Keeper: applesauce
Try Agains: chutney, soup
It is so fall in the food in my house these days. I love changing food focus based on the seasons, and I am happy to be living in a four-season country.
Yesterday I cooked a chutney, which is so ridiculously easy, I am never buying chutney again. This was from September 2010's Chatelaine: Roasted Plum Chutney. I made two substitutions: I didn't have port, so I used sherry cooking wine, and I didn't have whole star anise, so I put in five whole cloves.* This was very, very easy. Minimal prep, a bit of cooking time, and absolutely delicious. Olivia and I had this for lunch with a local apple, local apple cider, a baguette and a selection of artisanal cheeses. Alright, that last bit isn't true: we had three different cheeses, probably mass-manufactured, and purchased at the Superstore. I hang my head. And, truth be told, O wouldn't taste the chutney. She might have liked it if she weren't being a stubborn 2 year old.
*These were hard to locate in the cooked chutney when I wanted to remove them.
That was yesterday. Today for supper, I made a try again soup from last year, and it is a try again, again, because I missed my note from last year to up the spice by including some jalapeno seeds. I will add some stars to my note so when I next make it, I will remember to make it spicier. From September 2009's Chatelaine: Mexican-style chicken soup. I would recommend, unless you are feeding troops, to halve the recipe. Half the recipe makes a lot. I used way less chicken than it called for, and that was fine.
Finally, after supper, Olivia and I made applesauce! We visited our local fruit farm yesterday and picked up some Empire apples for eating (see photos above) and MacIntoshes for cooking. We made two applesauces, one sweetened and one unsweetened. Poor O doesn't know about the possibility of putting sugar in applesauce yet. She helped me by (a) eating apple slices as I peeled and chopped and (b) putting the apples in the two pots. This is a recipe I've had kicking around for a million years, and I love it. This time I used brown sugar instead of white, which I think I will continue to do.
Applesauce
4 apples
1/4 cup water
optional additions to make sweetened applesauce:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter
Peel, core and quarter apples. Place in pot and add water, and additional ingredients if so desired. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover and lower heat to simmer until desired softness (approx. 10 minutes). Stir occasionally, breaking up bigger chunks if you like thinner applesauce. Mash with potato masher if you want it really fine. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold.**
**Going on memory, I think the sweetened applesauce needs to be reheated prior to eating, as the butter gets hard. You could also leave the butter out entirely.
Didn't take a picture of the applesauce. It looks like applesauce. You can probably imagine it. :) (Actually, with the brown sugar, the sweetened applesauce was quite dark.)
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