Seasonal recipes: apples
Nicola Galloway has some delicious ideas for your homegrown crop.
Ihave a secret love affair with late season apples – the apple varieties that sit on the trees the longest, not necessarily bred for quick production, but for flavour and keep-ability. I am not talking so much about the apples that grace our supermarket shelves, but the heritage varieties that grow in our backyards or as wildlings along walking paths and riverbanks from a long-ago discarded apple core.
On our 800 square metres in the inner Nelson suburbs, I don’t have space to grow all the apples I would like. At present, it is two apple varieties amongst 25 fruiting trees, bushes and vines: an unnamed dwarf apple that came with the property, which has stayed put as it fits between the ‘Omega’ plum and blood peach, and a newly planted ‘Liberty’ apple grown specifically for adding to school lunchboxes and baking.
Sadly the ‘Golden Delicious’ apple, aged 20-plus years, didn’t survive the upheaval of the glasshouse being positioned in front of it. This will soon be rectified with a ‘Sturmer Pippin’ to be planted this winter – a request from my German husband sparked by warm memories of his Oma’s cooking. I am quite happy to go along with this request as it’s an apple variety at the top of my list for flavour. Its complex, tart-yetsweet flesh can be grated fresh into a bircher muesli bowl, or cooked until the flesh bursts into a fluffy mousse-like texture.
Heritage apples can be found at markets and roadside stalls. In Nelson, we have a number of market stalls with various bins of apple varieties to sample. I often arrive home throughout autumn with my market bag full with a selection. ‘Cox’s Orange’, ‘Monty’s Surprise’ and ‘Belle de Boskoop’, to name a few. I know there are many more.
MAKE APPLE SAUCE
Apples form the base of this fruit compote with no added sugar, allowing the slow cooking to gently soften and concentrate the fruits’ natural sweetness. You can also add up to a quarter of the total weight of other late autumn fruit such as fig, pear or feijoa.
The simplest approach to making this sauce is to quarter the fruit and cook with the pips and skin intact. A mouli or food mill is then used to both puree the fruit and separate the tougher bits. A mouli is inexpensive and invaluable when preserving large quantities. Or peel and core apples first as outlined in the recipe.
The benefit of cooking the sauce in this way is that all the pectin in the core and seeds of the apples are released during cooking, resulting in a thick and creamy sauce. Ingredients • 4kg cooking apples
• ½ cup water • 1-2 teaspoon cinnamon or mixed spice (optional) Makes approximately 5 x 600ml jars.
Wash jars in hot soapy water, rinse well and set aside to air dry on a rack. Use preserving jars or reuse gherkin or pasta sauce jars that have unblemished and intact seals.
Peel the apples, quarter and remove the cores. Or, if using a mouli, at the end of cooking simply quarter the apples leaving the cores and skin intact.
Place fruit into a large heavy-based pot (use two if needed and divide the water). Add the water and spice if using, cover with a lid and cook gently over a low heat.
The idea with this cooking method is to slowly steam the apples so they release their own juices – if you add more water the resulting sauce will be diluted and bland.
Leave to cook for 30-50 minutes (cooking time will depend on the variety of apples), stirring occasionally, until the apples are very soft.
Cool a little, then mash or use a stick blender to puree into a smooth sauce. Alternatively, use a mouli to puree and separate the tougher skin and pips (recommended).
The sauce can now be frozen into portioned containers or preserve using one of the options on the right hand page.
The idea is to slowly steam the apples so they release their own juices; if you add water, the resulting sauce will be diluted and bland.
USING APPLE SAUCE
Breakfast bowls: through autumn and winter, I start most mornings with a bowl of apple sauce swirled through natural homemade yoghurt. Top it off with 2-3 tablespoons of toasted muesli, ground seeds or chopped nuts. Or dollop onto hot porridge. Use in baking: add apple sauce to fruit cakes to reduce the sugar. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 cup sugar, use ½ cup sugar and ½ cup apple sauce.
Replace eggs in baking: apple sauce can be used to replace eggs in baking. It is best used for heavier baking that calls for no more than 2 eggs, such as muesli bars or a fruit slice. Use 2 tablespoons apple sauce per egg. (It is not suitable for light and airy baking that requires egg for binding and lift, such as sponge cake.) Serve with pork: My Dutch grandma would always serve apple sauce alongside pork, usually pork steaks but I am more partial to a slow-cooked pork shoulder.