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Butteryum food blog recipes

Filtering by Category: snack recipes

Perfectly Pink Applesauce

Patricia @ ButterYum

Many years ago, my friend Susie taught me how to make her special homemade applesauce.  As far as I'm concerned, any homemade applesauce is special, but hers was even more special because it was always pink!    

Susie's favorite apples to use are Paula Reds, which I can't find where I live, but our local apple orchards grow several varieties of red-skinned apples that make wonderful applesauce so I make do with what is available.  If you can find them, Rome Beauties have a deep red skin, and often they will have streaks of pink running inside them too.  And here's a really neat trick I picked up somewhere along the way - to deepen the pink color even more, toss in a few ruby red or purple plums while cooking the apples.  

I don't find it necessary to add any sugar to my finished applesauce, but you certainly can if you feel your batch needs it - just add it to taste.  Feel free to sprinkle in a little ground cinnamon too, if you like.

A food mill makes it easy to remove the apple skins, but if you don't have one, peel the apples first, then add the peels to the pot while the apples cook.  Pull the peels out before processing the sauce.

Wash apples well, cut in half and remove seeds and stems.  Do not peel the skins.

Cut each half into quarters.

If using plums (optional), cut in half and remove pits.  Do not peel.

Place cut fruit in stockpot.

Add 1 cup of water (or apple juice if you have it).

Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently.

Here's what it should look like after 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool before processing through a food mill.  Store in the refrigerator in airtight containers and use within a week.  Can be frozen as well - just thaw overnight in the fridge. 

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

Perfectly Pink Applesauce

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

  • 4 pounds red-skinned cooking apples (Rome Beauty, Ida Red, Paula Red, etc)

  • 4 dark red or purple-skinned plums (optional)

  • 1 cup water (or apple juice)

Directions

  1. Wash apples well, cut in half, and remove core (don't peel); cut each half into quarters.

  2. Wash plums well, cut in half, and remove pit (don't peel).

  3. In a large stock pot over medium-high heat, combine the apples, plums, and water.

  4. Cook, stirring frequently, for 10-15 minutes or until the apples are soft.

  5. Turn off the heat and allow the apples to cool until you're ready to process them into sauce.

  6. Using a food mill, remove skins and process the apples to the texture you prefer (I like to use the medium disk for applesauce). *see note below if you don’t have a food mill.

  7. Taste and adjust sweetness by adding little sugar if needed (I almost never feel the need to add sugar).

  8. Refrigerate for up to a week, or freeze for up to a year.

Note

  • If you don't have a food mill, here's how you can make the applesauce.  Simply peel the apples and add the peeled skins to the pot while the apples cook, then remove the skins before pulsing apples in a food processor or blender.  For chunky applesauce, use a potato masher.  Also, if you can't find dark colored plums, make you can still make the pink applesauce, but the finished color won't be quite as deep (see photo below).

 

"rome beauty" applesauce made with plums on left; without plums on right

11 Comments
categories fruit recipes, snack recipes, side dish recipes, canning and preserving recipes
tags applesauce recipe, apple recipes

How to Make Amazing Salsa Without a Recipe

Patricia @ ButterYum

How to Make Amazing Salsa Without a Recipe - ButterYum

Hello, my name is Patricia and I'm addicted to salsa.  There, I said it.   Sigh.  

I first had the pleasure of eating salsa when I was 10 years old.  I instantly fell in love with the party that was happening in my mouth and I secretly wished I had been born into a Mexican family.  

Salsa was something we never ever had in my house growing up so I had to wait months or years for the occasional taste.  The minute I moved into my first apartment, I started buying the jarred stuff.  It was pretty good and I was a happy camper.  Not long after that I learned that some Mexican restaurants are happy to sell you their salsa if you ask for it.  I found one that would - the restaurant's salsa was way better than the jarred stuff and I was a very happy camper.  

These days I opt for homemade - it's every bit as good if not better than restaurant salsa.  After making countless recipes, I realized you don't actually need a recipe to make amazing salsa.  You start with fresh vegetables (like tomatoes and in this case sweet peppers - or tomatillos, poblanos, etc).  Add some aromatics (onions, garlic).  Roast everything together to develop some charred flavor, add even more flavor (cilantro, S&P), and finish with a little acid (citrus).   Here's a version that I made from stuff I had in the vegetable bowl that needed to be used before it went bad.  I'll show you how I made it.

how to make amazing Hsalsa without a recipe

Just look at all those wonderful veggies - you know this salsa is going to be amazing!

For this batch, I started with a bunch of black cherry tomatoes that I left whole, several larger red tomatoes that I cut in half, a few whole red hot peppers, lots of whole sweet green banana peppers, a medium white onion that was peeled and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices, and 3 whole garlic cloves with their paper husks left on.

I popped everything under the boiler for about 10 minutes until it looked like this.

I let the veggies cool a bit before I removed the paper husks from the garlic cloves and the stems from the peppers.  Into the trash with those. 

Everything else went into the Vitamix, including any juices that accumulated on the roasting pan.

I had some cilantro leftover from dinner the night before.

So I added a good handful.

I also had half of a lime leftover so I squeezed the juice and added it too.  

I pulsed everything together in my Vitamix until it was exactly the way I like it - not too thick and not too thin.  Lastly, I tasted it for seasoning and determined it needed some salt.  I added about 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt to the 16-ounce jar shown below.    

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze for longer.  Enjoy!

Items used to make this recipe:

(affiliate links)

7 Comments
categories vegetable recipes, snack recipes
tags cinco de mayo recipes