Apples

My friends Mike and Becca hosted an apple party last night. I am a very big fan of apples --- let me illustrate. When I was young (say 3-7 years old) my mother put a lock on the fridge to prevent me from eating too much fruit, mostly apples. I would easily polish off 6 apples in a day, plus some bananas and oranges. At one point in high school I went apple picking with some friends and consumed 18 apples while picking. Last year I brought like 3 bushels of apples back after Rosh Hashana and ate them for a month.
In any case, I now have the credentials of a fan of apples. There was, at the party, a really yummy apple bread. The bread was pretty dark and molasses-y, so the apples had a good contrast to that. Next there was an apple crisp, and then candied apples. My favorite apple-based part of the party was making beer battered apple fries. I'm not 100% sure on the amounts, but you take like a cup of flour, some baking soda and some salt (and a little pepper too) and mix in with a few ounces of beer. Mix, and then chop apples. The apples are then dipped into flour and then covered in the batter. Meanwhile you take a large pot and heat oil. This was the fun part. I never really get to deep fry, and it is a really cool way to cook. If you use canola oil it can get hot enough without smoking to get a nice clean fry without much oil absorption. The apple fries are like tempura and should be eaten pretty quickly, while still hot. The apple gets almost like potato and its sweetness is a little tempered. Overall a yummy recipe. However I doubt I'll make it here any time soon. The only heavy frying I do is for Hannukah when it comes time to make Latkas. Maybe I'll try to make donuts this year too!