Homemade Apple Sauce Recipe

I have known this for quite a while now but today I am going to declare this officially. I love everything cinnamon. And do not even get me started about the bliss, that apple with cinnamon is! With this fondness, what do you do when juicy fresh apples are thrown in your lap. Don't worry, it's an easy one. You make an apple sauce that packs in the flavours which make you go "wheee" every time they cross your mind. Trust me, "wheee" is the word for me!

So it happened that two evenings ago, I saw these beautiful red apples at the fruit market. Needless to say, I bought some. Now to be completely honest, I am not a big fan of the apple itself. So I decided to make this apple sauce and what better than to add cinnamon to it. It always amazes me how the simplest of recipes turn out to be the most delish! This apple sauce recipe is one of those simple recipes.

This sauce goes well with French toasts, in a sandwich, and you can try various dessert combinations with it. It makes a wonderful 'gift in a jar' too for your loved ones and is an absolute party pleaser as a dip.

Ingredients:

Apples- 1 kg

Sugar- 2/3-1 cup

Cinnamon sticks- 2 nos

Lemon juice- 4-5 tbsp

Water

Recipe:

Peel, core and quarter apples.

Take a heavy bottomed pan and put apples, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice in with with just enough water to keep apples from sticking to the surface. 

Cover and bring to a boil.

Uncover and let cook on simmer for 30-40 minutes or until apples are tender. You can add more water if the apples start sticking to the bottom of the pan.

When cooked, mash with a potato masher. This way some chunks remain. If you like your sauce smooth, let it cool down and run in a blender.

Keep in a sterilised jar with an airtight lid.

Sweet Corn Curry

Have you ever been confused whether it's a Saturday or a Sunday over an extended weekend? It happened to me today. Throughout the day I kept thinking that it was a Saturday and was relaxed until an hour ago when I suddenly realized that today in fact is a Sunday. This made me all jumpy because I was so late in going about preparing my post for today's recipe as I am supposed to post one with sweet corn every Sunday of this month, sweet corn being the ingredient of the month on my blog.

This sudden realisation made me so anxious that I just could not decide what I wanted to post today. I kept oscillating between a soup and a curry. And there was nobody at home to choose one of the two fingers and help me decide. I mean where is everyone when you need them? Isn't that just the way it is always? So I decided to help myself. I wrote soup on one piece of paper and curry on another and picked one. The decision had been made. I was going to make a soup. And I thought, "Oh, to hell with it! I am going to make a curry." See. So easy to decide.

Vegetable Salad with Creamy Cumin-Yogurt Dressing

Over a conversation a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine said that she loves salads and asked me to post a vegetable salad recipe. A vision of a beautiful, colourful salad started forming in my head. I agreed to her request and told her that I will post a salad recipe soon. A couple of hours later I realised that heavy rainfall in the past week had flooded the bridges and blocked the roads in and out of town, due to which the markets in my region were not being supplied fresh vegetables; so a salad was out of question. Besides I do not get fancy vegetables like bell peppers, red cabbage, zucchini etc. in the small town where I live. Anyhow, these restrictions weren't going to deter me. I was already committed to preparing a salad and wasn't ready to make-do with what I had.

I texted my cousin who lives in the capital city of our state of Chhattisgarh and asked her if she was free on  a day this week. Luckily she had a day off. She asked what I wanted to do and I told her I wanted to buy vegetables. She went all "LOL"! So we set up a plan for yesterday and took a train in the morning to Raipur. Buying vegetables wasn't going to take all day so we watched a movie, had lunch, window shopped and moved about town. She took me to a market where I bought all the fresh and fancy vegetables I wanted and also went eye balling and hoarding food props to photograph my food in. This is what I call work plus fun. Lucky for me, she too loves cooking so she did't think I was crazy! Hey, am I putting ideas in your head? Trust me, I am not crazy.

This is today's salad story and it has a happy ending.

Sweet Corn Kebabs

"It was raining. I had corn." Do I need say more?

Well, I better do. At first I thought of having corn on cob but I had it the day before and the day before that and  probably two more times in the past week. Hence came corn kebabs in the picture. I clocked myself to 30 minutes and prayed for it to not stop raining. Guess what? It didn't!

Biscuit Cake Trifle

Almost all of the recipes in my Friendship Week Featured Recipes run are traditional Indian recipes, well, with one exception from Jordan. But when I approached Kusum aunty with a recipe request, I knew it had to be different. I couldn't have been more right.

No less than I uttered the word dessert, aunty suggested we prepare this Biscuit Pudding and I did not need further convincing just because it was her who told me it was absolutely delicious. Such is her talent in the kitchen. I bow low to her when it comes to cooking and presenting food. She almost always has some new creative recipes with the simplest ingredients that you feel you are on the sets of Ripley's Believe It or Not.

Sindhi Kadhi

Today’s recipe in the Featured Recipes on Friendship Week series is hot and spicy Sindhi Kadhi. This traditional Sindhi dish is a favorite of most and it deserves all the attention. I learned this recipe from my dearest friend Anisha’s mom and aunty and I had so much fun in the kitchen today. I always have fun with aunty. She found time to accommodate me even though she was swamped with work at home today. Aunty is one of my friends’ moms who I visit even when my friend isn’t around.

Vegetarian Jordanian Oozie

This Jordanian Oozie recipe that I am sharing today is truly from Jordan, with love. I cannot emphasize enough how much including this recipe in my Featured Recipes on Friendship Week series means to me coz the sender of this recipe is too close to my heart.

Kamini and I met when I opened the door at 4 a.m to let her in the house. No, she wasn't wearing high heels and wasn't drunk! She had got back from Dubai that morning and I was her new roommate.