Waldorf Salad with Fennel

Waldorf salad, the old stand-by, an apple-celery-nut salad with a rich mayonnaise dressing. I can't tell you how much of this I ate during my college days. Could use with a little updating. I found a recipe from Whole Foods which was a good starting point. But, it's a side salad that contains 400(!) calories. That's rather excessive. Trimmed it down a bit by reducing the nuts and dried fruit, and cutting back on the amount of dressing.

This salad gives me a chance to introduce fennel. Fennel has a slight licorice flavor and great crunch. I'm not a huge licorice/anise fan but fennel has just the right amount. Celery is what usually gives Waldorf salad its vegetable crunch. No celery here, just fennel. Give it a try. Fennel is good raw in any salad. Slice it thin because big pieces can be fibrous. It is also good roasted. Simple and delicious.

Waldorf Salad with Fennel
(serves 4-5)

Dressing:
3 Tablespoons mayonnaise
5 Tablespoons lowfat Greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon lemon or lime juice
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons minced fresh mint
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt

Salad:
1 small bulb of fennel or ½ a large one
2 apples, cored and chopped (see Note)
⅓ cup chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews)
½ cup raisins or dried cranberries
salt

Combine all the dressing ingredients and set aside while you prepare the rest.

To prepare the fennel, cut the bulb in half from the top (the part with the leafy stalks) to the bottom. Cut out the hard core at the bottom of the bulb. Slice the remaining bulb as thinly as you can. Combine the fennel with the rest of the salad ingredients, add dressing, and toss to combine. Add more salt to taste.

Best if eaten immediately because the dressing thins out when it sits in the fridge. But, it's still good. For a more substantial variation, add in some cooked chicken or turkey.

Note: Braeburns or Cortlands are preferred because they don't brown quickly. See our post on apple varieties for more info on our one of our favorite fruits.

Fennel photo credit: By Jamain (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Maple Apple Crisp

Here's a dessert recipe that uses our low sugar granola. Any of the variations will do, but don't use granola that contains dried fruit. The fruit will dry out too much during baking. I don't mix in the dried fruit until I eat my granola for breakfast, a suggestion from my dear friend Deb of Kiger Family Vineyard. If you mix as you go, you always have fruit-free granola on hand. I used my latest seasonal granola recipe, pumpkin pie spice granola, and it was delicious!

I like to mix up the apples in my crisp. Some varieties stay crunchy, some soften when baked. Some are tart, some sweet. If you mix them up, I think the texture and flavor is better, but use what you have. Here's a handy guide to apples to help you select apples you'll like.

Maple Apple Crisp
(serves 8)

non-stick cooking spray
1 cup granola without dried fruit
½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
⅓ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into about 16 chunks
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
6 medium apples
⅓ cup real maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a 9"x9"x2"  baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the granola, oats, brown sugar, nuts, and ground cinnamon. With your fingers, crumble the butter into the dry ingredients until there are no big chunks.

Put the lemon juice in a large bowl. Peel, core, and slice each apple and place in the bowl. Toss with lemon juice to prevent browning. When all the apples are sliced, pour over maple syrup and stir to coat apple slices with syrup. Pour it into the prepared dish. Spread the granola mix on top, covering the apples completely. Bake for 45 minutes until apples are tender when pierced with a knife.

Adapted from a recipe in Apple Cookbook by Olwen Woodier, Storey Publishing, 2001.

Savory Apples: a Fish and Apple Curry

I love Autumn and I love apples in Autumn. I grew up in New York State, a state with a lot of apple orchards - it's number #2 for apple-growing states (Washington is far and away the leader). Where I grew up, ancient orchards are interspersed with many a subdivision and the smell of ripe apples is everywhere. We would head to the local orchard for freshly pressed cider which was another treat of Fall.

After reading this article in The Atlantic, I started to wonder if my love affair with apples was shared widely. If you spent your life eating Red Delicious apples, probably not. I have shared your disillusionment with the apple - so many awful apples in box lunches, convenience stores, cafeterias. Please seek out some better apple varieties; I posted a list of common apple varieties and their seasons which can help you out. It's not complete. Apple breeders keep coming up with new varieties - thank goodness - because it would be a sad world with just the lame Red Delicious.

Most of us eat our apples in desserts. Here, it provides sweetness and texture to a fish curry. A tip when using curry powder: some of the spices in there have a bitter and raw undertone. To tone this down, it's important to cook the curry in fat for a minute.

Fish and Apple Curry
(serves 6)

2 Tablespoon oil or butter or a combination
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
¼ cup raisins
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 Tablespoons chutney
salt and pepper
2 medium apples
2 zucchini, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 ½ pounds mild whitefish such as Pacific cod or catfish, cut into bite-sized pieces

Heat up the oil and/or butter in a dutch oven over medium-low heat. Cook the onions and garlic for 10 minutes until the onions are soft and turning golden. While the onions are cooking, peel, core, and dice the apples. Add the curry powder and cook for a minute. Add the raisins, crushed tomatoes, chutney, ½ teaspoon salt, and apples. Cook for 20 minutes on medium-low (to keep the tomatoes from scorching to the pan). Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper to season. Add the zucchini and fish. Cook for about 10 minutes until the zucchini is tender and the fish is cooked. Check for salt and pepper before serving.

This gets even better if you refrigerate it and reheat it. The sweetness of the apples mellows the curry making it even more delicious.

Irish Apple Crumble

Why is this Irish? Because it's on the menu for my St. Patrick's Day class! No, that doesn't really make it Irish, but corned beef and cabbage is considered Irish and I couldn't find that in a single Irish cookbook. I did find lots of recipes for apple desserts and recipes using oats. Whether you consider it Irish or not, it's still quite delicious.

