If you’re at all like me, you often find yourself with odds and ends in the kitchen – ingredients from something else which, while not needed for said something else, will indeed go bad and make you feel shamefully wasteful if they do. Also, you probably like having tasty condiments around with which you can spruce up any drab leftovers of the already-cooked variety. I had just such a situation recently, and ended up making something surprisingly delicious from it.
My odds and ends:
1 Fuji apple, still crisp but on the verge of going soft
2 stalks of celery, which I refuse to refrigerate because it kills the flavor and so they must be used ASAP
1/3 of a yellow onion, also unrefrigerated, left from making something else
3 strips bacon, and why would you waste that?
I always keep on hand, and thus had: cloves, sugar, flour, white pepper, olive oil, cider vinegar and water.
I diced the onion, and sliced the celery (not too thin!), and put these in a saute pan over medium heat to let them begin to caramelize. While that was happening, I made sauce.
I added two pinches of white pepper, a teaspoon of sugar, three cloves, and 1 tsp olive oil to a pyrex glass. I then removed a few pieces of part-cooked celery and onion from the pan, and added them to the glass as well. I covered it all with 2 tbs cider vinegar and 1 cup boiling water, beating in 1 heaping teaspoon of flour.
With that all together, I diced my apple and cut up the bacon into little bits. This I added to my pan once the onions and celery were about 2/3 done. When the apples were beginning to soften and the bacon had maybe half cooked, I upped the heat to high and stirred in my sauce mixture, mixing for about a minute.
When the mixture was all bubbling and hot, I put the heat back to medium-low, and let it reduce until nice and thick, like a compote.
I ate this plain over leftover brown rice, which was more delicious than I’d expected, and will be making it again to put on pork chops, grilled tuna, or, for that matter, more rice.
Adding raisins (sultanas?) instead of the sugar might be a good future variation, as might be adding allspice, perhaps in place of the cloves. But, just this way, it is bloody delicious!