Mulled cider with sweet roasted apples

It's the season to start mulling but why not make it cider rather than wine for a change this Bonfire Night

Makes 12-14 servings

1 litre good quality dry still (rather than sparkling) cider
250ml Somerset cider brandy or Calvados
1.5 litres cloudy English apple juice (e.g. Copella)
A thinly pared strip of lemon rind
2 sticks of cinnamon
8 cloves

For the roasted apples
10-12 small Cox’s apples or other small eating apples
About 75g light muscovado sugar
100ml dry cider

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Wash and core the apples and score them around the middle. Put them in a baking dish and stuff the centre of each with the sugar. (It’s easiest to do this with the handle of a spoon or fork). Splash over the cider and roast in the oven until soft and beginning to split (45-50 minutes).

Meanwhile put the cider, cider brandy or calvados, and apple juice in a large pan, together with the lemon zest, cinnamon and cloves. Heat through gently then leave over a very low heat without allowing the mixture to boil. When the apples are ready, tip them and their juices into the mulled cider. Taste, adding a little extra sugar if you think it needs it. Serve straight from the pan into heat resistant glasses or cups or transfer to a warmed bowl.

If you want a non-alcoholic version try this:

Mulled cider apple juice

Use the recipe as a basic guideline, adding more sugar or honey if you want it sweeter.

Serves 12

2 x 75cl bottles cider apple juice*
1 orange stuck with 10 cloves
2 oranges, sliced
2 lemons, sliced
6 level tablespoons granulated sugar or honey
5 cm piece cinnamon stick
2 level teaspoons finely grated fresh root ginger or ground ginger

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat to simmering point, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved. Leave over a very low heat without boiling for at least 20 minutes. This can be made in advance, then re-heated just before you want to serve it.

* You should be able to buy cider apple juice in a health food shop or farm shop. If not use a dry apple juice (such as russet) or add a couple of tablespoons of cider vinegar to a good quality blended apple juice.

Sierra Nevada chicken

A bit of a blast from the past, this. It comes from An Appetite for Ale, the beer and food book I wrote with my son Will at the time he owned a pub, the Marquess Tavern back in 2007.

It's a Belgian-style chicken stew made with a classic American ale. Chicken casserole re-invented.

Sierra Nevada Chicken

Serves 4

3 tbsp sunflower or light olive oil

125g (4 1/2oz) smoked bacon lardons

500g (1lb 2oz) skinless, boneless chicken thighs cut into large chunks

1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 large carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

2 sticks of celery, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

1/2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp dried thyme

1 level tbsp plain flour

300ml (10 fl oz) fresh chicken stock or stock made from half an organic chicken stock cube

150ml (5 fl oz) Sierra Nevada pale ale + a little extra to finish the dish

300g new potatoes

125g (4 1/2oz chestnut mushrooms, rinsed and sliced

A handful of roughly chopped flatleaf parsley

Salt and pepper

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large frying pan and brown the lardons lightly (about 3-4 minutes). Remove to a casserole with a slotted spoon then lightly brown the chicken pieces. Transfer them to the casserole with the bacon, turn down the heat in the frying pan and add the chopped onion.

Cook until starting to soften (about 3-4 minutes) then add the sliced carrot and celery, stir and cook a couple of minutes more. Tip the vegetables into the casserole, stir, cover with a lid and leave to cook for 10 minutes over a very low heat for the flavours to amalgamate.

Remove the lid, add the crushed garlic and thyme, cook for a few seconds then stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Add the chicken stock and Sierra Nevada ale and bring up to boiling point. Turn the heat right down, re-cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes.

Cut the new potatoes into even sized chunks, add them to the casserole, stir well and continue to cook until the potatoes are cooked (another 15-20 minutes), adding the sliced mushrooms about 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

Splash in a little extra Sierra Nevada ale (about 2 tbsp), season with salt and pepper and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Stir in the chopped parsley and serve the stew in large shallow soup bowls.

What to drink: Sierra Nevada obviously or a similar pale ale - Kernel's Table Beer would be pretty good or try a full flavoured lager like Schiehallion

Photograph © Vanessa Courtier

Sybil Kapoor's apple and blackberry meringue

A lovely seasonal dessert from Sybil Kapoor's National Trust - Simply Baking. "Soft-baked meringues make a gorgeous pudding in the early autumn, especially when topped with cider-poached fruit and apple brandy cream."

