Tag Archives: apple

Easy to Prepare, Holiday Dishes, Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegan Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes

Ginger Cranberry Chutney

I never cared much for cranberry sauce until I tried out my grandmother’s suggestion to make a recipe with fresh cranberries.  Aside from the brightness of flavors and use of a whole orange for zest, the star of the show was the crystalized ginger.  I was an instant convert.

Many years later, upon reading through Amanda Hesser’s NYT Cookbook, I came across a chutney recipe that seemed to contain all of my favorite fall flavors.  I decided to tweak it a bit and again make crystalized ginger the star of the show.  The result was a lush, bright sauce that served the perfect stand-in for that canned cranberry nonsense. Continue reading Ginger Cranberry Chutney →

Easy to Prepare, Friends Recipes and Hacks, Impressive Dishes, Soups and Stews, The Daring Kitchen

Dev’s Roasted Apple, Brie & Thyme Soup

8 Comments
Recipe for The Daring Kitchen
Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook’s September 2011 challenge, Stock to Soup to Consommé. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!
This simply stunner of a recipe is perfect when you want to impress the socks (shoes, ties, belts, you name it) off your guests. The flavors sing the praises of autumn, but upon first sip, you’ll notice that the soup is as light as air and almost reminiscent of spring. It’s the kind of ethereal taste that makes you feel as if the chef slaved for hours and hours perfectly balancing flavors and textures. And yet, as you’ll see in the steps below, you couldn’t ask for a more simple or straightforward process.

This recipe comes to us from the extraordinary Devaki Das, a fellow food blogger and lover of global cuisine. You can read more about her in this interview, and visit her site for myriad drool-worthy recipes at Weave a Thousand Flavors. Just promise me that if you cook any of her food, invite me over for dinner. She is a master of her craft! Continue reading Dev’s Roasted Apple, Brie & Thyme Soup →

Fave Foodies, Recipes

An Interview with Food Blogger Devaki Das

2 Comments

I “met” Dev (and I employ ironic quotes here because, like so many other food bloggers, we’ve yet to meet face-to-face) through the fabulous foodie network, FoodBuzz. A hive of self-proclaimed culinary nerds and cheffie mavens alike (the two go hand-in-hand), the site offered a way for folks to dish and compare techniques online.  Dev has always been a champion of what I like to call the “fearless global kitchen” – she crafts recipes that cull ingredients from all points of the globe, and the words and images on her wildly popular blog, Weave a Thousand Flavors, speak to her passion for cooking.  Though Dev is originally from India and a true globetrotter in every sense of the word, she has ties to both Phoenix, Arizona and Northern Virginia (two locales that many of you know I call home). I chuckle at the feeling of the world getting smaller and smaller, and am happy that once again, that darned kooky internet proves indispensable in allowing me access to such brilliant souls. I was truly honored to make her acquaintance a few years back, and am even more excited to introduce her to you!

Roasted Apple, Brie and Thyme Soup


Dev offers us this ultra-luxe soup to add to our culinary arsenals, light and silken enough to be served on the hottest summer day, but richly-scented with honest flavors of fall. How often do you get to serve a year-round classic? Now’s your chance! Get the Recipe

How did you decide to become a food blogger?
At the risk of sounding pretentious, I knew that there was a reason for my love and passion for food and cooking. I have been cooking since I was 9 years old and all my knowledge has been acquired through true grit experience. I am self-taught. And I believe that my knowledge is meant to be shared. If one person can cook, make a dish well that they would never have been able to accomplish previously, then the blog is doing what it has set out to do. I want to help people cook and be proud!What is your earliest memory in the kitchen?
The first dish i ever made at age 9 was a vegetable pilaf, the onions were nearly black but it was my first leap into the kitchen and I have never looked back since.

How would you describe your cooking style in three adjectives?
Honest, impulsive and organic (not in ingredients but in style) I never decide where a dish is going to go. I begin and then let each step unfold into the next.

How has cooking for your website changed the way you approach the kitchen and ingredients?
I now not only think of my hubby and 2 little boys, I think of what my unseen readers might want to eat this week….lol….

What food trends or ingredients do you currently have a crush on?
Pies….I am so glad pies are the new black. Am so over the cupcake!

