Saturday, November 10, 2012

St.Jacob's Country 2012

Seems a trip to St.Jacob's farmer's market has become our yearly tradition.   We love to make the trip west to visit the market and buy apples and of course those delicious apple fritters... it's always such fun!!

This year with all the rain we were worried the apples wouldn't be so good because I've been hearing this everywhere but we got a pretty good bunch of Ambrosia's and the fritters were delicious as always. Picked up a few other interesting ingredients for the first time like candy cane beets and black radishes (stay tuned to see what I can come up with)   I couldn't resist the blue potatoes and the bunch of Shiitake mushrooms (they're so healthy!)
We packed montreal smoked meat sandwiches, some sliced brie, my sister brought along some homemade oatmeal cookies that she baked and even though we originally went to st.Jacob's to buy apples I took some apples with me for snacking (check out the neat trick that I discovered for keeping sliced  packed apples from going brown) and of course we had to stop into walmart (just like the last year's trip, post here!) where we found these amazing non-alcoholic margaritas, we just loved them last year and so we continued the tradition and picked up some more along with the canned sangria's and had quite a nice lunch in the car.

Don't forget if you head over to St.Jacob's to check out the TWO antique markets, we thought there was only one but accidentally discovered another one this time.  Also the country bulk is really nice, it is right in the same building as the antique market and has an entrance on the side.  The saffron and vanilla beans are such a good price that I stock up whenever I'm there once a year.

If you want to make these apple fritters or fried apple rings try this recipe, it's one of the few I found online and from a show called "Ciao Italia" which I used to watch on saturday's on PBS's cooking lineup.  There is a video too on the site, here 



Fried Apple Rings
Anelli di Mele


INGREDIENTS

1 teaspoon active dried yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 F)
1/2 cup dry white wine at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pinch salt
1 cup King Arthur™ Unbleached, All-Purpose Flour
3 large (about 3/4 pound) Golden Delicious apples, cored and cut into 1/4-inch thick rounds
1/2 to 3/4 cup vegetable oil for frying
Confectioners sugar


DIRECTIONS

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and allow it to stand for 5 minutes or until it looks chalky and bubbly. Whisk in the wine, sugar, egg, olive oil and salt. Mix well. Whisk in the flour to make a smooth looking batter. Cover and allow the mixture to rest for 1 hour at room temperature.

Dip the apple slices, a few at a time, in the batter making sure they are well coated.

Heat 1/2 cup of the oil in a skillet and, when it begins to shimmer, add the apple slices a few at a time. Do not crowd them. Fry them until golden brown on each side.

As they fry transfer them to a baking sheet lined with paper towels to drain. Keep them warm in a low oven until all the slices have been fried. Add more oil to the pan as necessary.

Transfer the slices to a serving platter and sprinkle them with confectioner's sugar.
























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