Apples

No, I haven’t lost the plot completely. I know the picture above is of soup, not apples, but all will be revealed further down.

Did you know an average of 800,000 apples get thrown away every day in the UK! Now I must admit, I’m not one to pick up an apple and eat it, but, as my waistline will testify, I do love baking and making sweet treats with them.

The BBC Food website has some wonderful apple cake recipes, I can heartily recommend giving them a try.

After finding out about the number of apples wasted each day, I searched the internet for apple recipes and kept seeing the name Apple Butter coming up. I couldn’t imagine what butter with apples in it would taste like, so I clicked into a few recipes to find out more. Despite the name, apple butter doesn’t actually have any butter in it. It’s apples cooked down into spread. Looks a bit like a thick toffee sauce. I decided to give it a go.

Apple butter bubbling away

It tasted like a wonderful velvety, caramelly, appley, autumnal sweat treat, without being too sweet. I love making jam but find the taste too sweet for me.

I used some as the base of an apple pie, had some on my banana pancake for breakfast and spooned it through a basic pound cake batter before baking.

These banana pancakes may not look pretty, but boy did they taste good!

This is the recipe I followed

https://www.mybakingaddiction.com/crock-pot-slow-cooker-apple-butter-recipe/

I was lucky enough to have a good harvest  from my apple trees this year and have made lots of apple pies, crumbles, jams (which are being sold by The Random Cafe, Garston) and sweet things with them. But still had a fair few left.

An opportunity came to use some them when eldest daughter requested my honey glazed gammon for her birthday meal at the beginning of this month. I usually boil the joint in Coke before roasting, but I forgot to buy some (I know, bad mum!). I decided to experiment.

I boiled the joint in water, with an onion and 2 apples. Once the gammon was boiled, I took it out of the pan, smothered it in honey and roasted it for 25 mins.

The liquor left in the pan from boiling the ham smelt wonderful, far too good to throw away. So I skimmed off the fat, emptied a bag of frozen peas in pan and bought it back up to the boil, blended it all together and it was the best pea and ham soup I’ve ever tasted.

It portioned down and froze really well. I’ve taken a tub in to work for lunch at least twice a week since. This is definitely going in my book of recipes to make again.

Honey Roasted Gammon

Uncooked Gammon joint

1 onion, peeled and cut in half

2 apples, halved, no need to peel (I used gala but most apples would work with this)

2 tbsp Maytree Honey

Remove all packaging from the gammon joint and place it in a pan with the onion, apples, and enough water to cover the gammon. Put a lid on the pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 mins, per 450g of meat, plus an extra 20 mins.

Carefully remove the gammon from the pan, (do not throw the liquid, onion or apples away)

Place the boiled gammon in a roasting dish, smoother in honey and roast in a pre heated oven 180, gas mark 4, for 25 mins or a bit longer if you like the outsides dark and crispy.

Pea and Ham Soup

Skim any fat and white foamy bits off of the liquor the gammon was cooked in and return to the heat. Add a whole bag of frozen peas, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins.

Blend and enjoy

The soup freezes really well, if it lasts ling enough.