What are your favorite foods to prepare just for fun?
Salmon, Asian style ceviche and baking honest, fresh fruit cakes and of course pies. I am one pie crazy girl. If only they’d love me back and the scale would stay the same after a slice!

What is your favorite food destination and why?
Thailand – Few places come close to the honest creative, incredibly fresh flavors of authentic Thai food served in street corners and in the villages. Unforgettable!

Describe your most favorite meal.
My dad’s Yakhni Pilaf with Goat Meat

What is your favorite comfort food?
Choley Bhatura – Indian style chick peas with puffy fried bread.

What is the one food or dish that you wish people would never eat again?
Shark fin – I don’t want a soul to suffer so I can enjoy a meal. I guess my 9 year old son has rubbed on me 🙂

Who inspires you in the kitchen?
All the GREAT cooks in the world – gracing humble kitchens, street corners to commercial kitchens. Talent comes in all forms and irrespective of geography and has no barriers – social or economical. There are people all over the world, many unknown, many widely known – like O’Connell, Keller, Batali, Ducasse that have enormous, God-given talents – it keeps me humble and grounded.

What is your creative process in crafting new recipes and dishes?
It begins with a hint of a concept in the corners of my mind. I then mull over it – much like a ruminant cow (smiles) and then I allow the idea to naturally come together. I always sense intuitively once the idea is ripe. I never push and struggle with an idea, just let it flow naturally and form.

What technique or skill do you believe is most important for home cooks to acquire or improve upon?
Overcome your fear! Have confidence! Rule the technique, rule that spatula – don’t let it rule you.

Easy to Prepare, Holiday Dishes, Recipes, Side Dishes

Classic Stuffing

Classic Stuffing © Photo by Angela GunderIn the powerplay for key plate location and eating supremacy, stuffing is my champion well beyond Thanksgiving.  Don’t get me wrong – I adore mashed potatoes, roast turkey, string beans and a biblical-worthy proclamation of gravy over all.  But at the end of the day, the one dish that I jones about above all others is glorious stuffing.

For a goodly while, I’ve been taking part in (if not orchestrating) the Thanksgiving meal.  I can remember the first time I was allowed in the kitchen to help out my paternal grandmother make sweet potatoes, and what a gift it was.  It was like a vote of confidence that I was old enough to help out with the cooking (and thus, not going to eff things up).  The meal itself was full of such history, from the family recipe for Carolina-style cornbread to two special versions of dressing, my favorite one with oysters.  When it came to my making the meal myself years later, I carried with me the memories as much as the flavors and ingredients.  This stuffing was less a recipe and more an extension of my favorite type of cooking – completely unfussy ingredients turning into deliciousness with fail-proof techniques.  My hope is that if ever you end up cooking this meal for you and yours, and you don’t already have a beloved stuffing recipe, that maybe you’ll try this one out for inclusion in the pantheon of cherished Thanksgiving favorites.  It’s really that simple and lovely that you’ll be happy to make it a part of your fam.

 

Recipe for

Classic Stuffing

Ingredients
2 bags of Pepperidge Farm stuffing (I prefer the crumbs to the cubes, but either works)
2 stalks of celery
2 carrots
1 large onion
2 apples
1 cup of craisins
6 c. of chicken stock
2 sprigs of sage
4 sprigs of thyme
1/2 tsp. of white pepper
1 tsp. of black pepper
1/4 tsp. of salt
1 stick of butter plus 2 tbs.
1 tbs. of olive oil

Begin by chopping your carrots, onion, celery and apples – I like to just throw everything in the food processor and chop into a rough dice.  Stem and chop your sage and thyme.  Set the herbs and veggies aside.

In a saucepan, warm your stock with 1 stick of the butter, white pepper, black pepper and salt.  Add the craisins and allow to reconstitute.  Let it hang out while you prep your veggies.

In a large skillet, add the 2 tbs. of butter and 1 tbs. of olive oil.  Add the veggies and herbs and cook until softened, but not browned.  Add the veggies to a large mixing bowl and stir in the stuffing.  Pour the broth over the stuffing and stir to moisten.  Turn out into a greased casserole dish.

Bake stuffing on 375° for 35-45 minutes, or until browned on top.  Serve on a prime spot on your dinner plate.