Irish Apple Crumble
(serves 9)

Filling
8 large tart apples, like Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and sliced about ½" thick
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon or lime juice
⅔ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Topping
½ cup + 2 Tablespoons flour
a large pinch of salt
⅓ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar (light or dark), packed
½ cup rolled oats (not quick)
⅓ cup toasted wheat germ
2 Tablespoons sliced almonds
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons milk or apple juice

cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9"x9"x2" baking pan with cooking spray.

Combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl and combine.

Combine all the dry ingredients (flour through cinnamon) for the topping in a medium bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix until it holds together to form crumbles. Add a little more milk or juice if it won't clump together. Pour the filling into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the topping over the apples, covering the whole top evenly. Bake for 40 minutes until hot and bubbly. Let sit for 5 minutes to let it cool slightly. Serve plain, with vanilla ice cream, or a little heavy cream.

Apple-Cranberry Crisp

Cranberries are back! As we head quickly towards Thanksgiving, the cranberries arrive in supermarkets across the US. They pack quite a punch - both flavor and color-wise. I love them in traditional cranberry sauce but I think they really shine in desserts because their tartness punches up sweet desserts. And what a color - cranberries turn everything an electric red, naturally.

Cranberries are cheap and plentiful this time of year so I like to stock up. Stick a bag or two in your freezer because they can be hard to find (and expensive) after the holidays are over. They freeze wonderfully.

Here's a dessert in tune with the fall season: apple-cranberry crisp. It's apple season too (to learn more about apples check out this post) so this is a perfect intersection of two great fall season fruits.

Unlike most fruits, cranberries are not sweet at all which is why you need to add a lot of sugar to make them palatable. Still, this isn't a very sweet dessert. There's just enough sugar to take the aggressive tart edge off but not so much that it tastes like cranberry candy. Sugar should complement the fruit, not overwhelm it.

This is great for a party or a holiday dinner. It also keeps nicely in the refrigerator. It's best warm - zap it in the microwave for a minute if it's been in the fridge.

Apple-Cranberry Crisp
(serves 8)

non-stick cooking spray

Fruit Filling
1 12 oz. bag fresh or frozen cranberries
4 large apples, cored and sliced (no need to peel them)
½ cup sugar
1 Tablespoon flour

Crisp
2 Tablespoons brown sugar, packed
3 Tablespoons flour
¾ cup rolled quick or regular oats
½ cup chopped walnuts
3 Tablespoons butter, melted or walnut oil
zest of ½ an orange
1 pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a 9"x9" baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Rinse the cranberries. (Use warm water if they are frozen or they will freeze together.) Mix the cranberries and apples in a large bowl. Sprinkle on the sugar and flour and mix again to combine. Pour into the prepared pan. In the same bowl, combine all the crisp ingredients. Mix enough to distribute the orange zest; it tends to clump together. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit. Bake for 40 (45 minutes if you started with frozen berries) until crisp is bubbly and topping is golden brown. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe adapted from Jane Brody's Good Food Book, 1985.

What's in Season Now?

Pumpkins and apples, out in an orchard near Syracuse, NY

Autumn is such a wonderful time of year - crisp weather and there is loads of wonderful produce everywhere. Most of these are available all year, but are at their best in the fall. Apples are freshly picked, not pulled out of storage. Greens, such as kale and collards, are at their sweetest after a touch of frost. Here's a list of great produce now in season and some recipes to help you cook them. Check back in to the blog, because we'll be posting more great fall recipes.

Winter squash: In my supermarket, winter squash is currently displayed in giant bins. That's a lot of squash! There are many varieties, but two of our favorites are acorn squash and butternut squash. Both come in size that a single person can handle. Acorn squash has ridges which make peeling it a royal pain. Don't even try. Microwave them instead and then it is easy to scoop out the cooked flesh. You'll find an easy recipe for acorn squash at the end of this post. Butternut squash is another favorite because it is easy to peel. That makes butternut squash one of the best for roasting. You can learn all about roasting vegetables, including winter squash, in this article we wrote earlier this year.

Sauteed Kale with Asian Pear

Greens: It's true - greens are better in the fall. Extremely cold hardy, they not only thrive in cold temperatures, they produce more sugar. If you are afraid they will be bitter, this is the time of year to give them a try. Try our basic sauteed kale. You can use other greens such as collards or mustard but you'll need to cook them longer. And, kale is the sweetest of the bunch, making it a good "starter" dark leafy green for most folks.

Apples: The most popular fruit of fall in the US. Currently, apples are selling for 49¢ a pound in one of my local markets. Now, that's cheap! There are endless varieties. Need help figuring out which one to use? Check out this post on the most popular ones in US markets. And, we recently posted a recipe for a delicious yet simple apple crumble.

Orange-Pecan Acorn Squash
(serves 4, costs $1.50)

Unlike many recipes for baked acorn squash, this one depends on the natural sweetness of orange juice and pecans.

1 1-pound acorn squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeded (see Note)
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons orange juice
¼ cup chopped pecans
¼ teaspoon salt

Place acorn squash halves in a microwavable container. Cover and microwave on high for 10 minutes. Let stand, covered for 5 minutes.

Combine butter, orange juice, pecans, and salt in a 2 cup microwavable measuring cup. Cover tightly and microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes.

Using a soup spoon, scoop out flesh from the acorn squash into a serving bowl. Pour over pecan mixture and serve.

Note: Winter squash can be difficult to cut in half because of its tough skin. You can soften the skin by microwaving it for a minute. The best tool for removing the seeds from squash is a soup spoon.