Chicken and Apple Skillet
September is the perfect month to use orchard-fresh apples.
1/4 cup butter
2 large tart apples, peeled, sliced 1/2 inch
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup dry white wine or apple cider
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dried
Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add apples; cook 3 minutes or until apples are tender, turning once. Place apples on plate.
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Increase heat to medium-high. Add chicken and onion to same skillet. Cook 5 minutes or until chicken is golden, turning once. Return apples to skillet.
Add wine; reduce heat to low. Cover and cook 5 to 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink in center and juices run clear. Place chicken, apples and onion on serving platter.
To same skillet, add cream and tarragon. Bring to a boil over high heat, scraping up browned bits from bottom of skillet. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened. Pour over chicken.
4 servings
PER SERVING: 380 calories, 21.5 g total fat (12 g saturated fat), 27.5 g protein, 19 g carbohydrate, 120 mg cholesterol, 440 mg sodium, 2.5 g fiber
Recipe #1000 -- To order this recipe as a reprint, send your name, address, membership number, and the recipe name and number to: CCA -- Recipe Reprints, P.O. Box 3438, Minnetonka, MN 55343. Or fax your request containing the same information to (952) 988-7197. (If faxing your request, please use a large font size as fax transmittals sometimes do not turn out clearly if the type is too small.)
Best Baking Apples
With more than 7,500 varieties of apples available worldwide, almost 100 of which are grown in the United States, knowing which ones to use for baking can be confusing. The best baking apples (those to be used in pies or tarts, or stuffed and baked) are firm with low to medium moisture content. Flavors range from tart to sweet; many times a combination of apples works well. The best way to find out which types you like is to experiment. Here's an abbreviated list of some of the most popular baking varieties.
Braeburn - Red with a yellow blush; originated in New Zealand. Crisp, sweet-tart and firm.
Cameo - One of the newer varieties; crisp, sweet-tart, red and yellow coloring.
Cortland - Mild, slightly tart red apple that is low in moisture. Doesn't turn brown when cut.
Empire - Cross between Red Delicious and McIntosh. Crisp, medium-tart, low to medium moisture. Deep red skin; firm flesh.
Fuji - From Japan; sweet, crisp and firm with low moisture. Stores and ages well. Yellow-green to red in color; milder than many other varieties.
Golden Delicious - Sweet, mild, low-moisture apple with thin green or yellow skin (green ones are better for baking as the yellow ones have softer flesh). Resists browning; keeps shape well when baked.
Granny Smith - Tart, bright-green to yellow; loses some color when baked. Medium moisture; firm, thick-skinned and crisp.
Gravenstein - Red with yellow stripes; sweet-tart, spicy white flesh; thin skin.
Idared - Firm and tangy with medium moisture. Sweet-tart, white flesh; stores well.
Jonagold - Cross of Jonathan and Golden Delicious; crisp, tart, tangy and juicy with medium moisture. Bright-red and golden in color.
Mutsu/Crispin - From Japan. Greenish-yellow, sweet-tart and crisp with low moisture.
Newtown Pippin - Green-skinned with yellow highlights; firm and tart with moderate moisture. Was used as far back as the 1700s.
Northern Spy - Low moisture, firm and crisp. Red with green blush; sweet-tart flesh.
Pink Lady - Newer variety with crisp, sweet-tart flesh and reddish-yellow skin.
Rhode Island Greening - Green to yellow-green color; tart and thick-skinned with medium moisture.
Rome Beauty - Especially good for baking; low moisture and sweet, but somewhat bland. Thick, red skin.
Stayman Winesap - Red with slight green blush; crisp, slightly tart with medium moisture. Yellowish flesh.
York Imperial - Crisp, sweet-tart, yellow flesh; deep-red skin with slight green blush.
For more information on apple varieties, visit www.applejournal.com , www.bestapples.com or http://www.usapple.org .
Juice vs. Cider
What are the differences between apple juice and apple cider? Technically, none; both are made from the juice of the apple. In general, though, apple cider is the caramel-colored juice, often found at apple orchards or in the produce section of the grocery store, that includes bits of apple flesh and skin. Apple juice, on the other hand, is the filtered, lighter-colored juice found on the shelf of the grocery store; it has been pasteurized to remove bacteria and make the juice more shelf-stable. Before food safety was a big concern, apple cider usually was not pasteurized. These days, however, it's difficult to find unpasteurized apple cider; it's usually only small farms that sell it.
