12 BEST FOODS FOR YOUR BRAIN- blackberry and apple crumble recipe

Blackberries 

An article in the weekend papers caught my attention.

“12 best foods for your brain” it claimed.

It quoted research from Dr John Briffa in the

Journal of the American Medical Association and his research into the value of fish oil supplements. 

There followed a list of 12 food stuffs

They included:

Beef

Blackberries

Coffee

Dark chocolate

Eggs

Oranges

Oysters   

Red onions

Salmon

Spinach

Walnuts

Water

Not bad, in fact, it’s quite a tasty collection.

There is only one on the list that I’m not wild on, oysters. But 11 out of 12 is good.

What was even better was that the Teenagers in the family also agreed.

Eggs

Red onions

So we decided to create a menu using as many of the above list. It was surprisingly easy and very appetizing.

 So here is our healthy menu that should help improve concentration and ward off dementia, great for all ages and stages!!

NOT JUST FOR RABBITS 

BRAIN FOOD MENU

Orange, red onion and olive salad

(See August posts for this recipe)

orange, red onion and olive salad

Salmon steaks poached on a bed of spinach

 For the devoted meat eaters you can substitute a steak here served on a bed of wilted spinach and both served with a mixture of thin homemade sweet potato and potato chips. With a delicate homemade hollandaise sauce made with fresh eggs

spinach

Apple and blackberry with walnut crumble.

The recipe for this crumble has a hint of walnut in it and is below.

Blackberries

Coffee and dark chocolate

Ok maybe not for the younger members of the family! But water can be drunk by all ages throughout, so, by my reckoning that is 11 out of the 12 best foods in one sitting.

Yep I ignored the oysters...

Here’s the crumble recipe that ticks off 2 of the 12

 APPLE AND BLACKBERRY WITH 

WALNUT CRUMBLE

Serves 4-6

Preparation time 10-15 minutes 

Cooking time 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

1 kg  1lb 4oz Cooking apples

150g/ 6oz  Black berries or more if you can get them

2 tbsp soft brown Sugar

250 ml water  

Crumble

240 g/ 8oz  Flour

110g/ 4 oz Sugar

75g / 6 oz Nuts

110g/ 4oz Butter

WHAT TO DO:

1.     Peel and chop the apples and put in a saucepan wwith the blackberries and water then simmer for 15 minutes.

2.     Put the butter and flour in a bowl and either blitz gently or mix by hand until bread crumb like.

3.     Add the sugar and chopped walnuts and then mix again.

4.     Put the fruit into a deep oven proof dish and cover with the crumble mix and bake in a pre heated oven at 190 degrees for 30 minutes.

Apple and blackberries with walnut crumble

The subtle sweet walnut topping works really well with the fruity blackberry and apple.