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Last minute Apple Day celebrations? Try this 20 minute dessert…

By on October 21, 2015

It’s Apple Day! Hooraaaaay!

If this is the first you’ve heard of it; no biggie. Either try out my 20 minute baked apple recipe below, just go buy an apple (make sure it’s British) – or head over to one of the events going on this weekend.

First up, the history bit. Apple Day is an annual celebration of apples and orchards, traditionally held on October 21 (the date of the first event in 1990). Founded by charity Common Ground at an event in Covent Garden, it aims to celebrate the 2,300 apple varieties grown in the British isles. Blimey.

There’s a select few Apple Day events remaining in October, but these are my top picks;

  • Apple Day at Borough Market, this Sunday 25th October 2015 in the Green Market between 12pm and 4pm. Apple growers, traders and producers will be on hand to share their knowledge and enthusiasm, offering visitors the chance to sample an array of apple varieties, along with limited edition products such as preserves, breads, pies and juices.
  • Audley End House and Gardens in Essex. Test out the 16th century English Heritage location’s Golden Delicious treats in the tea room, see how the Victorians would have cooked a D’Arcy Spice in the service wing, and enjoy pressing – and tasting! – Lord Derbys’ in the garden. They grow over 120 varieties of apple in their gardens!
  • There are over 20 events still to come that the National Trust is hosting across the UK
  • London Orchard Project is holding two events on the 22nd and 23rd at Camley Street Nature Reserve, 12 Camley St, NW1 0PW, complete with jam workshops, talks on bees and harvest-themed fun. There will be groups harvesting fruit in the mornings, workshops on looking after fruit trees, CAMRA-run cider tastings and preserving demonstrations
  • Bramley Apple Festival, Southwell in Nottinghamshire – the picturesque market town where one of the UK’s most famous apples was first propagated more than 200 years ago from the garden of a cottage on Church Street. The stunning Southwell Minster, a splendid cathedral with one of the finest Norman naves in Europe, will host a festival of food & drink and all things associated with Southwell’s Bramley Apple heritage

But for now, try this 20 minute baked apple dish. Simply grab an apple per person (the ideal is a Chivers Delight, but I had to shop quickly so could only find some little Bramley ones) core, and set upright in an ovenproof dish.

Mix 2 tablespoons of nuts or fruit, or a mixture, with 2 tablespoons of sugar (I used coconut sugar) and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

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Fill the emptied cored with the mixture, but push a knob of butter in to the top to seal it. Drizzle with a touch of honey.

Baked for 15 minutes at 200deg C. Serve with a drizzle of cream, which will complement through that caramelised filling perfectly. Enjoy!

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Perfect sugar free granola recipe, using Daylesford Organic Coconut Chips

By on October 18, 2015

I’ve been messing about with my diet all year. Not because I’m a slave to food fads, but because at Christmas I realised that my energy levels were consistently super low – and that it was most likely to do with the way I was eating.

As such, I gave up meat. By the end of last year, I’d ended up eating it by default rather than really wanting it. So I cut it out, and when I was able to buy well-produced meat from a good butcher, I’d have it then. That had huge impact. But, I’d still face crashes at 4pm (which isn’t necessarily unusual) that I couldn’t seem to account for.

Friends of mine have tried quitting sugar, and suggested it might help. One read of Madeline Shaw’s Get the Glow later, and I was hooked.

One of her recipes is for grain-free chocolate granola, which looks amazing, but I’ve used Davina McCall’s recipe before and was hugely impressed by it. Yesterday I made a few tweaks, and it’s turned out *beautifully*

On a previous attempt, I’d used desiccated coconut, which makes for quite a fine granola and doesn’t produce a very satisfying consistency. This time I went in search for proper curls of coconut, and happily discovered that Daylesford make a raw variety.

