Hungarians sometimes flavour savoury dishes with a bit of sugar. Still it would have been unusual to serve meat with a sweet sauce or with a sweet accompaniment when I was growing up. This reminds me of the good old days and the old Prince Rupert Hospital, staying for 6 days of real rest following normal childbirth, the babies whisked in for feeding and then whisked out and you could pick what you ate from the menu and the food was made fresh and lovely right there in the kitchen... When my son was born the nurses brought in a new immigrant and asked me to translate. After that until I went home I had a constant visitor. Most of our discussions circled around food and her dismay over the strangeness of it. When we got a huge ham steak with pineapple sauce and mashed potatoes she rushed into my room “that good ham was smothered in a sweet sauce!” While it was comfort food for most of us, to the lady it was total sacrilege. And even though I enjoyed my meal, I knew what she was talking about. Expectations on food of course vary but some preferences never change. Over the years of course I realized that fruit goes nicely with pork as long as it is used with restraint. The amount of dressing this recipe makes is just right for stuffing a large pork roast or if baked in a casserole dish it can serve six people as a dressing.
APPLE DRESSING
4 slices of light rye bread
1/3 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 apple, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp thyme
2 sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped
butter
• Cube 4 slices of light rye.
• Place bread cubes in a large bowl and set it aside.
• Chop the onions and set it aside in a separate small bowl.
• Chop the celery and set it aside in a separate small bowl.
• Peel, core and and thinly slice the apple and set it aside in a separate small bowl.
• Sauté the onions in 2 Tbsp of olive oil until soft.
• Add the celery and continue cooking for a couple of minutes.
• Add the sautéed onions and celery to the bread cubes.
• Add the shredded apple.
• Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme and parsley.
• With clean hands loosely combine.
• Butter a small casserole dish.
• Bake at 350F until bread cubes begin to get a little colour, but make sure they don’t brown.
