Sweet Spiced Apples For One

This week I thought I would do something a little different.  I love cooking and I always find it interesting to experiment with my herbs in my meals, so I am constantly coming up with new and exciting recipes that I tend to forget because I don’t exactly have anyone to share my recipes with.  So I thought no more.  I am going to share the goodness with everyone.  So I asked if anyone was interested and it turned out a few people were. SO here we go!  Keep in mind this is a recipe for one person, as in this is for all my single people, because I am single. The recipe can be multiplied as many times as you would like without having to worry about being any less delicious!

Sweet Spiced Apples for One

Spices ground in mortar and pestle:

1T Hibiscus (Calyx)

1t Ginger Root (Fresh or Dried)

1 whole dried Juniper berry (These have a very strong and not necessarily pleasurable taste, they are the main flavor in gin. So you don’t want too much of this unless you want your dish to taste like gin.)

1 small whole Clove

1/4t Cinnamon Sticks

1/2T Chocolate mint (I used a fresh Chocolate Mint sprig, you don’t have to but I always like my herbs fresh if I have them.)

1t Fresh Bacon Grease *optional (This is completely optional. You aren’t required to use bacon grease by any means. You don’t have to use any oil if you don’t want to. I was frying bacon to top my fish, but you aren’t required to. Although bacon grease adds a delightful flavor.)

1. Combine all of the herbs and spices into your mortar and pestle and grind them until powdered.

2. Here is where you can add your optional bacon grease until every bit is covered.

Ingredients for Apples:

1 whole diced Apple (I used gala, but any of your firmer apples are fine. Red apples wouldn’t work here simply because they are too soft and don’t have the greatest flavor.)

1/2T Butter

3/4t Honey (Regional honey is the best honey. Simply put, regional honey has so many good benefits that you can never go wrong there! The taste is incomparable to any other as well. So there are multiple reasons you’ll want to use the honey from your area.)

1t Sugar (Optional. For the most part fresh, regional honey is sweet enough for anything you need to sweeten, but often times store-bought honey isn’t sweet enough so a sprinkle of sugar does the trick.)

1/4C Water

1 Saute Pan

1. Turn your saute pan on low heat. If you fried some bacon then you can add your diced apples directly to that saute pan after you’ve drained the oil, but make sure to leave the bits on the bottom of the pan. If you chose not to fry bacon then add your apples directly to your saute pan with no oil or butter.
2. Brown apples on both sides. This usually takes 2-4 minutes.
3. Add the spices you combined in your mortar and pestle. Saute 1 minute and make sure to stir it constantly. Stir the apples the entire minute and don’t leave it to do anything else.  The moment you walk away the spices will burn.
4. Add your butter. I used softened butter simply because that’s what I had on hand, you can use softened or hard butter. Let it melt down.
5. Add honey and stir so all apples are covered in butter and honey, as well as, spices. Saute for 1-2 minutes.
6. Add water and cover saute pan with a top. Simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Serve as the beautiful and delicious accompaniment to any white fish, poultry, or pork chop dish. Sprinkle your diced bacon on the top of your meat or the apples if you would like.
8. Enjoy your delicious meal!

This is the first blog I have done like this and I would love your feedback! So if you like this type of thing and want me to do more then let me know by liking this, sharing this post with your friends and family, or simply leaving a comment. If you don’t like this and want me to never do another post like this let me know that too by leaving a comment.