Bratwurst With Sautéed Cabbage & Apples

Bratwurst Served With Sautéed Cabbage & Apples
(Original, fancier recipe found on Seven Spoons)

Ingredients:
1 small head of cabbage, thinly shredded
1 Gala apple, thinly sliced
2 shallots, minced
1/2 a small yellow onion, chopped
2 slices of bacon or Canadian bacon, chopped
1 or 2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp of oil (if you use Canadian bacon. Do without for the fatty kind.)
2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup of water
salt & pepper to taste
Brats.

Heat the oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Cook the bacon until crisp, drain, and set aside. Add the shallots and onion to the pan and cook until the onions have softened (a couple of minutes). Add in the apple and continue to cook for a few more minutes, stirring frequently. The apples should pick up some color and the onions should be translucent at this point.

Add in vinegar and sugar, and wait until sugar is dissolved.

Throw the cabbage in, and add the water. Stir until thoroughly combined with the onions, apples, and vinegar. Continue cooking until most of the liquid is evaporated and the cabbage is soft without being... mushy. Add the bacon back in and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve up quick with a couple of grilled brats and a good Hefeweizen.
(and be warned, bratwurst takes forever to cook. Start grilling before you do anything else.)

Honey Apple and Clementine Tart with Whipped Mascarpone

Ingredients:
2 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed
2 small Golden Delicious apple, halved, cored, thinly sliced
3 small clementines, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup of orange juice
2 tbsp and 1 tsp orange liqueur
2 tbsp sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 teaspoons sugar
8 teaspoons honey
1 cup mascarpone cheese
Flour, for dusting


Thaw the puff pastry according to directions (approximately 40 minutes). Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut each sheet of puff pastry into 9 even squares. Separate the squares and leave some room between them on a lightly floured baking sheet. Create a border around the inside of each square by scoring about 1/2-inch around the inside the square, and folding over the edges. Prick the dough inside the small square. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

In the meantime, place the clementine slices in a small saucepan with the orange juice, 2 tbsp liqueur, and 2 tbsp of sugar over medium heat until the liquid evaporates or the rind is soft and sweet (15 minutes). Remove the clementine slices from the pan and place to the side.

On each pastry square, fill with slices of apple and a slice of the candied clementine within the border.

Brush fruit on each tart with the melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake tarts until pastry is golden and apples are tender, about 20 minutes. Drizzle each tart with 1 teaspoon honey. While tarts are cooling, whisk the mascarpone with orange liqueur. Top each cooled tart with a dollop of flavored mascarpone.


If you're short on time or want to go for a simpler route, you can opt out of the clementines entirely and make an apple tart. Alternately, you could make it an apple and nectarine tart, which is what the recipe originally called for. No candying. I, however, got confused while at the market, and ended up with a different fruit that also had lots of consonants and vowels.

Caramel Apple Pie with Streusel

This was my first attempt at working with dough, and it turned out fantastic. That's right, I said fantastic. It's super easy, makes the kitchen smell amazing, and, added bonus: people actually find the act of making pie crust from scratch more impressive than the pie-making overall. True story.

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup butter
1/3 cup ice water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 egg, beaten

Filling:
6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter

Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter
4 ounces of toffee
4 ounces of chopped pecans

Directions:

Pie Crust:
Chill all ingredients, including the flour and vinegar. Combine the flour, salt and sugar. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles cornmeal. In another bowl, mix water and vinegar with the beaten egg. Add the liquid mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, to the flour mixture, tossing with a fork to form a soft dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 10 minutes.

To turn into pie shells, cover a surface with plastic wrap and lightly flour. Slightly flatten the dough out with your hand before rolling the dough out with a rolling pin. Working quickly, roll the dough into a circle ¼-inch thick or smaller. The size of the dough round should be about four inches wider in diameter than your pie pan. Gently fold the dough in half, and then into quarters. Carefully pick it up and place it into the pie plate so the center point of dough is in the center of the pan.

Carefully unfold the dough: it should be centered in the pan. Without stretching the dough, press the pastry firmly into the pan and trim any excess dough from the edge.

Filling:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Peel and slice apples. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and add apples. Toss to mix. Add vanilla and cream. Melt butter in heavy skillet. Add apple mixture and cook approximately 8 minutes, to soften apples. Turn into pie shell.

Streusel Topping:

Combine the flour and sugar. Mix in butter with fork until coarse crumbs. stir in the toffee bits and pecans. Sprinkle over pie. Add top crust. Seal, flute edge and vent top. Brush with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 45 minutes longer.

Alternately, you can opt out of the top crust since the streusel does a pretty good job, and fill two 9" pie pans instead. I would suggest throwing in an extra apple for the two pie plan.

I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of my pies... but here's some Christmas cheer, until next time.

Paris

Maastricht

Prague

...home.

Quick French Apple Tart

from Eat Drink Live from Bread & Honey blog

Ingredients:
8 ounces ready-made puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, beaten
3-4 red apples
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly butter a baking tray.

Roll out pastry to a rectangle 12 x 7 inches. Put on the baking tray and brush all over with the egg.


Cut the apples into quarters, removing the cores. Slice thinly and arrange in rows on top of the pastry, leaving a 2-inch gap around the edges. Drizzle the melted butter over the apples, sprinkle with sugar, and dust with cinnamon. Brush the edges of the pastry with the remaining egg wash, then fold inwards and gently press down.


Bake the tart in the oven for about 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes, until the tart is well risen, crisp, and golden all over.


Serve hot or at room temperature with whipped heavy cream, clotted cream, scoops of good-quality vanilla ice cream, or homemade custard.