Sarah’s Iron Chef – Battle Apple!!!

Okay – first of all, I am not a chef. To take the cop out of Ms. White-trash “Yummo” Gourmand herself Rachel Ray, I am a cook and nothing more. And to add to that, I am Impatient Cook, a Cook who “makes do” when she doesn’t have everything called for in a recipe, a Low-key, Unpretentious Cook. The Modest Cook. Anyway, whatever. I’m cheap but I love to eat things that are good, are regional, organic, and healthy.


My boyfriend’s parents were visiting this weekend and we spent the day exploring a local apple orchard. My mom had told me to ask about “seconds” – apples not nice enough to package up and sell for $2 a pound. Well, this particular orchard did not have seconds for sale, but they did offer “ground apples” that we would go and pick up that had fallen off the trees for 35 cents a pound! So we came home with $9 worth of ground apples, and a need to start cooking with apples RIGHT AWAY!


Creamy Apple Cole Slaw

¼ T. white sugar

¼ T. brown sugar

½ c. Hellmann’s Lite Mayo

2 T. 1% milk

2 T. white vinegar

¼ Honey Crisp apple, grated

1 t. celery salt

¼ c. lite plain yogurt

1 t. dried onion

1 T. horseradish mustard

Pepper to taste

Mix together first 7 ingredients. Mix well. Add 1 package “Fresh Express” coleslaw cabbage. Mix. Add last 4 ingredients. Let sit room temp (assuming you will be eating it with dinner) for about 30 minutes to let the flavors mingle.


There actually was a “Battle Apple” on Iron Chef America. Mark Tarbell vs Cat Cora – but no where online can I find what was cooked except for this blog post http://www.weinr.com/09-17-2007/iron-chef-america-battle-apple/ which said the deserts by the challenger were a trio of apples - one coated in caramel/toffee, one coated in chocolate, and one coated in the classic red candy, and by the Iron Chef also presented a caramel apple. There was also a pork and apple dish by the challenger that wasn’t liked by the judges (but the rest of his dishes were enough to beat the Iron Chef.)


I did find an “amature” iron chef competition online that listed their dishes:

* Spinach and Bellflower apple salad with Farmstead Artisan Goat Cheese, candied peanuts and green heirloom tomatoes
* Pan seared duck breast with Jonalicious gastrique, pureed apple and butternut squash, and candied apples
* Naked Pie: Caramelized Spizenburg apples with Calvados and vanilla ice cream

by: http://foodwoolf.com/search?q=battle+apple


VS.

* Fennel Apple Salad with Apple Vinaigrette
* Apple Risotto with Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Apple Salsa
* Apple Fritters with Homemade Ricotta and Almond Honey

by http://www.spicysaltysweet.com/archives/127#more-127

Two other "apple battle" websites are this one - which is concerned with vegan fare:
http://veganchefbattle.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=31

And this one which has some nice pictures of their final apple dishes!
http://masticatewithme.blogspot.com/2007/04/irrrrron-chef-u.html