Friday 28 June 2013

Apple crumble and jumping the shark

One thing I need after riding around in the pouring rain is good, hearty comfort food. And yes, it has been pouring with rain, and I haven't been wimping out and catching the bus or driving to work.

Riding in the rain isn't that bad at all. Rain doesn't generally fall in monsoonal sheets all the time - it comes and goes, meaning that on some "wet" days, I haven't gotten wet at all. I've arsed it and picked the gaps in between showers. And even if it does bucket down, it usually only pours for a short part of the ride. If you're dressed for it, it's water of a duck's back.

Here's how silly it gets - it rained all the way home, yet when I walked in the front door, I went straight to the shower to wash off all the sweat. I had been under a flooding sky for 45 minutes, and the first thing I did was to go and pour more water over myself because I had sweating pissing out of every pore. Except I got to adjust the temperature of the water. I'd hate to be poor, and unable to pour water over my leaking pores.

On to food.

I've rediscovered the crumble. For me, the secret is using a good bircher muesli in the crumble rather than plain oats. All the fruit and nuts in the muesli tarts it up nicely. I discovered this by happy accident - I had run out of plain oats, so I used up the last of a packet of bircher. I've never looked back.

I fear though that I might have jumped the shark tonight by adding just too much stuff to what is traditionally a fairly simple dish. I also threw ground almonds and dried coconut into the crumble, sprinkled slivered almonds on top and threw in a handful of dried apricots and sultanas into the apple. I'll see how it goes - I might have reached that event horizon in apple crumble cookery where just too much fruit and other whizzy bits destroys the dish.

Whatever. As they used to tell me in the Army - "If you don't eat, you don't shit. And if you don't shit, you die". With all that muesli and fruit waiting to be eaten, I don't think I am going to have any problems tomorrow.

1 comment:

TimT said...

Mmm, crumble. I rediscover the crumble every week or so. Actually it's never been a dish I'm brilliant at - often it comes out of the oven too soggy. I can never seem to get the proportions of butter/flour/sugar just right.