An Apple Harvest

Book excerpt: Crisp, juicy, sweet-tart apples. The world’s most storied fruit is also among the most amazingly versatile cooking of ingredients. Writer and NPR contributor Frank Browning delves into the apple’s ancient history and his own upbringing on a Kentucky apple orchard; food writer Sharon Silva draws upon her childhood on a Sonoma family farm. Together, they pay homage to the ancient fruit of temptation in this charming illustrated companion to apple and cider cookery. An Apple Harvest is an inviting compendium of more than 60 apple-centric recipes with origins that crisscross the globe from Alsace and Applachia, Scandinavia and Sicily, and beyond. Beginning with delightful first courses such as Duck Breast and Fuji Apples on Watercress or velvety Roasted Winter Squash Soup with Cider, the savory feast continues with main dishes like Baltic Roast Goose with Sour Apples, Atlantic Salmon Fillets in Cider-Mustard Sauce, or down-home Saturday Night Supper of Fried Apples, Sausage, and Biscuits. For serving on the side there are classics like Real Applesauce or the curiously named Burning Love (you’ll have to ask the Danes about that one!). And what collection would be complete without dessert? Bourbon Apple Pie, Apple and Currant Galettes, and Apple Sorbet with Ginger are among the many tempting offerings. Browning and Silva pepper the collection with spirited musings about whether to peel apples for pies, how to choose apples and store them correctly, and the finer points of cooking with hard cider and cider vinegar. In a photographic field guide, they share 26 of their favorite apple varieties, describing each one’s eating and cooking characteristics, storage qualities, peak season, and growing regions. Engaging storytelling and evocative photography make An Apple Harvest a celebration of the venerated apple, while inspired recipes showcase the breadth of edible possibilities. Stock your kitchen with cider and in-season apples and discover for yourself the many wonderful savory and sweet dishes that Braeburns, Cortlands, Macouns, Suncrisps, and their brethren can bring to the table.