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Stewed Apples with Rice
Pare and core some large Russet apples and place in a saucepan with sufficient water to cover them, simmering gently on the side of the fire until they are quite tender. Clean and blanch some rice, put in a saucepan with a little milk, sugar and salt to taste, set on the fire, and as the milk is absorbed, pour in a little more. Continue in this way until the rice is quite cooked and firm, and all the milk is absorbed. Turn out onto a dish, put the apples on it, fill the spaces between them with some rice, and place in the oven until light brown.
A simple two-part dish: whole poached apples set on a bed of milk-cooked rice and browned. The instructions assume a coal range and a cook who knows what "firm" rice looks like, so a few specifics help.
- QuantitiesOscar gives none. For four servings, figure four apples, about 3/4 cup short- or medium-grain rice, 3 cups whole milk, 2-3 tablespoons sugar and a pinch of salt.
- Russet applesAmerican russets are heirloom varieties now sold mainly at orchards and farmers' markets. Any firm apple that holds its shape when poached will do -- Braeburn, Golden Delicious or a good baking apple. Avoid McIntosh, which collapses.
- "The side of the fire"This means the cooler edge of a coal range, i.e. a bare simmer with no visible rolling boil. On a modern burner use the lowest setting and keep the apples barely trembling; 15-25 minutes depending on size. A knife should slide in with no resistance.
- Blanching the riceAn older step: the rice is dropped into boiling water for a few minutes, drained, then finished in milk. It removes surface starch and shortens the milk cooking. Not strictly necessary, but it does give a less gluey result.
- Adding the milk graduallyThe technique is risotto-like and needs attention. Stir often, add milk in small additions as it is absorbed, and keep the heat low -- milk scorches on the bottom of the pan long before it looks like it is burning. Reckon on 30-40 minutes total.
- "Quite cooked and firm"The rice should hold a shape when mounded, not slump like pudding. That is the hinge of the dish: too loose and the apples sink and the whole thing will not brown.
- BrowningThe recipe gives no temperature, only 'the oven'. A hot oven, in the region of 425F for 10-15 minutes, or 3-4 minutes under the broiler, will do it. It is colour you are after, not further cooking. A dusting of sugar on top helps it take on colour.
- ServingServe warm, in the dish it browned in. Cream or a thin custard sauce would not be out of place, though the recipe says nothing about accompaniments or about when the dish was served.
Rice cooked slowly in milk with sugar is one of the oldest sweet dishes in European cookery, and by the late nineteenth century it appeared on hotel menus in many guises -- moulded, baked, ringed with fruit. Setting poached whole apples on a bed of it, then glazing the top in the oven, resembles the French *pommes a la Conde*, in which apples are arranged on a sweetened rice base, though nothing in the recipe shows it was derived from that dish. Russets were among the American keeping apples of the period, dense-fleshed and available through the winter from cellar storage.