Fall Recipes with Susan Ritts

Susan Ritts from Putting on the Ritts Custom Catering shared a few fall recipes and a great dessert for “Apple Week”!

FLANK STEAK AND CHEESE SANDWICH

• 1 large, crusty French baguette
• 1 flank steak, cooked medium rare or to desired wellness
• 6 TBS butter, softened
• 1 cup caramelized onions
• 8-10 slices American cheese
• CGD, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice baguette in half lengthwise and place on work surface. Generously butter both sides of bread. Grill or broil bread on butter side until lightly brown. Slice flank steak into ½ inch slices and overlap on bottom baguette. Top steak with American cheese. If using caramelized onions, layer on cheese slices. Lightly brush CGD on both sides of bread (optional). Cover sandwich with baguette top and wrap tightly with foil. Refrigerate overnight, weighted down. When preparing for your boat day, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Open sandwich and brush with CGD (optional). Re-wrap and bake sandwich for 40-45 minutes. Enjoy on its own or top with caramelized onions and/or crunchy red cabbage coleslaw. Excellent!

CARMELIZED ONIONS

• 2 large red or white onions, sliced cross-wise into 1/4 inch thick slices
• CGD or Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

Coat large frying pan with CGD or oil. Heat over medium-high heat until slightly smoky. Add onions, mixing to coat with oil. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes. Add oil as needed. Lower heat and continue cooking until most onions are translucent, but some are dark brown in places – about 20 minutes. Remove and enjoy!!!

RED CABBAGE COLESLAW

• 1 head red cabbage, thinly sliced and chopped into approximately 1 inch pieces
• 3 large lemons
• 3 tablespoons caraway seeds
• 3/4 cup light mayonnaise
• 1 thinly sliced red onion
• 1-1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper

Place thinly sliced cabbage and onion in a large bowl. Add mayonnaise, salt and pepper and mix well. Slice lemons in half and squeeze juice into cabbage mixture (wrapping lemon halves in cheesecloth will ensure no seeds escape into coleslaw). Mix well. Add 3 tablespoons caraway seeds to cabbage and toss well to thoroughly combine all ingredients. Give the slaw several hours to blend flavors prior to serving, or refrigerate overnight. Remove from refrigerator an hour prior to serving. This is delicious as a side and as a topping on any sandwich.

CUCUMBER/FETA DIP

• 1 cup grated cucumber with skin. Grate to the seeds & then stop
• 1 cup low-fat sour cream
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Freshly ground black pepper & salt to taste

Serve with – warm pita triangles, chips and/or fresh sliced veggies and enjoy!

• OPTIONAL: chopped fresh dill to taste
• Combine all ingredients but grated cucumber and mix well to combine. Chill mixture for 2-3 hours. While mixture is chilling, put grated cucumber in a fine colander, suspend over the sink and press cucumber firmly with paper towels to squeeze out moisture. Leave cucumber in colander and continue to squeeze out moisture periodically for 1-2 hours. If shredded cucumber pieces are long, cut with kitchen shears into bite-sized pieces. After mixture has chilled, add shredded cucumber, mix well to incorporate. Chill until ready to serve.

APPLE STREUSEL BARS WITH CARAMEL SAUCE

Crust:

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup AP flour

Filling:

• 2 large honey crisp apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
• 2 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS AP flour
• 2 TBS cinnamon

Topping:

• 1/2 cups Quaker instant oats
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup AP flour
• 1/4 cup cold butter, into small pieces
• Jarred caramel sauce (optional)

PREHEAT oven to 300. Line an 8×8 or 8×10 pan with foil and spray with non-stick baking spray. Set aside.

Mix crust ingredients together until combined. Press evenly into prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes. While crust is baking, combine filling ingredients in a bowl and toss until evenly incorporated. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix all the topping ingredients except the butter. Then add butter and mix the butter with ingredients (with your hands…pinch and combine butter into dry ingredients until you have a crumble.

Remove crust from oven, increase oven temp to 350. Layer apples on top of crust. Crumble streusel evenly over apples and bake for about 35 minutes or until lightly brown on top. Cool for about an hour and then chill for a few hours or overnight. Drizzle with caramel sauce if desired and enjoy!