Apple crumble, the perfect autumn dessert

Recipe by Pille @ Nami-Nami. Above photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the November 2012 issue of Kodu ja Aed ("Home and Garden", an Estonian monthly magazine. I've been their food writer since October 2012). 

As for the perfect autumn dessert, you cannot go wrong with a classic apple crumble. Surprisingly apple crumble - or crumbles in general - aren't particularly well-known in Estonia - we're more cake and pie and tart type of people, I guess. I love adding oats to my crumble topping - or any other porridge flakes (rolled spelt or rye flakes work brilliantly, for example). Oat addition makes the crumble somewhat healthier and the topping more crunchy. If you have some red-skinned crab apples - like the ones on the photo above - add those to the apple mixture for extra colour.

I served the crumble with a cinnamon and cream cheese whipped cream - a wonderfully aromatic addition to the crumble.

Apple crumble
(Õunakrõbedik)
Serves six

600 g tart apples (f. ex. Antonovka, Granny Smith)
25 g seedless raisins
25 g caster sugar
ground cinnamon

Crumb topping:
100 g all-purpose wheat flour
50 g porridge oats or rolled rye or spelt flakes
100 g cold butter
50 g demerara brown sugar

Peel* and core the apples, cut into smaller chunks or sectors. Place into a bowl, toss together with raisins, sugar and cinnamon. Transfer into a buttered 24 cm pie dish or 4-6 portion dishes/ramekins.

Combine the flour, rolled grains and sugar in a bowl. Cut the butter in with two knifes or a pastry cutter or simply using your fingers. (Or simply put everything into the food processor and pulse until you've got pea-sized pieces). Spread the crumb topping over the apples.

Place in the pre-heated 200C/400F oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until the apples are soft and the topping golden brown and crispy. Let cool for about 15-30 minutes before serving.

Serve with cinnamon-flavoured cream cheese, vanilla custard, vanilla ice cream or simple whipped cream.

* There's no need to peel organic apples from your own backyard or a reputable orchard.

More crumble recipes:
Rhubarb crumble @ Nami-Nami (gluten-free, if using certified gluten-free oats)
Raspberry and coconut crumble @ Nami-Nami
Pumpkin and apple crumble @ Nami-Nami
Apple cinnamon crumble @ Two Peas and Their Pod
Speculoos + Apple Crumble @ Dorie Greenspan
Butterless apple crumble @ Chocolate & Zucchini

My recipes in Home & Garden (Kodu & Aed), November 2012

Here's a short overview of the recipes I chose and cooked for the November 2012 issue of the Home and Garden (Kodu ja Aed) magazine, as the magazine's new editor of the food section. If you read Estonian and are based in Estonia, then you can get the magazine at all newsstands until the end of the month.

The photos are by Juta Kübarsepp, who also helped with styling. The props are my own or from my friend Kristiina :)

November is a dark and chilly time in Estonia. There's usually no snow yet, so nothing to reflect back the little light we have during this month (and trust me, there's not much light). However, there are still some things to light up the life during this month - Fathers' Day is celebrated during the second Sunday in November, and there are some folk calendar events as well. (And our little family gets to celebrate my dear K's birthday and the birth of our third child). I was thinking of the Father's day lunch or dinner when planning this menu, yet it'd be perfect for any autumnal family gathering.

For starters, I chose the silky butternut squash soup with a pinch of nutmeg, accompanied by home-made roasted onion grissini. I've blogged about the soup here on Nami-Nami foodblog in October 2008, and I still highly recommend the recipe. The recipe for roasted onion grissini is originally from an Estonian foodblogger Kätrin, but I've modified it slightly over the last year or two.

 

For the main course I chose something autumnal and gutsy. Rabbit has become more easily available here in Estonia for an average shopper (read: you can get it vacuum-packed in your local supermarket), and this rabbit stew with a creamy mustard sauce is an excellent way of cooking rabbit. The recipe is French-inspired and adapted from Anthony Demetre, the chef patron at the London restaurants Arbutus, Wild Honey and Les Deux Salons, more specifically, from his book Today's special: A new take on bistro food - Recipes from Arbutus and Wild Honey. Demetre uses rabbit legs, but for a home cook, using a whole rabbit makes much more sense - and is much more economical, of course.

