Stilton, Apple and Parsnip Soup

A hearty winter soup with a delicious medley of flavours.



Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
  
• 1 garlic
  
• 1 bunch leeks
  
• 1lb parsnips
  
• 3-4 large apples
  
• 1/2 cup apple wine
  
• 3-4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  
• 1 oven roasted garlic
  
• 300g Stilton cheese
  
• 2 cups light cream or half & half

Directions:

Melt butter in large pan with lid.
Mince garlic.
Dice leeks (whites and "solid" pale green portion of shoots).

Cook garlic, leeks and butter until leeks are translucent. (Approximately 5 minutes.)
Remove pan from heat and allow to sit, covered, for 5 minutes.
Peel and dice apples and parsnips.

Add apples, parsnips, wine and stock to pan.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until parsnips are tender. (Approximately 20 minutes.)

Add oven roasted garlic.
Crumble cheese into soup and stir until cheese is melted.
Purée soup in a food processor.
Return mixture to pan.
Add cream.
Heat gently until soup is hot.
Serve immediately.

Fruit Scones

A classic British recipe for scones. When I was a child, my mother made these with sultanas and currents. They are equally good with fresh cranberries and/or apple. Try them topped with raspberry jam and fresh whipped cream!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. all purpose flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 2 oz. unsalted butter
  
• 4 oz. fruit such as sultanas, currants, fresh cranberries or chopped apple
  
• 5 fl. oz. milk

Directions:

Mix flour, salt and baking powder together.
Incorporate butter with a fork until mixture is crumbly.
Add fruit. Mix well.
Add just enough milk to hold dough together, forming dough into a ball with your hands.
Roll dough out into a one inch thick sheet.
Cut into rounds with cookie cutter.
Place scones onto greased baking sheet.
Brush tops of scones with milk.
Bake for 7-10 minutes at 425°F.

These are best enjoyed still warm from the oven, but can be cooled on a wire rack and stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a day or two.

Apple and Orange Egg Custard Tart

A refreshingly tangy twist on Mom's apple pie.
I usually bake it with the pie plate sitting on top of a cookie sheet because the filling invariably spills over the top of the dish while baking.

Ingredients:

• 1 + 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
  
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 orange
  
• 3 cups apples
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup half and half cream

Directions:

To make the crust:

Mix butter into flour with a fork.
Beat one egg and stir into flour mixture.
Knead pastry with hands until it forms a soft ball.
Roll pastry out until it is sufficient in size to line bottom and sides of a 9" deep dish pie plate.
Grease and flour pie plate.
Line pie plate with pastry.
Line pastry with tin foil and fill with dried beans or other baking beads.
Bake blind 10 minutes at 425°F.

To make the filling:

Zest and juice the orange.
Peel and core apples and cut into thin slices.
Toss apple slices with orange juice and zest.
Beat two eggs.
Add sugar and cream to eggs and beat well.
Fill pie crust with apple mixture.
Pour egg mixture over top of apples.
Bake at 375°F for 45-55 minutes (until custard is set).
Cool in pan on wire rack.
Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Tyrcuill Experiments in Winemaking

My parents have an enormous apple tree in their yard which yields tens of thousands of apples each year. Save for a few eaten by the dog, my mother has been gathering these apples up into plastic bags and putting them all out at the curbside on garbage collection day. (I know, I know! I cringe too. I have tried to convince my mother to at least compost the apples, but she refuses.)

This year, my father and I decided to pursue a new plan for saving some of those delicious apples from the local landfill. My father purchased a 1000 watt Breville "Juice Fountain Elite" and we have been experimenting with making apple wine and cider. I will be chronicling those experiments in this post.



More to come soon!

Apple Spice Cake

This makes a delicious, moist and flavourful cake. I baked one for a camping trip, covered it in plastic wrap once it had cooled, and enjoyed some everyday of a five day trip!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 3/4 cup whole grain oats
  
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
  
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  
• 2 cups filtered apple pulp
  
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
  
• 1 cup raisins

Directions:

Beat butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs.
Sift flour, oats, baking salts and spices together.
Stir flour mixture into egg mixture.
Mix in apple pulp until well combined.
Fold in nuts and raisins.
Pour batter into greased and floured 9" x 5" loaf pan.
Bake at 350°F for 55-60 minutes (until wooden pick inserted in centre of cake comes out clean).
Allow to cool in pan on wire rack.
Cake is best fresh but cooled leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap, stored at room temperature and enjoyed for several days.

Apple Strudel

This is a great recipe for using up some of the pulp left over from the process of juicing apples. I use a high speed juicer which presses some filtered pulp through with the juice. This can be shaken into the juice for a healthy, fresh-pressed drink, but when I need my juice a little clearer, I strain it a second time through a double thickness of cheesecloth and use the pulp from that filtering in this recipe.



Ingredients:

• 4 cups apple pulp
  
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
  
• 1 egg, beaten
  
• 1 cup chopped pecan pieces
  
• 1 lb. phyllo pastry sheets
  
• 100g parmesan cheese
  
• 1 cup butter, melted

Directions:

Assemble all ingredients before beginning to work with phyllo pastry.

Mix apple pulp, ricotta cheese, pecans and beaten egg together thoroughly.

Grate parmesan cheese. (This step should be obvious, I know, and I'm not receiving sponsorship for any product placements on this site, but the tool I have been using for this job is so cool, I have to share it with you.)

The Amazing Microplane Zester


This fabulous tool was a gift from my friend Pam. The Microplane is awesome for finely grating chocolate, hard cheeses, garlic and hard fruits and veggies such as carrots and coconut.


Grated food is collected in the Microplane's own little tray.


And from there can be easily decanted into whatever other container you like.


The Microplane created a full cup of fresh and finely grated parmesan cheese in less than 60 seconds!

Spread one sheet of phyllo pastry out onto work surface.
Keep remaining sheets wrapped in damp cloth.

Lightly and quickly brush phyllo pastry with melted butter.


Sprinkle grated parmesan on top of buttered pastry.


Repeat with two additional layers of pastry, butter & parmesan.

Spoon apple mixture along one edge of pastry.


Fold near edge of pastry over apple mixture, tuck in sides of pastry, and roll up.

Bake strudels in 400°F oven for 20-25 minutes (until golden).

Enjoy these pastries fresh and warm.

Tzatziki Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• cooked chicken breasts, diced
  
• apples, cored and diced
  
• dried cranberries
  
• pine nuts
  
• tzatziki *
  
• baby spinach leaves
  
• extra virgin olive oil
  
• balsamic vinegar
  
• apple butter **
  
• mandarin orange segments

Notes on the Ingredients:

* One day I will figure out my own tzatziki recipe. Until then, the thickest, garlickiest tzatziki I have found is Skotidakis Tzatziki.

** Commercially prepared apple butters are often flavoured with spices such as cinnamon - which are fine for this recipe - but please choose an unsweetened variety. Apples are sweet enough on their own!

Directions:

Mix oil, vinegar & apple butter together.
Toss spinach leaves with vinaigrette.
Mix chicken, apples, cranberries & pine nuts with tzatziki.
Line serving plates with spinach.
Heap chicken salad on top of spinach.
Garnish with mandarin orange segments.

This chicken salad also works well as a spread for sandwiches.