The Big Apple Crumble

For years I have fantasised about following the puritans, Italians, and hungry Irish over the North Atlantic in search of liberty, large portions, and more currently Amber Heard and medicinal marijuana to cure my lust and toothache respectively. So it was with gusto and anticipation that I barged onto the plane at Heathrow last week to embark on my first notable journey to the US of A (Disney World and Minneapolis don’t count in my mind, although Epcot was pretty informative and ‘The Mall of America’ is surely something to behold).

We arrived at Newark airport around lunchtime and after explaining my reasons for entering the land of opportunity to the surprisingly amiable customs official, we were on our way.

New York city is a phenomenal place, far more exciting than Old York that’s for sure, not that the Shambles are without charm and York Minster an eye sore, but ‘le grand pomme’ is truly a city that never sleeps. As ethnically diverse as London but all crammed into the relatively small Manhattan Island, the city has an energy which is truly unlike anywhere on earth, and because of its aquatic limits in the Hudson and East River’s the only way is up, and up they went. I spent a great deal of the week bumping into people as I craned my neck in a vain attempt to take everything in; The Rockefeller Centre, The Empire State, The Flatiron, the replacement building adjacent to the incredibly moving and tasteful World Trade memorial. We walked for days around the various districts, taking in NoLita, the Lower East Side, Midtown, the super trendy Meatpacking district (see Standard Hotel for ping pong and bratwurst), visited Lady Liberty and Ellis Island, and even managed to squeeze in the Flight of the Concords walking tour. New York is all you could possibly imagine and much, much more.

Now to the real reason I was there, dressed in tweed and being very English: the wedding of my girlfriends’ cousin Emmy to her fiancé David. I have only had the pleasure of attending one wedding before so have very little to compare my experience to, however I fear henceforth and forthwith I may be let down by every one I ever go to. The bar has well and truly been raised, nay, hoisted into the stratosphere by the incredible food, venue, scotch, music, people, family, wine, scotch, cocktails, setting, angels on horseback, church, scotch. I could go on, but instead I shall merely close by saying thank you very much for having me to the wonderful Maynes family, cheers Uncle Rich for the spread, and I wish all the very best to Mr and Mrs David Wardrop for the future.

U S A . U S A . U S A . U S A . U S A

P.s. I’ll see you in Cali Andy, gotta come get my meds.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

150g caster sugar

150g salted butter, room temperature, small cubes

150g plain flour

4 large cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

1 tablespoon Demerara sugar

2 tspns ground cinnamon

Crème fraiche to serve.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220ºC.

1. In a blender whiz the butter, flour and caster sugar so it takes on the appearance of breadcrumbs.

2. Place the apple wedges in an ovenproof pie dish, sprinkle with the Demerara sugar and cinnamon evenly. Pour the blended mixture over the top and put in the over for 35 / 40 minutes until lightly browned, serve with crème fraiche.

Claudia's Lemon Posset

People say that the harder you work the greater the rewards, I beg to differ, Lemon Posset could be made by a dead person it’s that easy. Having said that my little sister did go a little overboard with her first attempt and added the juice of 6 lemons as opposed to 3, rendering the pudding terrifyingly wince inducing. This, her second attempt, was absolutely delicious.

It is delicious with shortbread which is very easy to make, I’ll do that another time, I was in a rush so I scooped it out of the ramakin and dumped a few strawberries on it. Boom.

Ingredients: (Serves whoever gets there first)

800ml double cream

175g caster sugar

Juice of 3 lemons


Strawberries

Method:

1. Pour the sugar and cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for a minute or so and take off the heat before stirring in the lemon juice. Pour into ramekins and leave to cool to room temperature, slide them into the fridge to set for at least 3 hours or overnight. It’ll keep for a couple of days so you can make it for yourself and have it for pudding after at least five of the most important meals of the day.

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Raspberry Coulis

This is the best pudding in the world hands down, as wonderful as it is fattening and the sweetness of the raspberries in the coulis just tops it off. My sister made this today and after several attempts at squeezing it from the ramekin unscathed, we managed to get it on the plate to take a seriously quick picture before swallowing it whole.

To quote my father – “Claudia, this is hyper-seductive devils work, it’s a murder weapon. Don’t make it too often!”

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

600ml double cream

50g caster sugar

½ vanilla pod

2 tspns of Gelatine

3 tablespoons of milk

Coulis:

2 cups raspberries

½ cup sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method:

1. Put the cream into a heavy based pan with the vanilla pod and caster sugar, bring to the boil taking care that it doesn’t bubble over and remove from the heat.

2. In a separate bowl stir/fold the gelatine into the milk, the bits won’t dissolve they simply need to be submerged and coated.

3. Add the gelatine/milk mixture to the cream and stir it in thoroughly before pouring into large ramekins or moulds, allow this to cool to room temperature on the side then whack them in the fridge overnight.

4. For the coulis put the raspberries in a pan with ½ cup of sugar and bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and reduce for 15 minutes until deliciously rich. Pass through a sieve making sure to squeeze all the liquid through with a straw, add the lemon juice and mix it in before leaving it to cool.

Serve the panna cotta with a sprig of mint to garnish and a smear or drop of coulis.