Did you hear the news yesterday? we are supposed to be kinder to wasps, the old bee gets all the positive publicity, whilst wasps get negative response. Well the wasps round here decided to test our kindness. This morning I noticed a couple of wasps in the kitchen and on opening the side door there was a cluster of wasps in the left hand corner of the door, probably about three dozen, poor creatures wanted to come in from the cold! Well much as I respect all forms of life walking around barefoot with wasps scurrying around was not on my agenda. So I gently flapped them away and hope they will find somewhere else.
Our little broody bantam is still being broody, this morning as usual I put her out in the garden to run round and feed and drink, she is a scaredy-cat as far as big butch Hen Phoebe is concerned and runs squawking from her, Fey my other bantam has struck up quite a friendship with Phoebe but likes her companion bantam to be around.
Yesterday our friends bought some apples from their garden and as there were cooking apples in the assortment, my first thought was baked apple with sugar. The first thing is of course I haven't a corer to take out the middle of the apple, so I took out Hartley's - Food in England, apparently you need a sheep's shank bone neatly carved (as the sheep are all alive round here not much good). Anyway I coped with a knife, scored the apples round the middle, and spooned brown sugar with a dash of honey down the middle, no sultanas this time and baked the apple to watch it burst into that fluffy gold in the oven, eaten with cream delicious.
It struck me reading the book, with recipes from the 14th century, and delicious recipes called 'apple amber', that should food be scarce on the ground after Brexit that we maybe have to go back to proper English cooking using the foods around us which are so abundant in this temperate country of ours!
Hartley on a baked/roast apple...
"Apples roasted with sugar candy and galingale syrup (galingale is a lumpy spice with the aroma of damask roses)Stew the galingale in enough water and honey to fill the platter. Drain over the apples and bake gently; withdraw from the oven and serve cold, scattered with crushed white sugar candy. They should look like frosted pink roses, in a syrup the colour of rose quartz."
That blast from the past baked apple recipe is pure poetry and has just made me desperate for one for my lunch!
ReplyDeleteI agree, even asked Paul if he had a rose quartz around so I could see the colour. Funnily enough he also refused a baked apple, they only appeal to certain people.
DeleteApple crumble - yum
ReplyDeleteBaked apple - yuck
Why?
No idea!
Yes as a delicacy just a couple of times over the winter months. Apple crumble is a great delicacy. Janet yesterday told me that she baked the crumble and apple separately in the oven for a crisper crumb and then added it afterwards.
DeleteI have not baked apples in years. It used to be a common dessert in my house when my children were growing up and we had a nice apple tree in our yard. However, it was always a contest between the birds and I as to who would get the fruit first.
ReplyDeleteI do not like wasps. I did not read why we should be kind to these stinging bees
Well as the bee disappears from the environment due to how we farm, the wasp also does the same job of pollination, and when they are in our jam or beer they are looking for insects to feed their young. The apple trees are loaded around us here, branches bend under the weight.
DeleteI've just cooked up a load of windfalls I was given on Sunday. They will be made into a crumble further on down the line. It may well be that our eating habits change after Brexit. Interesting times.
ReplyDeleteArilx
Yes, interesting times, especially as Europe doesn't like Theresa's proposals. But actually I love all the vegetables of winter, even sprouts they are so much more sweeter and English apples are of course in a league of their own.
ReplyDelete