.Place sugar in bowl with egg yolks and rest on top of sauce pan with “Simmering” water.
11.Beat vigorously, with electric beater for at least 3 mins, by which time it should have doubled in volume and become white, fluffy and creamy. You should not beat so long, that it starts to stick to the sides.
12. Remove bowl from heat and place in bowl with cold water, beat until mixture is cool. This you know by testing centre of mixture with your little finger, not by feeling the underside of the bowl!
13.Give cream a last quick beat and then “thoroughly” clean whisks and give the egg whites a final whip.
14.Add sieved lemon juice to egg yolks and lemon zest, mix well and add the meringue a little at a time, cut and fold over “LIGHTLY” with spatula, add rest of meringue and then fold in cream, work quickly all the time so as not to lose volume.
15. Taste for lemon, add a little more if necessary, lemon sizes vary.
16. Pour into prepared Souffle bowl smooth off top, with spatula and place in freezer for at least four hours. After the 4 hours, you can remove the collar, reshape any imperfections with a sharp knife, clean bowl with warm sponge. Decorate with lemon butterflies.
17. If you are making it before hand, remove from freezer and place in fridge one hour before.
18. Decorate with lemon pieces and serve immediately.
N.B.
When beating egg whites, “Everything” must be whistling clean. Any grease, egg yolk or other, will not allow the whites to become stiffly beaten. If any egg yolk falls into the white, remove carefully……
COOKERY TERM : ZEST. This is the very outer part of a fruit, with out the white pith. To obtain it you grate the fruit
once at the most twice on a very fine grater, larger sized gratings are not the same. It must produce a delicate hint of flavour
and never so thick that you can feel it on the tongue !
This is quite tricky, but be patient, so that you get it as tight as possible. Trim it down once you have filled
it with the souffle.
Get all your ingredients ready. Take care nothing falls in the egg white bowl. I usually put it right out the way!
Beat your cream, until the beaters leave a trail/mark, as in photograph.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks.
Beat egg yolks and sugar over saucepan of simmering water for at least 3-5 minutes. It will double in volume
lighten in colour and become fluffy. Beaters also will leave a trail, when lifted and drawn over mixture.
Move bowl off heat and place very carefully into a basin of cold water. Beat until cold. To test this place little
finger into the center of the mixture. It should feel cold. Testing the bowl from the out side, does not give the
correct result.
Add finely grated lemon zest and lemon juice.
Add stiffly beaten meringue, first a tbs then 1/2 and then the rest, working quickly and lightly. Mix until it
is just mixed in.
This spatula is the most efficient for folding, bought from my Cookery School all those years ago !
Fill souffle bowl and then trim down collar, so as to fit in freezer.
Using this special cutter, a Channel knife, score lemon at intervals all the way round.
Cut lemon slices into decorative shapes and the zest strips into rhombuses.
Decorate the top of your Souffle !
Just looks lovely!
The final result ! My most favourite recipe…….:)
Macaroni Cheese ©
While we are on Pasta, here is an all time favorite, especially for Constandinos!
Memories of Boarding School, but it never tasted as good as this!
Easy for Uni Students!
Ingredients Serves 4
Butter for greasing Oven-Proof Dish
150g Elbow Macaroni
Salt Pepper
600ml White Sauce
100g English Cheddar
White Sauce
50g Butter
50g Plain Flour
600ml Milk
Salt Pepper
Method
Pre-Heat Oven On 200.C
Total Cooking time 1/2 hour.
Check for browning after 20 minutes.
1. Place saucepan of salted water on to boil for pasta. ( 1 tsp Salt ) When water is boiling rapidly, add pasta, cook until “al dente” about 5-8 mins. Lid always off, or it boils over. Don’t over cook it, it should be only just tender, with a firm bite. Rinse Pasta under cold running water, to stop the cooking process and leave to drain thoroughly.
2. Grease Oven-Proof dish with a little butter.
3. Make white sauce by placing butter in saucepan on a low heat, when just melted add flour, turn up heat a little and stir continuously until frothy, 2 mins. While it is still bubbling up, add “Cold” milk all at once and keep stirring until it comes to the boil. This is important, or it will go lumpy.( If this does happen, beat vigorously with a whisk.) The secret is to keep stirring!
4. Boil stirring for 1 minute to thoroughly “Cook” the flour, or it will have a nasty floury taste and remove from heat.
5. Place pasta in oven-proof dish.
6. Add 2/3rds of grated English Cheddar to your white sauce ( Other strong cheeses can be used, Gouda, Regato, Parmesan, or a mixture of all four. The white sauce will have cooled a little and thus, won’t go stringy, when cheese is added.
7. Pour sauce over pasta and mix well. Even out and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
8. Clean around edge of dish with kitchen paper, so your final result does not have burnt cheese around the side of the dish.
9. Place in center of pre-heated oven and cook. Check after 20 mins and cook until bubbling and golden on top. If the top should over brown, place a piece of tin foil lightly on the top.
10. Eat straight away, this is when it is best, once it sits it is not the same!
Jane’s London Special Alternative !
For those who remember, my London after mid-night special…..16 Hereford Square……
Add to white sauce, 1 tsp Tomato Puree and 2 cloves, or more! crushed garlic ! Use Pasta Shells in stead of Macaroni.
The result is a wonderful pink creamy garlicky sauce which fills the holes of the small pasta shells and is DELICIOUS! Sprinkle with chopped parsley just before serving.
Eat immediately!
Just the thing after a night out !
Pre-heat your oven 200.C. Place serving plates to warm.
Weigh out pasta. Put salted pasta water onto boil, 1 tsp salt. When rapidly boiling add past, once it returns
to the boil, turn heat down a little so it doesn’t over-boil.
Butter your oven-proof dish, so that it is ready to assemble your Macaroni cheese.
Weigh out cheddar cheese.
Grate cheese on big holes of grater.
Melt butter in non-stick sauce pan. Once melted add flour and stir continuously.
Once you have stirred the flour and butter for two minutes, it will look like this and rise a little every time you
stop stirring. This process cooks the flour, but don’t over-do it, it must not start to color. ( If it does, start again. )
Now add the milk all at once and don’t stop stirring until it comes to the boil.
This is very important ! If you stop stirring, it will thicken rapidly at the bottom of the sauce pan and go lumpy.
It is as easy as anything, if you stir continuously.
Bring sauce to the boil and boil stirring continuously for 1-2 minutes to thoroughly cook flour. Season with
1/2 tsp salt or more and pepper. Taste to make sure it does not have a floury taste and that it is well seasoned.
You don’t want a bland sauce.
Leave sauce to cool slightly and add grated cheese. Mix well.
Once pasta is just cooked, ( remember it will cook in the oven too, so you want it only just cooked.) Drain
pasta and refresh under cold running water, so as to halt cooking process.
Place well drained pasta in buttered oven-proof dish and pour white sauce over the top. Using two forks,
mix well and level off the top.
Sprinkle with grated cheddar. Important, clean your dish carefully with a little dampened kitchen paper, so
that the sides of the dish are completely clean. It is much easier to do this now, than later, when the cheese
has browned.
Place in center of pre-heated oven and cook until browned on top, aprox 20 minutes. If the cooking time is
not completed, place a piece of tin foil lightly on top, so that it does not over brown, until the cooking time
is up, 1/2 hr in total. The whole dish should be gently bubbling when ready.
Delicious ! ( Note how clean the sides of the dish are……looks so much better than messy burnt cheese sides! )
Yum !
What's Cooking In Jane's Kitchen 