Breakfast #28: Nectarine Crumble

Truth be told, the only thing that makes this crumble breakfast is the fact that I had it for breakfast. When it comes to breakfast, I see no reason why we need to limit ourselves to what is traditionally considered to be breakfast food. What is one country’s dessert, or another country’s lunch (Filipino breakfasts have rice and meat and egg and condiments!), may be your country’s breakfast. So why even bother with the boundaries of cold cereal when breakfast can one glorious place that needs no plane or visa to get to?

Not that I have anything against cold cereal. I actually do love it (I’m serious), especially with nuts and fruits, drowning in straight-from-the-fridge milk. But if we just open our breakfast plates to other than just the usual suspects, perhaps more of us would be eating this very important meal.

This is something I threw together because I had two nectarines sitting around, on the verge of neglect, though still hopeful and tarty. I have written the recipe below with four nectarines because I ended up using only half the crumble topping for my two. You can make the full recipe below for breakfast (or dessert) for four, or do what I did: Use two nectarines and half the crumble topping...keeping the other half in the fridge for breakfast or dessert the next day, using either nectarines again or any other fruit (or mixture of fruits) you deem crumble-worthy. We had apple crumble for the next day’s dessert (I used only one apple) with the other half of the topping, wherein I substituted the vanilla below for a nice dusting of cinnamon.

Nectarine Crumble

• 4 nectarines
• A few drops of lemon juice
• A few drops of vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons white sugar (depending how sweet/tart your nectarines are)
• Scant teaspoon all purpose flour
• 50 grams butter, chilled
• 100 grams dark muscovado sugar
• 75 grams whole wheat pastry flour
• 2-3 heaping tablespoons chopped walnuts or pecans (I used a combination)

- Seed and chop nectarines into chunks. Place them in a bowl with a sprinkling of lemon juice (I used less than half a lemon), a few drops of vanilla extract, the white sugar, and the teaspoon of all purpose flour, and toss to combine. Set aside and get on with the crumble topping.
- Combine butter, muscovado sugar, whole wheat pastry flour, and nuts in another bowl and rub dry ingredients into the flour with your fingers until the whole thing resembles coarse crumbs. You can use a pastry cutter but really, why bother with something more to wash in the morning?
- Place prepared nectarines in an oven-proof dish that will accommodate all of it leaving some room on top for the crumble. Alternately, you can also divide the fruit into individual dishes.
- Crumble topping over the fruit.
- Place your crumble dish (or dishes) on a baking sheet (to catch messy drips and make things easier if you are dealing with multiple dishes) and bake in a 180C/350F oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until filling is bubbling.
- Serve with yogurt or cream.
- Serves 3-4.

I brought out my whole wheat pastry flour to use in the topping, for which I bought a sack for this cake, and I must say here that although C was not too happy with the cake (though I liked it), he loved the crumble! I think the delicate touch of earthiness in the flour, echoed in the dark muscovado, and complemented by the nuts, provides a perfect rustic, comfy blanket for the sticky-sweet warm fruit! I imagine it also makes it a touch healthier than using white flour and sugar. A splodge of cream or yogurt will not go unappreciated. A scoop of vanilla ice cream if your feeling indulgent. Dairy comes in all forms my friends ;)

I made this one morning when I woke up earlier than usual and the sun was shining and everything looked fresh and promising (it rained later that day, but what better weather in which to eat warm crumble leftovers right?). It doesn’t take much time to whip this up, though you can also prepare the crumble mixture the night before and just top your fruit with it the next morning. Preparing the fruit is not something I recommend doing ahead of time though as they will brown and look generally down-trodden if you leave them for long.

I have just come back from another weekend escape, this time just a drive away, and I hope to share some photos here soon. Until then, happy breakfast everyone! :)

Weekend Escape: Sirangan Resort, Sorsogon

Another week has gone by, despite my all best, chocolate-covered, intentions of coming here and sharing the wonderful escape we had last weekend.

