Apple Chutney

Last chutney recipe of the year. This is actually the chutney that my Mum every year from the apples from her cooking apple tree. It is a fab chutney recipe and I wanted to post it here so that I have it forever more!

Apple Chutney (from Jam's, Preserves and Edible Gifts by Sara Paston-Williams)
(makes 4-5 jars)

225g onions, peeled and finely chopped
657g cooking apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
600ml malt vinegar
125g sultanas
4 tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp salt
350g soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger

Cook the chopped onions in boiling water for 5 mins to soften them, then drain.

Place all the other ingredients in a large pan, and add the onions. Bring to the boil very slowly, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours until thick, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Pour into prepared jars, cover and store for at least 1 month before using.

Green Tomato Chutney

This is the last chutney of the season, the recipe came from a friend. It's a fab recipe for using up those tomatoes that haven't ripened although I kept picking mine thinking they'd stay green and they inevitably ripened. So, I got some from my neighbour in return for a jar of the chutney.

Green Tomato Chutney
(Makes 4 Jars)

900g green tomatoes

225g onions

225g apples

113g sultanas

1 tsp salt

½ tsp cayenne pepper

½ tsp dry mustard

225g sugar

284ml malt vinegar

Chop the tomatoes, apples and onions into bitesize pieces. Add about half the vinegar and cook gently until the tomatoes, apples and onions are soft, stirring every so often.

Add the rest of the vinegar and all the other ingredients and continue to cook steadily until the chutney thickens. This should not take longer than 15 mins.

This chutney has a tendency to dry out so make sure you don’t overcook it. Put into sterilised jars with vinegar proof lids and leave for about 4 weeks before eating.

Amy's Apple Pie

I have a friend who emigrated to Australia and this is her Apple Pie recipe. She made it for a thanksgiving dinner we had at university and I loved it so much that she wrote the recipe out for me. This was about 7 or 8 years ago and I found it in a box, so I made it for a dinner party and everyone loved it. The pastry was lovely and light and crispy and the apples were perfect. Thank you Amy!

Amy's Apple Pie

(Serves 6-8)

For the pastry

225g plain flour

pinch salt

2 tsp caster sugar

100g butter

some cold water

For the filling

4 cooking apples

handful sultanas/raisins

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp mixed spice

rind and juice 1 lemon

Sift the flour and salt into a big bowl and add the sugar. Add the butter in pieces and rub in until you have fine breadcrumbs. Add enough cold water to bind the mixture so it becomes smooth. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave it in the fridge for 30 mins.

Peel and core the apples and place them in a bowl. If you put lemon juice over them it stops them going brown while you roll the pastry. Add all the other ingredients to the apples and mix well.

Cut the dough in half and roll out to fit the dish. Arrange the apples so they are kind of flat. Roll out the other half of the dough, lay over the top and trim off the edges. Use the leftover bits to make two little leaves on top. Make a slit in the top to let out the steam. Brush the top with milk and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Bake at 200C for 15 mins and then reduce the heat to 180C for 20 mins until nice and golden on top.

Fruits Scones

My next door neighbour spent a few days in Cornwall recently and brought back some clotted cream, so to go with the cream I made some fruit scones for us both. This is the first time that I've made proper scones. I made the rhubarb ones a little le ago, but this is the first time in years I've made sultana ones. To be hones, they weren't all that good, there were a bit solid and not the fluffy scones they should have been, I think I roles the dough out too thin. I shall have to try again! Thank you Vicky for the clotted cream too, delicious!

Fruit Scones (from Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course)

(Makes 7-8)

225g self-raising flour

40g butter or margarine

1 1/2 tbsp caster sugar

pinch salt

40g sultanas

150ml milk

Preheat the oven to 220C, grease and line a baking tray.