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Daylesford is probably one of the more famous producers of organic goods; one of their farmshop & cafe locations is just minutes from me in Notting Hill, and it’s *always* packed. They’re also regularly featured in those bundle deals on Ocado, which makes the price of their soups and sauces a little more palatable, and stocked in Selfridges Food Hall.

When they don’t make a product on their farm in Gloucestershire (like this, since the wild coconuts come from Sri Lanka in the Philippines), they source from artisan suppliers who share a commitment to quality and sustainability, and who produce items to their recipes. As I understand it, the husks & shells are removed, then the coconut meat is washed, shredded and slowly dehydrated at a low temperature.

The resulting coconut flakes are more flavourful than standard desiccated coconut – which is usually washed in chlorinated water to sterilize the coconuts once they are opened and peeled, then pressed to remove moisture and dried in huge conveyer ovens at high temperatures. This is simply because the flavours have not been vented off by high temperatures and no moisture has been pressed out prior to drying.

To see these babies really shine, I used the recipe below, which with a few tweaks make the best granola I’ve ever eaten – all with no added sugar.

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Almost fills a 1 litre storage jar:

  • 250g oats
  • 50g daylesford organic coconut chips
  • 150g almonds
  • a pinch of salt
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 150g sultanas

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/ gas 2. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper

2. Put the oats, coconut, nuts and salt in a large bowl. Warm the oil to liquify, then add to the dry ingredients alongside the maple syrup

3. Mix in the cinnamon and sultanas

4. Whisk the egg white until it’s frothy. Pour this over the mixture and mix thoroughly again. Spread the granola over the baking tray as evenly as you can

5. Bake the granola for 20 minutes, then turn with a slotted spatula. Cook for another 10 minutes and turn again. Mine then took a further 5 minutes, but this last bit of cooking time is really ‘to taste’. Bake for longer if you want a more golden granola

Then simply leave to cool and store in an airtight container. It’ll be at its best for a month

Serve with berries and greek yoghurt for a perfect midweek start to the day 🙂

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A Borough Market gastrotour with Celia Brooks

By on October 12, 2015

On Friday I squeezed the very last drops out of my somewhat-big-enough-to-be-mentionable birthday, with a trip to Borough Market for Celia Brooks’ gastrotour.

Starting at Hotel Chocolat’s Rabot 1575 (named after the company’s 250-year-old Rabot Estate cocoa plantation in Saint Lucia) we were treated to welcome coffee and a history of the market, alongside some unusual cacao butter and pastries, plus some pretty significant brownies. I was amazed that Borough’s earliest reference in history was over 1,000 years ago – with potential links back to the Roman times.

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For the next three (and a bit) hours we zig zagged through, out and around the market – with Celia hand-selecting some of her favourites traders, and asking the group for favourites so she could add them to the list. A quick note about how wonderful a guide she was before I delve in to the food. Tours are *all* about how good the host is, and she was genuinely lovely, gave us the inside knowledge about which bits to focus on, the producer’s stories, and totally made the day really special.

We started with sea urchins at Furness Fish & Game, which I wasn’t quite brave enough to stomach at 10.30am, but everyone seemed pleased with. I amused myself with the monkfish/langoustine instead…

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Following a shot of wheatgrass (GAH), and a chaser of ginger (YUM), we went to La Tua pasta, for the first of my highlights of the day. I kept it simple for the first try, and had the Basil, Mozzarella & Italian Tomato tortelloni – which was stunning – then went to the other end of the scale with a crab and black squid ink version for round two. The family run business moved to a permanent stall in the market in 2013, and they make some of the best pasta I’ve ever tasted. It also freezes really well, and only takes one extra minute to cook from frozen.

