Apple Crumble

At Carlson Gracie Essex last Thursday, we had the pleasure of Clark Gracie's presence gracing our mats. I had been to one of his seminars last year in Kent and was so impressed and was over the moon to hear that he would be coming to our Colchester gym.

Our head coach Alain brought Clark to the gym with a room full of 30 something people. Our gym isn't the biggest, so numbers were limited, and the places were reserved as quickly as the word was out that Clark was going to visit.

Clark is the cousin of Carlson Gracie Jnr, so when we started the warm up drill, Clark took it from something that Carlson Jnr showed him. We did a few more drills, then went straight on to techniques.

Its so refreshing when you go to a seminar and someone magically shows you the techniques that you have been getting stuck in and can't get out of or complete for a few months. This was it! I've been using reverse De La Riva for a while, and not been able to finish what I started. After Clark showed his technique, I was enlightened.

Clark showed a couple more techniques, and finished off with the Omo Plata. What seminar would be complete unless Clark showed this?

Clark is a brilliant professor, he was so involved in watching everyone and making sure they were doing everything correctly, not only that, you could see that there was so much more that he wanted to show us, but time was running out and we had some sparring to do.
Clark got involved and sparred with some of the students. It wasn't meant for me though, so maybe next time when he comes again I'll get to spar with him.

It was such a brilliant night of training and learning, and I can't thank my coach Alain enough for bringing him to the gym to teach us. We are so lucky at Carlson Gracie, we don't have many seminars, but when we do, they are some of the top competitors in the world.

Now for the food.

At the end of the summer, I made this crumble using Rhubarb. It was delicious, so now that cooking apples are in season, I thought that I'd give it a go too. It's Paleo friendly and not fattening at all as all the sugar is natural.

Ingredients:

2 large cooking apples
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon
1 Tablespoon of Honey (optional)

The Crumble:
120g Mixed nuts (unsalted and roasted)
20g mixed seeds
20g Raisins
Tablespoon of ground almonds
Tablespoon of coconut oil
Tablespoon of honey

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C
Peel the apples, core and slice. Layer the tin with the sliced apples, add 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon, then layer the apples until all the apples are used, add the remaining cinnamon and add the honey if you like. I didn't because the sweetness of the apples and crumble were enough, but the honey doesn't hurt to add it.
Cover the tin with tin foil and place in the oven for 30 minutes.
While the apples are steaming, melt the coconut oil and honey in a pan
Place the nuts in a food processor and chop until they are in small bits, transfer to a bowl and then add the seeds, ground almonds and raisins. Add the coconut oil and honey and mix well.
Once the apples are ready, take to foil off the tin and cover the apples with the crumble mixture. Lower the heat to 175 degrees C and bake for a further 8-10 minutes, or until the topping has turned golden. Let it cool for 5 minutes, then serve and enjoy!

If you're on a cheat day, the crumble tastes amazing with ice cream or custard. Mmmmm

Jolie x