Category Archives: Pear

Apple Purée

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Today I thought I’d share something we eat nearly every day but that usually flies under the radar: apple purée.

As per usual with me, this is really not revolutionary – it’s just cooked apples that have been whizzed up. But it is SO yummy, simple, useful, versatile, healthy and cheap. How else can I sell it?

I first made this when we had loads of apples and they were just starting to go a bit soft and not so nice for eating plain. Now I buy extra apples (little ones, or ones with a couple of marks on them) just for making into purée. I make it once every couple of weeks, and the obsessive housewife in me packs 1-cup quantities into little snap lock bags (which can be used over and over and over), and freezes them. Then I take them out the night before I need them, and they’re purée again by morning.

I add the purée to my muesli, fresh fruit and yoghurt for breakfast – great way to bulk out the meal without adding extra fat or excess kJ. You can also use it in desserts,  smoothies, milkshakes etc, or I’m sure there are plenty of other ideas floating around. I think you could use it in most instances as a substitute for store-bought apple sauce – much better for you, too.

I really like using apple purée as a substitute for butter in baking recipes. I have a general rule of thumb for cakes, muffins and loaves etc, that you can swap a quantity of butter for a half and half mix of fruit purée and low-fat spread. It’s not a fail-safe rule, some recipes do need a higher quantity of fat to work, so I can’t guarantee you success! But for example, I made a beautiful gingerbread a few days ago – instead of 200g butter, I used 100g apple puree, and 100g low fat spread, and it came out perfectly (I’ll post the recipe sometime soon). You really wouldn’t know from the taste, and although the sugar content is still high, you’ve significantly lowered the fat, which is a great start! By the way, this can be a great option if you need to make a baking recipe dairy-free.

Apple Purée (or you could use pears)
Just cut apples into quarters, and remove the core and pips. Chop the apples roughly, leaving the skin on (it’s where lots of the goodness is, and it just melts into the puree during cooking and whizzing). I microwave my apples – pop say 800g of them in a microwave proof bowl with 1-2 Tbsp cold water, cover and cook on high for about 8 minutes. I don’t find you need to add any sugar, unless the apples are spectacularly tart. Alternatively, you could steam them on the stove top, just until they’re tender and will puree easily. Once they’re cooked, transfer the contents (including the liquid) to a food processor, and whiz for a couple of minutes, or until you have a smooth puree. The purée in this photo is made from lovely gala apples and they gave it this beautiful rosy pink colour.

Enjoy!

Spanish Tapas & Paella – Time for a Sangria

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I had some girlfriends coming over for dinner a couple of weekends ago… I love having people over for dinner so I can try cooking new things, and spend a day in my kitchen putting a meal together. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I know, but I love it.

I wanted to try a new type of cuisine for the girls. I’ve been wanting to try some Spanish cooking for ages, so what better opportunity?! Plus, after a few weeks of dreary winter weather (this was before the beautiful spring days we’ve been having in Wellington), I decided we need some colour. So Spain seemed a good choice on both counts.

I don’t know about you, but my cooking background has mainly been a good grounding in ‘kiwi’ home cooking (which I see as based on British cooking, but a bit lighter, with some Asian flavours and a few unique dishes thrown in). Like most New Zealanders, I cook some South East Asian food at home, as well as Indian, a little Middle Eastern, Moroccan, Mexican (probably Tex Mex admittedly), and French and Italian.

But I’ve never really cooked Spanish food at home. Spanish cuisine, especially tapas, has had a resurgence in restaurants over the last few years, but the food, other than the odd paella, hasn’t made it as far as my home dining table. Am I alone in this?

The thing that I loved about putting a tapas menu together was I could pick lots of little dishes, and prepare most of them in advance. And because they were all new – if one flopped, no problem! I could pretend it never existed! Plenty more food to go round!

This was the menu for the evening:

Spanish Tapas & Paella Party

- White Sangria -
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- Home Made Catalan Tomato Bread -
- Garlic Prawns & Potatoes -
- Pork & Almond Meatballs with Tomato Dipping Sauce -
- Beef & Spinach Empanadas -
- Catalan Spinach -
- Spanish Salad with Smokey Dressing -
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- Paella with Chicken and Chorizo -
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- Tarta de Santiago (St. James’ Cake) -

Clearly, we needed to start the night off with a few drinks. A white sangria was in order.

There are thousands of sangria recipes out there. It would appear that every Spanish family has their own, and I imagine it’s one of those things that nobody makes quite right except your family. Like pav. I based my Sangria recipe on several I found at www.spain-recipes.com. It was gorgeous – I especially loved the apple juice ice cubes. Can’t wait to try it again in summer using my favourite Central Otago stonefruit. 

White Sangria

Apple juice, for ice cubes
1¼ cups water
1 bunch fresh mint
½ cup sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
3½ cups wine
1 pear, cut into chunks or slices
1 peach, pitted and sliced
2 nectarines, pitted and sliced
1 large orange, sliced crosswise
2 small lemons, sliced crosswise
1 lime, sliced crosswise 
3 cups sparkling apple cider

The day before…
Pour the apple juice into two ice cube trays and freeze.

Combine the water, half the bunch of mint leaves, the sugar and cinnamon sticks in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil over a medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Once the syrup is at room temperature, remove the mint leaves and cinnamon sticks and discard.

Pour the syrup into a large container – if you can fit your serving vessel (punch bowl or jug) in your fridge, then use that. I found it easier to use a big plastic container (needs to be able to hold 2-3 litres). Add the wine and prepared fruit. Mix well, cover and chill overnight. Get the apple cider in the fridge chilling, too.

Just before serving
Pour the syrup, wine and fruit mix into your punch bowl or serving jug(s), and mix in the (chilled) apple cider. Add your apple juice ice cubes and the remaining fresh mint leaves from yesterday. P.S., I like the way my fruit randomly arranged itself into a face on the side of the jug!

This mixture filled two big water jugs like this one – there’s a lot of fruit to fit in! For a starter drink at a dinner party, it serves about 8-10. I had some left over so I re-used the apple juice trick and froze sangria ice cubes. I think they’ll make a nice addition to a G&T. And I’m sure there’s a use for all that wine-soaked fruit once you’ve finished the sangria, if you’re into recycling.

By the way, this post has got me thinking about what other parts of the global food map are missing from my repertoire. I don’t really know any cooking from eastern Europe or Russia (except Beef Stroganoff and the less said about that, the better). And I don’t think I cook any South American food. I love making Moroccan dishes but that’s only a small part of the African continent… what other cuisines would you love to try cooking at home?