Fun with Apples

My home state, Colorado U.S.A., specifically, the Western Slope has a great reputation for apples, peaches, cherries, onions, potatoes, pinto beans, and Olathe Sweet, sweet corn.  Harvested in the fall, apples, in many varieties are packed and shipped from “apple sheds.”  One of my favorite apple varieties is Honey Crisp.  It makes great apple butter, jams, minced meat, on cheese platters, and for crunchy sweet eating.

Since I buy a bushel for my annual pilgrimage home to see family, I have to use creativity in the freshly crisp apples.

I’ve written about mince previously.  I know that few people enjoy its aromatic deliciousness, but I find that cooking minced meat is good medicine for the brain (Did I mention its aroma?) I wrote my master’s thesis, many years ago, on the food in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. My Native American grandmother made it every year, too.  It still intrigues me that cultures a half world apart used the same method for mitigating rotting (aging) meat.  Maybe that’s why people don’t like it!  Of course I use freshly ground beef.  I would use venison, but it tends to be too lean, and I do not want to use beef suet, as it was made historically.  I use ground beef that’s about 80% lean.  With 20% fat, I don’t have to add extra fat.  I think I gave the full recipe in one of my earlier blog posts.

The reason why I like minced meat is that it uses lots of apples, oranges, raisins, currents, spices (now I use Chinese 5 Spice!), brandy.  It takes a while to cook it, and the aroma exuding from the kitchen conjures memories of my grandmothers.  We make pies, cakes, and turnovers from the mince.  Canning mince takes a long while.  The Kerr Blue Book recommends 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure.  It makes me think that no one at Kerr has actually pressure canned minced, because no matter what you do, about one fourth of the liquid boils out of the jar.  After years of trying to perfect pressure canning minced, I decided to try freezing my mince this year.  When you allow two days  for thawing, you have perfect mince meat.   Okay.  I realize that it’s an acquired taste, but try it if you love savory sweet spice in your desserts, mince pie fits the bill!

I like to eat different cheeses with jams.  The next batch of apple goodness includes “Fig Apple Jam.”  Also, I make “Fig Orange” jam, but my topic is apples today.

I use the fig apple jam in semi soft and soft cheeses mostly (brie, bucheron. goat cheese).  The sweet, salty, creamy all play in your mouth and goes well with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc.   I like to put the fig apple jam in a bowl of steaming oatmeal (porridge).  When the end of the year comes, just before the next apple season, I put the jam out for the birds to enjoy.

After finding many recipes for my apples, I’m down to 10 apples.  That means I have to be creative.  So I created an apple cole slaw with a lavender infused dressing.

Apple Lavender Cole Slaw

1.5 cups (115g) of thinly shaved cabbage

1 – 2 apples of your choice (I use honey crisp) cored and thinly sliced (leave skin on for color)

3/4 cup (60 g) of raisins (dried grapes).

3/4 cup (60 g) walnuts and 1/2 cup (40g) pecans

1 stalk celery thinly sliced

Lavender Infused Dressing

3/4 cup (170 g) prepared salad dressing (mayonnaise).  I like the slighter sweeter Miracle Whip)

1 tsp (5 g) coconut sugar

1/2 tsp (2.5 g) ground lavender buds

3/4 cup (180 mL) cream

1/2 teaspoon (2.5 g) ground mustard

dash salt

Mix well and toss the apple cabbage mixture.

Serve chilled

The slaw goes well with fish or barbecue.  We’re eating it with chili today.

Thank you for reading.