Sift the flour into a bowl and rub the butter into it rapidly, using your finger tips. Next stir in the sugar and salt, and add the sultanas, then take a knife and use it to mix in the milk little by little. Now flour your hands a little and knead the mixture to a soft dough. You might not need all the milk, add more if the mixture is too dry or add flour if too sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a floured pastry board and roll it out to a thickness of 2cm using a lightly floured rolling pin. Take a 4 or 5 cm pastry cutter and place it on the dough, the tap it sharply so that it goes straight through the dough. After you have cut out as many scone shapes as you can, knead the dough trimmings together again and repeat until you have used it all.

Place the scones on the baking sheet, dust each one with a little extra flour and bake near the top of the oven for 12-15 mins until the scones are golden brown on top. Cool on a wire rack. Serve with cream and jam.

Crunchie Chocolate Traybake

This was what I made for my last Mad Hatters last week and it was so good. Somehow Crunchie always makes things better in the world. I had a go at putting popping candy on top but it didn't really work as it popped when it hit the chocolate. How exactly do you use popping candy in baking?! You can't subject it to any moisture, so it seems kind of useless!

Crunchie Chocolate Traybake (from The Steenbergs)

60g plain chocolate
60g milk chocolate
100g unsalted butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
200g digestive biscuits
100g sultanas
100g Crunchie bars

for the topping
100g milk chocolate
100g Crunchie bars

Grease and line a 17cm x 26cm baking tray.

Put the digestives into a freezer bag and tie the end without much air in it. Then with the end of a rolling pin smash the digestives into small pieces. Smash the Crunchie bars in their packets.

Place the plain and dark chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add the golden syrup and butter. Melt together, stirring occasionally.

When melted, add the digestive biscuits, sultanas and honeycomb and mix all together so that everything is coated with the chocolate mix.

Spoon the mixture into the tray and put it into fridge to set while you prepare the topping.

Melt the chocolate, then mix in the remaining crushed up Crunchie bars. Take the tray out of the fridge and cover the base evenly with the chocolate topping.

Leave in the fridge for about 1 hour to fully set, then turn out onto a chopping board. With a sharp knife, cut into bars.

Courgette and Apple Cake

This cake is awesome. It was lovely and rich and moist and just well delicious. The original recipe has nuts in but I left them out. It didn't seem to cook all the way through in the middle but I think that's the fault of my oven rather than the recipe. I made this to have with coffee for my Mum and I and it went down a storm. I also heated some up in the microwave and had it with ice cream for dessert and it stood up to that too. You can't go wrong making this cake!

Courgette and Apple Cake (from The Guardian - Nigel Slater Recipe)
(Serves 6)

200g butter
200g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
150g courgettes (about 2 small ones), grated
1 small apple, grated
200g plain flour
a large pinch salt
½ tsp baking powder
pinch cinnamon
zest 1/2 orange
140g sultanas

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line the base of a 2lb loaf tin.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs to the mixture a little at a time, making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next.

Squeeze the grated courgette and apple with your hands to remove any excess moisture, then add to the mixture.

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon together, and gently fold into the mixture. Stir in the orange zest and sultanas.

Transfer to the loaf tin and bake for about an hour, or until golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin before turning out.

Apple Crumble Pie

I went to a friends house for dinner before I went on holiday and I made pudding. We had scrummy chicken fajitas with all the trimmings and then this gorgeous pie to follow. I had to make a huge pie as those are the only pie dishes I had, so I took home leftovers and gave some to my next door neighbour! It was delicious, but I think I would stick to either pie or crumble next time. We had cookie dough ice cream to go with it, you can't go wrong with a bit of cookie dough ice cream!

Apple Crumble Pie (from BBC Food)
(Serves 8)

375g pack ready-made sweet, all-butter shortcrust pastry
4-6/800g Bramley apples
1 tbsp lemon juice
1½ tbsp plain flour
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
50g caster sugar
50g raisins or sultanas

For the crumble topping

85g plain flour
85g butter, cut into small cubes
4 tbsp caster sugar
handful porridge oats

1 tbsp demerara sugar

Lightly flour the work surface, then roll out the pastry until it is about 3cm larger than the pie dish.

