A few days ago I put a few pictures on my personal Facebook page of foods I was missing due to my lack of funds or simply not being able to get to the places or even countries I would need to go to in order to purchase them. This was not in any way asking for food gifts but rather an expression of the foods I especially like. Things like continental dry cured sausages, sardines, mussels, rhubarb etc.
Then out of the blue my friend Allison (Allison and her husband Steve were former neighbours) got in touch with the idea of them sending me some of their own rhubarb which they grow in Lincolnshire.
Allison is a very creative person and runs her own business from home. Her craft products are superb. The business (business plug alert!) is called The Creaking Door.
Of course I jumped at the chance of fresh rhubarb and she cut and posted me some beautiful stalks. It was all done with a great deal of care and the box included a sweet little card.
Within an hour of receiving the parcel I was all hands on deck/kitchen surface peeling and chopping the rhubarb along with two apples and got on with the brief stewing of the fruits adding sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Once stewed I drained the cooked fruit and discarded most of the cooking liquid. Otherwise the crumble would end up far too wet and sloppy. Next step was to put the fruit in a dish intended to house the finished crumble. Thus done I went into mad culinary creative mode and added some sultanas (or raisons), chopped uncooked banana and a fresh lemon's worth of wonderfully fragrant lemon rind.
It ain't a crumble without the topping and I used a packet I must have purchased back in the Middle Ages at Sainsbury's. As a final touch before putting the crumble into a hot oven gas mark 5 for 45 mins I thinly sliced some unsalted butter and lay it on top of the crumble mix. It gives the finished dish a very buttery taste. Well, there's a surprise!
The finished crumble was totally scrummy but I did wait until at least an hour until had cooled somewhat! Thanks Allison and Steve.
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