 

 As for the perfect autumn dessert, you cannot go wrong with a classic apple crumble - something that's actually not particularly well-known in Estonia (we're more cake and pie and tart type of people, I guess). I served the crumble with a cinnamon and cream cheese whipped cream - a wonderfully aromatic addition to the crumble.

 

Check out the October 2012 recipes as well.

My recipes in Home & Garden (Kodu & Aed), October 2012

This is the cover of the October issue of one of the best-selling home magazines in Estonia, Kodu and Aed (Home and Garden) and it has my name on the cover page :)

"How come?", you wonder.

In early September I got a phone call from their editor-in-chief, Ms Veigel, asking if I'd be interested in being the editor of the food section. The phone call was totally unexpected and came out of the blue - but as I am unable to return to my academic post at the University just now, I decided to say yes. It all went very quickly then - turned out they wanted me to be in charge of the October issue already and I had about a fortnight to come up with the menu and do the photoshoot. With the help of Juta Kübarsepp, the photographer, we ended up with the following "Pille Petersoo sügismarjamenüü" aka my autumn berries menu. The concept behind the menu was that while Estonians are very good in forageing for wild forest berries (cranberries, blueberries, bilberries, cloudberries, lingonberries and such like), they often overlook the berries in our own garden. Hence I focused on black aronia aka chokeberries (a popular and very beautiful hedge plant, the berries are mainly used for making cordial), sea-buckthorn berries (the super-berry of 1990s and 2000s over here) and rowanberries (the berries of rowan or mountain ash; see also and article in The Guardian).  All three are pretty abundant, especially if you live in a small garden town or on the countryside, yet the vitamin-rich and antioxydant-rich fruit of those trees/bushes are too often left for birds to eat (while trendy urbanites spend a fortune on exotic super-berries like acai, goji, golden inca etc).

Here's the menu, photos by Juta Kübarsepp. 

Gravadlax with sea-buckthorn juice and berries:

My autumn berry menu began with lightly salted salmon filet (rainbow trout would be excellent, too), that had been seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper and concentrated sea-buckthorn juice. After 24 hours in the fridge, the fish was thinly sliced and garnished with whole sea-buckthorn berries.

Beef or venison "olives" with rowanberry gravy, accompanied with carrot ragout:

The sliced beef or venison is topped with sliced carrot, onion and some rowanberries, then rolled up, fried in the mixture of butter and oil, and then simmered in liquid until done.  The carrot ragout is a simple mix of sliced carrots, onions, oil, water, rosemary and seasonings. Earlier versions of both recipes have been featured here on Nami-Nami about five years ago (see here).

Black aronia smoothie and whipped semolina pudding with apples and black aronia berries:


The smoothie is a mix of banana, a handful of black aronia berries, a spoonful of kama or oat bran or oats, a cup of kefir or plain yogurt, sweetened with honey or maple syrup. The whipped semolina pudding (mannavaht) is made with water, apples, black aronia berries, sugar and (wholemeal or spelt) semolina/cream of wheat.

Sea-buckthorn smoothie and sea-buckthorn kissel with crispy rye bread crumbs:

The smoothie is a mix of banana, regular or oat milk, (frozen) sea-buckthorn berries or undiluted juice, sweetened with honey or maple syrup. The fruit soup (kissel) contains water, sugar, pureéd sea-buckthorn berries and potato starch/flour (cornflour would do), served with curd cheese mouse and garnished with crispy rye bread crumbs.

How do you like the menu? Are you familiar with any of the berries and if yes, then how do you tend to use them in the kitchen.

We shot the November issue last week and are shooting the December one in a few days, so there's a lot of cooking and writing going on at our house just now.

Nami-nami in Print and in Press

I've collected here print and online mentions of my English-language NAMI-NAMI foodblog as well as my Estonian-language NAMI-NAMI recipe collection, as well as direct links to articles written by me and food photos taken by me and/or K.

Happy browsing!

(UPDATED MAY 2009)

Everyone's a Critic, October 7, 2008
Nami-nami foodblog was mentioned in Debbie Elkind's article Everyone's a Critic published in an Australian SBS Online..

10 December 2007
Nami-nami foodblog was listed as one of the finalists in the 2007 Food Blog Awards
Rural category, alongside Lucullian Delights, Farmgirl Fare and Garlic Breath. I did not win, unfortunately, but it was such an honour to be a finalist in the annual food blog awards. You can read more here.

