The new apple of my eye...

I have a favorite apple. It is the only apple I will purchase or eat. I did not think there was a better apple than the Pink Lady. Crisp, sweet, always reliable. So many apples are starchy and mushy and not very sweet, but the Pink Lady rises above. About a month ago, the Pink Lady disappeared. I was lost, eating pears and plums, missing my apples.

Last week I noticed a new variety, something I'd never seen before and with an intriguing name...Ginger Gold. Just the idea of a ginger flavored apple excited me, so I brought a few home. Delicious. Upon research, it appears the apple is actually named after a woman, not because it tastes like ginger. Regardless, I had an inspiration.

There had to be a great recipe somewhere for an apple crisp recipe with ginger. Lots of ginger. I found this recipe at KQED's web site and it looked perfect. Fresh ginger and crystallized ginger. I actually froze fresh ginger a few weeks ago, in an attempt to make grating it easier. I peeled the ginger and just wrapped it in plastic. It worked very well and was especially convenient.

http://www.kqed.org/topics/home/cooking/kqed-kitchen-nov.jsp
Apple-Ginger Crisp with Mascarpone Cream

Ingredients
6 servings
For the streusel topping:
1/3 cup whole unblanched almonds
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, minced
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 3/4-inch cubes

For the apple filling:
2 1/2 lbs. (about 8 medium) tart, firm, baking apples, such as Rome Beauty
Juice of 1 lemon, strained
2 teaspoons fresh, grated ginger root
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

For the mascarpone cream:
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 325º F. Place the almonds on a baking sheet and toast for 5 minutes. Stir the almonds and continue toasting for another 7 minutes until light brown in the center. Let cool on the pan for 15 minutes. Chop the almonds roughly. Set aside.

Turn the oven up to 400º F.

To make the streusel, put the flour, sugar, and cinnamon into the bowl of a food processor and pulse 2 to 3 times to mix. Add the butter and pulse 8 to 10 times until the butter is the size of large peas. Pour the mixture into a medium mixing bowl, and stir in the crystallized ginger and almonds. Set aside.

Alternatively, mix the flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl. Add the butter and, using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it is the size of large peas. Stir in the crystallized ginger and almonds. Set aside.

To make the apple filling, butter a 2-quart glass or ceramic baking dish. Peel and core the apples and cut into 1-inch chunks. Toss the apple chunks with the lemon juice. Mix in the ginger, sugar, and flour.

Pour the apple mixture into the baking dish. Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the top, covering the apples completely. Place the dish on a baking sheet and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the apples are tender when pierced with a knife and the topping is golden brown. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes.

To make the mascarpone cream, put the cream, mascarpone, sugar, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk until the mixture smooths out and then whisk vigorously until the mixture is light and fluffy and will hold a stiff peak. Be careful not to overwhip or the mixture will become grainy.
Serve portions of the crisp topped with mascarpone cream.

Zucchini, anyone?

We're suffering from end of summer, summer squash over saturation. I've grilled zucchini, sauteed zucchini, hidden it in turkey burgers and I have 8 cups shredded and frozen. Last Sunday I made pretty little round Italian-sausage stuffed ronde de nice (8-ball or globe squash) from a recipe featured on Smitten Kitchen's site. I really enjoyed them, my husband, notsomuch. He like the sausage, but I think he's suffering from squash fatigue.

Our CSA included 2 green zucchini, 2 yellow zucchini and 2 more ronde de nice squash this morning. I knew I had to make something really yummy or else he would never eat summer squash again. I discovered a wonderful zucchini bread recipe on Heidi Swanson's 101 cookbooks food blog. I really enjoy her recipes and just purchased two of her cookbooks. She has a lovely writing style, unbelievable food photography and promotes a whole, vegetarian approach to cooking without being preachy or overbearing. I highly recommend her cookbooks, especially Cook 1.0 for someone who wants to start cooking. The book very simply outlines really simple, fresh recipes, with a number of tasty variations.

I've attached the link to her recipe below. I had so much squash that I actually made two variations. For the first, I used her recipe, minus curry powder and poppy seeds, simply because I didn't have the ingredients, resulting in 6 muffins and a loaf of bread. The second, I omitted the first four ingredients and instead used 1 1/2 cup of chopped raw walnuts, 1 cup of oatmeal, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup softened butter and made a crispy, crumbly mixture. I also used Almond extract instead of Vanilla. This resulted in 6 more muffins with the crisp sprinkled on top. I also made a bundt cake, using half the batter in the bottom of the pan, sprinkled the crisp evenly over the batter, then covered with the remaining batter. (Bake muffins 20 minutes, bundt cake 40 minutes.)

This morning in the City Market, Shatto Farms, a local dairy farm was selling fresh butter, milk and other products. They even brought three little black & white Holstein calves for children to pet. It took me back to growing up on the farm. Shatto's products are amazing, I used their unsweetened butter and it creamed so well in my favorite cooking tool. The bread is really, really moist. The batter was really fluffy and rich. Even with a little wheat flour. (I always try to sneak in a little wheat flour, but not much, replacing no more than 1/2 cup.)

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/my-special-zucchini-bread-recipe.html

I will be conducting an unofficial poll to determine which of the muffins are the best. Personally, I love the crystallized ginger and lemon combination. The ginger is such a sweet surprise in the bread and the lemon provide a fresh note. My husband, digs the almond version. His reasons have yet to be explained. He's a man of few words.

Unofficial taste test results will be updated:

• Lemon, ginger, walnut - 4
• Cinnamon, almond - 1