Posts Tagged ‘Apples’

750g ripe plums
500g bramley apples – peeled and chopped
1 large clove of garlic – peeled and finely chopped
225gr red onions – peeled and chopped
100g sultanas
1 fresh chilli, finely diced (or to taste)
1 tsp mustard seeds
100g granulated sugar
200ml white wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
100ml port

Stone the plums and chop if necessary. Put them into a large saucepan with the garlic cloves, onions, apples, sultanas, chilli, mustard seeds, sugar and 100ml of the white wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Simmer for 30 minutes, until tender. Add the remaining white wine vinegar and the port. Cook for a further 30 minutes, stirring often, or until thickened. If it still seems a bit runny, simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Place into sterilized jars, seal in a hot water bath and store in a cool dark place for at least two months before using. Refrigerate once opened. Use to accompany cold meats and cheese, or use in sandwiches.

Warm up with this juicy autumn soup and make the most of two British classics – the beautiful russet apple and tangy Stilton…

A good knob of butter
1 leek, roughly chopped and washed
1 small head of celery, roughly chopped and washed, leaves reserved
1.5 litres vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 russet apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
2tbsp double cream
60-80g Stilton, rind removed and cut into small chunks
1tsp celery salt

Gently cook the leek and celery in the butter for 3-4 minutes in a covered pot, stirring every so often.

Add the stock, season lightly, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the apple and simmer for a further 10 minutes, or until the apples are soft. Blend until smooth and sieve out any lumps and stringy bits.

Add the cream and serve with the celery leaves torn into the soup with the chunks of Stilton and scatter with a little celery salt.

Taste: Apple lovers believe that Russets are the best tasting apples. They tend to have a spicy, nutty, pronounced and sweet flavour and a slightly dry texture. A truly amazing eating and cooking apple.

Appearance: Unsurprisingly, they have “russeting” on the skin – patches that are a different colour from the rest of the apple, and that give the apple a sandpapery, leathery texture. The colour of the russeting can be golden brown, burnt umber, silvery or grey.

Quality: Our apples come straight from New Covent Garden market, where our buyers only select what’s looking and tasting best. They’re nothing like the waxed, shiny and tasteless apples from the supermarkets! We only buy British apples, and being in full season right now you can be sure they haven’t been sitting around for too long.

Cost: We always let you know the price per kg so you can easily compare our prices. However, it’s almost impossible to find these in a regular supermarket or grocery store. Unfortunately, the average consumer has come to believe that russeting on the skin indicates something is wrong with the apple, and therefore large stores prefer not to buy them.

For more real food comparisons, visit our blog!

It’s the perfect time to enjoy some good British apples. Bramleys are tasting fantastic at the moment, so why not try them with a fine piece of pork belly?

800g pork belly
4 large parsnips, peeled and halved
1 knob of butter
2 bramley apples, peeled and chopped
1 splash of chicken stock
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 160C/gas 3. Score the skin of the belly with a sharp knife and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the parsnips on the base of an oven proof dish and place the pork on top.

Roast for three hours until the juices run clear when the meat is pierced with a skewer and the crackling is golden-brown. Remove the meat from the oven, cover with aluminium foil and leave to rest in a warm place for 10 minutes.

For the sauce: Heat the butter in a pan, add the chopped apples and cook until softened. Add a splash of chicken stock and cook until the sauce has reduced slightly and has thickened.

Carve the joint into thick slices. Serve the sauce with the roasted pork belly and parsnips.

The British apple season has well and truly  begun and these gorgeous Bramleys are a prime example of what this country has to offer. There simply isn’t a better cooking apple and these superb apples fresh from the market are going to taste fantastic whatever you cook with them…

Taste: Bramleys are a great cooking apple – they’re the best choice when it comes to baking tarts, pies and chutneys and ciders.  Quite tart if eaten raw, their flavour improves with cooking, and the consistency becomes  fluffy with a lovely golden colour.

Region: Bramley apples are native to England, in particular Nottinghamshire, where they were first raised at the beginning of 18^th century. The season has just started, and is expected to last until March.

Quality: Our apples come straight from New Covent Garden market, where our buyers only select what’s looking and tasting best. They’re nothing like the shiny and tasteless apples from the supermarkets!

Cost: We always let you know the price per kg so you can easily compare our prices. Our Bramley Apples are not only superior in quality but also cheaper than so called “premium varieties” found in the supermarkets:

Natoora “Bramley Apples“ £0.40 each
Ocado/Waitrose “Bramley Apples” £0.49 each
(prices checked on 04/10/2010)

For more real food comparisons, visit our blog!

Make the most of the British apple season with some inspiration from across the pond…

200g plain flour
150g butter plus 50g for topping
salt
sugar
olive oil
100ml water
2-3 apples
caster sugar
icing sugar
acacia honey
calvados
1 lemon

Make a fine pastry by combining in a blender 200gr flour, 150gr rather firm butter, a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a little olive oil. Incorporate 100ml water and work together briefly (you should still see bits of butter). Roll the dough finely and cut 16 circles of about 12cm with a pastry cutter. Place on non stick baking sheets, cover them with very thin slices of apple, Brush with 50gr of melted butter and sprinkle lightly with caster sugar. Bake in a pre heated oven at 220*C for 15 minutes.

Turn each tartlet over with a spatula, dust the reverse with icing sugar and grill until the sugar is caramelised. Leave to cool for 15 minutes. Place 4 tartlets on top of each other (apple upwards) on the plates. Before serving, cover each jeu de pommes with 1 tbsp of warmed acacia honey and sprinkle with a little Calvados and a few drops of lemon juice. This dessert is wonderful accompanied by a lemon sorbet.

