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CIDER VINEGAR AND A HEALTHY DIET

Some alternative therapists recommend drinking cider vinegar diluted in water every morning, as a daily health tonic. Try one or two tablespoons of vinegar in 250ml/1 cup water. Neat vinegar or anything stronger than this will be too acidic. The malic acid in vinegar is said to be beneficial to gut health. It also helps to break down carbohydrates, starches in particular, which can aid with bloating. It is said to make you feel fuller, preventing sugar cravings. For more on cider vinegar and health, see pages 34–81.

The saying, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’, is proving very true. Fruit makes an invaluable contribution to good health. Researchers recommend at least five helpings of fruit and vegetables a day; two of every five can be fruit; and one of these two can be fruit juice. However, many people fail to get anywhere near five-a-day. A 2008 survey in the UK found that only 12 per cent of respondents had five-a-day, while 12 per cent had none.

Fruit is health-promoting and enjoyable, and apples are especially so. They are very rich in certain substances – for example, flavonoids and pectin – that have important health benefits. A 2004 research review found apples were more consistently associated with a reduced risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease than any other fruit (or vegetable). Apple consumption was also linked with less asthma, better lung function and increased weight loss. While apple juice and cider are less rich in health-giving ingredients than apples, they have some value and are delicious to drink.

It make sense, then, to look at adding apples and their byproducts into your diet. Apples are brilliant on their own and a good complement to many other foods. Crisp dessert apples partner well with cheese, for example, and I suggest you experiment to see which varieties of apple you prefer with which types of cheese. You might start by trying a bronzy russet apple with a chunk of cheddar or nutty wensleydale, a sweet Red Delicious with a piece of Stilton or Dolcelatte, or a tart Granny Smith with some crumbly goat’s cheese.

Apples are excellent in fruit salad and you can also add sliced, diced or shredded apple to vegetable salads – such as white, red or green cabbage salad, potato salad, beetroot salad, nut and celery salad and celeriac salad. Apple slices slowly dried in the oven, cooled, then stored in an airtight tin, are a great addition to picnics and lunchboxes. Apples can add a fragrant note to soup, and also form the base of many delicious sorts of chutney.

Cider isn’t just a delicious beverage – it’s great to cook with too. Substituting it for stock or water adds a fragrant and unusual note to casseroled meat, poultry or vegetables. Simmer cider in a saucepan until its volume has greatly reduced, then drizzle the resulting intensely flavoured liquid over plain yoghurt, or sweeten it as in the recipe for cider glaze, below. Cider makes a surprisingly attractive sorbet. And good mulled cider is the equal any day of good mulled wine.

Cider vinegar is most at home in the kitchen – use this fragrant tawny vinegar whenever a recipe specifies malt, wine or other vinegar. It’s good, for example, for making salad dressings and many sauces – including mayonnaise, mint sauce, mustard and the South American chimichurri.

Sprinkle cider vinegar over fried fish and chips, or over soft herring roes that have been coated with flour then fried in butter and olive oil. And make gravy by adding a couple of tablespoons to the juices in the roasting pan in which you have cooked a joint of lamb.

Cider vinegar is a natural for pickling or marinating various vegetables and fruits. And it’s an essential ingredient of many a savoury casserole.

The following recipes are quick and easy ways to add more cider vinegar into your diet.

CIDER VINEGAR INFUSIONS

Vinegar infusions are very easy to make and are a great way to use up fruits, especially berries, and herbs. Try raspberries, blackberries, thyme, rosemary, oregano, peppercorns, mustard seeds, garlic or chillies. Experiment with different flavours. Use the flavoured vinegars for dressing salads or vegetables.

1  Place your chosen ingredient in a sterilized glass jar, filling the jar about halfway, and chopping into small pieces if necessary.

2  Pour in enough cider vinegar to fill the jar.

3  Label the jar with the date and ingredients used.

4  Allow to infuse for at least two weeks, leaving the jar in a cool, dry place. Give the jar a gentle shake every few days.

5  Strain the vinegar into sterilized glass bottles, and label those as well.

Salad Dressing

This dressing makes lettuce leaves, other raw vegetables and other salad ingredients unusually enticing. You can vary it by adding herbs or spices.

6fl oz (180ml/¾ cup) olive, walnut or corn oil (or a mixture of any two)

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon clear honey

Black pepper

Put the ingredients in a bowl and whisk well with a fork.

Blender Mayonnaise

This home-made mayo is a real treat and is easily made in an electric goblet blender. If you find the flavour of olive oil too strong, use corn or sunflower oil instead.

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 egg

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon clear honey black pepper

6fl oz (180ml/¾ cup) olive oil, or half and half olive and walnut oils

2 tablespoons just-boiled water (optional)

Put the cider vinegar, egg, mustard, honey and black pepper in the blender, and blend at high speed for a few seconds until smooth. Continue blending at a lower speed and very slowly pour in the olive oil (or olive and walnut oils).

Pickled onions

These are very simple to make and completely addictive. Serve them alongside cheeses, cold meats and other pickles, or as part of a traditional Ploughman’s lunch.

