how you like them apples..

I am currently on break.

Officially anyways.

Mentally, I'm still in that weird in-between phase where my mind is adjusting to a  much slower pace.

I can't wait until we fully transitioned.

This is my contribution to that process..



That is my apple cake. Did I tell you that apples are my favourite fruit to bake with? I haven't? Well, apples are my favourite fruit to bake with. Way ahead on berries or citruses.

Since I'm not feeling the least bit chatty today, lets get to it, shall we?



I got this recipe from David Lebovitz's site. My favourite part of this one is that it calls for different types of apples. As many as you can find and whatever you can find. I have there some cherry apples, local "manalagi" apples, granny smiths and the red USA crisp apples. Coincidentally, these are all quite sour apples, which I think balances the sweetness of the cake perfectly.

 

French Apple Cake

French Apple Cake
Adapted from davidlebovitz.com

• 110 gr flour
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 100 gr butter (room temperature)
• 150 gr sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  Rum

Firstly, peel and core the apples, then dice them into 1-inch pieces.

Secondly, preheat your oven to 180 Celcius.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until foamy then add the sugar, vanilla and rum. The amount of rum is entirely dependent on your preference but if you want to leave it out completely, double or triple the amount of vanilla.

Throw in the flour mixture and mix well before adding the butter.

Now the batter is ready. Get some parchment paper and line your cake pan. Pop the apples into the batter and fold them until they're nice and covered. Spoon the cake mixture into the pan. Use the remaining batter to make sure the apples are covered and the cake is somewhat flat on top.

Bake for 55 minutes- 1 hour. Additionally, when the cake is done, turn on the broiler to brown the top of the cake for around 5 minutes.

Dust cake with some powder sugar and serve with custard.



Use this recipe to make the custard but instead of 1 2/3 cups of heavy cream, do 2 cups instead since a  runnier custard complements the apple cake perfectly.

Yield: 8 Serving

out to sea..

Happiness is a word not easily defined. There is no universal identifier, no single, agreed-upon meaning, something along the lines of subjectivity and open interpretations. Me, I'm quite convinced otherwise.

hap·pi·ness 

 [hap-ee-nis] 

–noun1. A day spent by the sea.2. Good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.

They say I exaggerate.

My mum and I, decided to spend the day together last Tuesday. It's been a while, I'm not going to lie. The usual excuses; she's been difficult, I've been difficult, things've been difficult, et cetera, et cetera. The point is we did and man, was it glorious.

We got there quite late. Very late, in fact, the sun was all but gone when we arrived. It didn't matter, to be honest, the sun and sand has never been my favourite thing about the sea. I'm not being silly I swear. It's just that I prefer the wind and the water. Both were, as always, perfectly present that evening.

The next day, inspired by our trip, I decided to make fish soup. I also decided, since I didn't have any recipe for this particular dish, that I'm just going do this one by gut (pun intended).

Ok, that's not entirely true I just have to get that out. I watched an episode of Jamie Oliver's cooking show the other day. He was sitting in a small row boat trying to cook a soup not unlike this one. He used fresh fish which he had just "caught" right before taping and sea water. Yes, THAT sea water. Do you love it or do you love it?

Now I know some people doesn't share my love for mr. Oliver, but how could you not love a guy who makes the simplest dish worthy of rooftop shouting? Or has such passion for olive oil? Oh and did I mention, cooks with sea water?

Rockstar.

Anyways, I don't have a photographic memory, or a very good one at that, but this is soup we're talking about. The only thing you need for certain is your taste buds. Trust.

Mediterranean-style Fish Soup 

Tomato Fish Soup

inspired by Jamie Oliver

• 6 - 7 tomatoes
• 1 large onion, diced
• Whole fish, gutted and cleaned (You can use fillets but it won't taste as good, I promise. Alternatively, you can use only fish heads and make a fish head soup)
• Sea salt
• Olive Oil
• Lemon
• Black Pepper
• Dill & Parsley

Now, you're wondering why those ingredients list doesn't include exact measurements, that's because there is none. Just keep tasting the whole thing throughout and add the ingredients accordingly.

Firstly, remove the skin from the tomatoes, now there's a lot of ways to do this but I like to scar the tomatoes with a knife and roll them around in a pan of olive oil over medium heat. It's fast and flavours the oil in the process.

Diced the skinless tomatoes and throw them back onto the pan along with the onion. Make sure you use plenty of olive oil. Cook for a little while then put in the fish along with the herbs. Season well and mix.

To get maximum flavour, and to show off, I season with these. Call me a snob, but fleur de sel is definitely superior than your everyday kitchen salt, flavour-wise and health-wise. Plus they're completely affordable so there are literally no excuse not to convert to natural sea salt, people.

Kusamba Fleur de Sel

Where were we?

Ok, next just pour in some water and let the whole thing simmer for an hour or two. When it's done, taste and season some more. Spoon into a bowl and squeeze half a lemon over individual serving.

Soup simmering with parsley stalks.