Have You Had an Apple Entrée?

Probably not.

I have sampled food in different parts of the world, but I have not seen an apple entrée anywhere other than in my native Kashmir, India. This experience is my motivation to blog about an apple dish.

Specifically, I will share a recipe for apples and eggplants from Kashmiri cuisine (get an overview of Kashmiri cuisine here). Apples feature in many other cuisines but in desserts and sides, not in the main course. For example, in American cuisine, apples are used in baked confections, sauces, spreads, and the like.

It is exciting to cook with an unusual ingredient, so do try my recipe. Before sharing the recipe, let me talk about its two mainstays.

Apples

I have fond childhood memories of apples from visits to my grandpa’s enchanting apple orchard in Kashmir. My parents had wanted to live in a cottage in this orchard after my father retired. But that was not to be, given the Hindu exodus from Kashmir (read about it here).

In traditional Kashmiri cooking, the recipe I am writing about calls for quince, not apple. Quince is a pear-shaped tart fruit with a taste of apple and pear. An apple cousin, if you will. In Kashmiri, apple is called choonth, and quince is called bum-choonth.

Quince, which is tough, is cooked and not eaten raw. The need to cook quince probably gave birth to the quince and eggplant dish in Kashmiri cuisine.

Because quince is not widely available, many Kashmiri households, especially those in urban areas or outside Kashmir, substitute tart apple for quince. I, too, use tart apples. Typically, I use Granny Smith apples.

The apples for this recipe must be tart but not very sour. And firm. You do not want the apples to disintegrate during cooking. Granny Smith apples hold up well when cooked.

Eggplants

Unlike my apple memories, I do not have fond childhood memories of eggplants. Seeing eggplant at dinner/lunch gave me the creeps as a child. The kind I get from seeing reptiles.

I took to eggplant, eventually, after having lip-smacking baingan bhartha at roadside eateries.

I am not surprised that I started to like eggplant. It is the fifth most consumed vegetable worldwide. It must be this popular for a reason. I know my mother valued it for its versatility.

Notably, the more widely consumed purple eggplant contributes to meeting the nutritionally recommended goal of eating vegetables of many different colors.

I do have a gripe about eggplant, though! Its spongy flesh absorbs a lot of oil when fried. Too bad because my recipe calls for frying it. On the plus side, the spongy flesh soaks up thick sauce and spice flavors nicely.

Eggplants have a bitterness to them. The bitterness increases with age, size, and seed level and varies with eggplant variety. For this dish, use fresh, firm, and slender eggplants, which typically are not bitter. The Chinese/Japanese eggplant is the most suited and the plump globe variety is the least suited.

To decrease oil absorption and bitterness, you could sweat eggplants before frying them. Sprinkle salt on eggplant slices and let sit for about an hour. Gently rinse the salt off, dry, and then fry.

Salted eggplant releases moisture, which gets trapped in the spongy flesh’s air pockets, and inhibits oil absorption during frying. The moisture release also debitters the eggplant.

An alternative to traditional frying is to use an air fryer. For this recipe, however, air-fried eggplant is not a preferred substitute.

Apples and Eggplants (choonth vangun)

Recipe Ingredients 

3 medium-sized Granny Smith apples
3 skinny eggplants (one 6-8 inch long eggplant per apple)
¼ teaspoon asafetida
3 cloves
1 one-inch flat cinnamon stick
1 black cardamom
1&1/2 teaspoons fennel powder
½ teaspoon ginger powder
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 green chili (2 if you wish)
1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
vegetable/mustard oil as needed for frying
3 tablespoons mustard oil for cooking
2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1-2 teaspoons lemon juice

1. Quarter and core the apples. Do not peel the skin. The skin will keep the apple quarters intact during cooking.
2. Quarter the eggplants
3. Heat oil in a pan. Shallow-fry eggplant slices, fleshy side down, until they turn brownish. Place the fried eggplant slices on a plate with thick paper towels to drain excess oil.
4. Fry apple quarters face down until they turn slightly brownish; it will take a couple of minutes.
5. Pour three tablespoons of mustard oil (see Notes at the end) into a pan and heat until the oil is hot. Lower the heat.
6. Add cumin seeds and wait until they sizzle.
7. Add asafetida and let it sizzle for a few seconds.
8. Add cloves and cinnamon.
9. Add turmeric powder and Kashmiri red chili powder. Immediately add a cup of water to ensure the chili powder does not burn. Stir for a few seconds.
10. Add ginger powder, fennel powder, green chili, black cardamom, and salt, and mix well for a minute.
11. Add apple quarters and stir to coat them with the spice mix. Stir fry for a few seconds. Add one cup of water, cover the pot, and heat for three to five minutes.
12. Add eggplant slices and lime juice. Note that the eggplants are already cooked through frying. They need to be infused with spice and apple flavors.
13. Cover the pot and heat for five minutes on medium flame. The goal is to cook the apple quarters to the right tenderness (become mushy), infuse the apples and eggplants with the spice flavors, and have a thickish gravy.
14. Set the dish aside for a few hours to let the flavors migrate and intermingle. Storing the dish overnight will make it even more flavorful.
15. Serve with white rice.

Substitutions

• You can substitute a neutral-tasting oil, such as canola or soybean, for mustard oil.
• If you can get quince, use it instead of apple (duh!). Because quince is tough, you can peel its skin and not have it disintegrate during cooking. Quince requires a longer cooking time than apple.
• If you dislike eggplant, you might consider substituting potato for eggplant.
• The recipe here is from the Hindu cooking tradition of Kashmiri cuisine. Onions and garlic do not feature in traditional Kashmiri Hindu cooking, and a fried mix of onions, garlic, ginger, and tomatoes is not used as a gravy base. You could include onions and garlic if you so wish.

Enjoy!

Fruits are good for you. So are vegetables. Even better is a combo of fruits and vegetables. Let this dish of apples and eggplants be that combo. You will enjoy its comforting taste.

bon appétit

NOTES

Adjust cooking times as needed. In the cooked dish, the apple quarters should be a bit mushy but intact. Eggplant slices should be intact too.

The authentic taste of Kashmiri food comes with mustard oil. To mellow the pungency of mustard oil, heat it until it smokes, let it cool a little, and then cook. By doing so, you will have a mild flavor from the mustard oil. However, if you like the distinct taste of mustard oil, there is no need to smoke the oil. Cooking in smoked oil is unhealthy because, at the smoking point, the oil molecules degrade to bad stuff. The mustard oil flavor in the dish will depend on how much you heated the oil.

In the United States, you can buy mustard oil in Indian grocery stores. In compliance with FDA regulations, mustard oil sold in the United States is labeled “for external use only.” The Erucic acid in mustard oil is considered harmful to cardiovascular health; the evidence is sketchy, though. Millions of South Asian households use mustard oil as a cooking medium every day.

Don’t substitute regular red chili powder for Kashmiri red chili powder. Kashmiri chili powder is much milder in heat and imparts a deep red color.

Technically, eggplant is a fruit, but perception is reality.

Entrée has different meanings in different parts of the world. In American English, entrée refers to the main dish.