Hot apples to you

Intermezzo with hot apples, nothing to do with Pages

My wife dragged me away from my Apple Mac the other day to have lunch. She is an inspirational cook and on that occasion decided to experiment with the apples from our own orchard (42 trees of different varieties, mostly cidre Reinettes and eating Boscopps).

This was one of the most delicious meals I'd ever had - hot apple salad. Here is a rough recipe:

lettuce for 2 persons
1 cup parmesan shavings
1 diced ripe avocado
1/4 pound (125 g) bacon cubes (lardons, natural, not smoked)
2 medium skinned and sliced apples

Bacon is cooked to taste, preferably without cooking oil. Cheese shavings should be large enough to enjoy as a separate ingredient, not as a sticky bonding element. Toss and mix lettuce, cheese, avocado and bacon.

Apples are cooked right before serving, after the main mix is prepared. Spread slices on a microwave dish and cook on high for 45 seconds, just enough to make them slightly soft and juicy. You can also blanche them for 1 minute in boiling water in a wide shallow saucepan, but that way you may lose some of the beautiful apple scent.

Cooked slices are spread on top of the salad mix, either in the serving bowl or straight onto plates.

This dish has a very distinct Normand-English taste: apples and pork, hearty, honest and traditional.

For a more filling meal add diced cooked potato.

originally sketched 28.03.07