Alissa Timoshkina presents five apple recipes spanning breakfast, dinner, and dessert, highlighting the fruit's versatility as an autumn staple. The collection includes breakfast oladky (pancakes), a roast chicken salad with pickled apples, duck legs with braised sauerkraut and apples, a fermented apple salsa, and a Ukrainian baked rice pudding.
The Apple's Journey and Symbolism
Apples, native to the mountains of central Asia near the modern Kazakhstan-China border, have travelled widely, becoming integral to cuisines from Normandy to New York and the Caucasus to Kashmir. Timoshkina notes that despite their familiarity, apples carry significant symbolic weight as a sign of nature's abundance and nostalgia for retreating sunlight.
Breakfast Apple Oladky
The first recipe, breakfast apple oladky, takes 10 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook, making 24 pancakes to serve six. Ingredients include 200g plain flour, one egg, 200ml whole milk, three sweet apples (one grated, two sliced), and runny honey. The batter rests for five minutes before frying, with apple slices added halfway through cooking to caramelise. Serve with Greek yoghurt and honey.
Roast Chicken Salad with Pickled Apples
This salad combines kale, fennel, celery, and shredded roast chicken with a tahini 'mayo' dressing and pickled apples. The pickle uses apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, honey, and salt, resting for 30 minutes. The tahini dressing incorporates olive oil, lemon juice, honey, vinegar, and pickle brine, finished with an ice cube for a silky consistency.
Duck Legs with Braised Sauerkraut
For a hearty main, duck legs are seared until crispy, then braised with red cabbage, sauerkraut, red apples, cranberries, red wine, and caraway seeds. The dish cooks in the oven at 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 for 90 minutes. It can be served as is or with creamy mash or roast potatoes.
Fermented Apple Salsa and Baked Rice Pudding
The fermented apple salsa combines granny smith apples, spring onions, white grapes, celery, jalapeño, dill, and fennel seeds in a brine of salt and filtered water. It ferments at room temperature for three to six days until effervescent and piquant, then keeps in the fridge for up to three months.
The Ukrainian baked rice pudding features long-grain rice cooked in milk, mixed with sautéed apples, raisins, orange zest, and cinnamon, then baked with eggs and sugar until golden. It serves four and takes 5 minutes to prepare and 1 hour to cook.
Timoshkina's book, Lozhka, is published in October by Quadrille at £28, available for £25.20 from the Guardian Bookshop.
