Blackberry and Apple Crumbles and new Jamie Oliver kitchen toys!

Last week I was a very lucky girl and sent an array of new kitchen gadgets, from the new Jamie Oliver Kitchen kit range! I will admit to being slightly sceptical before receiving them, as to what the quality would be like but have been suitably impressed, all of the items are well made and have a good feel to them. According to the packaging everythings been designed between Jamie Oliver and DKB Household, and  seem to have had real thought put into their development. If you've been watching the latest Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals, Jamie has been using these products, which is a good advertisement! I am hoping to bring you a couple of recipes from the book soon too.

This past week, I have been putting them all through their paces, before reviewing them, and as with any review I do, I promise to be honest and impartial, I have not personally paid for any of these items or been paid to review them.

Amongst the road testing of the products, I must admit overall I love the knives made from Japanese MoV stainless steel blades, they are really, really sharp, very comfortable to use with a grip handle and make light work of chopping, even cauliflower! They all cut precisely and neatly and are a pleasure to use. They also look rather lovely in their solid beech block:

A bonus is that when they are in the knife block, the handles state which one they are, so you don't have to pull out each one to see what it is, a small thing but very helpful! 

For some time I've been planning to upgrade my old but trusty knives, bought ages back from TK Maxx, which I had thought were pretty sharp...though in comparison to these new Jamie ones, they seem rather blunt!! Now I’ve tested them, I would happily both buy and highly recommend them. You can find a video here on making the most of them.

The first round of testing was making chicken fajitas, I bought some chicken thighs and trimmed and sliced them using the smallest Paring knife, which is normally a lengthy job and a bit fiddly. This knife made light work of them and the results were perfectly trimmed strips of chicken in about half the time! I also sliced up peppers and red onions, both easily and neatly, the knife didn’t slip at all and was like cutting butter it was so easy! No real recipe as such, as I tend to vary it each time but mainly consisted of smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, oregano, ground cumin and ground coriander, bound together lightly with olive oil, delicious they were too!

As I wanted test some more items, I made these lovely Apple and Blackberry crumbles for dessert, which I adapted slightly from this months Delicious magazine. The filling was mostly free as I picked the blackberries from a friends garden and the apples were donated from a family friends garden! You can use normal porridge oats, however I had run out so used a paw-ridge sachet to no ill effect!

Makes 2 individual pie dish sized puddings, Easy

2 Bramley apples, roughly 330g
35g caster sugar
1 tbsp dried cranberries
80g blackberries, frozen is fine
60g plain flour – I used Doves Farm gluten free version
1 sachet porridge oats, about 28g
30g Demerara sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon

Firstly, core and peel the apples. I tested the Twist ‘N’ Slide Apple Corer, I’ve not used a corer since I think I was back at school in food tech classes and it took me a few minutes to work out that this one was special, as after easily impaling the apple, you simply twist the handle, push down lightly and out pops the core! Far safer than getting your fingers wedged in it! Of course I realised afterwards the instructions were on the back of the packet! If I’m being honest, whilst it’s a nifty little toy I’m not sure I need a corer in my life, as I am perfectly happy just chopping an apple up, then removing the core, but if you like your gadgets then it’s a very good one!

I then used the All purpose 3-in-1 peeler, straight blade set which is very sharp! Its excellent as quickly removes the peel, with minimal wastage as it peels very thin slices away, a bonus is the little eyelet on the edge of the blade, its great for removing blemishes quickly and easily.

I’ve not used the other two blades yet but they seem very sharp – my tea towel got nibbled! Initially I found it a little fiddly getting the blades back into the holder, however now I’ve worked how to do it, I like it a lot more!

Dice the peeled, cored apples into small chunks and place in a saucepan with the caster sugar and cranberries, gently heat for about ten minutes or until the apples are softening and break under light pressure, remove from the heat and stir in the blackberries. Transfer to your baking dish or dishes.

Pre-heat the oven to 160 fan/ 180 regular

Rub together the flour and butter, to form fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the oats, Demerara sugar and cinnamon, use your fingers to pinch into little nuggets, sprinkle over the fruit and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool a little before serving with either custard or cream.

Thanks to Aaron Huckett at Publicasity.

**updated 03/05/2012 - Everything is still going strong! The knives and grater are still a joy to use!**