Lift the pastry over the dish. Press it into the tin, then trim the edge with a sharp knife. Put the pastry into the fridge to chill while making the filling.

Preheat the oven to 190C and put a baking sheet on the middle shelf.

For the crumble topping, sift the flour into a large bowl, then add the butter. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mix looks like rough breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar and the handful of oats. Chill the crumble topping in the fridge while you prepare the apples.

Peel the apples, cut them into quarters, remove the core, then cut into slices. Toss the apple slices with the lemon juice in a large bowl.

Sift over the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix well to coat. Tip in the sugar and raisins. Mix well.

Put the apples into the pastry lined tin, scatter with the crumble mix and then sprinkle the demerara sugar over the top. It might seem a little full and piled up but it will shrink down with cooking. Bake for 30 mins, or until the pastry and crumble are golden and crisp.

Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

Oat and Sultana Cookies

This is the last set of cookies I made on cookie binge day. These were the healthier ones, ie they had no chocolate in them! These were made for my staff book group and they went down a treat.

Oat and Sultana Cookies (from Good Housekeeping)
(Makes 12)

125g butter, softened, plus extra to grease
75g light brown sugar
1 egg
150g rolled oats
50g self-raising flour, plus extra to dust
¼ tsp baking powder
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
50g sultanas
1 tbsp maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg until combined, then stir in the oats, flour, baking powder, lemon zest, sultanas and maple syrup.

Dust a work surface with a little flour, then take pieces of the mixture and roll into 12 even-sized balls. Put them on the baking trays, spaced well apart.

Bake for 12–15 mins until golden. Leave to cool on the sheet for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Daring Cooks August 2013: Lamb Biriani

Grace, one of our talented non-blogging Daring Kitchen members, was our Daring Cooks’ August hostess who shared with us some of her family’s tried and true Bengali Biryani recipes – all of them delicious and all of them prepared fresh from our own kitchens!

I love Indian food and was really excited about this challenge. I made this for my Mum when I went home for a week and instead of using the recipes in the post she found a recipe in her 1969 Cordon Bleu Cookery Course, well I had to try that! Despite some slightly dodgy spelling and the need for damp muslin (we used a damp tea towel instead), the dish was distinctly underwhelming! We did use much less chilli than was in the recipe, as both of us have difficulties with chilli, but I assume that that is where most of the heat comes from, as the dish was only really lightly spicy. It was an interesting experience, especially with the addition of potatoes which made the dish a bit carb heavy! But hey obviously this is 1960s Cordon Bleu's idea of Biriyani.

Lamb Biriani (from Cordon Bleu Cookery Course)
(Serves 6)

2lb leg of lamb
4 green chillies (seeded)
1 clove garlic (crushed with salt)
2-3 sprays coriander or mint, leaves
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 carton (5fl oz) plain yoghourt
4 medium-sized onions (thinly sliced)
5 1/2 oz butter
3/4 pint water
1 dsp salt
1lb potatoes (boiled and quartered)
pinch saffron
1/3 pint hot milk
1lb long grain Busmatti or Patna rice
1 1/2oz shredded almonds (unblanched)
2oz sultanas (washed)

Remove the meat from the bone and cut off some of the fat. Cut the meat into 2-inch squares. Chop chillies very finely, then mix with the garlic, coriander and spices and add the yoghourt. Add the diced meat to yoghourt mixture. Mix well and marinate for 1 hour.

Fry the onions in 4oz butter until brown. Remove from the pan, add the meat to the pan and fry for about 5 mins, turning well so that it does not stick to the pan. Add 3/4 pint water and 1 dessertspoon of salt, cover and cook gently.

When the meat is almost tender (about 45-50 mins), add the potatoes and more salt if necessary.

