I found myself with rather a large bowl of apples that I wanted to use. There was a mix of varieties. Todd probably would have wanted me to make a crumble or a pie, but I found myself wanting to make applesauce.
I had some porkchops I had thawed out and applesauce is something we love to have with pork. We also love to eat applesauce in a bowl, just as a dessert. My mother used to cook herself up a large saucepan of applesauce every now and then and she would enjoy it for days. Having spent a great deal of my growing up years in a prime apple growing area of Canada, I come by my love of apples quite naturally!
I wanted to try something a little bit different this time however. I just didn't want to simmer apples . . . I decided to roast them in the oven and created an oven roasted applesauce, which if I may brag for a few minutes turned out to be stupendous!
I had a mix of apples . . . some were sweet eating apples and some were Granny Smiths. I peeled them all and sliced them. I tossed them in a bowl together with a pinch of salt, some sugar and ground cinnamon, also adding a touch of freshly grated nutmeg.
Nutmeg adds such a lovely flavour to apples. You can leave the salt out, but just a pinch does make a difference. I dotted them with butter and then roasted them in a buttered baking dish, tightly covered.
It took about 45 minutes. I mashed them with a fork because I like my applesauce to have a bit of texture.
For my chops, I brined them first and then seasoned them, clipped the fatty edge and browned them in my cast iron skillet on both sides, ready to pop into the oven along side of the apples. They were quite thick (about 1 1/2 inches) and they were cooked beautifully in the same amount of time it took to cook the apples.
I am not sure why pork and apples go so well together. Interestingly enough good pork producers will fatten their pigs up on apples prior to slaughtering them. They say it makes the meat sweeter.
Another interesting fact is that the seasons of pork and apples co-incide with each other, so . . . that could be a part of why we think they go so well together.
To brine my chops I soak them for about an hour in a mix of cold water with several TBS each of fine sea salt and sugar. Rinse well, pat dry. Season (light on the salt) and then cook as per your requirement.
Brined chops are NEVER dry. Trust me on this. Its a simple thing and makes a huge difference.
Oven Roasted Applesauce
Yield: Makes about
2 cups
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 pounds apples, peeled and sliced (I used a mix of tart and sweet)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 50g caster sugar (1/4 cup)
- pinch of salt
- butter to dot on top, about 2 TBS (optional)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a deep baking dish large enough to hold the apples.
- Toss the sliced apples together in a bowl with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Pour them into the prepared baking dish and dot with butter if using. Cover tightly with foil.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, stirring them halfway through the cook time, until they are soft and just beginning to caramelise. Remove from the oven and mash well with a fork. Taste and adjust sweetness with some extra sugar if need be. We prefer ours a bit on the tart side, and of course a lot depends on the sweetness of the apples you use.
- Spoon into a serving bowl and serve warm with pork, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you are enjoying this as a dessert!
notes:
If you are planning on refrigerating this don't add the butter.
In any case if you are wanting to make your own applesauce, why not try roasting it the next time? It was really delicious. I think I may have spoilt myself for any other kind. I think perhaps the longer you roast it the more condensed it might become and you just may end up with apple butter, but I could be wrong. That's an experiment for another day!
