Stewed apples serve a few purposes:
- They are a great side to any kind of roast but roast pork in particular. They're like besties
- They can be served hot, room temperature, or cold.
- Kids seem to like them.
- The leftovers are very nice warmed up and spooned over vanilla ice cream. Or oatmeal, if you're one of those people.
- They use up the stash of questionable apples in the colander. You know, the ones that nobody wants to eat because of a few bruises, but tossing them seems such a waste. Now the dilemma is solved. Bruises matter not. Even punky apples may contribute. Just peel them and gouge away any truly nasty bits, we do have standards here.
- Raisins make a perfect counterpart to apples. You could experiment with any kind of dried fruit—cherries, cranberries, etc—but if you start stewing prunes, expect an intervention.
Stewed Apples
Start some water boiling in a saucepan with a couple broken cinnamon sticks and a squeeze of lemon juice. If you, like me, are a cardamom lover and have pods on hand, add two or three, but remember how many because you have to pick them out later.
Peel 4-5 apples. ore and slice into wedges. How thick depends on your preference. Thinner slices will fall apart more easily, thicker gives you more "chunk".
Add apples to boiling water along with 1/2 cup of raisins. Add a few shakes from your ground cinnamon jar. Stir well, then cover, lower heat and let simmer 10-15 minutes.
Drain the fruit in a colander. Discard the cinnamon sticks and cardamom pods if you used them. Slide into serving dish until you are ready for it. It will wait quietly and not disappoint you.
Once I made this using a lemon herbal teabag in the water. It totally worked. You could also peel and slice up some fresh ginger to give it that kind of kick. This is really nice to have at Thanksgiving, as a companion to cranberry sauce.
You can also make a lot and freeze it. What more could you ask for?