Week 37 - Apples

I have always been a little disappointed when a new week of the 52 week challenge comes up with fruit. As I mentioned during the stone fruits challenge, I prefer doing savory dishes for the challenge and I usually am not a huge fan of mixing fruit into savory dishes. The theme for Week 37 was apples and I think, after this dish, I might finally be changing my mind.

Look at those gorgeous Honeycrisp apples!

I deliberated for a while on what to make for the apples challenge. I narrowed it down to 2 recipes, both of which involved sausage since it's a good match for apples. I finally decided on these savory baked apples, but a modified, "inspired by" version since I am slow enough at prep that I really didn't need the extra step of hollowing out the apples (which many of the commenters acknowledged was a royal pain).

For my modified "savory apple and farro saute," I used:

- 3 links of sweet Italian sausage ($2.72)

- 1 cup of pearled farro ($0.50)

- 1 spoonful of chicken bouillon ($0.30)

- 2 large Honeycrisp apples ($2.58)

- 4 medium carrots ($0.20)

- 1 medium onion ($0.79)

- 1/3 cup dried cranberries ($0.40)

- 1/3 cup apple juice ($0.12)

- 3 large garlic cloves ($0.08)

- 1/3 bunch of scallions ($0.43)

- cinnamon ($0.10)

- cayenne pepper ($0.05)

- allspice ($0.05)

- sage ($0.05)

- salt ($0.05)

I didn't measure any of the spices so the total is just an estimate, but the dish came out to about $8.42. If we had used the whole package of sausage, it would have been a little over $10, but that's still not too bad for a dinner for 2 with meat and so many fresh ingredients. We used Honeycrisp apples, which were a bit of a "splurge" ingredient, but I'm not really an apple expert and wasn't sure what type would work best for this dish. The original recipe used Rome apples, but Trader Joe's didn't have those. Honeycrisps were mentioned in the recipe as a pricier but good alternative, so we went with those, and as a bonus, they looked really good (and had such a nice sweet taste when we snacked on them during prep).

Here's how to make the saute:

1. Fill a large pot halfway with water (and a little salt) and bring to a boil. Add the farro and the chicken bouillon and cook until the farro is the desired texture, and drain.

2. Heat a large skillet on medium high heat. Add the sausage and cook it, breaking it up into smaller pieces. Remove to plate when done.

3. In the same pan (without adding anything else), add apples, carrots, and onions, all finely chopped (or chopped to the size you prefer). Sprinkle with a light layer of salt, as well as cinnamon and cayenne (both to taste), stir occasionally, and saute until everything has softened.

4. Combine cranberries and apple juice in a microwave safe bowl with a dash of cinnamon and allspice (or as much as you want). Microwave for 1 minute and then let stand for 10 minutes. Then add and mix with the farro.

5. Mince the garlic and add to the skillet. Saute for a minute or so.

6. Add sausage back into the skillet, along with the rice-cranberry mixture. Add some finely chopped green onions, a little salt and sage to taste, and stir everything around.

7. Let the entire mixture cook together for a few minutes to let the flavors mix together. Adjust the seasoning as needed.

We really enjoyed this dish, and for me, it was a bit of a revelation about how well fruit could work in a savory dish. The fruit flavors were definitely the prominent flavors of the dish - most of what you could taste was sweet apples - but I actually didn't mind for once. The whole dish was on the sweet side, but I reasoned that the original recipe had the sweet cinnamon apple rice sausage mixture piled into a baked, hollowed out apple, so the sweet apple flavor was definitely going to be dominant in this dish. If we made this again (and I really think I would), we probably would use the entire package of Italian sausage instead of just a few links, but the sweet cinnamon apple flavor would likely still be the primary flavor, even then. I left out the butter, walnuts, and Swiss cheese that were all in the original recipe, but we didn't miss them.

This dish was great for the middle of September, because it just smelled and tasted like fall. It was full of wonderful spice flavors of cinnamon and allspice and sage, all of which remind me of autumn, and are so incredibly comforting. I was pretty happy with all elements of this dish and it was much easier to make (and probably even easier to consume) than it would have been if I tried the original recipe. A fruit challenge I really loved!