I can't resist foraging apples or the seedheads from sumac. And this super simple dessert is irresistable too! Come into my post to see how easy and incredibly delicious this Apple-Sumac Snow really is!
In the Forest - Foraging Apples
I grow 14 different apples here at Haphazard Homestead -- and I just bought two more trees, too! But when I ran across an old, abandoned orchard in the hills along the Oregon coast, I couldn't resist gathering them up and bringing them home. It's a good thing I did, too! I'll tell you more about that in a future post.
I don't know what kind of apples these are, but they are tasty. And because the orchard was in a forest, far from other apple trees, they were in wonderful shape -- no pest damage at all!
In the Kitchen - Cooking Apples
This dish is so easy. There's only 4 ingredients - peeled apples, sumac spice, sugar, and egg whites. That's it! I peeled the apples and put them right away into a saucepan, with a little water, to cook until they were soft.
I'm using Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra). The hairs are shorter than on Staghorn Sumac (R. typhina). But any kind of red-seeded sumac works just the same. This is the same Sumac Spice I used a couple weeks ago in my Pear Sampler entry for the Steemit Iron Chef contest. I also made a post about using it to make a Faux Pink Lemonade. And I have a YouTube video on how to make a great Wild Sumac Sorbet, too. I like Sumac!
I'll write a post about how to forage and make this Sumac Spice, sometime soon. In the meantime, here's what I do. I rub the sumac seeds off their seedhead. I put them in a blender for a couple quick grinds, just to separate the parts of the seeds. With sumac, it's the little hairs on the outside of the seed that are tart, like a lemon. The inner seed is hard! I rub the quick-ground sumac through a wire strainer, to get those hard seeds out - leaving the fine hairs as my Sumac Spice.
Once my cooked apples were soft, I pureed them and the sumac spice in a blender, with a bit of sugar, to make a flavorful and colorful applesauce. I cooled the applesauce in the refrigerator. Then I beat the whites of 3 eggs until they made hard peaks. I folded the egg whites into the cooled applesauce. That's it!
I did pick some spearmint and fennel flowers from my yard, to chop and drop on top of my Apple-Sumac Snow.
On My Plate - Eating Apple-Sumac Snow
This dessert is so simple, but so good. It's light and fluffy. It's so full of flavors -- apple, the lemon tartness of the sumac, and the bright counterpoints of spearmint and fennel. I would order this at a restaurant, every time!
What Do You Think?
- Do you have a favorite apple variety?
- Have you ever foraged apples in an old orchard?
- Have you ever eaten Sumac?
- Would you eat my Wild Apple-Sumac Snow?
I eat a lot of wild plants and show you how, because I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wild places.
I would like Steemit to be the premier site for Foraging on the Internet! If you have any thoughts about foraging, or experiences to share, write a post and be sure to use the Foraging tag. And check out the @foraging-trail to see curated quality posts about foraging. Happy Foraging!
Thanks @progressivechef for creating the Steemit Iron Chef contest series. I haven't been able to be on Steemit much lately, but I can't miss the contest series or I would miss out on my 1 point! ;D
Plant List
- Apples Malus pumila - fruit
- Smooth Sumac Rhus glabra - red seedhairs
- Spearmint Mentha spicata - leaves
- Fennel Foeniculum vulgare - flowers
