Cooking with Cider
The cider sparkles now, not a lot, but it gives a good bubble when you first pour it into the glass. I've still got about a case of it left. I've been drinking it steadily, but I've been drinking it out of 6 oz. jelly jars for glasses. It drinks more like wine than beer, so I think of one 6 oz. glass as a drink, rather than the full 12 oz. bottle. I also decided that I'd try cooking with it. There are a number of cider recipes in this Spanish cookbook I have.
On the Sunday before Valentine's Day, I made roast vegetables with cider (potatoes, carrots and onions) along with broiled haddock. With some of the leftover liquid from the vegetables, I reduced a cider sauce to pour over the fish. It was inspired by a dish in the Spanish cookbook. But I decided to simplify and familiarise it.
Also on that day before Valentine's Day, I made cup custard and strawberry sauce for a special dessert, for L. and I. I had thought about the parfait glasses that we have and the puddings and mouses that Mom used to make in them. I thought about trying to make vanilla pudding, but settled on the custard instead. I couldn't cook the custard in the parfait glasses, but rather custard cups. But with custard, I could make it with lowfat milk and mostly egg whites, so it was relatively low fat. We also still have strawberries in our refrigerator that we had frozen last June, from our own strawberry patch. So I got a bag out, thawed it and made a strawberry sauce. It turned out pretty well, I thought. We sat by the fire by candelight, with roses, and ate our little custard cups with strawberry sauce.
Last week, I decided to try another cider recipe from the Spanish cookbook. This time, pork cutlets. This was just stubborness on my part, since I'm the only one in the house who would eat pork cutlets (except Sprout, who sits and whines for my scraps). But it was good. You season the cutlets with salt, dust them with flour and then brown them in a skillet, with butter and olive oil. Then you remove the cutlets and sauté apple slices in the pan, with the drippings. Then you put the apple slices and the cutlets in a casserole dish and make a reduction sauce with hard cider in the pan. You pour that sauce over the cutlets, cover the casserole and then bake it in the oven on 350 degrees for 35 minutes. It turned out really good. I still had some of the leftover roasted vegetables from Valentine's Day, so I ate it with them. I have one leftover cutlet in the refrigerator, perhaps for dinner tonight.
Last night, we had the poet's group over to our house. So I made some tapas. One of the plates I made was chorizo al sidra, which is basically chorizo sausage sauteed in hard cider with apples. It was well-appreciated. I also made a Basque white bean soup from the Moosewood cookbook. L. liked it. Well, everyone liked it. And several people drank cider with me.
The cider itself is a little dry and complex. Not big fruity. It makes me think of something that one of the Cider Days organizers said to me once about a cider, that it tasted like you had ground up the whole apple: stems, leaves and all. It seems like something you drink by the fire and brood over, maybe with some strong cheese. I'm enjoying it.
On the Sunday before Valentine's Day, I made roast vegetables with cider (potatoes, carrots and onions) along with broiled haddock. With some of the leftover liquid from the vegetables, I reduced a cider sauce to pour over the fish. It was inspired by a dish in the Spanish cookbook. But I decided to simplify and familiarise it.
Also on that day before Valentine's Day, I made cup custard and strawberry sauce for a special dessert, for L. and I. I had thought about the parfait glasses that we have and the puddings and mouses that Mom used to make in them. I thought about trying to make vanilla pudding, but settled on the custard instead. I couldn't cook the custard in the parfait glasses, but rather custard cups. But with custard, I could make it with lowfat milk and mostly egg whites, so it was relatively low fat. We also still have strawberries in our refrigerator that we had frozen last June, from our own strawberry patch. So I got a bag out, thawed it and made a strawberry sauce. It turned out pretty well, I thought. We sat by the fire by candelight, with roses, and ate our little custard cups with strawberry sauce.
Last week, I decided to try another cider recipe from the Spanish cookbook. This time, pork cutlets. This was just stubborness on my part, since I'm the only one in the house who would eat pork cutlets (except Sprout, who sits and whines for my scraps). But it was good. You season the cutlets with salt, dust them with flour and then brown them in a skillet, with butter and olive oil. Then you remove the cutlets and sauté apple slices in the pan, with the drippings. Then you put the apple slices and the cutlets in a casserole dish and make a reduction sauce with hard cider in the pan. You pour that sauce over the cutlets, cover the casserole and then bake it in the oven on 350 degrees for 35 minutes. It turned out really good. I still had some of the leftover roasted vegetables from Valentine's Day, so I ate it with them. I have one leftover cutlet in the refrigerator, perhaps for dinner tonight.
Last night, we had the poet's group over to our house. So I made some tapas. One of the plates I made was chorizo al sidra, which is basically chorizo sausage sauteed in hard cider with apples. It was well-appreciated. I also made a Basque white bean soup from the Moosewood cookbook. L. liked it. Well, everyone liked it. And several people drank cider with me.
The cider itself is a little dry and complex. Not big fruity. It makes me think of something that one of the Cider Days organizers said to me once about a cider, that it tasted like you had ground up the whole apple: stems, leaves and all. It seems like something you drink by the fire and brood over, maybe with some strong cheese. I'm enjoying it.