Serves 6

6 medium egg whites

250g/9oz caster sugar

1½ tablespoons white wine vinegar

1½ teaspoons cornflour

icing sugar, sifted, for dusting

Apple topping

150ml/5fl oz dry cider

85g/3oz unrefined caster sugar

4 strips finely pared lemon zest

4 dessert apples, such as Cox’s Orange Pippin or Braeburn

250g/9oz blackberries

Apple brandy cream

285ml/10fl oz double cream

4 tablespoons apple brandy or Calvados

1 Preheat the oven to fan 140°C/gas 2. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. In a large, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then gradually whisk in the caster sugar until the mixture is thick and glossy. Using a flat metal spoon, fold in the vinegar and cornflour. Spread the mixture evenly over the baking parchment in a 20 x 30cm/8 x 12in rectangle. Bake for 20 minutes or until soft and marshmallow-like.

2 Leave to rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes. Liberally dust a sheet of baking parchment with icing sugar. Gently tip the meringue on to the sugar-dusted parchment, peel away the baking paper and leave to cool.

3 To make the apple topping, put the cider, sugar and lemon zest in a non-corrosive saucepan. Set the pan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and simmer gently while you peel, core and dice or slice the apples. Add these to the cider syrup and simmer gently for 4 minutes or until just tender. Mix in the blackberries, return to a simmer, then remove from the heat. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the fruit to a bowl. Simmer the syrup for a few minutes until it thickens slightly, remove the lemon zest and pour over the fruit. Leave until cold.

4 To make the apple brandy cream, put the cream and apple brandy in a large bowl and whisk until the cream forms soft peaks. Chill until needed.

5 To serve, cut the meringue into six squares and place one on each serving plate. Top with some of the apple brandy cream, then spoon on the fruit so that it spills over the meringue.

This recipe comes from National Trust Simply Baking by Sybil Kapoor (National Trust Books). Recipe photography by Karen Thomas.

What to drink: Given the boozy cream I'm not going to go for wine but cider brandy itself would be too strong. A dessert cider like Once Upon a Tree's lovely Blenheim Superb Dessert Cider would be the perfect match.

Raspberry and cherry beer jellies

If you're having a late summer barbecue this weekend here is one of the most delicious - and surprising recipes - from my book An Appetite for Ale. I love serving them because no-one has the faintest idea they have beer in them.

Note: the jellies are deliberately left less sweet than most commercial jellies so that the flavour of the beer comes through. I find them really refreshing but you can, of course, add extra sugar if you want.

Raspberry and cherry beer jellies
These jellies are deliberately left less sweet than most commercial jellies so the sour cherry flavour of the beer comes through. I find them really refreshing but you can of course add extra sugar if you want

serves 4

4 small sheets of gelatine (about 6g or 1/4 of a 25g pack)

375ml Kriek or other cherry or raspberry flavoured beer

1 x 470g jar of pitted Morello cherries (Polish ones are best)

2-3 tbsp sugar syrup or caster sugar

125g fresh or frozen raspberries

Place the gelatine in bowl of cold water and leave to soak for 3 minutes until soft. Measure the Kriek into a jug and top up to the 400ml mark with syrup from the cherries. Pour into a saucepan and add the sugar. Put over a very low heat until the sugar has dissolved then heat until lukewarm (it shouldn’t boil). Squeeze the soaked gelatine leaves, add them to the beer mixture and stir to dissolve then set aside to cool.

Drain the remaining cherries and rinse the raspberries. Put an assortment of berries in the bottom of four glasses or glass dishes then pour over enough jelly to cover them. Put the glasses in the fridge to chill. As soon as the jelly in the glasses has set (about an hour) add another layer of fruit and jelly. Repeat until the fruit and jelly are used up, ending with a layer of jelly.

Leave in the fridge to set for another 45 minutes to an hour before serving with lightly whipped cream, sweetened with a little vanilla sugar or with vanilla ice cream

Mango and passionfruit beer jellies
Follow the above recipe substituting passionfruit beer for the Kriek (top up with tropical fruit juice, passionfruit or mango juice to make it up to the 400ml mark), then mix in about 400g of cubed mango and passionfruit pulp. Adjust sweetness to taste (you can always add a squeeze of lemon juice if it’s too sweet)

Blueberry and peach beer jellies
Follow the above recipe substituting peach flavoured beer for the Kriek (top up with white cranberry and grape juice to make it up to the 400ml mark), then mix in about 400g of cubed peach or nectarine and blueberries. Adjust sweetness to taste as above.

Image ©Vanessa Courtier