Autumn in the Kitchen Garden- Fruit Crumble Recipe

We are well into Autumn now so still a busy time in the Kitchen garden.  We should still be eating well from the garden, collecting, preserving and drying crops for winter eating. 

The days are getting noticeably shorter and the weather cooler but conditions are still suitable for many vegetables. The hedgerows will be fruiting as well – look around for elderberries, hawthorns, crabapples, wild sown apples and blackberries. Our fruit trees, in particular the apples are starting to produce now and the race is on to make jams and jellies to preserve the fruit for winter eating.  I recently made individual apple and blackberry crumble puddings that were particularly delicious.  Here is the recipe.

Apple and Blackberry Crumble.

Peel and slice 5-6 cooking apples such as Granny Smith, Bramley or whatever apples you have in season.  Put into a pot with a small amount of water and cook until tender. Put serving size portions into oven proof individual pudding bowls or ramikans and sprinkle blackberries on top. You can add a little bit of sugar to the fruit if you like. Sprinkle over a little bit of sugar.  

Crumble.

1 cup flour

100g butter – melted butter

1/3 cup of  sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

Put all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix together.  Pulse in your processor if using until it forms clumps. You don’t want the crumble to be too fine  – you are looking for lumpy crumbly mix.

Sprinkle on top of the fruit and then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or so.  Slivered almonds make a nice crunchy addition along with sliced almonds scattered on top.

Tips: You can stew your apples earlier and have in the fridge. Prepare your crumble and store covered in the fridge. If you using the oven to cook the dinner you can quickly prepare the dish to pop into the hot oven once you have taken the dinner out. Cook about 180 C.

You can also substitute some of the flour with oats, coconut, muesli, ground almonds, slivered almonds – experiment with what you think your family will like.   Any left over crumble can be put into a plastic bag and frozen, ready to sprinkle over fruit at a moment’s notice.

Bottled Beetroot

Beetroot

If I had a list of vegetables that everyone should grow in their backyard Vegetable Patch, beetroot would be on it. It is easily grown and you can eat it in lots of ways. When I was growing up the only way it came was sliced and pickled in a Watties can – used in a cold salad or on a hamburger.  Now you can juice it, roast it, pickle it, make relish, make a delicious salad with raw grated beetroot, have it hot and even make it into a chocolate cake. You can add the leaves to your salad and cook any baby thinnings you may have. You may know more ways and if you do then I am sure you will agree with me that it is a must have for the garden.  Here is a basic way to bottle beetroot.

Bottled Beetroot.

This is a traditional and easy method to bottle beetroot - delicious with salads. You can add pickling spices if you prefer a spicier version but this is a good starting point.

Wash and trim 6-8 beetoot but don’t peel. Put into a pot of cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer until tender.

Drain but reserve one cup of the cooking water.

Once cool enough to handle rub off skins under the cold tap.

Slice beetroot.

Meanwhile in your preserving pan, add the following.

1 cup water you cooked the beetroot in.

2 cups malt vinegar

2 tsp salt

1 cup brown sugar (or white if you don’t have brown)

Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the sliced beetroot, bring back to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes or so until the beetroot is heated through. 

Pack into sterilized jars and seal. Use a slotted spoon to get out the slices to pack and then carefully pour the hot liquid onto them.