Curried Chicken with Apples

This may not be the most attractive meal I've ever made. I'm aware it's a bit brown, but it really is quite good. I've realized I am really liking fruit in savory contexts, so when I saw this curry with apples, I thought it was a great fall/winter meal. My mom came over last night for dinner before the Vanderbilt basketball game and liked this as well. I threw in some raisins on a whim because I thought they would add a nice textural contrast. The sauce thickened up nicely and went well with the brown rice.

Curried Chicken with Apples
source: Casual Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 pound ground chicken (The original recipe called for cubed or ground pork. You could also use cubed chicken.)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped (I used one Fuji apple and one Granny Smith)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons flour
1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder, to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or one clove garlic, pressed or minced)
2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:
1) Brown the cubed pork on all sides in oil, on high heat, in a large non-stick pan, about 4-5 minutes.
2) Turn heat down to medium-high. Add apples and chopped onions to the pork. Saute for 4-5 minutes, until starting to brown lightly. Add flour and dry spices, stir well and continue sauteing for another 1-2 minutes.
3) Add remaining ingredients, cover and simmer for 35 minutes. Serve with rice.

Serves 4.

Crispy Apple Turnovers

Apparently there's a first time for everything. Yesterday afternoon, I rolled up my sleeves and set out to make my very first pastry crust. I was nervous, but I persevered. And now I have little apple turnovers as a result. This was pretty time-intensive because there are quite a few parts, but if you're more experienced at making the pastry dough, it shouldn't take that long.

When Joe walked into the kitchen last night, he said, "It smells like the holidays in here." The smell of cinnamon and apples was wonderful. The filling for these was relatively simple, but it had the perfect consistency. I stole the idea of making them mini-turnovers from Stephanie, and they're absolutely adorable.

I had been thinking about making these for a while, but when I got these little things that create perfect little dough pockets for empanadas or turnovers from a gift exchange, I knew exactly how I would use them.

Look how nicely they look all lined up!

I would recommend dipping the tops in the glaze rather than drizzling. You would probably get a more uniform look that way.

Crispy Apple Turnovers
source: Macaroni and Cheesecake

Ingredients:
Filling:
1 ¾ C pared, chopped tart apples
1/3 C water
1/3 C packed brown sugar
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp butter or margarine

Pastry:
2 C all purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¾ cup shortening, chilled
5 tbsp ice water

Glaze:
½ powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk
¼ tsp vanilla

For filling:
Combine apples and water in small saucepan. Cook on high heat until mixture comes to boil. Stir frequently.Reduce heat to low. Simmer 5 minutes.Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Simmer 5 minutes. Stir frequently.Combine 1 tablespoon flour and 1 teaspoon granulated sugar. Stir into apple mixture.Bring to boil. Boil one minute. Stir in butter.

For pastry:
Combine 2 cups flour, 2 tablespoons sugar and salt in medium bowl. Cut in cold all-vegetable shortening using pastry blender (or 2 knives) until all flour is blended in to form pea-size chunks. Sprinkle 5 tablespoons ice-cold water, one tablespoon at a time. Toss lightly with fork until dough forms ball. Flour rolling surface and pin lightly.Divide dough in half. Roll each half to 1/16 inch thickness. Use lid from 3 pound Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening can as pattern. Cut 6 circles (5-1/4 inches) from each half. (Reroll as necessary.) ( I cut them in about 3 in. circles using a cup I had at home)

Place about one tablespoon of apple filling on each dough circle. Moisten edges with water. Fold in half over filling. Press with fork to seal.Place on baking sheet on parchment paper. Prick tops with fork. Bake at 425ºF about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 10 minutes on wire rack.

For glaze:
Combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in small bowl. Stir well. Drizzle over turnovers. Serve warm or cool.

Oct/Nov Recipe Exchange: Apple Scone Cake

I have to admit that I was not that excited when I got this recipe in my inbox. For one thing, I was really overwhelmed with schoolwork, and it just didn't appeal to me. I normally find scones too dry for my taste, and I haven't baked much with apples. As I looked closer though, I realized I had all of the ingredients in my pantry except for the apples, and that was easily solved. So I figured I would give it a go this Friday when I had the whole afternoon to myself.


As a warning, the dough is incredibly sticky, so be sure to flour your hands heavily when kneading. Also, this turned out to be amazingly delicious. The dough is soft and buttery, much more cake-like than scone-like, and the apples add so much to the taste. The dough was a little hard to spread, but believe me when I say this tastes a lot better than it looks.

Apple Scone Cake
source: Oct/Nov recipe exchange

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted chilled butter (cut into pieces)
1 egg
1/2 cup (minus 2 tbsp) milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 granny smith apple, thinly sliced
3 tbsp sugar
cinnamon to taste

Heat oven to 350-degrees and butter a 9-inch pie pan.
Mix dry ingredients and chop in butter until it looks like coarse meal. Mix together sliced apples, 3 tbsp sugar and cinnamon to taste. Mix together egg, milk, and vanilla. Stir into flour mixture - do not overmix. Then knead the dough 5 times. 1/2 the dough - press into the bottom of your pan and slightly up the sides. Then add in the apple mixture. Take the rest of the dough and drop biscuit it on top. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 45 minutes.

YUMMY! :) Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

This is definitely better straight out of the oven or heated up.