Apples and leaves

Autumn's beauty always takes me surprise. I dread the loss of summer so keenly that my misery seems settled for the long haul of cold, till next June at least. Then, one crisp afternoon the air is smelling of burning wood, the outrageous golds and reds of trees are illuminated by the cloudless sky and I feel the tingling of a kind of enlightened joy; like in the outward thrust of summer something was missing, that now is returning - a welcome home-coming of the soul.

The red gold and green of new season apple skins like the fluttering butterfly leaves. Apples and leaves.

 

England goes pagan for the apple in October. Shrugging off the supermarket straight-jacket of pink ladies in plastic tubs all the way from New Zealand - Britons flock to quaint harvest festivals to quietly praise and wonder this humble fruit. Old ladies in cardies hold court at stalls taking slices from heritage apples with their paring knives as eager children greedily eat the juicy nuggets asking for more like they're coated in toffee. 

And they are the best apples I've ever tasted.

Speaking of folksy, wholesome things, I recently got my hands on a copy of  the excellent magazine Kinfolk - a guide for small gatherings. With the bag of apples River chose from the harvest festival, I knew I had to make something special, so I tried this recipe from the mag, substituting the original pear to apple and with a few tweaks here and there. The combination of herby rosemary with honey-sweetened apple and almond is lovely; a sophisticated treat. It's sugar and gluten free too.

Apple, honey and rosemary tart

For the pastry:

5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 C honey
1 1/2 C ground almonds
1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves finely chopped
pinch of salt

For the apple compote:

2 cups of peeled, quartered and sliced apples
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 bay leaf
2tbsp honey

Method

For the pastry:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 Degrees C
Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well combined - add a little extra almond meal if it feels too sloppy, you want a mix that is still moist but also able to be picked up and moulded.
Using your fingertips, press the dough into a buttered, loose-bottomed tart tin (mine was 20cm and I had some spare dough, you could also make small tartlettes).
Make sure the dough is as even as you can get it and about 2cm in thickness. Press holes into the surface with a fork.
Place the tin on a larger baking tray and put on the middle shelf of the oven.
Check after about 10 minutes - poke some more holes in the dough if it is bubbling up too much.
Cook a further 5 minutes or until the case is deeply golden.
Allow to cool - it is quite fragile, so be careful when releasing from the tin.

For the compote:

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Turn the heat down to just below boiling and cook for 10 minutes until the compote has thickened and the apples are soft but still in shape.
Pour into a jar and cool to room temperature. If cooking ahead of time you can keep it in the fridge for a couple of days.

When ready to serve, scoop the compote into the pastry shell.
It's delicious with some plain Greek yoghurt.

Easy food

Here's some shots I did with a talented young photographer, Mr John Latham, using only daylight in a garage out on some country road somewhere between Manchester and Liverpool.

I kept the recipes simple; baked egg and steak, garlicky mushrooms on puff pastry with watercress, the last of the summer nectarines and plums grilled with sugar and vanilla. Easy food with a British bent.

 Infact, the recipes are so simple I am going to talk you through them:

For the steak and egg

Remove your steak/s from the fridge for about 15 minutes before cooking to get the meat closer to room temperature, season well and rub with olive oil. Crack egg/s into lightly greased small oven proof dishes, like mini flan tins, season and bake until just set for about 10 mins on 200C. (You can fancy it up and season them before cooking with fresh thyme or rosemary salt or chilli flakes with celery salt or smoked paprika and a splash of olive oil etc etc) Get a fry pan nice and hot before putting the steak in and cook for about 4 minutes on one side before turning, adding a knob of butter to the steak and cooking on the second side for a further 4-5 minutes. Remove from the pan and rest for a few minutes before serving with condiments of your liking.

For the mushroom tart

Chop a whole lot of different mushrooms up - like a punnet of chestnut, 1/2 punnet of button and 1 punnet of shitake, and fry in a large hot frypan with olive oil and a knob or 2 of butter. If the pan dries out before the mushrooms are golden and browned add a little more butter or oil to the pan. As the mushrooms release their juices, toss them around and season with plenty of sea salt (mushrooms adore salt) and a few grinds of pepper. Then, when you are about half-way through cooking the mushies add 2-3 cloves of garlic that have been finely chopped and the leaves off 4-5 thyme sprigs. The mushrooms are ready when they have caught some colour - a golden hue with some properly brown bits too. Place a sheet of puff pastry onto a baking tray and pile the mushrooms on, leaving a frame of pastry around the edge. Bake on 200C for about 15-20 mins or until the pastry is golden. Serve with some watercress dressed with lemon and extra virgin olive oil.

For the nectarines

Stone and half nectarines and plums (you can use peaches, add raspberries...) and sprinkle generously with castor sugar and the seeds of 1 or 2 (if your feeling flush) vanilla pods. Put the emptied vanilla pod skins on the tray too - it looks good when serving and shows off your culinary generosity. Place under a hot grill and watch for the sugar to start extracting the fruit's juices, bubbling and caramelising - about 10 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.