Crunchy Apple Crumble

Ingredients
7 apples, stewed lightly
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup coconut
1 dessert spoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup melted butter

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix in melted butter. Ensure all ingredients are moist and mixture has a crumbly texture.
Place apples in a oven proof dish and sprinkle crumble mix over evenly.
Bake at 180C for 30-40 mins. Or until crumble is lightly browned.

Gerda's Redcurrant Flan

RIBISEL KUCHEN

This recipe is from a dear, elderly, Austrian woman named Gerda. Measurements and wording are all her own….. I can hear her reciting it to me, in the beautiful way she spoke….

Prepare a pastry with two ounces sugar, four ounces butter and six ounces flour, a few drops of lemon juice and line a buttered and floured flan tin with this. Bake 'blind'.

When baked, but still hot, cover thickly with red-currants, sprinkle with a little sugar.

Whisk two egg whites until stiff, whisk in two ounces sugar, fold in another two ounces sugar.

Pile the whipped egg white over redcurrants.

Bake in cool oven until meringue top has set. Cut into slices when cool.

Gerda's Notes:

This simple pastry is ideal for any fruit you have that does not need precooking, such as berries.

Finely ground almonds or hazelnuts may be substituted for some of the flour. Toasting them in a dry pan first adds extra flavour.

Armenian Coffee Cake

Yummy for morning tea, or as a dessert with cream and ice-cream

Ingredients:

2 cups SR flour

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup milk

1 tsp. bicarb soda

1 egg

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

4 oz butter

Method:

Combine sifted flour and sugar, rub in butter

Press just less than half of mixture into the base of a greased tin

Dissolve soda in milk, add egg and nutmeg and beat well

Pour this into remaining mixture and beat again

Pour all ingredients over base in tin (will be runny)

Bake in moderate oven for about 45 minutes

Simple Carrot and Ginger Soup

This recipe is a very simple carrot and ginger soup from the great vegetarian cook Kurma Dasa.  It has a fresh, cleansing taste, and I love to make it if I feel a cold coming on.
Yellow acefoetida powder is available from asian grocers - it's a great, simple substitute for onions and garlic in many dishes - but very much has its own flavour.  Fantastic in dahl.

Ingredients:
2 tabsp. butter
1/2 teasp. yellow asafoetida powder
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
700g topped, scraped and sliced carrots, about 4 1/2 cups
1 cup potatoes, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
at least 4 cups light vegetable stock or water
chopped continental parsley leaves for garnish

1. Melt the butter in a 3 litre saucepan over moderate heat.  Sprinkle in the yellow acefoetida power and ginger, stirring briefly.  Add the sliced carrots, potatoes, salt and pepper and sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the stock or water, and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer the vegetables, covered, for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are very tender
2. Remove the pan from the heat, transfer the contents to a blender or food processor and process to a smooth puree
3. Rinse the saucepan, return the soup to the pan, and gently reheat over moderate heat.  For a thinner soup, add extra stock at this stage.  Serve the soup hot with a sprinkle of freshly chopped continental parsley leaves.