Vegan Apple Crumble

In my Christmas Eve skipping haul there were about a dozen packets of pre-sliced apples & grapes in snack-packs. There was also a bag of peanuts & cashews. And a few dozen pitta breads. So, for Christmas dessert I decided to make an apple crumble mainly from these ingredients.

I mixed the apples with some fair trade muscovado sugar and spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, mixed spice). I placed them at the bottom of a baking dish. Then I made the topping. I crumbled about four pittas into a bowl with some of the nuts (washed as they were salty) and some brown sugar and a bit of flour. I added in a good bit of oil and mixed it all up until I got some nice crumbly clumps. I piled this on top of the apple mixture and stuck it in the oven. You don't want the top burning, so don't have it on too hot. I also poured some maple syrup over it towards the end. It's done whenever you want to eat it! It depends on your crumble preference.

It will hold out of the fridge in a cool place for a few days and I think it's even better cold.
(Props to Erin and Anna for getting me on the crumble train.)

- Dara

Dara's Home-made Chips and Ketchup

Surprise a loved one, or indeed yourself, by making some lovely home-made chips and ketchup instead of frozen chips! It only takes about 5 or ten minutes to prepare.

Chips
Chop up some potatoes length-ways, or however you would like you chips to look. Spread them evenly on a baking tray and not on top of each other. Coat them with oil and any seasoning you like (we're getting into wedge territory here, but I suggest some chopped garlic). Place them in a pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes, give or take, depending on how thick you cut the chips. Give them a shuffle around halfway through. While they're cooking, let's make some ketchup!

Ketchup
Most ketchups are unnecessarily loaded with salt, but if you leave it out you can have as much ketchup as you like without worrying about your ticker! So, put a good scoop of tomato puree in a dish, depending on how much ketchup you want to make. To this I add;

crushed garlic (or garlic powder)
crushed onion (or onion powder)
malt vinegar
cider vinegar
black pepper
unrefined sugar dissolved in warm water (or syrup/ honey)
and the secret ingredient - paprika!

The quantity is up to you, start small and taste as you go along to see which ingredients you want more of. Easy on the vinegar, as it's quite strong. Paprika really sets it off, though, so plenty of that. Add the sugar mixture to sweeten and thin out the ketchup as you desire. And there you go! Serve that with your chips and impress your guests, or yourself.

- Dara