Caitríona Redmond: Apple sauce really makes my cider and mustard pork

It’s harvest time for my apple tree at the moment and because all the apples ripen at the same time I need to preserve and use the fruit because I certainly don’t have the space to store 200 fresh eating apples. 

I’m often given windfalls from local allotments and family members who grow apples as well.

Storing apples requires a cool dark space. Apples keep incredibly well in the fridge for over a month. It’s great news for longevity but they take up quite an amount of storage.

The first thing I do after picking is to check over each piece of fruit for bumps and bruises because they don’t last as long in storage. Any apple that’s looking a little bit worse for wear goes into my stewing pile.

For the perfectly firm and unblemished apples I use a home dehydrator which transforms most fruit into a wonderful chewy texture. I thinly slice the fruit crossways and dunk the cut slices into a bath of water and lemon juice to prevent the slices from browning too early. 

The finely sliced apples become apple chips or crisps in less than 24 hours. This can also be done in a fan oven set to low (approx. 60 degrees heat) over several hours until the apple has shrunk in volume and become brittle

Once dried, the fruit slices will keep in a sterilised and well-sealed container for many months. Slicing and drying is a cycle that is repeated many times over a fortnight, but it certainly gives a little peripheral heat in the house when the temperatures outdoors are beginning to drop. 

The kids take the apple chips to school lunch because they are chewy and sweet and guaranteed not to go brown or bruise in transit.

There’s a sense of purpose and excitement that we get from picking and preparing the fruit to last for the winter. The kids compete to pick the most and run a mile when they discover spiders. 

These are the memories that we will treasure for years. “Do you remember when” is an often-used term.

Which brings me to the final, sneaky item that we make from the apples, juice. It’s such a treat to juice our own fruit and bottle up the goodness on the spot. 

We used to make cider but after one kitchen explosion too many I stick to apple juice and leave cider making to the experts. I plunge the bottles into a bucket of ice to keep the apple juice crisp and tart.

Home Truths: Apple Sauce

The flavour and texture of butter or quality oil in baked goods is second to none. If you’re on a low-fat diet or simply don’t have any butter in the house to bake with, unsweetened stewed apple is a clever alternative. 

It’s naturally fat free and can be used on a 1:1 volume ratio to completely replace butter content. As a home baker it’s not something I recommend.

I prefer to work with 50% butter and 50% apple sauce ratio: I have a baking recipe that calls for 200g of butter, I instead use 100g of butter and 100g of apple sauce. 

So long as the recipe doesn’t require whipping the butter I can get away with the replacement just fine and the cake remains just as moist as it would have been with all the recommended butter used. 

Baked goods don’t tend to last very long in my house anyway and, believe it or not, my family haven’t noticed the difference yet.

Cider & Mustard Pork

Redmond  Recipe By:caitriona

Because From Pork Loin Is When I Away Contains Can It Loin Lot Be Protein Expensive, Of A A It In But Meat Break Used Lean Pork You And To Fat Low Steer Down,

Servings

4

Time Preparation

 10 mins

Time Cooking

 40 mins

Time Total

 50 mins

Course

 Main

ingredients

• 1 Pork (about 600g) Loin

• Plain Flour 50g

• Pepper And Salt

• Sunflower 1 Oil Tablespoon

• Finely Chopped Onion, 1

• Of Chopped 2 Garlic, Cloves Finely

• Cider 200ml

• Chopped Carrots, 3 And Peeled

• Frozen Peas 75g

• 1 Mustard Tsp Wholegrain

method

1. The It Add Sandwich Thinly Pork Of Slice And Bag Coated Into The And The Bag Shake Pepper, Well A Salt With Is Flour, Pork Put Into Pinch Until The A

2. In A Remove Until It On Place From Golden Pletely Fry Pan Large Pork And To Heat Medium Pour Saucepan Each Sunflower Kitchen Side On Sit The The Drain Take And Won’t Through The Be And On Oil A Paper Cooked

3. Carrots To The In Adding Peas Allow Cider Onion In The Pork Before Chopped Before Add The For To Mustard 15 Frying The Return The And Pan The To Through, Minutes And The Adding For 5 Simmer The Sizzle Peas Pour Pan Stir Heat Minutes Garlic Then The And

4. Steamed Serve Or Rice With Potatoes