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Posts Tagged ‘homemade apple pie’

A Trip to Orange

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , , , , on May 28, 2011| 58 Comments »

Pete is the oldest of five siblings.  His brothers and sisters don’t all live in Sydney, so it was a rare treat to have brunch with them last weekend.

We were visiting Orange, one of the largest rural cities in our state, and dined at The Old Convent in Borenore, about 20 minutes from the centre of town.  We were seated in a huge private room, complete with lounge area and fireplace, which provided plenty of skipping room for our young niece.

The fixed menu breakfast included sublime poached pears, homemade muesli and yoghurt…

…followed by poached eggs and bacon on toast…

…and corn fritters served with smoked salmon and yoghurt.

For the children, there was French toast and maple syrup, as well as toast with Vegemite.  And yes, I did take a crossword to Sunday morning breakfast!

The venue was charming and quaint, and I was sorely tempted by the local pottery on display…

. . . . .

On the four hour drive back to Sydney, we stopped at Bilpin Springs, nestled at the foot of the Blue Mountains.  This family run orchard allows you to pick your own fruit, and we spent the better part of an hour exploring amongst the fruit trees.

Available for picking were Granny Smith apples…

…the last of the Pink Lady apples…

…and an assortment of citrus fruit.  Sundowner apples were due to start picking the following week.

We picked a few kilos of Pink Ladies and some Granny Smiths, as well as a kilo of juicy limes.

That night for dinner, I made Small Man’s favourite apple pie, using our just picked Granny Smiths.  The perfect ending to a great weekend!

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In My Kitchen, August 2010

Posted in In My Kitchen, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 16, 2010| 43 Comments »

In my kitchen…

…is a tray of our ever reliable chocolate slab cake.  Big Boy asked me to bake it to “help” him study for his exams…

In my kitchen…

…is a tub of organic honeycomb, a gift from our lovely friend Moo, who tracked it down at one of his local Adelaide markets.  He told me that, short of getting on a plane to Kangaroo Island, this was the closest thing he could find to completely natural, unprocessed honey…

In my kitchen…

…is our “lucky” Elvis mug.  We don’t actually believe in luck, but I often make Big Boy a cup of tea in this before his exams.  It always makes him laugh, and I think that’s a good frame of mind to be in before a test!

In my kitchen…

…are interesting treasures from far away.  Lovacores, avert your eyes now, because on my bench I have a jar of Sardinian Bottarga (grated mullet roe), pickled baby onions in balsamic vinegar, and a treasured jar of Piment d’Espelette.  The Piment was a gift from gorgeous Anna of Five in Paris, who was in Sydney on holidays recently…

In my kitchen…

…is a messy, yummy apple pie – Small Man’s favourite dessert.  I tried to be artistic and decorated the top with a pastry apple – hopefully you can make it out in the photo below (it’s a bit tragic, I know).  Interestingly, the pastry, which is usually quite wet, was much firmer when made with our homegrown eggs – possibly because they’re fresher and the proteins are stronger…

In my kitchen…

…are bags of certified virus-free seed potatoes, recently arrived from Tasmania.  The plan is to grow four varieties over the coming year – Bintjes, Spuntas, Red Norlands and King Edwards. The first two batches have been set out to chit (sprout), and the rest are carefully stashed away in a lightproof box.  We’ve never grown potatoes before, and are quite excited by the prospect of having them fresh from the garden!

Tell me, what’s happening in your kitchen this month?

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Apples

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on March 25, 2009|

apple-pie-002

We bought a big box of new season Royal Galas at the markets a couple of weeks ago.  Whilst they looked magnificent, they weren’t crunchy enough for our liking (Galas rarely ever are). The boys were really good and no-one complained, but when we saw new season Fujis at the markets last Friday, we couldn’t resist.  These looked lousy – all pockmarked and dimpled – but they’re crunchy and sweet, and so fresh that they should last for weeks outside the fridge.

Rather than waste the Galas, I turned them into apple pectin and pie filling.  The peels and cores all went into a large pot to boil into pectin (we produced twelve large jars – which should be enough to set at least 36 kilos of fruit).  I’ve posted the instructions for making pectin in the Jam section.  The remaining pulp was sliced and cooked down with a little water until soft, then drained.  I added lemon juice and sugar to taste, cooked it a little longer, then froze most of the filling in one litre containers, ready for a future mid-week treat.

Today I defrosted a box of filling, stirred a teaspoon of cinnamon through it, and made an apple pie for afternoon tea, using June’s wonderful shortcrust pastry. The boys have already eaten half of it!

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