Apple and Fennel Salad with Candied Pecans

Courtesy of Chef Alon Shaya, Excerpted from “Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel”

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

This salad is fun to eat, so crisp and fresh, especially in the fall and winter. As simple as it is to throw together, the flavor combinations are striking. Candied pecans are, hands down, better than pretty much any – thing else (make a huge batch and hoard some for snacking or gifting). However, if you don’t have the time to make them, they can be replaced with simple toasted nuts — the dressing’s got enough flavor to pull its own weight, helped along by the scallions and pink pepper.

Ingredients

1 egg white

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons Morton kosher salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

1 cup pecan halves

3 tablespoons orange juice

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 large apples, preferably Pink Lady or another sweet-tart variety

1 large fennel bulb, with its fronds

4 scallions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons whole pink peppercorns

Directions

Heat the oven to 325 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a large glass or metal bowl, beat the egg white until it’s frothy enough to hold soft peaks. Mix in the sugar, ½ teaspoon salt and Aleppo pepper, then fold in the pecans until they’re evenly coated. Spread this mixture over the prepared baking sheet and bake on the center rack for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating halfway through. You’ll know the nuts are done when they smell great and the coating has completely dried. Keep in mind that if you taste one while it’s still hot, it will be a little soft. The nuts become crunchy as they cool, so go by sight and smell rather than texture. 

Combine the orange juice, vinegar, honey and remaining 1 teaspoon of salt. Whisk vigorously while you stream in the olive oil, mixing until it emulsifies into a smooth dressing. Set aside. Core the apples and thinly slice them into half-moons. Pull the fronds from the fennel, remove the stems and cut the bulb in half. Thin – ly slice the bulb, and chop or tear the fronds. Toss the fennel and fronds together with the scallions in a large bowl. Lightly crush the pepper – corns between your fingertips as you add them. 

Pour in all the dressing. Delicately toss to combine. Add the nuts just before serving.

Chef Rossi, founder of The Raging Skillet and author of a memoir by the same name as well as “The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews,” is known as the anti-caterer. Her alternative apple recipes will add fun to any holiday meal. 

“When I was a kid, I wondered why we couldn’t have charoset all year long — why did it just have to be on Passover?” Rossi says. “One day I was working on a menu for a client who wanted an interesting ice cream topping, and out of my mouth came, ‘What about charoset?’” 

My client loved the idea, and French vanilla ice cream topped with charoset was born! 

“Since then, I’ve tried it on sea salt and caramel, butter pecan and dark chocolate ice creams,” Rossi says. “But I do love keeping the ice cream simple and letting the charoset do the singing.”

Rossi’s Family’s Ashkenazi Charoset Recipe 

Every family has a different way of making charoset, but for me, it can only be one way. McIntosh apples — no other apple will do for me — walnut halves lightly toasted, ground cinnamon and Manischewitz sickeningly sweet concord grape wine. 

Ingredients

About 6 apples

3 coffee cups of walnut halves

1 coffee cup of wine

A few good smidgens of ground cinnamon

A lot of folks like to sweeten this up with honey or brown sugar, but I

am not one of them

Directions

Rough chop the apples. No need to peel them. Chop the walnuts. 

Throw the apples, walnuts, cinnamon and wine in the food processor and pulse just a few times. Some folks use grape juice instead of wine. I am not one of them. 

Serve over ice cream for a festive High Holiday dessert!

Not Your Grandma’s Apple Slaw Dressing

Ingredients

Apple cider vinegar

Maple syrup

Mustard

Salt and pepper

Apples

Directions

Whisk up a few shots of apple cider vinegar with three or four good drizzles of maple syrup to balance it out. Then whisk in a spoonful of mustard, almost any kind, and a pinch each of salt and freshly ground pepper. 

Julienne three apples. I prefer Granny Smith apples for this. A good tart apple is sexiest, in my book. There is no need to peel the apples. Praise the Lord. Who likes peeling apples? 

Toss into your dressing, and the apples will never turn color. Even a day later, I love to mix with julienned fennel or peeled and julienned jicama, about as much as you had apples.

Green Apple Chimichurri

Ingredients

Cilantro

Onion

Jalapeno

Garlic

Ground cumin

Ground coriander

Ground chili powder

Lime juice

Granny Smith Apples

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Directions

Wash and dry a heaping handful of fresh cilantro. Toss into the food processor. 

Throw in a handful of peeled and rough chopped raw onion, one half of jalapeño, one or two cloves of fresh garlic, a smidgen each of ground cumin, ground coriander and ground chili powder, and a shot of fresh lime juice. Puree. 

Then toss in a handful of rough chopped apples. Puree. 

Adjust seasoning with salt and freshly ground pepper. Pour in a few drizzles of olive oil, then puree one more time. If you like it spicy, add the other half of jalapeño. I have also added fresh oregano and parsley, which is lovely, but it’s fabulous as is. 

I serve this as an empanada dip. It’s also great as a topping for seared fish and roast chicken.

Author Aaron Hamburger sees apples as such a natural pairing with the holiday: “A sweet fruit emblematic of the season, with its red, yellow and green flecked skins that echo the changing colors of the leaves outside as summer turns to autumn.” 

Growing up, he knew fall had arrived when his mother started making apple crisp. 

“An apple-lover, Mom frequently made this no-fuss recipe using juicy McIntosh apples that fell apart into a sweet, delicious mash topped with a deep-brown layer of cinnamon and then a sugary crust that I used to shatter with my spoon,” recalls Hamburger, a writer, baker and recipe maker. “Interviewing Mom recently, I was surprised to learn that she never sweetened the apples, relying instead on their natural sweetness and their pairing with the sugary topping.” 

Hamburger has made this dish countless times over the years, adding different elements like chopped rolled oats or nuts to the topping and varying the fruit by season: strawberry-rhubarb for spring, peach-blueberry for summer. 

“It’s always a crowd pleaser,” he says. “But it’s this classic apple version that fills me with nostalgia for my childhood in Michigan and the simple pleasures of celebrating Rosh Hashanah with family.”