Unused apples

Being the proud owner of two apple trees, over the past two years I have had to work out some great things to do with a massive amount of apples in a short time.
One thing that has realy bugged me over the last couple of years has however been the wasteage.
Each year we spend everyday picking up the small and unripe apples that have come off the tree due to wind or whatever. anyway they have up until now ended up on the compost heap.
This year I decided to do better, I trawled the internet, best I could find was chutney.
Great. The only issue I have with making chutney is that when using up what is essentially a waste product, the cost of the other items far out weighs that of the product that we are saving.
Vinegar, large amounts of sugar, all mounts up.
So having bought a dehydrator this year I decided to try an make use of the apples.

• So leaving the skin on, quarter the apples, discarding the core and any damaged areas, bruised from falling from the tree.
• Bake at 180 for 40 mins in a covered dish
• Blend the baked apples to a puree
• Add two tables spoons of demarerra sugar
• Line the dehydrator trays with cling film
• Pour the mix onto the trays and spread until smooth
• dehydrate at 128 for 4 hrs

Great snack, apple crisp.

Good luck

Jonathan Gregson

Nice, inspiring work... YUM YUM. Very jealous

Shoryu Ramen

Just completed my first Job for a Ramen Restaurant. I was teamed up with Photographer Steve Joyce who I worked with on the Leon jobs. I love working with Steve as we get along nicely.
 I was a little apprehensive having seen some Ramen on the internet as to what I would be able to do with the dish as it is all quite rustic.
On the day the head chef from the restaurant came along to show me what he wanted. It was in fact a really lovely day. The head chef was a very gracious guy and was happy to let me do my thing to his food. We got the ramen dishes looking beautiful and very detailed with each ingredient styled nicely. Also It was fascinating for me to see who they made these dishes, the stocks tasted gorgeous.
It all looked great and Steve and I were really happy with the end results.... Another nice day....

INSPIRING DAY

Had a killer meeting with Catherine losing today. We have a shoot coming up and as always we got talking some crazy ideas.... toned it down ramped it back up again and came up with something that will be visually stunning....
My only clue.... BAKED!

INSPIRATION

Also saw the cover of 125 and saw Ryan Hopkinsons work... AMAZING.
look at this

Loving the dehydrator....

I recently got a dehydrator, so far I have had lots of little playing sessions.

Some delicious results and some really interesting textures.

Here are a couple of recipes for you to look at:

Raspberry and peach clouds

200 g raspberry and peach puree
100g caster sugar
50 g icing sugar
1 tsp of Albumin powder (sosa)

Mix the caster sugar and the albumin with the puree and whisk in a kitchen aid.
This mixture should come up like a meringue after about 5 top 8 minutes
Slowly add the icing sugar.
Pour the mixture out and either pipe rosettes or smooth the mixture out to 8 mm sheets.
Dry out in the dehydrator for 12 hrs at 57c

Almond and olive oil crackers

3/4 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup doves gluten free plain flour
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup honey
1 tsp pomegranite molasses
1 tsp icing sugar

mix the ingredients in a bowl by hand until you get a rich smooth paste.
Roll this out between two sheets of parchment, removing the top one once you have an even thickness
dehydrate for 12 hrs at 63 c

Coconut and treacle wafers

1 cup desiccated coconut
1/8 cup water
1/8 cup treacle
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs raisins
2 tbs pistacchios

Heat the water and rehydrate the raisins.
Once the raisins are soft then finely chop them.
Grind the pistachios in a pestle and mortar.
Now mix all the ingredients together until you get a thick rich paste.
Roll this out between two sheets of parchment, removing the top one once you have an even thickness

dehydrate for 12 hrs at 63 c

The Gourmand

So this monster is finally out, title the Serpent that ate it's own tail!!
http://thegourmand.co.uk/features/show/74/the-serpent-that-ate-its-own-tail#.UcVEZzkTDXA

Feed back so far has been brilliant, the story has been featured in 'It's nice that '
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/catherine-losing

and also in Co. Design
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672764/bizarre-still-lifes-of-food-rigged-like-explosives#1

here are a couple of pictures of the shoot.... So much FUN

GOURMAND FINALS

Just got through the final layout for our shoot in the Gourmand ...
It s called "the serpent that ate it's own head. Its looking great and due out round the start of June....
On the day of the shoot I was banging on about how good smoked eel was so once we had finished shooting the eel shot I made a massive chicory eel and bacon salad, which we all smashed in about 5 minutes.... recipe is included with the article....yeah!