Wanna make something fun? Let’s stuff a few apples. This dish just screams autumn to me! Not entirely sure why. Found it in one of those old fashioned ‘grandma cooks’ cookbooks some time ago and it immediately caught my eye. It looked so cheerful and playful, I simply had to make it. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t alter, tweak and adjust a few things, of course.

The freshness and sweetness of the apples combines amazingly well with the spiced up meat, the creamy cheese and the soft onions. Especially when you give the meat a smokey kind of seasoning. The fun part is you can add whatever you like. Keep the recipe basic, or add some mushrooms, leeks, chopped bell peppers or chili pepper.

Just add your own flavors and make the recipe your own. That’s the joy of cooking.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
8 apples (sweet/sour)
2 medium onions
1 1/s tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 heaping tsp paprika powder
1/4 heaping tsp taco seasoning
1 tomato (or 1 tsp tomato paste)
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cayenne
worcestershire sauce
cheese

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350.

Chop one of the onions.

Grab a bowl and combine 1 1/2 tsp salt with 1 heaping tsp sweet paprika, 1 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/4 tsp cayenne and a heaping 1/4 tsp taco seasoning.

Now give it a good stir until it looks something like this.

Grate 1 large, or 2 medium, garlic cloves.

Cook the meat until brown and drain the fat. I’ve used lean meat so didn’t have an awful lot to drain.

Once it starts to brown, lower the heat and add the onions and garlic. Cook until the onions are slightly translucent.

Now I ran out of tomato paste or that would have been my first choice (1 tsp). I chopped a medium tomato and added it. No, that’s not a bad focus, not a bad depth of field, it’s artistic photographic freedom!

Also get a good splash of Worcestershire sauce in there.

Now add the spice mix we’ve created earlier and 1/4 cup chicken broth. Just let it softly simmer until most of the liquid has evaporized.

I’ve only used 4 apples in my recipe and used the left over meat for another recipe. But this is enough meat to royally fill 8 apples. You’ll want to use juicy, sweet & sour apples for this.

Get your apples out of their pretty coats, slice their tops off and scoop out the flesh. I’m sure there are easier ways to do this than spooning it out with a dessert spoon, I just can’t think of one right now.

Grab the second onion and slice it in really thin rings.

Lightly grease an oven dish. Yes, there’s my low fat liquid butter again. Can’t help it, I just love the stuff. Now admit I really did capture the action!

Fill your apples with meat & onion mixture!

Place them in the oven dish and top them with tiny pieces of cheese (or use grated cheese) and throw a few onions rings on top. Now put a little bit of butter on there as well to make sure the onions cook rather than just turn brown, or worse, black.

Put them in a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Garnish with some freshly chopped chives or parsley and dig in. They’re fun!