How we did absolutely nothing but lie in incredibly squashy lounge chairs, take dips in the pool and sea, have naps in our white canopy bed, and sigh contentedly at doing absolutely nothing away from absolutely everything.

How the place we found to hide away was filled with a charming, eclectic mix of faded rugs, native lamps, grandfather chairs, chandeliers, and an old-school snooker table.


How there was only one other couple there, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Aside from a saucy little kitty with a gold collar and a friendly bunch of dogs who watched over us. And two adorable puppies.

How they had their own organic herb and vegetable garden with the hand painted signs in Spanish.

How the manager is also the cook and she made us freshly baked bread every morning.

How we hardly looked at the menu...just chatted with the cook every day about what was the fresh catch, whether we should have prawns or crabs or fish (we had all three), how we should prepare our spanking fresh seafood, and what vegetables to pair with it – all we had to do is sit back and enjoy awesome meals on a terrace fronting the sea, with nothing but distant islands and a few fishermen’s boats dotted about.

How we made a mess of the tablecloth while eating the crabs.

How I finally saw Mayon Volcano!

How there was fresh flowers all around, even if we were practically the only ones there.

How many avocado shakes I had.

How, despite it being rainy season, the only time it rained was when we napped.

How I really wish we could’ve stayed longer.

Hope these photos give you an idea...happy weekend kind folk!

I'm in Yummy this June!

Tomorrow is our Independence Day and a holiday over here :) Which means a long weekend for us! I am rushing between getting all those last minute things done and stuffing my red duffel bag with everything I'll need for the weekend. I'm headed for some much craved r&r and when I get back I'll share some photos! It's a relatively new place I learned of from, far though she may be, my cousin who lives in Barcelona. I know, I need someone a continent away to point me to places in my own stomping ground! Tsk. Well, whatever the case, C and I are very excited and looking forward to just lazing around.

Before I go though, I thought I'd share with you a bit of news...I have another recipe feature in this month's issue of Yummy magazine! :) Now, although I adore slow cooking and craftily making things from scratch, I do know that the reality for many of us has little time for spending hours (or days!) in the kitchen. So for this issue, I've put together some quick-as-can-be recipes for all us busy girls and boys!

To give you a sneak peek: one of the recipes I've included is my "quick Fabada". When I make fabada (a Spanish bean stew...what is it with me and bean stews?) from scratch, it take me two days. Yes, two days! That's because I make the ham stock from scratch the day before, and then the actual fabada cooking takes a good part of the next day! But when I'm not cooking for guests, and it's just C and I (or my brother and I), and we are craving for a bowl of fabada, I whip up this "cheat's" version and we have on the table in under 30 minutes :)

The other recipes are even quicker! If you'd like to them, pick up a copy of Yummy this June :)

I'm off! Happy weekend and to all the Filipinos out there....Happy Independence Day tomorrow!!!

Spanish-style Munggo Guisado

Was I just talking about the heat not too long ago? As June rolls in, so does our rainy (or “wet”) season, the second season of our two-season year (the other being, you guessed it, “dry” – or summer if you want to give it a prettier name). The season’s misty monsoon spray showers us all, bringing with it its usual accoutrements – grey skies and power outages, leaks and traffic, and on the more serious side, the dreaded typhoons.

Although a gloomy, overcast aura that hangs over the city (and nothing does gloomy like a city in the rain) and slowly dampens warms summer spirits, there is a silver lining for those who care to see it. After the blazing heat of the summer, the rains bring me fresh relief (and I love summer so don’t think I’m a sun-shunner). The steady thrum of raindrops, even the severe lashing of torrential downpours, can make my oft-too-hot apartment seem like a cozy and cool cave. I sometimes open the windows just a sliver to let some of that chilly wind in (supervised of course). Weekends ensconced in a warm duvet, good books tucked into its folds, musings both important and random to keep me entertained – that’s rainy season.

