Luxury Apple and Date Crumble

Some weeks back Nelson Mandela fell ill and was hospitalized.  His country prayed for his quick recovery.  The world prayed for him.  I prayed for him.  Death is inevitable, but we always hope and pray that people like Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi can somehow live forever.  The legacy they leave behind is never forgotten.  Their legacy lives on forever.  Generations are taught about their life and principles, what they stood for, what they fought for and what are right.  What do we all want to be remembered for when we are long gone?  I once read that if we wrote down our own eulogy, we would know how to become better persons. So keep the end in mind and work towards that goal.  I have not written my eulogy, but I do keep it in mind sometimes in my interactions with my family, my colleagues my friends and my neighbours – helps me to be more loving, more helpful and just be able to give more to others.

I have got the autobiography of Nelson Mandela – A long walk to Freedom and am pretty excited to start reading it.  I am sure there is so much to learn from it.  You will know all about it on this blog as and when I come across something I want to share with you.  My husband also has the autobiography of George Bush Jr. and that too would be an interesting read.  

 

Preparation Time: 40 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

500 grams cooking apples, peeled, cored and chunked

4 tablespoons brown sugar

100 grams dates, stoned and roughly chopped

2 cloves

1" stick cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, grated

Blade of mace

For the Topping:

125 grams whole wheat flour

75 grams brown sugar

75 grams unsalted butter, chilled

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

25 grams walnuts, finely chopped

Method:

1. Combine the flour, spice and sugar in a bow before rubbing in the cold and diced butter into the mixture until the crumble resembles bread crumbs.  
2. Stir in the chopped nuts and set aside while preparing the apples.  
3. Layer the apples and the dates in a buttered heat proof bowl, sprinkling sugar over the fruit as you stack it. 
4. Slip in the whole spices.  
5. Cover completely with a heap of the crumble and bake at 190 degrees C for about 30 minutes.  It can be served warm with cold cream or custard.

Roasted Pumpkin, Apple Creamy soup

In Autumn, pumpkin is found in abundance in Belgium.  Many grow them in their back yards and then advertise to sell them on their gates.  Sometimes you get them as cheap as 2 euros for a whole pumpkin which weighs about 4 kilos.  Most homes would be brewing pumpkin soups in the evening to keep warm.  

This was the first year I too tried to make some pumpkin soup after getting advise from my dear colleague, Rita, on how to make it.  She said mostly you put the pumpkin with some onions in a pot, steam it, purée it and then season.  I tried it and found it to be quite flavourful.  And then I started looking and trying other pumpkin soup recipes...pumpkin with red capsicum, pumpkin with coconut and now my latest find...pumpkin with apple soup. This recipe I found in one of the papers of my mom which dates back to 1975 - that is even before I was born.  So am quite excited to try it out.  The other pumpkin soups will also come up on the blog when they are documented.

This soup has a slight sourness to it because of the apples.  

Preparation Time:  20 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin, peeled and diced

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 onion, diced

1 tbsp oregano

1 green apple, peeled and coarsely diced

1 cup vegetable stock

1 ¼ cup water

Salt & pepper to taste

Crackers and fresh cream for garnish

Method:

Melt butter in a thick bottomed saucepan.  Add the pumpkin and sauté until the edges of the pumpkin turn light brown.  Remove from heat and allow it to cool.  In another saucepan, melt the remaining butter, add onion and sauté for three minutes or until translucent.  Add the pumpkin, apple, oregano, stock and water.  Boil and cook until the apple and pumpkin are soft.  Remove from heat.  Purée when cool in a blender until smooth.  Reheat and then add salt and pepper.  Pour into soup bowls and garnish with fresh cream.  Serve hot with crackers. 

Tip:  When I have no stock, I use a couple of Maggie cubes, dissolve them in hot water and use those.  But then reduce the salt in the food as the cube contains it already.