Apple & Bacon

This time of year we often find we have a surplus of apples. This Apple and bacon dish is an absolute winner being both simple to make and surprisingly delicious. It is a novel way to serve up apple as a savoury dish.

What you need for 4 servings:

4 apples (sweet or cooking apples) peeled, cored and sliced. 

200g  bacon lardons. 

Bunch of fresh chives and parsley finely chopped.

Method

Fry the lardons using a large pan. Once they start cooking ( after two minutes) add the sliced apple. Allow to sauté for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the chives and parsley over the dish.  Serve immediately:

Serving suggestions: 

This dish can be served just as it is. In Ireland it is served on toasted brown bread. In Denmark it is served on rye bread as a luncheon dish. In Brittany we served it in a buckwheat pancake sometimes along with a glass of cider! 

Apple with Blackberry

Brittany,the UK and Ireland have ripe apples and blackberries in abundance right now and freely available too so no excuses please - get out and enjoy the countryside as well as the natural resources that nature has made available to us this time of year. A delicious and simple recipe I find which never fails is as follows:

Ingredients:

10 ripe apples (crab or cookers)
1.5 kg of blackberries
50 g of sugar or golden syrup or honey
small cup of water

Method:

Peel and core the apples. Press the blackberries to a pulp and mix with sugar/honey or golden syrup. Press the mixture down well into the apple cores and any left over can be distributed around the apples. Place into a casserole dish, add the water (less is best)and cover with a lid. Cook in a moderate oven (150 degrees) for 30 minutes until the fruit is soft. Enjoy on its own or with home made honeysuckle ice cream.