Sorry for the extended silence, everyone. My involvement in a pre-recorded televised food-related spectacle (which will air at some point in August or September) has kind of taken up all the food-related space in my head. Once it’s all over and I can talk about it without giving anything away, I’ll write about it here (maybe – not quite sure if the contract I signed precludes that, but we’ll see). Anyway, for now, back to our regularly scheduled gastronomic chit-chat!
You know what I love? A good dessert, preferably involving fruit and/or chocolate. You know what I really don’t care for? Baking. I get in the mood for it sometimes, usually around Christmas, but it’s pretty rare. I usually buy biscuits or cakes at the grocery, which is just kind of sad, considering what a food-obsessed person I am. So this afternoon I noticed some apples sitting around and came up with this incredibly simple delicious sweet thing that took about five minutes.
- 2 apples (preferably on the tart side) peeled and chopped or sliced roughly
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- Tablespoon of butter
- Sugar, 2-3 tablespoons, depending on tartness of apples
- 1/2-3/4 cup of water
- Small handful roughly chopped walnuts (optional)
- teaspoon each cinnamon and fresh grated nutmeg
Toss chopped apples with a squeeze of lemon juice. Saute in butter in a wide frying pan, stirring regularly, just until the apples start to colour around the edges. Add walnuts if using, stir around for another minute, and add cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and water. Cook until a syrup forms. Taste and add more sugar if you like.
Serve warm over vanilla ice cream, or let it cool a bit and do what I did -make a rough tart-type thing by pouring it in the centre of a rectangle of pre-made puff pastry (yes, yes, I know). Fold the sides towards the centre to almost-but-not-quite cover the filling and paint the whole thing with a beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar before baking according to the directions on the puff pastry package. I made some Bird’s custard to go with for my fella. He is in the living room snarfing a big slice as we speak! I’ll have mine later, probably with a spoonful of Greek yoghurt on top, or maybe a thin slice of cheddar cheese.
Congratulations on an excellent blog; you should post more often. This may be a nerdy thing to compliment somebody on, but it’s refreshing to read material that’s so well written, both grammatically and stylisticly. And all this from a colonial!! ;o)
I never think to bake apples, I’ve fallen out of love with baking recently, but I’m trying to get back into it!x
Add a splash of Amaretto for pure heaven x