(photo by Jonathunde)
Although summer is still in full swing, apples come into the markets here in Israel before Rosh Hashanah. I love apples; they are probably my most favourite fruit, especially in fall and winter. Here are some apple recipes for your holiday table.
BAKED APPLE RELISH
I found this recipe in a women’s magazine 40 years ago but it still makes a good accompaniment for chicken or meat.
6 small baking apples, core removed, scooped out insides leaving a shell, setting the scooped out insides in a bowl
2 tbsp butter or margarine
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup raisins
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger or 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp dry mustard
4 tbsp red fruit preserves
4 tbsp cider vinegar
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Melt butter or margarine in a large frying pan. Add onion and sauté five minutes.
3. Add chopped apples, tomato, raisins, ginger, mustard, one tablespoon preserves, one tablespoon vinegar, and red pepper, if using. Cook five minutes or until mixture starts to thicken.
4. Spoon into hollowed out apples. Arrange apples in a shallow baking pan.
5. Add remaining preserves and vinegar to frying pan and heat a few minutes. Pour over apples.
6. Bake for 30-45 minutes.
HONEY AND APPLE CAKE
I found this recipe of an Israeli chef from a Bnei Brak bakery in a local newspaper. It makes two loaves.
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
1 cup honey
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup strong fruit tea
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 to 3 green apples, cut into small cubes
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Oil two loaf pans.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar for two minutes in a mixer at medium speed. Add oil then honey and mix.
3. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.
4. Add to egg-sugar-oil-honey mixture. Mix until smooth.
5. Add tea and apples and mix.
6. Pour batter into two loaf pans. Bake for 40 minutes.
MY FAVOURITE MICROWAVE APPLE CHUTNEY
I make this chutney for our favourite fish curry, but it can be used with other dishes as well. Makes two cups.
1/3 cup chopped lemon
1 chopped garlic clove
1 2/3 cups chopped apples
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1 tbsp ground ginger
dash chili powder
2/3 cup cider vinegar
1. Place all ingredients in a microwavable dish. Microwave four minutes.
Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book reviewer and food writer in Jerusalem. She created and leads the weekly English-language Shuk Walks in Machane Yehuda, she has compiled and edited nine kosher cookbooks, and is the author of Witness to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel.
Deborah Shapiro is a self-taught, award-winning artist from Akron, Ohio, who creates collages from bits of magazine paper – no paint is used. Her subjects include nature scenes, animals and still life images. Many of her pieces have words and added meaning, as with the apple collage that graces the cover of this special issue of the Jewish Independent. You will find parts of apple pie recipes within the cut part of the apple. Apples, of course, are one of the symbols of Rosh Hashanah, representing, as we dip them in honey, our wishes for a sweet new year.