9 November 2007
The food section of Guardian Unlimited Blogs, aptly named Word of Mouth, mentioned my K's cannelés post in "Our Faves" section :)

21 October 2007
Wynn Williamson of the Wide Open Education site mentions Nami-nami alongside Delicious Days, Jamie Oliver and YumSugar on his list of favourite food sites.

15 October 2007
The Swedish MatFeber site has again featured one of my photos, that of the beetroot pickled eggs.

15 October 2007
Guardian's Word of Mouth blog posted an article by a very mycophobic Jack Arnott, who also linked to my wild mushroom hunting post, though he claims that mushrooms would 'give him shivers. Oh well, we all have our weird habits and phobias I guess..

14 October 2007
The food section of Guardian Unlimited Blogs, aptly named Word of Mouth, mentioned my wild mushroom hunting post in "Our Faves" section :)

9 October 2007
BaltLantis picked up my Sea-buckthorn Jelly post, adding it to their recipes section.

4 October 2007
Kalyn featured my Cinnamon Roll photo in her BlogHer post about Daring Bakers.

17-23 September 2007
I'm doing the week-long eGullet foodblog - you can follow the thread here.


18 September 2007
Tea Austen Weaver of the lovely Tea and Cookies blog featured Nami-nami in her CHOW Grinder article How Do You Say "Yummy" in Estonian?

13 September 2007
Liz Crain of the Oregon-based Culinate food site interviewed me recently. You can read the interview - Food for the taking: An Estonian blogger forages the forests and the fields - here.

11 September 2007
Amy Sherman (of the Cooking with Amy fame) mentions my blog in her Epicurious Blog post on Daring Bakers and credits me for sharing both my successes and failures. It obviously pays off being honest about burnt recipe notes :) Thank you, Amy!!!

9 September 2007
An American expat living in Tallinn, Rachel J. K. Grace, mentions Nami-nami foodblog in her interview to Expat Interviews, Baltic Yank: American expat Rachel in Estonia.

20 August 2007
Two of our photos (this taken by me, this by K) were used to illustrate Ryan Nadel's article Darker fruits could fight cancer in Australian crowd powered media NowPublic (Click on the slideshow to see the photos).

15 August 2007
My post & photo about Nigella Lawson's raw beetroot salad with dill and mustard seeds was featured by the Swedish news and lifestyle blog Matfeber. The same article (and photo) was co-published by the online edition of Swedish daily newspaper, Express.

8 August 2007
My photo of traditional Estonian rye bread was used as an illustration alongside Joel Alas' article about bread in Estonia in the English-language newspaper The Baltic Times.

July/August 2007
I was asked to test and review a recipe for the July/August 2007 issue of Oma Maitse, the local equivalent of the BBC Good Food magazine (see page 5 for a short bio, and p. 25 for my opinion of this recipe.)

23 July 2007
Elion Digitark, the web forum for the largest Internet provider in Estonia recommends my English-language foodblog as a good source of recipes, especially highlighting my experiments with kama:
"Nami-Nami - toidublogi, mida peavad eestlased, kuid inglise keeles. Juttu nii retseptidest, kui kogemustest erinevate toiduainetega. Korduvalt on selles blogis olnud juttu näiteks kamast."

4 July 2007
I was asked to translate the menu of President Ilves' and President Bush's lunch in the White House for the national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress, and was credited for the translation.

22 June 2007
Kristjan Pillak mentions my Estonian language recipe site in his article Jaanipäeval grillimiseks retsepte in the summer website of the national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress, providing links to 14 different shish-kebab or šašlõkk-recipes on my site.

17 May 2007
A full page article, Turulkäik Londoni moodi, about our visit to the London Borough Market was published in a national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress. Alongside were two photos taken by K.

10 May 2007
A full page review of our visit to the Petersham Nurseries Café, called Restoranitrende Londonist was publised in a national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress. Alongside were three photos taken by K.

19 February 2007
I guest-blogged over at Johanna's blog The Passionate Cook, writing a Culinary City Snapshot of Tallinn.

20 December 2006
Kristjan Otsmann recommends my Estonian-language recipe site as one of eight particularly useful sites for Christmas ideas in his article 8 veebilehte jõuludeks in the national weekly newspaper Eesti Ekspress:
"Kui inglise keel valmistab raskusi, siis saad abi kodumaistelt http://www.nami-nami.pri.ee/ või http://www.kokaraamat.ee/ lehtedelt."

