Wednesday 4 May 2011

Fruit crumble and soup

In my previous post on Monday I mentioned I was planning to make a fruit crumble. A couple of people asked for photos so Hubby and I (confirming his fears of my impending insanity) proceeded to take some pics of the dish as it was being put together. So here ya go:



You can use any fruit for a fruit crumble. Apple is common and rhubarb very popular. I enjoy mixing fruits so this one is raspberry and blueberry (sometimes I'll put tinned peaches with these two). Raspberries from the garden, frozen from last year, and two lots of blueberries - the smaller ones frozen from the garden from last year, and a few from the supermarket, which are much bigger and I cut in half to let the juice out. All this I sprinkle with a bit of sugar.



Here it is with the crumble topping spread over the top. Recipe is very simple. 6ozs flour with 4ozs butter or marge rubbed into it (I use a mix of both). Into the rubbed in mix stir 4ozs of sugar (demerera or golden castor is nice) and 2 ozs porridge oats. You can also mix in some powdered cinnamon or ginger if you like but my husband likes his crumble unadulterated, so I tend not to.

Pop it in the oven, about 175C for 20 - 25 mins. After which it should look like this:



And like this after us gannets have been at it:



And some days you wake up and just know you have to make soup. So I did.



The basis of this one is chicken stock raided from the freezer. I added that to a load of sweated carrots, onions, sweet potato, garlic, and celery. Then I added some cold new potatoes lurking in the fridge, some of my husband's frozen squash purée, some red lentils, various herbs such as sage, oregano, marjoram, chives and garlic chives, and a hunk of left-over smoked bacon joint. When I make soup like this from bits and bobs I don't always know what I'm going to end up with. LOL. This time I seem to have produced a really nice smokey flavoured ham and vegetable soup which we'll have for tea tonight.

And on my wanderings around the garden collecting my herbs these grabbed my attention:


Aliums are part of the onion family I believe. Whatever, I think they're stunning flowers.




Osteospermums. They close up at night but during the day with the sun shining on them they look like this. Not for nothing is May my favourite month of year.

11 comments:

verity said...

Oh Cath, thatis making me feel so hungry! I am so happy because I have finally figured out a way to make gluten free fruit sponge and we have been overdosing on that in the last week. Maybe it is time for crumble...

My Gallery of Worlds said...

Once again I say...Mmmmmm crumble...lol it looks marvelous :D And soup too..just lovely Thanks for the pics

Jeane said...

Mmm, your food looks so scrumptious! I had to look up what it means to sweat carrots, I've never done that step in cooking before. I wish my husband liked soup... I don't make many soups because for some reason he never wants to eat them!

DesLily said...

the crumble looks yummy!!!! the soup sounds great but it's in the mid 80s and HUMID..but then again when it's someone else cooking... :o) I'll get my waterwings and start swimming lol

chrisa511 said...

That crumble looks SO good!! I need to try it :) And that onion flower is gorgeous...my onions are starting to sprout bouquets of white flowers and they're gorgeous :)

FleurFisher said...

There must be something in the air - I made an apple crumble on Sunday for the first time in ages and chicken and vegetable soup omn Monday.

swlove said...

Wonderful - with the blooms and the cookery, it's just wonderful. Thanks for breaking down the crumble recipe into pictures (and the soup as well). That was really neat. And I love the allium.

Cath said...

Verity: The gluten free thing must be a real nuisance so I'm glad you've found a sponge recipe you can use.

Kelly: My pleasure, I quite enjoyed doing a foodie post for a change. :-)

Jeane: Yeah, 'sweating off' is just lighting frying the veg in a little oil to help bring out the flavours before you add the stock. Funny how quite a few people don't seem to eat soup. Personally I think I could practically live on it...

Pat: Mmm... perhaps soup is not the best food for 80s temp.

You and Sue (swlove) can make the swim together... she's coming for the lemon drizzle cake. lol!

Chris: Fruit crumble is one of the easiest puddings in the world to make and really worth a try.

FleurFisher: How odd... maybe it's because the weather has suddenly turned chillier and we're in need of comfort food.

Sue: Glad you enjoyed the post... made a nice change to talk about food rather than books on this blog.

Vintage Reading said...

Lovely crumble. I should be more adventurous - my husband only ever eats apple crumble so I don't try other fruits.

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Cath,

Crumble of amy flavour, has to be an all time favourite with me and, I suspect, with many others.

The burning question is ... Do you have it with custard, ice-cream, or just on it's own??

I prefer the ice-cream option personally.

Yvonne

Cath said...

Nicola: Yes, as I mentioned, mine isn't keen on any alteration to a crumble topping. It seems these husbands are not always terribly adventurous in their food tastes. :-)

Yvonne: A burning question indeed. Personally I like a crumble on its own. I don't care for custard and am not keen on cold ice-cream with a hot pudding. But the rest of the family are all custard fiends so I always make custard to go with a crumble.