The second week's featured seasonal ingredient for the Flavors challenge is Apples.
We have several apple orchards nearby that we frequent in the fall each year, so I was excited about this week's ingredient as I knew I could get lovely fresh apples with no problem at all.
I made two recipes as they sort of go together and I had a lot of apples on hand. The first recipe is Apple Celery Soup, nice and creamy and comforting in the soup sort of way, and it gave me a chance to pair apples and celery in something other than Waldorf Salad. It's delicious both the first day and the next, the separate flavors of the apples and the celery each still pronounced the second day, and yet each still walking hand in hand in a very tasty manner.
The second recipe is Apple Cheddar Herb Bread, a flavorful bread that accompanies the soup I made in a wonderful marrying kind of way. The bread recipe gave me a chance to throw in some fresh herbs still growing in my pots, i.e. chives and rosemary, as well as some scallions which were a nice accompaniment in the bread with the apples and cheddar cheese. I made the bread into little mini loaves just for fun...I'm all about the cute on a regular basis. The recipe makes one loaf or 8 of the little mini loaves. The flavors of the all the ingredients managed to come through, each one pleasant with the others.
Would I make either of the recipes again? Yes I would, it was a wonderful lunch on a crisp fall day.
The Flavors challenge is based on the book The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg. Every week for a year the seven group members will each create a recipe using the featured ingredient and match it with the flavors that enhance it best by consulting those pages in the book. They have invited others to join along in the cooking and posting, posting a chart detailing the featured seasonal ingredient for each week, so if you'd like to pop in now and again and try your hand at it, just make your recipe, post it, and link the post in the comments section (click here) that week. While you are there you can check out the seven recipes submitted that week by the group members.
Apple Celery Soup
2-4 servings
1 Tablespoon UNSALTED BUTTER
6 celery stalks, with leaves, coarsely chopped
1/2 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 medium sweet APPLE, coarsely chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon ginger (bold print)
1 small bay leaf
1 thyme sprig
1 Tablespoon snipped chives
2 cups chicken broth
2 Tablespoons heavy CREAM
Melt butter in medium soup pot over low heat.
Add in the celery, onion, and apple.
Season with salt, pepper and ginger.
Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes until soft.
Add the broth and the herbs.
Bring to a boil, lower the heat, add the cream, and simmer 30 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf and what is left of the sprig of thyme.
Blend the soup with an immersion blender (or in a regular blender in batches) until smooth.
Serve warm.
Apple Cheddar Herb Bread
Makes one 8x4.5x2.75" loaf or 8 mini loaves
1-3/4 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
3 large eggs
1/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (bold print)
2 Tablespoons snipped fresh chives
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
4 finely sliced scallions (white and green parts)
1/3 cup toasted chopped WALNUTS
1 large APPLE, peeled and diced
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, rack in the center.
Butter and flour an 8x4.5x2.75" loaf pan or 8 small mini loaf pans.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and white pepper in a bowl.
In another bowl of medium size, whisk eggs until well blended. Add in the milk and olive oil.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix only until just mixed.
Stir in gently the cheese, herbs, scallions, walnuts, and apples.
Spoon into prepared pan and smooth top.
Bake for 40 minutes for the loaf pan; 38 minutes for the mini loaves.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes on baking rack, then turn out of pan to finish cooling right side up.
Serve warm or room temperature.
Note: Ingredients in CAPITAL BOLD letters are strongest choices; ingredients in bold are good choices; ingredients underlined are desirable choices.