1 November 2006
My fellow foodblogger Alanna of A Veggie Venture very kindly mentions my blog in her article Gather ’Round the Computer: Foodies come together in the blogosphere in Sauce Magazine.

24 May 2005
Kadri Vilen praises my Estonian-language recipe site in her article Vilunud kokkajaks tänu Internetile in Arvutimaailm (Computer World).
"Edasi võiks nimetada Nami-nami retseptikogu - sisaldab üle 6000 retsepti. Enamik on pärit rahulolevate kokkajate sulest ning seotud kokandussõnastikuga - tundmatud komponendid seletatakse kenasti lahti.
Eraldi on välja toodud nii tähtpäevadeks sobilikud kui rahvuspühadeks kõlbulikud kodumaised road. Tegemist ühe entusiasti suurekspaisunud projektiga. Tänuväärne üritus."

21 November 2003
Volks Vaagen writes in his article Internetti retseptijahile in a national daily newspaper Eesti Päevaleht about various online recipe sites. My Estonian language recipe collection is praised for citing sources for various recipes, its set-up and logic, good number of ethnic cuisines represented, and for its useful food dictionary:

"See retseptikogu on aus. Ja aususe eest müts maha! Viited selle kohta, mis allikatest on veebil esitet retseptid võetud, ei ole köögindussaitidele tavaline, samas annab äärmiselt hää viite teostele, kust leida muudki huvitavat. Nami-nami on lihtne oma ülesehituselt, kerge kasutada, suhteliselt kiire. Võiks öelda, et tegu on isegi minimalistliku lehega veebikujunduse mõttes, aga sellevõrra lahedamalt kasutatav. Leht mõtleb nendele köögitajatele, kes vajavad kiiresti retsepti või ideed samaks päevaks, sestap antakse päeva retsept eraldi ja targasti tehakse. Rahvusköökide (säälhulgas Eesti) arv on enam-vähem optimaalne. Neid võiks ju ka alati rohkem olla. Aafrika kööke napib, kreooli köök aga sisuliselt puudub. Arvan, et see on ainult aja küsimus, millal need read täienevad, kuna kõikidel külastajatel on võimalus oma retsepte anda ja see on suurepärane! Kokandussõnastik on vajalik ka kõige kogenumale kokale."

22 April 2003
Britta Hansmann mentions my Estonian-language recipe site in her article Kilomeeter kokaraamatuid in Arvutimaailm (Computer World):
"Nami-nami — kaks ja pool tuhat süstematiseeritud retsepti. Otsing, hüva nõu. "

Juhhei! I'm a 2007 Food Blog Awards finalist!

I've just read over at Wellfed Network that Nami-nami is one of the five finalists in the RURAL category of the 2007 Food Blog Awards. How exciting and what an honour!



I must admit that I was a wee bit baffled at first, as I consider myself a 100% city girl. But then I guess my frequent mushroom forageing trips (for saffron milkcaps, yellow morels and others), my proud and fruitful forest berry picking missions (lingonberries, bog bilberries, wild strawberries, cranberries, cloudberries - all regulars in our kitchen in one form or another) and general exploratory-culinary use of wild plants (making meadowsweet cordial, enjoying nettle soup, experimenting with ground elder pie, dressing up dandelion leaves and adding chopped wild garlic leaves to salads, drinking freshly collected maple sap and sweetening my tea with either dandelion 'honey' made of dandelion blossoms or flowering quince extract), not to forget my exciting encounter with these chicks (you can see more chicken photos here) - do give my blog and my cooking a slightly rural slant :)



It's a tough competition - I'm running against very strong (and rural:) Susan (Farmgirl Fare, who won the category last year) and Ilva (Lucullian Delights, also a finalist last year). In any case, I'm thrilled and pleased to have been nominated in the first place! I am very pleased to see many of my favourite foodbloggers as finalists in other categories - there's David Lebovitz running for Best Food Blog (Chef) category, Food Blogga's Susan for Best Food Blog (New) category, Bea, Matt and Meeta (how can one possibly choose between them???) for Best Food Blog (Photography), Susan (again!) and Molly for Best Food Blog (Post), Jeanne in Best Food Blog (Writing), and Heidi, Bea and Ilva in Food Blog of the Year category. I'm sad my blogging buddies Johanna, Melissa, Kalyn, Nicky and Alanna didn't end up in the finals, but then there's always next year :)



In any case, you can go and cast your vote until Friday, December 14th. For rural category, click here, for all other categories, see here.

