Today my hubby brought in the first of the apples from the little tree in our garden. They were windfalls which had come down in last night’s high wind and rain. They weren’t very big.
We don’t know the variety of apple, but they have a delicious flavour, and can be eaten raw or cooked.
Having followed Chef AJ’s recent video on making applesauce in the electric pressure cooker, I decided to give this a try with my new Ninja Foodi.
I used to have a proper apple corer but I’ve no idea what’s happened to it. It was a really good one that belonged to my grandmother – basic, but sturdy! It probably disappeared in one of our house moves. Last year I made a DIY corer out of a piece of plastic pipe.
I filed down the edge at one end, to make it easier to cut into the skin of the apple. It’s still quite hard work to use, and when your hands are wet, they slip, so I used my little rubber jar opener to get a good grip, and this worked a treat.
It makes a rather satisfying noise as you push it through – a rising musical note! To get the core out, I use the handle of a wooden spoon.
Sometimes it doesn’t go through very straight, especially if the apple is a bit mis-shapen and asymmetrical, so to get out any remaining core, or to scrape away any brown bits, I use my grapefruit knife.
This is such a useful kitchen tool! It gets used for lots of other things besides preparing grapefruits. It’s the best thing I’ve found for scraping the seeds off slices of melon, and then removing the flesh from the skin, because the blade is curved. It is serrated on both sides, and comes to a rounded point.
When my hubby came home, I told him about it. He said it might be easier if the cutting edge of the apple corer had some serrations, and I agreed that it would be easy enough to file some, and he also suggested drilling a hole across the other end and inserting a rod, to make it easier to turn. These improvements will definitely make life easier as more apples arrive on my kitchen counter! From now on, this can be an almost daily event and I’ve certainly got my work cut out.
I wish I had a dehydrator… There is an attachment for the Ninja Foodi, but so far this is not available in the UK. Dried apples are so delicious, and it’s easy to store them.
Once all the apples were prepared, I put them in the pot of my Ninja Foodi, and according to Chef AJ’s instructions, added a little apple juice and some ground cinnamon. I set the pressure cooker for 5 mins. Then I released the steam, and this happened!
Ooops… It sizzled and burped and erupted, just like Kermit (my stoma) on a bad day lol lol!! As it continued to come out, I scraped it up with a plastic spatula until the little red button went down and I was free to release the lid. This is what was going on inside.
There was quite a chunk of apple and skin all around the steam valve. This has a little push-on metal cage thingy to protect the valve from blocking, and this did work pretty well – at least the pressure cooker didn’t explode all over the kitchen!
I had put too much apple in the pressure cooker. Watching Chef AJ, it looks as if she’s only put in one layer, but I put in all the apples. They came up to the “pressure cooker full” line in the pot but it was obviously too much! Also, I only put in her recommended 1/4 cup of unsweetened apple juice, which made the result pretty thick.
To preserve the surface of the pressure cooker pot, I scraped all the apple out into a large bowl and then tackled it with my immersion blender. It was pretty smooth despite all the skins still being in there, but it’s very thick. What I have made is apple butter!
I am quite pleased in the end, because this is very concentrated and will take up less space in the freezer, which is really full at the moment. If I want to use it as applesauce, I just have to add a bit of apple juice or water, and if I want stewed apple/apple puree for a dessert, I can just add some more. It’s pretty tart, but I can always sweeten it.
For our tea, I spread some on some of my sourdough crackers! It was delicious.
I think I’ve learnt my lesson about not over-filling the pressure cooker. It’s all a learning curve. When the apples get bigger, I am keen to try making some baked apples in the pressure cooker, stuffed with dried fruit and cinnamon. Yum!
