Apples: Give thanks to fall's most versatile food
By MICHELE KAYAL November 8, 2011 10:08AM
Apple cranberry tapenade. | Matthew Mead~AP
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Updated: January 23, 2012 4:34AM
Cider in jugs, fruit tumbling from baskets, air as crisp as a ripe Jonagold. Autumn belongs to apples.
The symbolic value of apples is exceeded only by their versatility. Raw, they’re crunchy; cooked they’re soft. Chopped or mashed, they’re on the plate; juiced they’re in a glass. And with flavors that run from sugar-sweet to downright puckering, they can find a place in every dish on your Thanksgiving menu.
“Garnish on the soup, sliced with cheeses, in the stuffing, as apple pie,” says Andrew Dornenberg, co-author of The Flavor Bible (Little, Brown, $35) and What to Drink with What You Eat (Bulfinch, $35). “It hits every single course of the day.”
The apple’s wide range of flavors, textures and responses to technique offers the cook myriad creative options. Added to shaved fennel, it lends sweetness and highlights the subtle notes of anise. Tossed into a stuffing, its acid lightens the heaviest dose of sausage — and matches the sage, rosemary or other herbs note for note.
Apple accentuates the sweetness of vegetables such as peas, onion and squash, and mellows the assertive flavors of others, such as cauliflower and cabbage. Ground into a tapenade, its sugar plays off the salt of green olives. Baked into a pie or crumble, it melts into the cinnamon and clove.
“Apples can go in all directions,” says Lisa Yockelson, author of Baking Style (Wiley, $45). Even into your glass. Instead of wine, Dornenberg suggests serving cider — hard or soft, still or sparkling — to cut through the meal’s richness.
And for an extra-special dessert: apple sorbet. “It’s light, cold, juicy,” he says. “It’s so easy to juice an apple and turn it into sorbet.”
AP
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