Apple salad

I received an interesting gift from two friends a couple of weeks ago. They had just taken an old cottage in Himachal Pradesh, which was surrounded by apple trees. And since this is the apple season, they had come back from there with a huge sack of sweet and red apples. I got a bagful, too — and we had sliced apples for dessert for several days in a row.

Apples are fun. You can do all kinds of things with an apple — turn it into a salad and a soup, use it for your entrée, bake it and serve it for dessert, or slice it and put it on a platter with cheese. And, let’s not forget, you can just take a juicy apple and bite into it whenever you want to. It would gladden the heart of the apple growers of Himachal and Kashmir — and make your dietician view you with respect.

I had been thinking about apples ever since a venerable friend of ours — scientist Mohan Ram — told me how he had gone to see the first apple tree cultivated in Himachal Pradesh. Apples have been growing wild in the Himalayan belt for centuries, but the orchards came up with the British, and developed thanks to an American called Samuel Evan Stokes. Stokes came to India to work with leprosy patients in 1904, joined the freedom movement, converted to the Arya Samaj and changed his name to Satyanand. And he planted the first apple orchards in Shimla in the early 1900s.

Apple kheer

Not surprisingly, apples figure prominently in Himachali and Kashmiri dishes. Theatre director M.K. Raina, who is from Kashmir, gave me a great recipe for an apple curry. For this, take hard and sour apples. Slice them. Heat some oil, add fennel seeds, ginger powder, salt, turmeric and some red chilli. Add the apples to the masala, and enough water for the gravy. Stir till the apples are done. This is eaten with rice in Kashmir.

As always, Chef Sharad Dewan of The Park in Calcutta has come up with innovative ways of cooking apples — for a risotto, a farci, kheer and soup. For a golden apple risotto (four portions), take 450ml chicken or vegetable stock, 30gm butter, 25gm finely chopped onion, 1 cup Arborio (risotto) rice or short grain rice, 2 cups diced, peeled Golden Delicious apples (yellow), 90ml dry white wine, 2tbs grated Parmesan cheese, 1tsp cheese for garnishing, ¼tsp salt, freshly grated nutmeg.

Baked apple with banana and date stuffing

Now bring the stock to a boiling point in a saucepan. Reduce the heat and cover. In a separate heavy bottomed saucepan, melt ¾th butter over low heat. Sauté onion for three minutes, add the rice and half the diced apple. Stir frequently for about three minutes. Add wine, and stir till it evaporates. Stirring, add enough hot stock to just cover the rice. Adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer. Cook the rice, stirring constantly, until almost all the broth has been absorbed. This should take about four minutes.

Continue adding broth, a bit at a time, stirring, and cooking until the entire broth is absorbed. After 15 minutes, stir in the remaining diced apples. The rice is done when it is creamy yet firm in the centre. The total cooking time is 25-30 minutes, depending on the rice.

Remove the risotto from heat. Stir in the remaining butter, 2tbs Parmesan and salt. Spoon into bowls or deep plates. Sprinkle with nutmeg and top with shaved Parmesan.

You can do many interesting things with an apple. You can, for instance, grate it and add it to whisked yoghurt for a seb raita. But remember to add the grated apple just before you serve the raita. It stays crunchy that way, and doesn’t discolour or make the raita watery.

Apple risotto

Apples, of course, are just wonderful for desserts — as pies, crumbles, tarts and so on. For Chef Dewan’s recipe of baked apples with date and banana farci (four portions), you will need 4 cored Golden or Red Delicious apples, 1 banana, the juice of 1 lime, 50gm chopped dates, 50gm chopped walnut, 30gm brown sugar, a pinch of salt, 120ml water, half sliced lemon and 100ml light corn syrup, golden syrup or maple syrup.

Now heat your oven to 350° F. Sprinkle lime juice on peeled and diced banana. Mix the banana with dates, walnuts, sugar and salt. Spoon the mixture into the centre of the cored apples.

Arrange the stuffed apple in a deep baking tray. In a small saucepan, combine water, corn syrup, and lemon slices. Boil for five minutes. Pour the syrup over apples and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the apples are tender, basting frequently with the syrup. Make sure the apples are cooked but not overcooked. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Truly, the apple is multi-faceted. Think of all that it has done for us. It has changed the lives of farmers in Himachal and Kashmir — and to an extent in Uttaranchal as well. You can eat it in a hundred ways. And just think of its contribution to science. If it weren’t for the apple, Sir Isaac Newton would never have told us why we weren’t floating in the air.       

Mulligatawny soup
(with Himachal apples)

Ingredients (2-3 portions) • 10ml vegetable oil • 150gm chopped onion • 100gm diced carrot • 50gm thinly sliced celery • 40gm ginger garlic paste • 1tbs curry powder • Salt and pepper, to taste • 220ml coconut milk • 500ml chicken stock • 150gm cubed butternut squash • 3 diced apples • 150gm diced cooked chicken • 1 bunch, chopped fresh coriander

Method

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat. Sauté onion, carrot and celery, stirring occasionally, until tender but not browned (for about 10 minutes). Stir in the ginger garlic paste, curry powder, salt and pepper and cook till you get the aroma of fried masalas. Pour in coconut milk and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add squash and simmer for 15 minutes. Add apple and chicken and cook until the apples are tender but still hold their shape (about 10 minutes). Sprinkle coriander leaves and serve with boiled rice and lemon wedges. The soup can be blended and served as a purée soup too.