Hard apple cider is different from regular cider and apple juice. Hard cider is allowed to ferment, is alcoholic and can be used for drinking or cooking.
Find an Orchard
Apple orchards around the country are gearing up for fall visitors. To find an orchard near you, visit www.applejournal.com/trail.htm. The Web site provides listings of orchards in the U.S. and abroad.
Apple Tools
To make peeling and slicing apples this season just a bit easier, Oxo has introduced a two-piece apple set. The set includes a swivel peeler and an apple divider, which cores and slices in one motion. The tools come with cushioned handles and stainless steel blades. The set retails for $11. To purchase, visit www.oxo.com or call (800) 545-4411.
I Can't Believe It's Not Chicken
CCA members are an adventurous bunch, as proven by August's survey question, "What is the strangest food you've ever eaten?" Whether it walks, slithers, swims or flies, you've tried it. You're not picky about the parts of the animal, either; you've eaten snouts, legs, intestines, brains and other organs (some unmentionable). And strange fruits and dairy products aren't out of the question.
The most common food mentioned was rattlesnake, with fried, barbecued, grilled and steamed being preferred preparations. The consensus is that it "tastes like chicken." Alligator also garnered a lot of votes. Member Anett Carchetti-Brande got to experience both of these foods at once, on a Rattlesnake-Alligator Sausage Pizza. "The rattlesnake meat was great, but the alligator sausage was somewhat strong-tasting. I would have liked the pizza better without it," she says.
Some members pointed out that "strange" depends on your point of view. For many of you, octopus and squid were the weirdest foods you'd ever tried. For others, however, those sea creatures are run-of-the-mill. And if you grew up in the country, you've tried a lot of things that city dwellers consider odd. Member Ruth Ann Johnson grew up in a family of hunters, and fried squirrel was the normal evening meal during hunting trips. "The heads were always prepared along with the rest of the animal," she explains. " There was little to eat on the outside, but the brain was considered a great delicacy. I didn't think anything was unusual about this until we took the young man who was to become my husband along with us one year. He was absolutely speechless when our hostess proudly brought a heaping plate of heads to the table and everyone dived in."
Although there are numerous interesting foods to discover stateside, many members have expanded their culinary horizons while traveling, serving in the military or working internationally. Several of you who visited the Philippines tried a delicacy called balut, a boiled, embryonated duck egg containing an almost full-grown duckling, with crunchy feet and feathers. Eggs also showed up during the travels of four members who tried century eggs (also known as hundred-year, thousand-year or Ming Dynasty eggs). These eggs are preserved in lime and ash and buried for 100 days, after which time they take on a petrified look.
On the sweeter side, durian fruit made the list. Member Mary Ann DuBoff describes it as "a rather large fruit with a thick skin that looks like armor. The ripe fruit smells like limburger cheese, but when you eat the inside part, it has the consistency of a custard and tastes very nice. It's called the heaven-and-hell fruit because the taste is delicious but the smell is so bad. Hotels in Southeast Asia will not permit the fruit to be brought in because of the smell."
And what do you do when presented with a strange food in a situation where it would be rude to refuse it? Most of you eat it. Member Robert Boyle faced such a situation in Greece. "In 1965 I was the only non-native in a Greek fishing village of 200 people at Easter," he says. "After the vigil service, we all trooped down to the taverna where the lambs had been roasting on the spits since Friday. After the top was sliced off the first lamb's head, it was passed around with a silver spoon so everyone could have a taste of the brains. But since I was guest of honor, I was given an eyeball. I smiled, swallowed, washed it down with a slug of retsina and hoped for the best."
Kitchen Query
Q: If you could invite anyone, past or present, to dinner, who would it be and why?
E-mail your responses to newsletter@cookingclub.com. Make sure to include your name; your comments could be published in the next newsletter!
2001 Culinary Resource Directory
The 2001 Culinary Resource Directory is available to all Cooking Club of America members for free! View the Directory online, or request a printed copy through the Clubhouse section of the Club Web site (www.cookingclub.com). Plan ahead now and take a cooking class to enhance your upcoming holiday entertainment menus.
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