NOT JUST APPLE PIE + LAMB SHANKS!

There’s nothing better than apple picking on a cool Fall weekend with the fam! As I get older, I totally geek out about stuff like that (who knew?). Now, if only the weather would cooperate...I have my favorite spot up in Warwick, NY, which, coincidentally, also happens to be a vineyard with wine tasting. Because tipsy apple picking is even better! Just joking (sort of).

There are so many different varieties of apples to choose from that I’m so glad they have maps and descriptions of each apple. I tend to get overly excited and end up with WAY too many apples when I get home! So after lugging pounds of different apple varieties home, I'm always thinking about what to do besides, of course, the mandatory pie or crisp. I love a good apple butter to keep for later, and I freeze off batches of applesauce for the chickadee.

I put together a few ideas for you, and, further down, is a yummy recipe for Honey-Braised Lamb Shanks with Butternut Squash and Apples, which is basically a tagine and seriously delicious. Enjoy!

APPLE PIE WITH STAR ANISE BROWN BUTTER

BUTTERNUT SQUASH & APPLE BREAD WITH MAPLE & CARDAMOM

PISCO SOUR APPLE

SWEET APPLE COUSCOUS

HONEY-BRAISED LAMB SHANKS WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND APPLES

This lamb dish is based on North African tagines, which slow-braise lamb and other meats with both sweet and salty elements. While many tagines feature apricots, prunes, or raisins, I thought seasonal butternut squash and apples would provide the perfect sweet counterbalance to the spiced braise. I use lamb shank here because I love the flavor and the end result – spoonable, fall-off-the-bone meat in a rich stew.

Ingredients

2-3 tablespoons canola oil

2 ½ pounds lamb shanks (approximately 2 shanks), room temperature

1 large onion, cut into a medium dice

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ teaspoon ground ginger

large pinch saffron

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

4 cups beef or chicken stock

1 tablespoon honey

2 cups butternut squash, cut into a ¾” inch dice

1 ½ cups honeycrisp or fuji apple, cut into a ¾” inch dice

¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted

1 ½ teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 325° F.

Heat a Dutch oven or large pot over medium-high heat. Add the oil, season the shanks generously with salt and freshly ground pepper, and sear 2 to 3 minutes per side to develop a nice brown. Remove to a plate and reduce the heat to medium-low.

Add the onion and a bit of salt and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the garlic, ginger, saffron and cinnamon and sauté for another 30 seconds to a minute until fragrant. Nestle the lamb shanks back in the pot, and add in the stock and the honey. Cover, bring up to a boil and then place in the oven.

Cook for 2 hours and 15 minutes and then remove from the oven. Toss in the squash, apples and half of the almonds. Cover and put back in the oven for the next 45 minutes to an hour. The meat should be spoonable, basically falling off the bone.

Serve hot, garnished with the remaining toasted, sliced almonds and sesame seeds. This is great alongside couscous.

Sweet Apple Couscous

I sort of jumped the gun and went apple picking this past weekend. I couldn’t help myself. I’m a sucker for fall, the first cool change of temperature and all the apple picking, pumpkin patch wandering, and wine-tasting (I threw that in there…). It’s a bit early in the season, so where I usually come back with several different varieties I ended up with who-knows-how-many pounds of Honeycrisps. They are literally overflowing in my kitchen, so I’m pressed to find ways to use them up…Luckily, they are delicious, the perfect balance of sweet and tart, and hold up well to cooking.

Couscous, while a North African staple, has truly become popularized and is found throughout parts of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Eastern Europe, and across the Middle East. Here, in the States, I’ve seen it creep onto dinner tables because of its incredible versatility and high nutritional content compared to rice and pasta. North African cooking, particularly Moroccan, is full of sweet and savoury dishes – with spices like cardamom or cinnamon bridging the gap. So couscous as a sweet side dish or a dessert does exist, though I surely haven’t seen any Berber recipes with apples…

For this dish, I was inspired by (obviously) the mass of apples in my kitchen, the sweet couscous recipes of North Africa involving dried fruits and nuts, and even the rice puddings of American and South Asian cultures (though this has no cream or milk). This dish is extraordinarily simple, healthy and delicious. It’s basically cooking a warm, buttery apple pie filling, folding it in to light, fluffy, sweetened couscous, and topping it with nutty, crunchy thin almond slices. The textures are beautiful and who can resist the combination of apples and cinnamon. A great fall dish… enjoy!

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6

2-3 tbsps butter

5 cups apples, peeled, cored, and cut into a small/medium dice

½ cup brown sugar

¾ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups couscous*

2 cups water

3 tbsps butter

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp salt

½ cup sliced almonds, toasted

Procedure

Place a skillet on the stove over medium heat and melt the butter. When the foam subsides, add the diced apples and stir to coat. Turn temperature slightly down and cook on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring every few minutes to make sure the apples evenly cook. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla to the apples and stir to coat. Cook for another 5 minutes. The apples should be soft but still hold their shape (not complete mush).

In a casserole dish, spread couscous out to an even layer. Cooking it in this type of dish will increase surface area and keep the resulting texture light and fluffy. In a saucepan, bring water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil. Pour over couscous, stir briefly with a fork, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let sit 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, remove the plastic wrap and fluff couscous with a fork – the butter should keep the grains separate and prevent any clumping.

In the same dish or another serving bowl, mix together the couscous with the apple mixture and top with the toasted sliced almonds. Serve warm.

*I used the typical, plain, non-whole wheat, pre-steamed variety from the grocery store. Be careful not to use the tri-color type, which has spinach and tomato flavoring, or Israeli couscous, which is larger and requires a longer cooking time.

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NOT JUST APPLE PIE + LAMB SHANKS!

Sweet Apple Couscous