Caramel-Draped Spiced Apples

I looooove caramel. Spoonfuls of caramel, all by themselves. I love it so much that caramel apples are usually a little disappointing - too much apple, too little caramel. And so darn hard to eat when you are eager to get that good stuff into your belly!

But I just discovered a way to provide more caramel with the apple, and make it easier to eat...and not unimportantly, to make this a dessert that you can plate for guests (at times that an apple on a stick is a little too informal).

Recent blog posts had me thinking about poaching fruit, since I had a great deal of mulled red wine sitting around, and the pears in this post looked especially appealing under their drapings of chocolate sauce. I also had some extra whipping cream in the fridge, but no chocolate in the kitchen, so when I stumbled upon this post for decadent-looking caramel-coated doughnuts, the caramel sauce recipe caught my eye right away. Apples in the fridge sealed the deal: I would poach the apples in the mulled wine, and coat them with thick caramel sauce.

I highly recommend mulling your own wine, since it is easy to just throw the ingredients into a pot and have the beverage on hand to enjoy - so full of comforting fall flavors! Once you've got a batch done, you can poach your fruit in it any time; if you don't have time to get some ready, follow the instructions on eHow.com for poaching fruit in wine that you add sugar and spices to just prior to poaching. I promise to post an orange-scented mulled wine recipe as soon as I have some photos to include, but meanwhile, you can still poach some fruit with the linked instructions - or buy the mulling mix at Trader Joe's for a quick solution.

Poaching the fruit:

~ 1 bottle mulled wine (red or white; you can use as little as half a bottle of wine and add water to make the liquid cover the fruit)

4 peeled apples (I used organic Gala, but any except for very soft apples will do)

Bring the wine (or wine and water combination) to a boil in a saucepan. Add the peeled fruit to the pan so that the liquid covers the fruit (add water until it's covered, if necessary), then place a small lid or a piece of parchment paper on the surface of the liquid to keep the fruit submerged. Simmer gently until fruit is soft enough to be easily pierced by a paring knife, but not mushy yet. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon. Cut out the cores prior to serving if desired.

Salted caramel sauce:

1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 stick (115gr) salted butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces
1 cup heavy whipping cream

In a heavy saucepan set over low heat, combine the sugar and water. Cook just until the sugar is dissolved. Add the butter. Let it come to a boil and cook until it reaches a golden caramel color. Remove from the heat and add the cream ( it will splatter and get crazy). Whisk to combine and put back on the stove. Let it come to a boil again over low heat and cook 15-25 minutes until you reach a creamy consistency.
Let cool. Spoon liberally over poached fruit when ready to serve.

Vegan Béchamel Sauce

I realize that my savory/meal posts are very inconsistently scattered between my baking posts, but that does not mean I am less committed to cooking for daily meals - I just tend to keep things sparsely healthy for those meals, so it's a little less interesting and less photogenic to post those items. Plus I really get excited about sugar and butter and all that good stuff!

Still, I was very enthused about this little, versatile item when it popped up on Chocolate and Zucchini, and ran out to buy some soy milk in order to whip up my own Swiss Chard gratin (pretty stalks of rainbow Swiss chard cooking in the photo above).

There are just so many reasons to make this sauce: it's quick and easy to make with ingredients you probably keep around the house, lower in fat than normal béchamel, vegan, creamy, and tasty enough to use as a base for many different dishes. If you're not vegan, add an egg to the sauce and you get an even richer healthy base for your dish. I didn't have the nutmeg, but it was still good.

I have also fallen in love with Gruyère cheese recently (how often do I say that about a food item?), especially when added to greens and whole wheat pasta, so I was pleased to see that this gratin was topped with the nutty mountain cheese. Okay, the recipe actually calls for Comté, but Gruyère was the much cheaper option at my store, and very good. It also makes use of bran (wheat bran, in my case) instead of bread crumbs as a crisp upper layer, another healthy substitution that won me over.

You should now be convinced that it's time to make a healthy, tasty meal! I've included a series of photos below which portray the changes in the sauce as the milk gets incorporated; sorry there's not better lighting over my stove!

Vegan Béchamel Sauce, from Chocolate and Zucchini

4 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons flour
240 ml (1 cup) plain non-dairy milk, cold or at room temperature
salt, pepper, nutmeg

Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, stir it in quickly with a wooden spoon, and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously, without coloring (that's a roux blanc).

Remove from the heat, add a little of the milk, whisk it in to form a smooth mixture, then add the rest of the milk over medium heat, a little at a time, whisking well between each addition. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring continuously, until thickened to a velvety consistency. Remove from the heat, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and use while still warm.

Follow the photo series below if you are uncertain of how the sauce should look as you work the milk in.

