Apples

[Flosshilde]

this year was particularly bad for apples everywhere.

Yes - my partner always orders a few boxes from a fruit farm in Essex - Crapes. This year they sent out a letter saying that the crop had been so bad that they weren't taking orders for delivery & only had a few to sell from the farm.

I'm not especially keen on apples, I'm afraid. Don't know why. Plums, now ....

[Anna]

I wonder about baked apples as a main course...with some interesting grain mix in the middle, with herbs and maybe even a few chives?

Haven't tried with grains but savoury baked apples as a starter or light supper with a green salad are quite common, usually stuffed with cheese (camembert, blue or a crumbly like Lancashire) and walnuts are the usual mix but you could add crisped finely chopped bacon ....? I do recall though from the Pudding Thread that the majority here detest baked apples! Last night I had one baked plus a baked Conference pear, yummy with a splodge of vanilla Greek yoghurt.
Edit: To refer back, cauli cheese is one of my favourites and I also do it mixed with broccoli, you can add an egg to the cheese sauce to make it more souffle-like.

[salymap]

Years ago I used to make a casserole of a layer each of apples, onions and mashed potatoes,all partly precooked, topped with cheese and browned in the oven. Well I and visitors seemed to like it.

[Anna]

Years ago I used to make a casserole of a layer each of apples, onions and mashed potatoes,all partly precooked, topped with cheese and browned in the oven. Well I and visitors seemed to like it.

saly, that sounds a wonderful Winter warmer/comfort food, would go well with pork or sausages I think. Trying to think of interesting grains to stuff an apple in response to greenilex. I'm not fond of couscous or quinoa, how about something with bulgur wheat or, my favourite, spelt? Non-grain combos I've thought of are blackpudding and chestnuts or Chorizo and Manchego. But, reason I'm posting is my greengrocer has got quinces (not entirely offtopic as they are from the apple family I believe) Never ever cooked one, nor tasted one, tempted to get one tomorrow and experiment.

[vinteuil]

my greengrocer has got quinces .

... o lucky lucky you.

Quinces and medlars two of my fave fruits - sadly we lost our quince and medlar trees when I was young, - praps that's why they have such rich proustian significance for me...

Tho' it has to be said that both quinces and medlars are a bit of a faff to do anything with. And the classy proprietary brands of quince jelly / quince jam / medlar preserve are very acceptable...

I like the French word for quince - coing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince

[teamsaint]

Years ago I used to make a casserole of a layer each of apples, onions and mashed potatoes,all partly precooked, topped with cheese and browned in the oven. Well I and visitors seemed to like it.

That sounds ace. That is one I am going to try.

[Anna]

I love the mythology associated with quinces. Never had a medlar, nor seen one, I believe it has sexual connotations and has to be quite decayed before it is eaten? However, back on track, I think I will purchase quince tomorrow, if he has any left!

[vinteuil]

Never had a medlar, nor seen one, I believe it has sexual connotations and has to be quite decayed before it is eaten? !

Yes, lots of sexual connotations ("open arse"). And has to be decayed - "bletted", to use the technical term -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mespilus_germanica

[salymap]

That sounds ace. That is one I am going to try.

I should have added that the top layer must be potatoes - cheese soaking into the other ingredients isn't
quite the same.

Off topic - is it possible to make a simple,quick soup including cucumber. After a party here last week I have rather a lot of the stuff?

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes, lots of sexual connotations ("open arse"). And has to be decayed - "bletted", to use the technical term

Catching up by reading threads from the end, backwards, can be rather - or even -inducing...!



Having read swiftly onwards and upwards, it's good to be on more familiar ground:

Quinces and medlars two of my fave fruits ...
I like the French word for quince - coing

Quince jam is absolutely delicious and is one of my key 'proustian' tastes when it comes to France: still warm, crusty baguette or pain de campagne straight from the boulangerie, cold butter and gelée de coings with a café au lait... The 'rural' branch of the family there made gelée de coings from their trees, and the commercial version by 'Bonne Maman' was always in the cupboard in Paris - and sometimes to this day, in London.

Needn't be lugged back from south of the Channel any more: http://www.frenchclick.co.uk/p-778-b...ings-370g.aspx

[Anna]

saly, only cucumber soup I know is: cucumber, potato, spring onions, round or cos lettuce. Chop and sweat vegs in butter, add vegetable stock, season, simmer. Blend, serve with chopped chives or mint on top. Variation is to add peas. Gazpacho uses cucumber of course but I cannot think of anything else at the moment.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Those nice people at the National Trust have sent me an e-Mail which includes a link to this article:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/what-we-do/news/view-page/item601092/

... which is from last year, hence the reference to "it's been a terrific year for apples"!

[salymap]

saly, only cucumber soup I know is: cucumber, potato, spring onions, round or cos lettuce. Chop and sweat vegs in butter, add vegetable stock, season, simmer. Blend, serve with chopped chives or mint on top. Variation is to add peas. Gazpacho uses cucumber of course but I cannot think of anything else at the moment.

Thanks Anna and I have most of the ingredients already. In an old Vegie cookbook by Sarah Brown there are some very odd ways of cooking/eating cucumbers In one book Ifound a recipe for cutting it into one inch slices, hollowing them out and filling with various savoury mixtures. How much time would that take.?

[Flosshilde]

& wouldn't the filling fall out as soon as you picked it up - whether with fingers or a fork? As Shirley Conran might have said, "Life's too short to stuff a cucumber" (although, given her novels, one might wonder just where she would stuff it )

[salymap]

& wouldn't the filling fall out as soon as you picked it up - whether with fingers or a fork? As Shirley Conran might have said, "Life's too short to stuff a cucumber" (although, given her novels, one might wonder just where she would stuff it )

No prizes for that guess, Flossie. Back on topic - it really hurts me to have to buymy favourite cooking apple, Bramley, because of the awful weather in the spring.