apple sauce

apples
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

What do you do when you picked about 50 kilos of apples from a friend's orchard in September and they are still not finished? You bake an apple pie, you drink fresh apple juice every day (chore: cleaning the juicer) and bake another apple pie. But then there still are so many bags of apples, you really have to think big now. Making cider would be nice, or making a strong apple liqueur - but that is a little bit out of my range of expertise. So there you have it: apple sauce.

Apple sauce (appelmoes) is one of the staples of the Netherlands, especially for young children. They will have apple sauce on almost everthing. All your food will go down easily with apple sauce, believe me. My favorite meal as a child, and any Dutch child of my generation I think, was kip, patat en appelmoes: chicken, fries and apple sauce!

To make apple sauce you will need:
Lots of apples (I used about 20)
half a cinnamon stick
some cloves - about 5
some grated nutmeg (if you like)
sugar to taste
the peel of one lemon

Start to peel the apples and core them. I used not to do this and try to get rid of the peels and other bits after boiling the apples; fiddling out the pips and sieving the stuff and so on, but believe me, this is even more choresome then just to peel and core the apples beforehand. (Tip 1)

Then cut the apples in chunks or quarters and put them in a large pot. Add the peel of one lemon, 6 to 7 tablespoons of sugar, your cloves and cinnamon stick and a little bit of water to get things going. Put on the fire and wait for the water to cook, then turn the heat down and put a lid on. Your apples will bubble and start to simmer. Leave on a low fire for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Check now and then to see how your apples are going. When they start to make a plonk-plonk sound and when you peek inside you find the apples have cooked their way up the pan so to speak, rising in a souffle-like manner, the apple sauce is ready. Stir to see if the apples are done. Test a spoonful of the apple sauce to see if it is sweet enough to your liking, stir in more sugar or any other spice if you need to.

Eat either hot or cold, chunky or more smooth. You can whizz the sauce in a food processor if you like smooth apple sauce - I don't, because I like the chunky bits. They look more home-made this way. What I really like about this apple sauce is the hint of cloves, which is a nice spice with apples, and the lemon peel, which according to my mother is a true must for apple sauce. Enjoy!

Quick style Peking duck

Peking duck
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Having Peking duck in Peking (Beijing) is one if the joys of the city. I remember one of the first times in the 1980s, at the Quanjude branch in a side alley of Wangfujing, then the main shopping street. No fancy stuff then: we were seated at a large round table with several other guests, and had the 6 or so courses that make up a duck meal.

Webbed feet (skip), gizzards (try), and a milky white soup to end it off (just some sips). in between we got what we came for: crispy duck with Mandarin pancakes, spring onions and sweet bean sauce.

Trying this at home? I would never have thought of it. But now, at the Chinese store, you can buy lots of the Peking duck ingredients. Buy the Mandarin pancakes frozen, get some cucumber and spring onions, open a tin of sweet bean paste and buy... ready pre-cooked duck. The store sells deboned duck in the deep freeze department (picture here) which you only heat in the oven until the skin is crispy, and then you can assemble your dinner and have mock-Peking duck!

You will need: one package of deboned, ready 'Peking' duck;
1 to 2 cucumbers
a bunch of spring onions
Mandarin pancakes (frozen), about 10 each

Defrost duck and put in an oven dish. Preheat oven till 200 degrees. Cut the cucumber into 4 pieces and halve these. Then cut into strips. Cut the spring onions into similar chunks and cut these into strips, too.

Then put the duck in an oven tray and bake until hot and crispy, approximately for 30 minutes. If needed, turn on the grill to crisp up the skin. Take a bamboo steamer and steam your Mandarin pancakes for about 5 to 7 minutes until hot and soft. Take the duck out of the oven on a cutting board and cut into thin slices. Then put on a serving plate.

Seat your guests... and roll and fold your pancakes. First take half a spoon of sweet bean sauce and smear it on the pancake. Then add strips of cucumber, strips of spring onion and of course pieces of your lovely crispy duck. Have it as a meal on itself or a starter of a larger Chinese meal. If you really want to try the real stuff, go to Robin for the long version of the recipe!