Discover the best of British…

The British apple season is upon us and it’s time to enjoy some fantastic flavours fresh from the tree.

New in this week are the outstanding Discovery Apples. They range in size and colour but that’s all part of their Great British charm. Rosy cheeked and with a hint of tartness, they are absolutely packed with flavour, crunch and refreshing juice.

They were ‘discovered’ in the late 1940s by a fruit farm woker who planted some pips of Worcester Pearmain (a 19th century variety) crossed probably with Beauty of Bath. As a seedling the Worcester Pearmain strawberry tinged apples, this explains the Discovery’s occasional hint of beautiful strawberry flavour.

Find out more about Discovery apples here.

Discovery Apple Salad with Walnuts

Serves 4
5 large Discovery apples or 8 smaller ones
2 handfuls shelled walnuts
2 bunches mache
2 bunches red chard
350g Stichelton
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
pinch of sugar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 finely diced shallot
pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the vinaigrette, whisk together the 2 vinegars in a small bowl with the mustard and a pinch of sugar. Add the oil in a slow stream, whisking constantly until emulsified. Stir in the shallots and add a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper.

Core the apples and cut into rough chunks. Mix with the leaves and walnuts, then dress with vinaigrette. Finish with some nice chunks of Stichelton.

An apple classic…

150g Butter
125g Icing Sugar
1Kg Apples
300g Short Pastry

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Butter a high sided dish (24cm diameter) with the butter, then sprinkle with icing sugar.

Peel the apples, cut them roughly into quarters and place them side by side in the dish with the curved side down. Pack them in as tightly as possible.

Start cooking on a low flame for 10 to 15 minutes, then place in the oven at between 180 and 200 degrees for another 15 minutes.

Roll out the pastry and arrange on top of the apples, then return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.

Once cooked, allow to stand for a few minutes, then turn out quickly onto a serving dish.

Serve as it is, or with some good quality double cream!

I’ve had a week of so many patients asking me for a good breakfast to have at this time of the year when their bodies aren’t wanting porridge or anything too heavy on the starch – so I thought I’d let you know what I’m doing at the moment.

I’m lucky enough to still have apples left from the my enormous old apple trees having laid them down to store last Autumn, but it’s just as easy to make this with tart apples such as bramleys or to use pears or other fruits such as plums and rhubarb – or a combination is wonderful too. I simply peel and core a batch of apples – usually about 8 apples at a time, as I’d much rather cook a lot once a week and then be able to dip into the pot in the fridge without much effort.

Slice them into quarters and pop them into a large saucepan and add a little water before putting them on the cooker to boil and then simmer with a lid on for about 15 minutes. When you lift the lid you’ll find that the apple has collapsed into a pulp, but just let this cool with the lid on as this is what you want.

This is a delicious base apple compote which you can either eat cold from the fridge or heated up to make a hot apple breakfast which I love to serve with a couple of dollops of Greek style natural yoghurt and top it with some toasted nuts. You can also add other fruits such as raspberries or blackberries, which I have frozen at the moment – so I grab a handful in the morning pop into my bowl with the apple and then heat up in the microwave for a couple of minutes – delicious!

Nutritionally although cooked fruits contain less vitamin C than raw fruits they still contain a little, so it’s still great to eat them as they also contain fibre which is great for your gut. Apples specifically contain a type of fibre called pectin which is particularly settling for a gut which tends to be a little on the irritated side – so this scrumptious apple pot could just be the perfect start to your day.

This week at Natoora, we have a fantastic offer on golden delicious apples! Get shopping today at www.natoora.co.uk…

In need of some inspiration for Mother’s Day?

Mum’s everywhere are probably looking forward to a bit of rest and a big treat on Sunday 14th and we have a few ideas up our sleeve to help make sure that happens…

Thanks to home foodie and blogger Beth Sachs of Jam and Clotted Cream, we have created two delicious recipe boxes for hard-working mums. Inside you’ll find all the main ingredients to create a delicious treat…

	Mother’s Day Brunch Box (even the kids can help with this one!) All the ingredients to make Spanish style scrambled eggs, sweet rhubarb muffins and home-made pear and apple smoothies. £42.95/box
	Mother’s Day 3 Course Recipe Box Treat your mum to a 3 course meal at home! For starters is a refreshing endive, pear and roquefort salad followed by succulent lemon roast chicken and sides. Dessert will be tangy rhubarb and ginger crumble (plus a bottle of prosecco!) £89.95/box

Recipe: Rhubarb Delight

Serves 4

16 Thin Stalks of Rhubarb
200g Caster Sugar
2 Tbsp Water
200g Mascarpone
180ml Double Cream
2 Tsp Finely Grated Orange Rind
2 Tsp Gelatine
60ml Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice
2 Blood Oranges (optional)

First wash the rhubarb, scrubbing away any dirt. Cut away the leaves and white part of the stalk, then slice into 3cm pieces.

Heat a medium pan and add the rhubarb with 100g of the caster sugar and 1 tablespoon of water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then bring to the boil, simmer and cover for 10 minutes until thickened. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool, then refrigerate.

Now in a small heatproof jug, add 1 tablespoon of water and sprinkle gelatine over the top. Stand the jug in a pan of simmering water, stirring the liquid until the gelatine is dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the orange juice.

Beat the mascarpone with 100g caster sugar until smooth. Add the cream and orange rind and beat until. Then beat the warm gelatine mixture into the mixture until combined.

Now the rhubarb is cooled, dived the mixture into eight serving glasses. Divide the creamy mixture evenly over the rhubarb and refrigerate for 3 hours or until set.

Serve decorated with fresh orange segments.