How Do You Like Them Apples?

It’s apple season – time for apple-picking. Sure, the pandemic has upset the applecart, and there are some restrictions, but you can still get a small group of family together for a trip to the local orchard. You probably can’t travel too far beyond it! Back at home, you might be getting tired of the same old fare.

I have a way out: a virtual road trip. And about those apples. Instead of the usual – pie, sauce, crisp, pan dowdy – why not try some new recipes in the main dish category? You can please your dining companions, not to mention yourself, with new flavors and aromas.

Apples for dinner

Especially in northern Europe, apples have been part of the cuisine for millennia. The fruit pairs well in chicken and pork dishes: chicken Normandy, Danish pork with apples and prunes, sausage with apples and onions, Spanish soups with apples and squash or sweet potatoes … I could go on.

The beauty of using the apples with meats is that they add a sweetness to offset the flavor of the meat, plus they contribute moisture as they cook. The added humidity is even more important with today’s meats that have much less fat than the cuts I grew up eating. Sweet results that aren’t dry. What’s not to like?

My very first experience with this combination was cooking from the 1970s Time-Life Foods of the World series. The Cooking of Scandinavia featured the Danish pork loin recipe stuffed with apples and prunes. Of course, the Danes finished it with a sauce made from the juices combined with red currant jelly and heavy cream. The dish was a big hit with my friends back then.

Ideas from Spain, Peru, Morocco, Germany, India

My favorite apple main these days is a Spanish recipe from Claudia Roden’s The Food of Spain. The Spanish, for hundreds of years, reserved the beef and other prized meats for the upper classes. The average Spanish family kept pigs and chickens on their small plots. The hens were for egg laying, and chicken and pork were eaten only on festive occasions.

This recipe for roast chicken with apples and grapes is from the Asturias region, where apple trees were mentioned in monastery documents from the 8^th century. In this case, the apples inside the chicken cavity gives the chicken a fruity flavor. The juice from the white grapes that you chop in a food processor  caramelizes the chicken with a glaze. While the chicken is roasting, you cook some of the apples and grapes on the stovetop until the grapes to be served with the chicken. The result is both gustatory and visually pleasing.

At times like these, take a food-themed trip, even if it’s only imaginary. Apples are the perfect conveyance. They’ve already made the trip, having originated in central Asia. You can choose almost any international cuisine, and it will incorporate apples. A Peruvian pork stew features chilis and lime. Morocco apple beef stew includes plums. Germans are fond of a mixture of apples and sauerkraut with sausage and bacon. There’s an Indian chicken dish with apples, curry paste, and yogurt.

So let’s go see the world, at least through our senses. What’s your druthers?