Let’s talk apples.
I just finished a delicious Jonathan.
And last night’s Iron Chef America featured some interesting apple dishes.
So,
What are your favorite types?
Favorite recipes/cooking techniques?
& anything else related…
Duck Season!
Sorry.
I’m not sure what variety it is, but a few years back I bought some apples which actually had, umm, hard to discribe, sugar nodules (?) in the flesh of the apple. Noticably yellower than the flesh of the apple, and they had the slightest bit of a crunch when chewed. I have no idea what they were called. Anyone know?
I like gala, fuji, braeburn and granny smith varieties for eating. Golden delicious for baking.
Does anyone actually like red delicious? They don’t taste like anything but water.
Macintosh!
And Granny Smith. And Spartan. And now I really want to go orchard-hunting again…
This is the first year I may get apples off my tree. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve always been told that the best time to pick is immediately after the first frost.
No idea at all what kind they are, but the tree is supposed to be some kind of dwarf variety.
Apples in October. Mmmmmm…
Mmmmm, Jonathans are actually my favorite kind. The best apples I’ve ever had were Jonathan apples from Butler’s Orchard* in Maryland. I went with my parents to an Oktoberfest (when I was a teenager) and they had a booth set up. We got a basket of them and I think I ate every single one. That was nearly twenty years ago, and I still remember them.
I’m eating a Gala right now (from New Zealand). Eh, it’s okay.
My favorite apple thing to make is deep dish apple pie with a crumb top. I make it every Thanksgiving and it’s requested by all my family and friends because it’s really yummy. Especially warm with vanilla ice cream.
*This cracks me up that they have a website. I grew up with Butler’s Orchard and so did my mom - she worked there as a kid. I’ll have to let her know they’re all fancy now.
I’ll take local New England apples, mixed varieties, smashed into cider, and fermented along with 2# brown sugar (in 5 gal cider) with White Labs WLP 775 English Cider yeast. Bottled with 3/4c corn sugar and 1# lactose (or 4 cups Splenda)! 
Otherwise, for straight eating, I’ll take a nice 1/2 peck of Macintosh apples.
In fact, I’m headed to the orchard right now to get both!
Give me all the Affy Tapples. All of them.
Also, I have an awesome pasta/chicken dish that Kid Kalhoun made. It has apples in it and it’s freekin’ awesome.
Could you post that recipe, please? I bet my kids would love that (and me, too)!
Sure! Let me root around for it.
Roasted Apple Fettuccini
For the chicken part, use boneless, skinless breasts, bread them with egg and bread crumbs and fry them up. You know…like you always do.
For the Roasted Apple fettuccini part,
1 lb. fresh fettuccini pasta
two tblsp butter
1/4 cup minced shallots
2 tsp minced garlic
1 lb roasted Granny smith apples, cored and thinly sliced
Salt and white pepper
Calvados (apple-flavored liquor) for deglazing pan
2 c. heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta to the water and cook til tender. Remove from the water and drain. In a large saute pan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the shallots, garlic, and appes. Season with salt and pepper. Saute for 2 min. Remove the pan from the heat and deglaze the pan with the Calvados. Place the pan back over the heat and flame the apples, shaking the pan constantly. After the flame has died, add the cream and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and continue to cook for 3-4 min. Add the pasta to the apple/creame mixture and toss to evenly coat the pasta. Stir in the cheese. Mound the pasta in the center of each plate. Place the chicken breast (or veal chop) directly on the pasta. Garnish with parsley. Serves 4-6
This is an Emeril recipe and it’s really yummy.
Mealy sugar water. My least favorite apple. Yet it still “looks” like the archetypal apple, so people still buy it; there’s no other explanation.
I pity all of you. No one yet has picked the best apple of them all, the glorious Northern Spy . I have to assume you have not yet been privileged to tast one, or else you would have picked it as the best. On the other hand, I may envy you the experience of the first taste. That’s it, pity mixed with envy. Plus, find yourselves some Northern Spies and go to it. You will not be disappointed.
If you hadn’t said it, I would have done so.
Pear season!
I’m sorry, you mistyped “Honeycrisp.”
Thanks, Kalhoun! That sounds really good.
I also really like Northern Spies (best pie apples ever) but they’re so tough to find. I live in Washington which is one of the biggest apple-producing areas in the world but I’ve never seen Northern Spies for sale in the stores. Locally, there’s a small orchard that produces a very limited quantity of them but, aside from them, if I want Northern Spies, I have order from some orchard back east.
I also like Winesaps but I’ve noticed they’re also getting more difficult to find in Washington. Is that true anywhere else?
You’re welcome. It IS really good, but you might as well just apply it directly to your ass. The heavy cream makes it, but keeee-rist…the calories!
Just keep telling yourself it’s good for you because there’s fruit in it!