And that is not even saying anything about the absolute best part of all this – the comfort food! Soups, stews, hot chocolate! I love this type of food, both the making and the eating of it. Slow-simmered pots of goodness, hearty with sustenance and comfort and memories. Unfortunately, with most of the year being under a glorious tropical blanket of humidity, this is really not the place to indulge in such home-and-hearth dishes. Which doesn’t stop me of course. It’s just much better to enjoy them when you aren’t breaking a sweat.

I’ve spoken about munggo guisado before and how much I love this humble bean stew. It is a dish that crosses many social, political, and economic barriers over here. Eaten by all. Perhaps not enjoyed by all though, but definitely enjoyed by my brother and I who, even as children, would scrape our bowls of munggo clean and fight over the last remnants in the pot. This definitely ranks as one of my top comfort foods of all time. I can eat this for days on end and still come back, like little Oliver, empty bowl in hand, asking for more.

Munggo Guisado is basically a kind of bean stew using munggo or mung beans. The beans are boiled until soft, and then sautéed with a mixture or onions, garlic, tomatoes, flavourings, vegetables, meat or fish...or any combination thereof. It’s very typical here, the type of dish you would find in somebody’s home rather than on a Filipino restaurant menu.

Since I started cooking munggo on my own, I’ve experimented quite a bit. Beans being what they are, this dish is open to limitless versions. Here is one of my favourites (with tinapang bangus – smoked milkfish). This is another.

Spanish-style Munggo Guisado

• 250 grams munggo beans
• 4 cups of water
• 4 – 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 150 grams Spanish chorizo for cooking (either what is known here as chorizo bilbao, or any other Spanish-style chorizo that is meant for cooking)
• 100 grams slab bacon, chopped
• 1 cup malunggay (moringa) leaves, optional
• Canola oil
• Sea salt
• Freshly cracked black pepper

- Clean the munggo by dunking the beans in a bowl of tap water and skimming off the “floaters”.
- Place munggo in a pot with the 4 cups of water and cook on low heat until soft (around an hour, more or less). Add water if you see it drying out.
- Once beans are done, start with your guisa (sauté).
- Heat some oil in a large pan (large enough to fit all your cooked and softened munggo).
- Sauté garlic, onions, and bay leaf until the onions are soft.
- Add the bacon and chorizo and sauté until the bacon is cooked but still soft and the chorizo has rendered its orange oil.
- Add cooked munggo and stir. If you have a lot of liquid with your munggo don’t add it in all at once, add all the beans and some of the liquid first. As you cook the stew, keep adding liquid until you reach your desired consistency. Some like this very soupy, some like it thick.
- Let it simmer until all the flavours have melded together, about 20 minutes, stirring every so often. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
- If using, add malunggay leaves, give it a few stirs (they’ll cook fast), and you’re done.

If you really want to give this amazing depth of flavour, boil the beans in ham stock instead of water, just make sure to taste before adding any salt...you may not even need any. If you don’t have 4 cups of ham stock lying around you can use part ham stock or part water. Or you can also toss a small piece of ham bone in the water when boiling the beans.

If you don’t have any slab bacon you can use whatever bacon you do have. I’ve labelled the malunggay (moringa) leaves optional because it doesn’t really fit with the Spanish theme but I really do love greens in my munggo so I always add them – and it still does taste wonderful with this addition. I like to eat this atop a bowl of steaming rice with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Some argue that I’ve fancied our munggo up unnecessarily with this but I have to disagree. I think munggo is a perfect canvas for all sorts of adaptations and we should experiment far and wide with our little green bean. Why would we give the same treatment to lentils but not munggo? And it’s delicious! Which is really all the reason I need to make something :)

As I type this the sun has peeked out again, hissing at the moist leavings of last night’s rain. But this is only the beginning of rainy season, so I foresee more munggo on the horizon.