Apple Crumble

Apple Crumble

Hub made a few new friends when he was at INSEAD a few weeks ago. One of them was in Italy over the weekend and came over specially for dinner this evening. I was all set to try out something new, but Hub preferred to play safe and insisted that I prepare dishes that would allow him to uncork good bottles of wine for his wine connoisseur friend (who's French too).

Summer Rolls with Dipping Sauce

So we started with Vietnamese Summer Rolls with Prawns, followed by a Boeuf Bourguignon (yes, again) cooked with lots and lots of fresh Porcini mushrooms and served on either fresh pasta or home-made mashed potatoes.

Half-eaten roll

For dessert I wanted to do something really fast and easy so I did an Apple Crumble. I did a normal crumble this evening, not bothering to fusion anything. Though for that added crunch I insisted on adding oats to my crumble.

Apple Crumble :

The crumble

230g Flour

70g Oats

200g Butter (room temperature)

150g Demerara Sugar

A pinch of salt

The filling

2-3 large slightly acidic Apples (e.g. Reinette)

Some Raspberries (optional)

1 Tbsp Flour

50g Sugar

1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

Method I've blogged about before so I won't repeat myself. Though this time I baked the crumble at 180°C for 40 minutes.

Before baking

Hub said that was too much crumble and not enough fruit. I begged to differ. I hate fruit sauce. It's for babies and the elderly. But if you like it, reduce proportions for the crumble.

Volnay 1997

Hub uncorked a 2005 Riesling from Rieflé and a 1997 Volnay from Louis Jadot. They were very good.

We had a nice evening though I didn't know the couple who came to visit. I think that they were quite brave since I would be really nervous if I were to dine with people who do not know my food habits. But then, not many people would be as fussy as I am, I suppose. Except for my own mother, I do not think I know anybody who doesn't eat almost anything like me.

The first time meeting people is usually easy otherwise. You do not have much time to do anything else except try to get to know each other. And then even a 3-hour French meal will have to come to an end. They seemed like a really nice couple and the lady has children near my own children's ages so we would have things in common.

Tomorrow I will need to get the kids to finish their homework (I hope I have enough printer ink to have their work printed out) since school starts again on Wednesday.