Autumn/fall is definitely here - the nights are much cooler now and it is no hardship to have the oven on in the evening! At last Sunday's little farmer's market in Verdun I picked up a huge bunch of rhubarb.Not my favourite vegetable but an awesome addition to fruity desserts, especially pies and crumbles! It is only since living in Quebec that I have discovered the deliciousness of adding of strawberries to pies and crumbles (why don't we do this in Australia? My guess, berries are waaay to expensive to "waste" in a crumble!) and so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to test out a rhubarb, apple, strawberry concoction.
You could follow any normal crumble recipe, using your favourite fruits, but here are my hints -
- partially cook the apple and rhubarb in a saucepan, with a bit of water and lemon
- use a shallow dish for optimal crumble to fruit ratio!
- get creative with seasonings for the crumble topping - I love a little bit of ground ginger and even some black pepper, and I always add rolled oats to the flour/sugar/butter mixture
Mmm, and of course, serve with your favourite dairy deliciousness!
2 comments:
I only just realised how amazing strawberries are in pies, crumbles, etc. I have absolutely no idea why it isn't de rigueur in Australia either - maybe the price, but then I think we seem to be happy to make blueberry/raspberry crumbles more than strawberry crumbles despite the fact that strawberries are usually a lot cheaper than either blueberries or raspberries.
I had some strawberries in the fridge and some leftover shortcrust pastry that I'd made, so I thought hey, why not? Stewed the strawberries in orange juice and Grand Marnier, put it in a dish, covered it with pastry, baked it... oh my god it was so good. Strawberry + orange is one of my new favourite combinations. Where has it been all my life???
This crumble of yours looks fantastic. I think we're just getting into rhubarb season here now (I can tell because when I go visit my parents at Mt Tamborine, all the little roadside stalls there are stocked with rhubarb - otherwise I'm pretty useless with fruit seasons for some reason) so I would definitely give this combination a go (especially with strawberries at $2.50 a punnet at the moment, hurrah).
It probably is the price that deters me (I also buy organic which just ups the price further)- however raspberries and blueberries I use as they are still great when frozen, whereas strawberries really don't freeze well.
But now my little strawberry plant is starting to bloom I think the next crumble I make will have them for sure.
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