Nami-Nami In Print: London Borough Market @ Eesti Ekspress

Ka selle nädala Eesti Ekspressis (17.5.2007) on minult väike kirjatükk - seekord kirjeldan Londoni suurel Borough turul nähtut-kogetut ning mõtisklen veidi turu- ja söögikultuuri teemal üldisemalt. Huvilised leiavad artikli ja fotod taas tagantpoolt lapates 5. leheküljel. Nii et kohe lähimasse ajalehekioskisse ;-)



Somehow my blog posts are lagging behind these days. I've been back from London for almost a month now, and I have only just blogged about the fabulous meal I had with K, Johanna, her husband and the wee boy at the Petersham Nurseries Café. Note that I had a full-page restaurant review published in a major Estonian weekly newspaper _before_ I wrote about it here on my blog. And now - déjà vu! In this week's copy of the same newspaper, Eesti Ekspress, there is an article where I write about the London Borough Market, and about food markets and food culture in general (and yes, that's me buying cheese on the photo you'll see if you click through). It should have been other way around, surely, shouldn't it?



Anyway - the Borough Market was exactly as exciting as I expected it to be. We had the most knowledgeable tour guide with us, The Passionate Cook Johanna herself, who expertly took us through the must-sees, like Brindisa, Neal's Yard Dairy, Booths Mushrooms, the Monmouth Coffee and such like.



The picture at the very top is of Australian finger limes (Citrus Australasica, you can read more on Wikipedia). These unusual citrus fruits come in a range of gorgeous colours (incl. green, yellow, orange, red, purple, brown and even black), with matching insides (that is to say that green finger limes have green pearls or 'citrus caviar', pink ones have pink pearls inside - I checked it:) The stall holder proudly informed us that El Bulli's chef Ferran Adrià buys finger limes from him as well. But of course there was much more than just finger limes at the market. We had a great day out, taking in the market buzz and stocking up on British cheese, truffle salami, Brindisa's membrillo & fig wheels, buying argan oil, nibbling on various roasted nuts, tasting cutely-named vegetarian dishes (Hallou Gorgeous, Quinoa Superstar, Silly Sausage, Kiss Kiss Salad, anyone?), trying to tell a differece between variously seasoned foie gras, sniffing the aromas of chocolate, apple & pineapple mint, studying the displays of goji berries and green barley grass powder, and eventually trying the ubiquous wheatgrass shot (mmmh - interesting).

Thanks again, Johanna! You can read more about the Borough market here and here and here and here and here (in the words of Johanna x 2, Jeanne x 2 & David, respectively). And if you speak Estonian, then from this week's Eesti Ekspress, obviously :)

View all our photos from London Borough Market.

Nami-Nami In Print: Petersham Nurseries @ Eesti Ekspress

Armsad Nami-nami blogi ja retseptikogu lugejad!
Kui keegi soovib lugeda mu mõtisklusi ja muljeid hiljutisest külaskäigust Petersham Nurseries restorani Londonis, siis ostke kindlasti tänane (ehk siis 10. mai 2007) Eesti Ekspress. Artikli leiate tagantpoolt lapates viiendalt leheküljelt.*



Sorry, this was in Estonian. I wanted to tell my dear Estonian readers that there's an article about my recent visit to Petersham Nurseries Cafe in London in today's Eesti Ekspress, a popular weekly newspaper. I'm yet to blog about my impressions of this fantastic restaurant, but you can read Johanna's review of our visit, as we had the pleasure of lunching there together. The article is a full-page spread, with three lovely pictures taken by K (you can see only one photo on the online version).
That was the first piece of paid food-writing I've done, so I'm very excited. More to come next week!

* Kärsitumad lugejad võivad piiluda ka siit, aga paberlehel on veel paar imeilusat pilti, nii et tasub ikka pärisleht endale muretseda :)

UPDATE 15.5.2007: You can now also read my blog post in English about my visit to Petersham Nurseries Cafe exactly a month ago.