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Celia told us earlier in the day about the rejuvenation of the market back in 1998 due to a handful of key traders taking up residency there. So after wagyu beef and cider, we went to one, which was my second highlight of the day – Brindisa. We started with some Canarejal Cremoso Cheese (which when you leave it out of the fridge it ‘melts’ enough to form its own little fondue), which is perfect with the mini Picos de Pan Breadsticks they sell there. Then we had some phenomenal serrano ham, then five-year aged iberico – which was melt in the mouth, and packed full of flavour. I’m totally up for going back for their popular ‘ham school’ – an introduction to Brindisa’s charcuterie by the master carvers at Borough Market, plus Spanish wine tastings and a go at carving for yourself.

DSC00630 DSC00632Then we stopped at Shell Seekers for some freshly cooked hand-collected scallops from the coast of Devon, fried in a matter of minutes and served simply with lemon, which were amazing. Then some equally fantastic meats from Northfield Farm.

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However, find three of the day was Khanom Krok’s cocount pancakes. The stall is named after the dish itself; tiny little custardy sweet treats, which are an authentic Thai street food and were brought to Borough market by husband & wife team, Worawan & Michael. These were probably my favourite items of the day; and were so unusual, but such a delight.

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Highlight four was also sweet; a passion fruit and white chocolate liquorice from Lucas Giuliani at Sweet Roots. Who knew chocolate and liquorice would go so well? I urge you to go and explore; since I’d never seen a place with such a wide range of flavours and styles before.

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We then stopped for an arranged tasting at Bedales (which Celia informed us was the infamous restaurant that Colin Firth threw Hugh Grant through the window of in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and her apartment is just opposite). Sitting downstairs, it was clear that this was a hidden gem. We were given a fabulous introduction to our two bottles, alongside a wine and cheese platter to share.

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After a few final stops on the way to our last arranged tasting (Gouda from Mons Cheesemongers, the famous Bread Ahead stall and finally some crazy-good mustard from Fitz Fine Foods, not to mention the apples from Chegworth Valley below), we got to my final highlight of the day at The Wine Pantry; which stocks only English wines. The rose and fizz we tasted were good, but the absolute winner for me was the white; the 2011 Tenterden Estate Bacchus, from Chapel Down winery at Tenterden in Kent. It was similar to a Sancerre; and honestly, it was beautiful.

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Such an amazing day; couldn’t recommend it highly enough! Celia does a whole range of other gastotours as well; check them all out here.

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A trip to South Devon Chilli Farm

By on October 9, 2015

I knew you could grow chilli in the UK, first because of Wahaca’s seed packets (because if you couldn’t, why would they give them away in such abundance?!) – and then because my Mum grew some in her garden last year.

However, I had NO idea of the sheer number of varieties you could get to flourish here!

As you’ll have seen earlier this week; I was in Salcombe last weekend – and in almost every shop in town, you could buy chutneys and jams from the South Devon Chilli Farm. Given it was on the way back, we stopped in to take a look.

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After growing chillies as a hobby in their back gardens when they moved from the city to rural Devon way back in the late 1990s, the owners then had the chance to rent their first polytunnel in 2001. They had more chillies than they knew what to do with, but luckily enough farmers markets had started to become popular and they got a great response when they sold them there.

In 2005, they bought 10 acres of farmland, then built a large barn to house a production kitchen and a storage facility for the huge number of jars & bottles they were starting to get through each month.

They then added six polytunnels; one as a plant nursery, four as production tunnels and one as a display show tunnel (which you can see below). The show tunnel has a fantastic display of around 200 chilli varieties with all sorts of chilli fruit shapes, sizes and colours.

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In 2011, six long years after they had moved in, there were enough funds to extend the barn – and they built the farm shop and cafe.

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After a few taste tests, I was pretty enamoured with the Chilli Jam, which will be perfect to recreate Dishoom’s famed bacon naan, plus the Habanero hot sauce. I also picked up some freshly picked Cherry Bomb peppers (which are spicy little devils), which I simply chopped the top off and deseeded, popped in a cube of feta and baked for 20 mins under a medium heat. Served with roasted courgettes and fruity cous cous, they went down a treat on a chilly October evening.

And you know what’s great? You can buy everything online here 🙂

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