COOK YOURSELF SANE

ULTIMATE CRUMBLE

Chapters about drug-taking in a cookbook don’t exactly lend themselves to the whole recipe theme we’re supposed to be adhering to, and I have to admit that eating and cooking were not my biggest focus during this time!

However, Himself and I did have a few culinary favourites, though they were largely informed by being very stoned. For the purposes of propriety and the assumption that most readers are not currently very stoned, I have given these dishes a bit of an update.

In the halcyon days of the coach house, we made endless apple tarts from the apple trees in the garden. Being the incorrigible stoners that we were, the apple tarts were then subjected to many borderline disgusting accompaniments. We often served a slice warm, topped with an entire Brunch ice cream, though we didn’t stop there. Next we would sprinkle over some cereal (Crunchy Nut Cornflakes work really well) and, lastly, pour milk over the entire concoction. I’ll spare you the recipe for that one.

Serves 6–8 (pictured below) INGREDIENTS:

500g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 2cm pieces juice of ½ lemon 100g granulated white sugar 350g frozen berries 110g plain flour 150g soft brown sugar 120g rolled oats 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1½ teaspoons ground cardamom 100g cashew nuts 100g desiccated coconut 100g pecan nuts, chopped 150g butter, plus 15g for greasing Vanilla ice cream (or Brunch ice cream!), to serve

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180°C, Gas 4. Place the apples in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the lemon juice, white sugar and frozen berries. Stir until the berries have thawed, then bring the mixture to the boil and allow it to bubble for five minutes.

When the apples are tender, remove from the heat. Drain off about half of the liquid released from the fruit, then set the fruit aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, ginger, cardamom, cashew nuts, coconut and pecan nuts.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat. Pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients and mix well with your hands. Lightly grease a deep ovenproof dish, roughly 20cm in diameter. Pour in the apples and berries and top with the crumble mixture. Place an oven tray underneath the crumble (to catch any spillover) and bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the crumble is golden brown and the fruit mixture is bubbling up at the edges.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand for about 15 minutes before serving. Serve this fragrant, delicious crumble with a good-quality vanilla ice cream, or a Brunch ice cream topped with Crunchy Nut Cornflakes if you happen to be stoned!