This particular ingredient comes in over 7,500 different cultivations. The average output of this ingredient is 50 million tons (grown a year) and China leads the world by producing up to 35% of this product a year (the United States is number two in output with 7.5%) Have you figured out what our secret ingredient is yet? It's in season right now! They are extremely abundant and varied, but you should be able to find some fairly easily (maybe even in you own backyard!) How about now? They are literally falling off of the tree to be found!
That's right, our feature ingredient of the week is the apple!
That's right, the common little fruit that graces everything from teacher's desks to high end computers is our feature ingredient of the week. Maggie and I want to show how one very common, very easy to use ingredient can be applied to three very different recipes.
At first glance, you might ask yourself 'how can they make three very different recipes, aren't apples basically all the same?' The short answer to that question is no. As mentioned above there are over 7,500 cultivations of the apple today, they range from sweet to tart, from red to green, from baking safe to don't cook me and everything in between. Here's a list of the different apple classifications - A-B (Source: www.allaboutapples.com)
That's amazing, isn't it? All of those varieties and that's only the first two letters of the alphabet! Each one of those varieties has a different flavor style (sweet, tart, That's amazing, isn't it? All of those varieties and that's only the first two letters of the alphabet! Each one of those varieties has a different flavor style (sweet, tart, semisweet) a different usage (baking, fresh, pulp, juice only, multi-use) and the list of combinations just continues on.
While our list of varieties will not be as diverse this week (we're using two different kinds) it does show that the potential to be creative and inventive with only apples is certainly out there. To close our of 'feature ingredient' post today, I'll share some interesting charts and graphs that show where most of the world's apples are grown, the nutritional value of apples, some health benefits the little fruit have been shown to provide (perhaps there is something to this 'apple a day' thing!) among a few other points.
Read More http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1809/2#ixzz123qDrX7C
"Although some preliminary results show apple benefits for several different cancer types (especially colon cancer and breast cancer), it's the area of lung cancer benefits that stand out in the apple research. There are numerous studies involving vegetable/fruit intake and risk of lung cancer. The number of subjects in these studies numbers into the high hundreds of thousands. Although many research studies show an impressive ability of overall fruit and/or vegetable intake to lower lung cancer risk, very few individual fruits show up as protective against lung cancer. Except apples! It's really quite remarkable how apples have been one of the few fruits to demonstrate this unique relationship with lung cancer risk reduction. (Interestingly, this same phenomenon has to some extent also been present in research on asthma.) Researchers aren't certain why apples are so closely associated with reduction of lung cancer risk. Their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits are definitely involved here, but they don't fully explain why apples are such a standout in this health benefit area. We look forward to future research that will help shed light on this unique capacity in apples."
LINKS:
Apples Could Protect From Alzheimer's & Parkinsonism
Planting Your Own Apple Tree
How To Make Apple Cider
That's all we have for you today. I do not have a day off this week - and, I'm working the late shift everyday - the scheduling continues to be a nightmare at my place of employment. That means the blog will be up late all week. I will be cooking on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Maggie is taking to the kitchen tomorrow night with a very unique dish that I cannot wait to sample, so be sure to stop by tomorrow evening to see Maggie's dish. Knowing our readers as well as we do, we're sure you're going to love this creative recipe too! We're really eager to try these apple recipes, so it should be a fun week! Until tomorrow night,
~Cheers
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