Desserts, Ice Cream and Sorbet, Recipes

Apple Crumble Ice Cream

2 Comments

Back when I bought the ice cream attachment for my Kitchenaid standing mixer, I snagged a copy of the Ben and Jerry’s cook book at the same time.  What a dream – in a sheer moment of atavistic delight, I poured through the book marveling at reckless abandon at which the recipes had been shared.  And all before I’d actually made a single recipe in the book.  Once I discovered that their cream base recipe was pretty damn close to the real thing, it was time to raise the culinary dead from the grave.  Many years before, I’d fallen in love with the Ben and Jerry’s flavor Apple Crumble.  It was apple pie a la mode by the spoonful and nothing but goodness.  Alas, the flavor was retired to the B&J graveyard and I was left in the lurch in terms of getting my Apple Crumble fix.

Apple Crumble Ice Cream © Photo by Angela Gunder

After a bit of tinkering and some hoping and praying, I made my first batch of Apple Crumble knock off, and all I could do was revel in the results.  It was ever so wonderful – a reminder that nothing in this life is ever truly lost.

Apple Crumble Ice Cream © Photo by Angela Gunder

The secret to making this recipe well is getting all of the components good and cold before putting them in the ice cream maker.  Make sure to leave plenty of time to stage all of the ingredients and know that when you are done, you’ll be rewarded with a quart of loveliness that will last you for a goodly while.  Well, maybe not so long depending on whom you decide to share it with.  I absolutely authorize you to share with no one if you like 😉

Recipe for

Apple Crumble Ice Cream

Ingredients
6 tbs of butter, softened
1/2 c. of brown sugar
2 tbs. of white sugar
1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
3/4 c. of flour

2 apples, cored and diced
2 tbs. of vanilla sugar
1 tbs of butter
1/4 tsp of cinnamon

2 eggs
2 c. of heavy cream
1 c. of light brown sugar
1 c. of milk

Preheat the oven to 350°.  In a small bowl, mix the softened butter, sugars, cinnamon and flour with a pastry knife or a fork, forming large crumbs.  You can also squeeze the mix into chunks with your fingers to form large crumbles.  Bake in the oven on an ungreased cookie sheet until browned, about 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and gently crumble the mixture with a fork.  Chill.

In a skillet, melt the 1 tbs. of butter.  Add the apples, sugar and cinnamon and saute until apples are tender.  Set aside and chill.

Begin making the ice cream base by beating together the eggs, cream, sugar and milk until frothy and lovely, about 5 minutes.  Pour base into your ice cream maker and chill according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Once the ice cream has finished churning, fold in the chilled apples and crumbles.  Transfer into an airtight quart container and chill.  Eat with reckless abandon.

Beverages and Cocktails, Holiday Dishes, Recipes

Caramel Apple Punch

I’m not sure how my sister Lexi and I came up with this punch recipe, but it’s just ridiculously good.  Despite the strong alcohol trifecta in play with this one, it tastes just like a smooth, delicious caramel apple.  Plus, the Goldschlager, usually the troublemaker at the party, plays nice here with the perfect flavor of cinnamon.  A little Martinelli’s on top for sparkle and a good quality fresh apple cider for body and you are in business.

We serve this cold, but you can absolutely have it warm as well – just make sure to add the alcohol after you’ve warmed the cider.  This recipe also doubles and triples well into a punch for a bunch, so don’t be afraid to break it out at your next Halloween or Christmas party.
Caramel Apple Punch

Caramel Apple Punch

1 1/2 oz. Butterscotch Schnapps
1 oz. Goldschlager
1 oz. Sour Apple Pucker
Apple Cider
Sparkling Cider

Fill a highball glass with ice and add the Apple Pucker, Goldschlager and Schnapps in that order.  Fill the glass just about up to the top with apple cider and then top with a splash of the sparkling cider.  Garnish with a slender apple wedge.

To make as a punch, combine 1 part Goldschlager, 1 part Sour Apple Pucker and 2 parts Butterscotch Schnapps.  Add 4 parts fresh apple cider and 1 part sparkling cider on top right before serving.  Serve in a punch bowl with thin slices of apple rings and the ice on the side.