Australian Autumn Days

Some thoughts about the Australian autumn and a recipe for Dutch appelmoes

My Mums Pancakes with Stroop

The smell of apple, cinnamon and cloves is filling the kitchen with warm Dutch autumn memories. Although what I am cooking is a very simple appelmoes, made from some old, wrinkly apples that I bought in the Central Market for only a dollar, the smell makes me think of pannekoeken met appel en kaneel, Dutch pancakes with apple and cinnamon. Preferably made by my Mum, on a dark and cosy autumn night. Although the pancakes made by my brother or my friend Irish are not too bad either. One thing that is missing in this moment of my Dutch thoughts and memories is the cold air, the rain and the grey clouds...

I am sitting in the kitchen in Adelaide in the season that is officially called autumn. But for this Dutch Cheesegirl it is still hard to believe that it is autumn at the moment. When I think of autumn I think of wet days with continuing rain and riding my bike through strong winds that try to push me into the canals while the tree leafs are flying through the air.

I think of sitting in the train and staring out of the window that is covered in raindrops, to see the empty fields of grass filling up with big puddles of water. I think of days that are getting shorter and nights getting darker, which asks for spending more time indoors with family or friends, eating warming dishes like pumpkin soup, a vegetable stew with potatoes and warm spices or pancakes with cheese and stroop, or with apple and cinnamon. And lots of speculaasjes of course, as a sweet snack with my big mugs of Yogi Classic tea. But here in Adelaide I do not really feel the need to eat heart and toe warming vegetables stews and soups. Yes, there is a fair bit of wind today and for the first times since weeks there are some clouds coming in to cover the blue sky for a while. But the air feels warm and humid, with thunderstorms to be expected later in the day, while feeling steamy and hot.

Pancake with cheese and vegemite..
an Australian version of a Dutch tradition!

Funny enough the locals do really feel a difference between the summer days and these first autumn days. The Drover's Mum keeps on convincing me that it really is getting quite cool, especially in the mornings and later at night - which is true, I have to admit. But cool in this case is related to how hot it is during the day. Of course it feels cool when you are having dinner outside at night and it is only approximately 20 degrees, when you just spent your afternoon in 35 degrees! But we'll see, I might just get surprised later this autumn. I might start craving for warm and spicy dishes to eat inside the house... Or maybe, more likely, I will just get used to the fact that South Australia does not know autumns like we do in the Netherlands, in one of the 'cold countries' as the Drover and his friends call it. I might just get used to a climate of warm sunny days and about 300 days of blue skies a year. And then, one day, I will think 'wow, it is quite cold today", when it is still 18 degrees outside...

While I have been wondering off in my thoughts, thinking of cold autumn days at home in the Netherlands, I have been so distracted from the stove that I messed up my appelmoes. Damn it! I left it on a too high heat for too long, and all of a sudden a smell of burning apple and sugar filled up my nose, causing a moment of internal panic - no, not my appelmoes! I want some delicious homemade appelmoes! - followed by some swearing and getting angry with myself how on earth I managed to mess up such a simple thing like making appelmoes for the first time in my life. Maybe it is the little weathermen punishing me for making fun of the Australian autumn. So I better adept and just do what the locals do... "What a horrible autumn day it is out there today!"

This is the appelmoes that I was trying to make:

Ingredients
8 apples (try to get apples that go soft very easily)
a bit of sugar - about two tablespoons, or just by taste
a cinnamon stick
2-3 whole cloves
a bit of lemon juice

Method
Clean the apples, cut them in chunks and put them in a little pan with some water. Add lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon stick and cloves and cook it slowly on a moderate heat. Stir now and then. The appelmoes is ready when the apples fall apart and become mashy. If you like it smooth you could push it through a sieve. I prefer it still a bit chunky myself.

Appelmoes is a nice sweet snack when it's cold, could be eaten as a dessert with some yoghurt or vla (Dutch custard) or as a side dish with typical Dutch meals of potatoes, vegetables and fish or meat. Yumm!