There'll be hot fruit

I think I'm developing an obsession with making fruit mushy. I posted my version of stewed fruit earlier, which I've since made again and am currently eating with a big bowl of porridge (mmm, nannalicious), and last night, the night when the SuperLadyFriends and I typically make a little sumthin sumthin to be schlorfed down in front of the OC, all I wanted was a crumble. A rhubarb crumble, no less, all tart and pink. Okay, I partly wanted to try my hand at taking some good, dirty food porn pictures. Take a look a this one.



Oh, yeah, that's the money shot.*

Crumble is very, very easy to make. You start by preheating your oven to 200 deg c. Then you make your crumble mix. The basic crumble mix is:

• 125g melted butter (aka half a stick of Western Star - it really does have to be butter, too, not marg or anything else)
  
• 1 cup light brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
  
• 3/4 cup plain flour
  

But, of course, you can gussy it up a bit, as I did, by adding pretty much anything that seems appropriate. In this case I added a good handful of pecans, chopped and toasted,** a handful of rolled oats, a decent amount of cinnamon, a little nutmeg and a moderate quantity of that mistress of spices, cardamom.

As for the actual fruit/baking part it couldn't be easier. Wash and chunk a bunch of rhubarb, being careful to cut away all the leaves because, as your grandma probably told you, they are poisonous. To this I added a punnet of strawberries, hulled and quartered, and while they were delectable plain rhubarb is pretty danged good, too. Tip all that into a pie dish, cover with the crumble mix, and bake for 35-40 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit is bubbling a little but still holding its shape. Eat and enjoy.


* You can see from the hard shadows that I was forced to use the dicky little flash on my camera 'cause the lone overhead fluoro tube cast a dim and bilious light. I tried bouncing the flash off my hand. DON'T DO THAT. It kind of sparked and made a scary, electrical malfunctiony sort of sound. My kingdom for a decent Speedlite/a better lens/hell, even one of Canon's stalwart 50mm primes. Oh, and a tripod. If any representative of Manfrotto is reading this I will cook for you for a year/show you my goodies if you coud hook me up.

** On toasting pecans: chuck them in a dry frypan over a high heat, stirring occasionally, until they smell real good and look all golden. It should only take a few minutes, but be careful not to let them burn. Of course you can skip this step, but it's no work at all and it makes a world of difference.

Rach