Rhubarb & Pumpkin Crumble

Tigger and I spent some time at the allotment this weekend.  It was mainly an exercise in turning compost heaps and clearing some drainage ditches, but we did notice that many of the rhubarb plants (and we have MANY) have multiple stems on them. 

It must be time to clear last season's rhubarb from the freezer. Fresh will be available a week or two from now.

I haven't sugared rhubarb for years now, prefering instead to cook it in pies and crumbles with a sliced banana, or some sweet cicely stems. 

Years ago I can remember someone who had worked in a jam factory telling me that cheap jams were often made using pumpkin pulp to bulk out the more expensive berry fruits.  So instead of sugar (and because the 'no shop' means I can't go out and buy bananas), I decided to cut the rhubarb pulp with mashed pumpkin. There are still plenty of last year's pumpkins stored on the dining room windowsill, and one or two had started to develop rot round the flower end so time to use them up - fast.

So there you have it - 50/50 stewed rhubarb and mashed cooked pumpkin, spiced up with some grated fresh (or frozen from fresh) ginger, and topped with a rolled oats crumble topping (see earlier post on crumble topping).
 
It works just fine, colour not as deep red as rhubarb on its own, but tastes excellent.

Crumble Topping

All those blackberries, scrumped apples from wild-growing trees, overripe pears, some late strawberries from the garden... we have an abundance of fruit at this time of year.

Crumble sounds like one of those old-fashioned 'puddings' that grandmothers make, or which are served in pubs, smothered in custard (with or without skin!). The stiky-dry pub version (cloys the inside of your mouth, welds itself to the back of your teeth) involves rubbing butter into flour and sugar. 

This version is much easier, tastier, better textured, and considerably healthier.


Crumble Topping
(for about 8 large apples stewed up, or equivalent in other fruit)

2 Cups Rolled Oats
2 cups Coconut
3/4 cup Sunflower Seeds
1/2 cup Raw Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Oil
1/2 cup Cold water

Mix the ingredients and pat them onto the top of a baking dish of fruit (cooked or uncooked fruit).  Bake 30-45 mins at 170 - 180 degrees C - until golden and crispy on top.

And here is a two person version of a pear and raisin crumble in the making.

No 26 - ANZAC biscuits

This recipe came out of a New Zealand icon - the Edmonds Cookbook.  I have been told that in the early days of the book's existence (written to promote Edmonds baking products, strapline: "Sure to Rise"), the Edmonds used to send a copy to all newly engaged women.  I assume that they got the details from the engagements announced in the country's newspapers.

Generations of us have grown up with the Edmonds Cookbook, and more than one mother has deemed it an essential for a son leaving home to do so armed with a book of Edmonds' cooking wisdom.

My recollection of the copy at home was an A5 sized soft covered book  (a picture of the Edmonds Factory with its "Sure to Rise" icon on top, and the beautiful gardens it was also famed for in front), dog-eared and stained with years of baking spills, falling open at the Queen Cakes recipe.  (Since those days sprial binding transformed recipe books.)

ANZAC Biscuits

2 oz flour
3 oz sugar
2/3 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup desicated coconut
2 oz butter
1 Tb golden syrup
1/2 tsp Baking Soda dissolved in 2 Tb boiling water

Melt the butter and golden syrup together and add the soda and water.  Pour the wet ingredients into the mixed dry ingredients and stick it all together.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet and bake in a moderate over for about 15 minutes, until spread out and golden all over.

They range, depending on your mix, from a bit sticky in the middle and crunchy round the edges, to crunchy all the way across.  Take care as they can burn quite quickly after passing the stage of being 'ideal'.  For the English cooks out there - think slightly sticky hobnob.

Toasted Mueslei

Tigger asked that I post more recipes that use honey.  His bees have started whizzing about the place again and in a couple of months he will be contacting all his friends and customers (or posting on his blog) to try and sell the next batch of honey.

Toasted Mueslei

5 cups of rolled oats (I use the jumbo rolled oats)

1 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup wheat germ  (wheat germ isn’t always available in my local shops so I substitute a cup of hulled sunflower seeds)

1 cup skimmed milk powder

1 cup of chopped nuts

½ cup honey

½ cup good cooking oil

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large flat roasting pan.  Heat the honey and oil gently, pour it over the dry ingredients and mix it all really (REALLY) well.  Toast it at about 125C until it is golden.  You will need to stir around two or three times during the toasting process. 

At the end add  1 cup raisins / sultanas / currants.  Store in an airtight jar.

The original recipe had a cup of oil and a cup of honey.  I found this to be overpowering but you might like your mueslei really sweet and stuck together like clusters, so vary that according to your own taste.

You can also add things like linseed, sesame seed, chopped dried fruit etc according to your taste.

No 2 - Sarah's Flapjacks

Flapjacks

This recipe came from Sarah G.

What little yacht racing I still participate in these days is usually on a yacht called ‘Scarlet Jester’ as she campaigns Hamble or Warsash Winter and Spring series regattas on the Solent.  Enthusiastic crew are sometimes in short supply but we are never short of sustaining sandwiches and one of Sarah’s comforting cakes.  (The skipper knows where his best interests are.)  Sarah is a superb baker and a confirmed advocate of the Aga.  Her kitchen is always a welcoming place full of colour, warmth and excellent food.  She is generous with her recipes but I have never produced anything as good as what she pulls out of that Aga.  Maybe it’s the circumstances in which it is consumed but these are the best flapjacks I’ve ever eaten.

Flapjacks

8 oz butter

8 generous tablespoons of golden syrup

6 oz sugar  (make a couple of those ounces light muscavado or golden sugar)

16 oz rolled oats

4 oz mixed nuts

4 oz sultanas

½ level tsp salt

Set the oven at 175 ^o C (that might be a bit less for the fan oven people).  Grease a 7 ½"  x 15" tin or used a Teflon sheet (don’t use ordinary grease-proof paper).

In a large saucepan on low heat melt the butter and syrup.  Remove from heat and add sugar, oats, nuts and sultanas, and salt.

Turn it all into the tin, and cook for 30-40 minutes until golden brown. 

Leave it to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then cut into squares.  (Cut them while they are in the tin and still warm or they will fall to bits.)  Put them on a wire rack to cool.


Flapjacks and photo by Maryan Schuringa