Stuffed Purple Onions and Apples

I saw a picture in a Waitrose magazine (an English upscale supermarket, has it’s own publication) of gorgeous stuffed purple onions and I loved how it looked so much I decided to do this. I didn’t copy down the recipe and sorta winged it but aside from the spectacular presentation this makes, it tastes fab!!

Now I originally planned to make it for Passover so I wracked my brains to find a soy sauce substitute (we don’t usually get them in Israel and this year due to the virus, no substitute was to be found) and ya know what? I like the combo so much that even when soy sauce is available I will play with this in future.

Also, I had some apples to hand I wanted to use since they were sitting around awhile and beginning to look a bit sad and I said to myself, hmmm I like this combo.

While this is not difficult, it’s not a really fast recipe so it’s something you might wish to save for a special occasion, and the combo of onion, apple and meat is really delish. For the vegetarians amongst us, you could sub out the meat with portabello mushrooms for a nice meaty flavor and texture.

So, start with some medium to large size purple onion, preferably in a rounded shape for ease of prep. Also, if you have some nice apples (I had Pink Ladies so that’s what I used) but any apple that won’t dissolve with cooking is fine.

Now the purpose of these fruit and veg is to hollow them out to be stuffed but the flavor of the vessel is important as well. So pick nice fruit and veg! Peel your apples and onions and chop about 1/3 of the tops off (don’t throw it out, you will use it). Core the apples and remove the extra apple bits that are good and chop and with the onions, carefully remove most of the innards, retaining enough for the onion to become a little pot, so to speak, like so:

As you see, the onions bottoms are open but it don’t matter none, since the meat mixture will not escape during the cooking (the onion will be flat against the bottom of your frying pan). As you see, you have a nice amount of chopped onion from this and a bit less apple. The apples are trickier so leave more of an apple “wall” so it doesn’t crack. (one of mine did as you can see. I used it anyway but although delish, less “presentable”).

I chopped up both the onion and apple and you can start sauteeing first the onion in the frying pan with the oil and after a few minutes add the chopped apples and while that is happening, prepare your meat mixture.

The scent is awesome, by the by.

Now take the chopped meat, oats, egg, silan, dissolved coffee and mix together.

Next remove the sauteed onion and apple from the pan and add to the meat mixture.

Mix that lusciousness thoroughly together. Now take your cored and slightly hollowed out apples and the onions and gently stuff the meat mixture into it, piling high if need be or simply using a couple more apples or onions.

I simply had no more purple onions or apples left so I went with the high piling. Next, place in a large frying pan, the sauce ingredients- the coffee, jam and silan (and fresh slice of ginger, my jam had ginger in it) and briefly cook till liquid

and then add the apples and onions.

Add a cup of boiling water and cover either with a lid or two sheets of aluminium foil.

Cook for about 30 minutes, on medium low heat and peek after 25 minutes to see how it’s coming along. The onion should be soft when pierced with a skewer or toothpick and the apple should be al dente – a little less than fully soft since we don’t want applesauce.

Serve to the absolute delight of family and guests and if you serve one of each as I did, it’s really a main course, swoon worthy!

Stuffed Purple Onions and Apples

4 medium apples, peeled, cored
3 purple onions, peeled, 1/3 of top cut off and hollowed out (see above)
2 tablespoons oil
1 1/5 pounds (750 grams) chopped meat
1/2 cup quick oats or 1/3-1/2 cup almond flour (or 1/4 cup potato starch)
2 tablespoons silan (date syrup)
1 egg
1 teaspoon dissolved instant coffee in a teaspoon of hot water

Sauce

1 tablespoon instant coffee
1/2 cup apricot or orange jam/marmalade or other jam
2-3 tablespoons silan
A slice of fresh ginger
1 cup boiling water

Directions:

First prep the onion and apple and chop up the innards (see above pics) (without core, of course) of both in separate piles. Sautee the onion in the oil and after it cooks about 3 minutes, add the apple and cook a bit. While it cooks, prepare the meat mixture.

Mix together the chopped meat, oats, silan and dissolved coffee till combined. After the onion and apple mixture is cooked about 8 minutes or so, add right in the meat mixture (no need to cool down since you are immediately preparing the rest) and mix till combined.

Stuff the apples and onions, packing lightly but this is a lot of mixture so you may either pile high or add more apple or onion and make a few more. Set aside.

Take the sauce ingredients and melt together briefly in same frying pan as onion and apple were sauteed in. Add the cup of boiling water and place the stuffed goodies in pan. Cover tightly with a lid or two layers of tin foil and cook on medium low for about 30 minutes (peek after 25). Gently test the onion and apple with a skewer or toothpick. Onion should be easily pierced and apple al dente (a little pushback) since you don’t want it to dissolve with overcooking. Serve with sauce from the cooking in the frying pan, drizzled over one onion and one apple plated or you can serve the whole lot on a pretty platter with sauce spooned over to the enormous visual and gastronomic delight of all.