Cook This!

[Michael Brunelle]

Yesterday I bought some really good cooking apples that were grown locally. This part of Virginia and especially the nearby Shenandoah Valley were historically important suppliers of apples to the rest of the country. The Albemarle Pippin is as local as you can get here in Albemarle County. I do not remember the name of the apples, but they were not pretty in the grocery store sense of the word. Most of the local apples are smallish and multicolored, with tones ranging from yellow to green to brown to red. They are beautiful in the way that Basque apples are beautiful, where ugly is skin deep. Over there apples get better the longer they are kept. Traditionally, apples were kept in a large wood chest, packed in grain so they were not touching each other, and they would last through the winter months. They rarely went bad, but they did begin to dry and wrinkle, and improve with age as the flavor became more concentrated.

Speaking of apples and Basques, (who drank more cider than wine until a century ago), I found a great apple cake recipe in a cookbook I bought in the Basque country. It is the specialty of a pastry shop in Vitoria, and I like it because it is easy and delicious. In Spain recipe measures are by weight rather than by volume, but I Americanized this one so I could make it here. The Basque name is Sagar Opil, or Apple Cake.

SAGAR OPIL
Confitería Alberdi - Vitoria

Ingredientes:
6 oz softened butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups flour
4 eggs
grated peel of 1 lemon
3 large apples peeled and cut into pieces
1 greased cake pan 10" x 2" high
raw slivered almonds

Cream the sugar and softened butter. Then carefully add the well-beaten eggs and the grated lemon zest. When they are completely mixed add the flour a little at a time. Do not overmix it.
Put half the batter in the mold, and spread the apples over it. Then add the rest of the batter on top and cover with the slivered almonds.
Bake at 325º F for about one hour.

The butter and sugar are in the bowl, the eggs ready for beating, and apples are on deck. Actually, I got ahead of myself and added the flour too soon.

The apples are peeled and cut into pieces

The eggs and flour have been mixed with the butter and sugar, and half the batter poured into the mold. Then the apples are layered on top.

The remaining batter is poured over the apples (its quite thick), and slivered almonds are spread on top.

After one hour in the oven at 325º it looks like this.

It always turns out well. (Note that no garlic was used in this recipe despite its appearance in this photograph).