Stirring the flour into the oil:

Adding the first bit of milk off the heat:


Next additions of milk:


Starts smoothing out:


Before cooking it the 5-7 minutes:


The velvety consistency, sauce sticking to the sides of the pan:


This is not a technical explanation, just a description of how it worked for me. Happy sauce making!

SaucyScheming: Sesame Peanut Sauce

One of the things I most enjoy about developing cooking skills is having the ability to tailor good foods to various needs and preferences. I've got lactose-free alternatives for myself, low-saturated-fat options for those watching cholesterol, vegetarian recipes and locales, sugar-free opportunities, gluten-free baking, kosher dishes - and I'm sure the list will continue to grow. I'm on a long-term quest to understand how foods work so that I can create tasty and visually pleasing food experiences that hopefully remain faithful to the qualities of the natural foods AND permit my friends to forget that they are having to eat carefully. Not everything I make is healthy, of course, but I'm shooting for a good mix of healthy and decadent!

This sesame peanut sauce is one that I see fitting all the categories above: no dairy, no gluten, no sugar if desired, vegetarian (vegan, even!), low-fat - and VERY tasty! It is versatile; I put it on a noodle dish and on a stir fry, but it could be thinned or thickened to be a dipping sauce for tofu, a marinade for chicken, or whatever else you want it to be. It's easy to halve or double, and once you have the ingredients on hand you may want to make it regularly (as I did this past week). I discovered this recipe in The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, a much-loved book full of quality basic recipes and cooking techniques, including reviews of food brands and cookwares that go along with the recipes. Costco is a great source for these cookbooks, so keep an eye out for them whenever you're there.

All you need is a food processor or blender and you're set to go:

Sesame Peanut Sauce (from Cold Sesame Noodles recipe in ATKFC, p. 78)

5 T sesame seeds
5 T soy sauce (sub. light soy sauce to reduce sodium)
1/4 C chunky or creamy peanut butter (sub. Better than Peanut Butter to reduce fat)
2 T rice vinegar
2 T light brown sugar or Splenda brown sugar
1 T grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp Tabasco
1/2 C hot water

Toast the sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring, until golden and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Purée the sesame seeds with the soy sauce, peanut butter, vinegar, sugar, ginger, garlic, and Tabasco in blender or food processor until smooth, about 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the hot water, 1 T at a time, until the sauce has the consistency you desire (you may not need all the water).

Smoked Sausage, Spinach, and Flax Seed Noodles

From time to time it happens that I end up out to dinner with a guy who tells me that he likes to cook (me: "great!") Italian food (silence on my side of the table). My girlfriends have heard me rail against typical Italian food: I find it boring, tomato-based sauces make my stomach turn, cream-based sauces clash with lactose intolerance, pasta dishes leave me cold. All this plus carb- and cholesterol-consciousness makes an unattractive class of food for me. I will savor a good pizza or fresh fettucini on occasion, but I can certainly think of much more exciting things to make or try given the choice. I know I claim to be unpretentious, but I'm just voicing my preference for non-Italian food - even though I know other people have a right to love it (sorry guys, that wasn't the way to impress this girl).

So you will imagine my surprise when I was immediately drawn to this recipe in a magazine. I have a feeling that it was the photo of browned sausage with shiny vegetables that caught my eye. This savoriness just happened to be hosted by a tangle of fresh pasta, which I was willing to accept in a fresh or high-fiber incarnation if tossed with the sausage and veggies. Why not try this simple combination of fresh, healthy, and flavorful ingredients?

I was also happy to see the method employed in the recipe for creating a clear sauce for the dish (notice: no tomatoes or cream involved). I've been wanting to work on this kind of sauce, so I made up a grocery list and got to work with leftovers in mind. I chose a smoked sausage I liked, high-fiber noodles with flax seed, and doubled the meat and vegetables. The leftovers are great!

Smoked Sausage, Spinach, and Flax Seed Noodles

4 chicken sausages, smoked (about 10 oz. total)

1 small red onion

6 C fresh baby spinach

1 T balsamic vinegar or low-sugar, low-fat balsamic vinaigrette

1 tsp cornstarch

3 tsp olive oil, divided

1 C reduced-sodium chicken broth

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 12-oz. package of high-fiber pasta (flax seed spaghetti at Trader Joe's worked)

Bring a large covered pot of water to a boil over high heat. Reduce to low and simmer covered until ready to cook pasta. Meanwhile, cut sausage into 1/4-inch-thick diagonal pieces and slice onion. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and cornstarch.

Heat 2 tsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add sausage, reduce heat to medium, and cook 1 minute. Turn sausage and cook another minute. Add remaining tsp oil, onion, and spinach and saute 1 minute. Add broth and 1/4 C cold water; bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in cornstarch mixture and pepper. Cook, stirring, until liquid is a little glossy, about 30 seconds. Set aside.

Return pasta water to a boil over high heat. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain in a colander. Add drained pasta to sausage and sauce in skillet and toss gently to combine. Serves 4.