Apples!

[Oola]

Tonight we're having a roast dinner again followed by another homemade apple crumble and ice cream!

My aunt and grandmother have had a massive glut of cooking apples this year - they reckon this year has been absolutely brilliant for apples (but bad for onions - so watch out for a red onion shortage...heard it from the onion farmer!). So after meeting for our weekly Sunday afternoon tea at my grandmother's, my aunt made sure that I have come away with a huge carrier bag filled with cooking apples.

So any suggestions what I can do with them? I've got the apple crumble tonight, and I'm going to make a welsh harvest cake (http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2007/09/welsh-harvest-cake-teisen-y-cynhaeaf.html) too. I also love stewed apples but haven't really ever done anything beyond these. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Oh, also, I am currently in possession of Nannie's preserving pan if there are any apple jam, chutney or preserve recipes lurking out there, although I'll see if I can consult my WI book on this too....

[Redstart]

Here's my recipe for apple chutney - I think it's an adaptation of mine from one in The Farmhouse Kitchen by Mary Norwak and Babs Honey (pub. c. 1970) but it could have originated from elsewhere - I've been making my version of it for about 30 years!

Apple Chutney

2.75 kg sour apples, chopped
900 g onions,chopped
800 g sugar
500 g amber syrup
3dl water
1200 ml vinegar
3 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp salt
2 fat cloves garlic, crushed

Simmer the apples and onions in the water for 30 minutes. Add 600 ml vinegar, sugar, syrup, garlic,salt and spices and when everything is soft add the remaining vinegar and cook until thick.

Pack into hot dry sterilised jars, seal and label. If properly sealed will keep approx. 12 months.

To dry-sterilise jars, wash them in hot soapy water, rinse and place in 140° C oven for 10 -15 minutes before filling.

[Oola]

lovely! thanks

[Ivy]

Mandy have you got a recipe for apple jelly for us to share? I made some years ago but it tasted of nothing... disappoining if youv e got a big apple tree in your garden.

[Redstart]

Hi Ivy (and Oola)

The secret of apple jelly is to make it with crab apples, sour apples or unripe apples and use the whole apple. Ripe apples just don't give the flavour.

I've looked in my Complete Farmhouse Cookbook (Mary Norwak and Barbara Honey 1973) and my more modern Betty Bossi "Wunderbar Haltbar" and the recipes are more or less the same apart from the language (the older recipe uses larger amounts but you can always double the amounts given below)!

800 g apples (see above)
500 ml water
Juice of 1 lemon
300 g sugar or preserving sugar (latter takes less time to get to the setting stage)

Cook the apples (complete with skins and cores) with the lemon juice and water until soft and then drip through a jelly bag (I do this overnight). You should get 500 ml juice. Add half the sugar and bring to the boil. Once that first lot of sugar has dissolved, add the rest of the sugar. Boil until it gets to setting stage (I test it on a saucer that I keep in the freezer part of the fridge).

Another version (also from the Mary Norwak and Barbara Honey book which is a collection of farmhouse recipes they collected/had sent to them) is

Apple and Elderberry jelly

1350 g (3 lb)cooking (sour) apples
2 litres (2 quarts) volume of elderberries off their stalks
1 stick of cinnamon
Rind 1 orange
1 litre (or a little more) (2 pints) water
Sugar - 450 g (1lb)sugar to 570 ml (1pint) juice

Cut up apples and put in preserving pan with elderberries. Add water and simmer to a pulp. Put through jelly bag overnight.

Measure the juice, add the sugar to the juice and bring to the boil with the orange rind and cinnamon stick (tied in muslin) added. Boil rapidly until it reaches setting point*, remove the muslin bindle and pot into hot sterilised jars. Cover.

* This jelly should be soft rather than stiff.

Another way of improving Apple Jelly is to add a bunch of mint to the apple pieces. This is traditionally served with lamb or mutton.

[Pippa]

Oola, See Dorset Apple cake on CL, Food thread - needless to say have now lost scrap of paper it was on, hey-ho.

[Oola]

Thanks Redstart & Pippa...and yes Pippa, I know how you feel. I have lots of bits of paper with printed and handwritten recipes floating around in the kitchen. I'm hoping to scrounge an unused blank book from my mum to transfer them all into.

[Sparrow]

Hi Oola, I got this recipe from an NZ cookbook. It's great because you don't have to cook it. You just need a big bowl for it to sit in, as you leave it to "chutney-ise" for several days and stir occasionally. I have made it many times and LOVE it.

NO COOK APPLE CHUTNEY

25 g garlic
1kg tart apples
1kg dried fruit (sultanas, raisins or whatever)
1kg brown sugar
125g mixed peel
1 tblspoon salt
1 tablespoon mixed spice
pinch of cloves and cinnamon
pepper to taste
malt vinegar

Mince the peeled garlic, cored apples and add dried fruit. Put in a large basin and add all the other ingredients using sufficient vinegar to bring it to the desired consistency. Cover with a cloth. Stand the chutney at room temperature and stir several times daily for 3 days. Bottle and cover. Keep in a cool, dark cupboard. Serve with bread and cheese etc.

Do not substitute onions for garlic because onions ferment and spoil the chutney.

[SummerSkye]

I have a little book called Tasmanian Apples that I found in an Op shop it contains heaps of recipes from soups and mains to sweets, including even a chocolate cake. Oola try some baked apples (cored and stuffed with sultanas) and a dob of butter and brown sugar on top. I cook for about an hour at moderate heat. The butter and sugar combined with the apple juices make a lovely sauce.

[lily]

Apple cheese from Sunday Times Style supplement looks good. You can get the recipes on line, if you would like recipe and this doesn't work I can post it here. I've also made a no cook chutney adding minced dates- very good.

[Ivy]

Mandy will Boskop be sour enough? Thanks for the recipe

[Ivy]

Oola, See Dorset Apple cake on CL, Food thread - needless to say have now lost scrap of paper it was on, hey-ho.


You can go to the site without registering!!!:p I do if I feel bored and want to shake my head!

[sunflower]

Apple Jam by Delia Smith (just put in apple jam on google and it comes up) plus I have added cinammon. But yes, you are right, not much taste and a bit dissapointing, especially as I have also got a glut of apples. Apple crumbles and pies are lovely though.

[Redstart]

Ivy- Boskoop is what I use for cakes and chutney. I just use less sugar in English recipes because English baking apples are really sour.

I've planted two Boskoop trees (a bush and a half standard) so hope to have plenty in future years.

However, I suspect they might not be sour enogh for jelly. The best apple jelly I made was from wildlings - cultivated apples that have returned to the wild - and of course crab apple jelly is excellent if can can get some crab apples.