Leave the saffron to infuse in the hot milk for 10 mins. Boil the rice for 10 mins or until just barely cooked, then drain. When the meat is tender, remove it with its sauce, reduce if necessary, mix with half the onions and a quarter of the rice, moisten with 2-3 tbsp of the saffron milk. Lay this on the bottom of an ovenproof casserole together with the potatoes.

Cover the top with the remaining rice and sprinkle the rest of the saffron milk on top. Cover with a dampened muslin to keep rice moist. Put on a lid and continue cooking in the oven at 350F (180C) for 30 mins.

Meanwhile fry the almonds to a pale gold in the remaining butter, add the sultanas and fry them for a minute longer to plump them.

Serve the biryani with the rest of the onions sprinkled over it and the almonds and sultanas on top.

Sausages with Warm Red Cabbage

I'm never really sure what to do with red cabbage but for 16p I was sure I could find something. In the end it sat in my fridge for so long that I gave half to my next door neighbour who enjoyed it with roast, I had a quarter steamed with something and with the other quarter I made this. It is basically the red cabbage I remember from Christmas but with sausages and bread! It was actually lovely and a little bit of mustard on the side really comlimented the flavours.

Sausages with Warm Red Cabbage (adapted from Good Food Magazine May 2012)
(Serves 4)

8 pork sausages
100ml balsamic vinegar
100g soft dark brown sugar
1 tbsp cumin seeds
140g mixed dried vine fruit, such as currants, raisins and sultanas
1 red cabbage, about 800g, shredded
4 chunks of baguette or bread and mustard, to serve

Heat oven to 200C. Put the sausages on a baking tray and cook for 30-35 mins or until cooked through and golden.

Meanwhile, put the vinegar, sugar, cumin and dried fruit into a large pan and gently heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, then bubble for 3 mins or until slightly reduced. Tip in the cabbage, stir well, then cook for 10 mins more.

Serve as hot dogs in a baguette with the warm slaw and a little mustard.

Apple and Sultana Cake

In my second foray into baking to use up my leftover flour I made cake! As I looked through my cupboards trying to find things to put in the cake that didn't mean leaving the house, I found a bag of sultanas and a cooking apple. I was really looking for a traybake recipe and that's what the original recipe is, but I didn't have enough eggs or a tin suitable for a traybake so I halved the recipe and went for Apple and Sultana Cake.

I also ended up not doing my book group that day, so I put the cake in the Staff Room at work where it was devoured by hungry teachers! It was all gone by break time and I got some lovely comments about it.

Apple and Sultana Cake (adapted from Jam and Clotted Cream)
(Serves 8-12)

112g butter, softened
140g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
175g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
handful of sultanas
1 medium bramley apple, peeled and sliced thinly

Preheat oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs and vanilla and sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in until smooth. Add the sultanas and pour half the mixture into a lined baking tin.

Scatter the sliced apple on top and then cover with the remaining batter.

Bake for about 50 minutes or until golden

Chocolate and Sultana Cookies

On a Tuesday lunchtime I run a book club for pupils aged 11-14. This is usually a crazy affair with lots of food and up to 60 girls coming. I have a lot of leftover flour that needs using before it goes out of date and I thought the perfect way to use it but not eat the cakes or biscuits was to bring them to school for the book club. They always appreciate something homebaked.

The first thing I made were these delicious cookies. The original recipe uses hazelnuts but I can't take them to school because of nut allergies, so I swapped them for sultanas. The cookies were really good, fudgy in the middle and the combination of sultanas and chocolate went down well with the pupils. They were all gone in a matter of minutes.

Chocolate Chip and Sultana Cookies (adapted from Leiths Simple Cookery)
(Makes about 20)

110g butter
110g caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
170g plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
110g chocolate chips
60g sultanas

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl, cream the butter until soft, add the sugar and beat again until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg, the flour, salt, vanilla extract, chocolate and sultanas. Don't over stir.

Place large teaspoonfuls of the mixture on the baking sheet, leaving room for the cookies to spread and bake in the oven for 12-15mins or until golden brown and cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.