5. a crumble for these crumbling days

I use food. 

Apart from using it to stay alive: 

I use it as a form of care for myself and for others.

I use it as a means of self-exploration. 

I use it to pass the time. 

I use it to connect to my culture and deepen my knowledge of others.

I use it when I’m stressed.

I use it to distract myself, from the world, and from the things I don’t want to deal with (ie myself).

I use it as a means of escape. 

It’s my coping mechanism for life.

I am aware that not all of these uses are positive, I’m working on it. But for the most part, food and the cooking of it brings me solace and calm to weather the precarity of our everyday reality. It makes me feel good to know I can turn a sad/bad/average day into a somewhat good one by making something nourishing, delicious, and beautiful. 

I’ve been cooking an average of about 3 meals a day for the last few weeks. While things have been amping up again outside, I’ve been amping it up in the kitchen. The usual comfort foods have been making an appearance: big soups, stews, and pasta alongside roasting everything/anything possible. Been trying new things like pickling, making my own noodles, and experimenting with different broths. I’ve been doing a few online cooking courses, the most recent one was a Shojin Ryori aka Japanese temple food from a Japanese cooking school based in London called Sozai with the cutest teacher called Kinu-san. 

I pay a fair amount of attention to the intersections of food and health so I know gluten and dairy are pretty much just flat out not good for the body BUT damn there’s not much else to look forward to right now if I cut them both out!!! So in that spirit, I turned on my oven yesterday and made a simple crumble out of the odd bins that were in my house and it made the house just smell so good and it was just so joyous that today's dispatch’s only intention is to share this lovejoy with you. 

I promise this recipe is easy even if you don’t usually like to cook. And if you really don’t like/can’t cook make someone else make this for you!

APPLE CRUMBLE FOR THESE CRUMBLING TIMES

Ingredients:

10 tablespoons of butter (just melted, melt in the microwave, or gently in a saucepan on medium heat!) for my vegano/non-dairy friends you can use coconut oil as a replacement!

¾ cup of flour (I used normal all-purpose but you can use an equivalent!)

¾ cup of brown sugar (i like to use the darkest muscovado kind!)

¾ cup of oats

½ cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts - whatever you’ve got whatever you like! Can be replaced with raisins if you have a nut allergy) 

1 tsp of salt

4 apples (you can use the same or mix types for different flavors!) cut in into halves, cut out the cores and cut into about 2 cm wedges) 

2 teaspoons of cinnamon 

Juice of half a lemon (there should be about a tablespoon of juice, if not then juice the other half!)

My oven pan was 23 x 5 cm but experiment with shapes, it can be flatter and crispier it’s more a personal taste! 

Cooking instructions:

1. Heat the oven to 175 degrees celsius. 

2. Butter the baking pan you’re using. Open the butter pack, hold it paper side and rub the butter on the sides and into the corner. 

3. In a medium/large bowl mix the flour, oats, 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon, nuts/raisins, and ⅔ of the sugar together. 

4. Add the melted butter and stir till all the crumbly nobbly bits are covered. 

5. Put all your apple wedges into the baking dish and spread them equally. 

6. Add the remaining teaspoon of cinnamon, the lemon, and the ⅓ of the sugar you have left. Toss so all the apples are covered.

7. Sprinkle the delicious smelling (the magical alchemy of cinnamon and anything!!!!) crumble mix on top of the apples. 

8. Put it in the oven and bake until the apples have softened and the crumble on top is looking sexy and golden. I like to leave it in till just before it starts to burn a little so around 45-55 mins depending on how hot your oven is. 

9. Take out, leave to sit for 15 mins. 

10. SERVE! Optional add ons ice cream, mascarpone, custard, cream, whatever non-dairy equivalent, etc but also great on its own! AND also good as breakfast (i had it on yogurt this am!), as a snack, a gift to a friend who’s sick rn or just needs some loving!

    

(also excuse the super abstract food pic, this post was an afterthought so this is from today of me eating the leftovers, I am a bad baby food blogger please forgive me for my sins!)

happy eating friends, stay safe, take care of yourselves and each other <3 <3 <3