Deliciously Dried Apples April 23rd 2013

I have so many apples this year that I have been looking for new things to do with them. Rather than let the possums gradually nibble their way through the entire crop hanging on the tree, I have harvested them all over the past couple of weeks. Now they are sitting in boxes in a previously empty fridge in another building on the farm. Hopefully this will act like a cool room and they will last us for several months in good condition.

Roaming around the second hand shops in town, I found one of these apple peeler/slicer/corer gadgets for a good price.

The hardest part is to get the apple centred.

Wind the handle and magically the apple gets peeled sliced and cored.

 Perfect I thought  for doing all the peeling and chopping required to make dried apple rings. A hiking friend told me about being given some delicious dried apple rings sprinkled with cinnamon when she was walking in the South west of Tasmania so I thought that would be a recipe worth trying.

After a few practices, I worked out how the peeler worked and got down to business. Rather than individual slices, they turned out  like an apple slinky but a quick slice through turned the slinky into numerous slices. Apples oxidise really quickly when cut so I once I put them through the gadget I immediately put them in some acidulated water (water with a bit of lemon juice) while I did the next apple. Then it was onto the dryer trays, sprinkle with cinnamon and leave to dry for several hours. They took about 6-8 hours to get to a pliable leathery texture and  I kept removing ones as they got to that point, not wanting to overdry them to the point where they were crisp. The result is very tasty and I look forward to eating them on hikes in the future if they don’t get eaten before that!

 We had a French couchsurfer staying with us over the weekend and when she saw all the silverbeet in the garden offered to cook us lunch. This is a recipe from the south of France for a silverbeet pancake. I didn’t write down the name so have forgotten what she called it. It was a vivid green so looked great accompanied by a multi coloured salad.

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