Monteolivo apple wine

After last year´s exercise of making my own wine, I found enough courage to try another kind. This year´s apple harvest was abundant, but a dubious quality. The apples tasted very good, but didn´t look very attractive, a bit small and strangely shaped.

I decided on apple wine so I had to chop them into small pieces and press them, hoping there would be enough juice to fill the fermentation bottle. The quality was better than I hoped for so I got my desired 5 liters of juice.

Of course, it would not be Monteolivo wine if there had not occurred a problem. The must didn´t start the fermentation. I could have added more chemicals, but that would have been the easy way out. Which, you know, is not my style.

I roamed around the internet and the solution was ever so simple.....my kitchen was too hot. I put the whole lot in the cantina and the process began the way it should. After about one week the fermentation stopped so I could start clearing the wine. The smell was delicious and who minds a sticky kitchen?

The result was great. 4 bottles of Monteolivo apple wine and half a liter to celebrate immediately. It tastes fresh, exactly dry and yet sweet enough.

 I´d say.... cheers!!

An apple a day

To be honest, I prefer chocolate to fruits but when it comes to apples I completely understand why Eva took a risk with her place in paradise. I would have chosen the apple above that Adam guy too.

Apples are great to experiment with. Of course there´s nothing wrong with the standard apple pie but try to dip apple parts in a little melted chocolate. Let it harden for a few seconds and you can serve a completely different tea.

Or try my apple cake, click here for the recipe. 

I made one today and prepared a huge bowl of compote. 

Speaking of which: have you ever tried a variation of the sweet apple compote by using fresh green herbs? I recommend!

Ingredients:

1 kg of apples – goldreneits are the best, but if you dont mind some larger pieces you can practically use every kind of apple.

2 spoons of sugar

fresh thyme, rosemary and marjoram

Remove the skin from the apples.

Cut them into really small pieces.

Put the pieces into a pan and add the sugar.

Chop the herbs and add them to the apples.

Add some water or apple juice, make the whole lot boil then lower the fire and let simmer for a least an hour.

Let them cool down.

Serve the apples with thin sliced veal or pork chop or a not too strong cheese, like a provolone dolce.

Sweet variation:

1 kg of apples – goldreneits are the best, but if you dont mind some larger pieces you can practically use every kind of apple.

2 spoons of sugar

1 spoon of cinnamon

2 spoons of honey

Remove the skin from the apples and cut them into small pieces. Put everything into a pan add a little water, applejuice or calvados. Make it boil, then lower the fire and let simmer for at least one hour.

The sweet versions goes very well with goat cheese.  

Caramellized onions - what are those good for?

A nice – and of course easy - recipe to use your abbundant onion harvest. You can preserve them rather long and use them in all kind of dishes, they nearly match with everything.

Prepare these on a day that you´re crying anyway, so that you can blame the onions.

Ingredients:

1 kg. Of onions, cleaned and chopped.

4 spoons of balsamico vinegar

1 spoon of sugar – if you use brown sugar, the onions will be sweeter and very well match

Indonesian recipes, but normal tablesugar can be used as well.

A little salt

Sterilize a 1 l. jar by leaving it in a 200° preheated oven and then put it upside down on a very clean towel until use.

Fry the onions at a moderated heat until they´re smooth and slightly colored. Turn the heat low, add a little salt and the sugar, mix well and then quickly add the vinegar. Leave them simmer at a very low heat until the vinegar is more or less evaporated, this can take an hour.

Put the onions in the jar, close carefully. In the fridge, you can keep them for about a month.

When using parts of them, make sure you only use a very clean spoon.

How to use them?

A great side dish is a feta onion pie. It´s not mine, but I don´t recall who gave me the recipe, though

many thanks in advance.

Needed:

Puff pastry - I have a recipe in Dutch on this blog, if you want in English: let me know

200 gr. of feta

5 spoons of your onions

salt, pepper, fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 200° C.

Grease a baking tin, sprinkle a little flour in it and cover it with the pastry. Cover the dough with your onions. Crumble the tofu on top of it. Season with salt, pepper and the thyme.

Leave it in the oven for ca. 20 minutes until the pastry is colored.

Another nice little side dish: Apple-onion gratin

1 apple, e.g. A jonagold is very nice.

3 spoons of your onions

2 spoons of grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 180° C

Chop the apple into pieces, the same size as the onions. Grease a small baking tin. Mix the apple and the onions and put them into the tin. Or put in the apple first and then a layer of onions.

Cover with the cheese and leave it in the middle of the oven until the cheese has melted.

You can also add the onions to a stew. The taste great in a game stew, but match very well with beef too. Prepare the stew like you normally do, just leave the onions out if you normally use them. Add the caramelized onions the last 10 minutes.  

Fresh apple cake

Another cake in the category fast and easy. Its taste is fresh and not too heavy.

Ingredients:

1 apple

30 gr. of white raisins

2 spoons of white rum, calvados or use water if you don´t like alcohol

150 gr of sifted flour

150 gr melted butter or margarine

150 gr. of sugar

3 eggs

Heat the oven to 180°

Soak the raisins in the rum/calvados/water and dry them carefully with a paper towel.

Peel the apple, remove the core and cut it into pieces. Mix with the raisins.

Beat the eggs and the sugar until they´re foamy, add the melted margarine and then add, little by little, the flour. Beat it for a few minutes until the batter is fluffy.

Carefully stir the apple/raisin mix through the batter.

Grease a baking dish and carefully put in the batter. Put it in the middle of the oven and bake for about 45 minutes. Let is cool well.

Suggestions:

Serve the cake with:

• whipped cream with some cinnamon in it (after an autumn dish)
• grape jelly
• pieces of melon with mint leaves.   
  
  
  
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