3428. BAKED GRAVENSTEIN APPLE with BACON, CORNBREAD and PORCINI STUFFING

15 grams dried porcini mushrooms (about ½ oz.)
¼ cup boiling water
½ cup cornbread crumbles
2 strips applewood bacon
2 green onions
½ stalk celery, small dice
1 leaf fresh sage, chiffonade
6 Gravenstein apples
1 stick butter, salted
1 tablespoon Kosher Salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Soak porcini mushrooms in boiling water. Once softened, remove mushrooms from water, reserving water, and chop into a small dice.

Toast cornbread crumbles in a 350 degree oven until lightly browned (about 8 minutes).

Cut bacon crosswise into ¼ inch sections and render in a skillet over medium heat until crispy.
Remove bacon from pan, reserving the fat in the pan.

Cut green onions into ⅛ inch rings, separating green tops from white bases. Sauté white sections of onions with chopped celery and mushrooms in the reserved bacon fat over medium heat until slightly softened (about 2 minutes). Remove from heat.

Fold toasted cornbread, sage and reserved mushroom liquid into sauté pan and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To assemble apples, using an apple corer, remove cores of all six apples. Cut ¼-inch off of the top of each apple. With a small spoon, carve out the center of each apple three-quarters of the way down, leaving ½-inch sidewalls. Rub apples inside and out with butter and sprinkle with sugar and salt. Fill apples with the stuffing and bake on a sheet pan at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until apples soften.


bacon recipe source: Brandon Guenther, Rocker Oysterfeller's, 14415 Shoreline Hwy, Valley Ford, CA 94972; via Sonoma County Tourism, 3637 Westwind Blvd, Santa Rosa, CA 95403, August 8, 2013