70g (¼ cup) salt

325g (11½oz) shallots or small onions, peeled and trimmed

355ml (1½ cups) cider vinegar

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

1  Add the salt to 500ml (generous 2 cups) water in a large pan over a medium heat. Allow the salt to dissolve fully before removing from the heat.

2  Add the peeled onions to the pan and allow them to sit in the salty water overnight.

3  The next day, heat the vinegar, mustard seeds, peppercorns and bay leaf in a pan over a medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer, but do not allow to boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

4  Drain the onions, rinse under cold water and dry them off with kitchen paper.

5  Place the onions in a sterilized jar, packing them in quite tightly. Pour over the cooled vinegar, with the spices, until the onions are covered.

6  Seal the jar and leave in a cool, dry place for at least four weeks until the onions are ready to eat. Once opened, keep refrigerated.

Bone Stock

This stock, made with a cooked chicken carcass, or with ham, pork, beef, lamb or fish bones, is very rich in calcium, due to cider vinegar releasing calcium from the bones. Use it as the basis of soup, or add it to casseroles or any other recipes that require stock.

cooked stripped chicken carcass, other meat bones, or fish bones

2 carrots, peeled and finely sliced

2 onions, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed or chopped

180ml (6fl oz/¾ cup) cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

Put all the ingredients into a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for one hour, adding more water if necessary. Strain the stock into a bowl and use at once, or cool and freeze for another time.

Cucumber Pickle

This is brilliant with cold savoury food and a sure-fire hit whether served for solo repasts, family meals or festive gatherings.

2lb (900g) cucumber, peeled and finely sliced

2lb (450g/3 cups) onions, finely sliced

2 tablespoons salt

15fl oz (450ml, just under 2 cups) cider vinegar

12oz (350g/3½ cups) brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon ground cloves

4 teaspoons mustard seed

4 teaspoons celery seed (optional, but worthwhile if you can get it)

1  Sterilize glass preserving jars, or jam jars with screw-on lids, by scalding with just-boiled water.

2  Put the cucumber, onions and salt into a bowl, mix well and leave for 3 hours. Rinse well in cold running water and drain in a sieve.

3  Put the cucumber and onions into a large saucepan, add the cider vinegar and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Add the sugar, turmeric, cloves, mustard seed and celery seed and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil then simmer for 2 minutes.

4  Remove the cucumber and onions with a slotted spoon and put into the warm glass jars. Simmer the remaining syrup for 15 minutes, then pour it over the cucumber and onions. Cover the jars tightly.

Beetroot and Horseradish Relish (Cwikla or Red Chrain)

This colourful accompaniment for fish, meat or cheese originated in eastern Europe and in Russia. Once you’ve tried it the odds are high you’ll be a big fan.

1lb (500g) raw beetroot

2 tablespoons horseradish sauce

1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard

2fl oz (60ml, ¼ cup) cider vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar plenty of black pepper

1  Boil the beetroots in their skins for 30 minutes or until tender when tested with a knife. Leave to cool, then rub off the skins and grate the beetroot.

2  Stir the horseradish sauce, mustard, cider vinegar, sugar and pepper into the grated beetroot.

Marinated Pears

Tickle your taste buds by eating these sweet-and-sour pears with cold meat, sausage or cheese.

2lb (1kg) hard pears, peeled, cored and quartered

water to cover

sugar

1 pint (550ml, 2½ cups) cider vinegar

1 pint (550ml, 2½ cups) water

1lb (450g, 2¼ cups) sugar

1 clove

pinch of cinnamon

bay leaf

1 teaspoon peppercorns

pinch of salt

1  Sterilize glass preserving jars, or jam jars with screw-on lids, by scalding with just-boiled water.

2  Cover the pears with water in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until slightly soft. Drain and cool in the sieve under cold running water.

3  Put the vinegar, one pint of water, sugar, clove, cinnamon, bay leaf, peppercorns and salt into the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes. Gently add the pears, bring to the boil again, then cool. Put the pears into sterilized glass jars, fill with the liquid, then screw on the lids.

Tips for Cooks

Beans

Discourage flatulence by adding a tablespoon of cider vinegar to the water when soaking dried beans.

Cheese

Help prevent stored cheese hardening by wrapping it in muslin soaked in cider vinegar.

Eggs

•  Poaching: put 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar in the water to help egg whites stay better formed.

•  Hard-boiling: put 1 or 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar in the water to make eggs easier to shell.

•  Boiling: put 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar in the water to help prevent shells cracking.

Jellies or jellied savoury dishes

Add a teaspoon of cider vinegar to the still-warm liquid to help the gelatine set.

Meat and fish

When marinating, braising, poaching or boiling meat, or poaching fish, add half a cup of cider vinegar to each cup of liquid to make the meat or fish more tender and to draw calcium from its bones.

Meringue

Add a teaspoon of cider vinegar to every 2 egg whites and leave to stand for 30 seconds before whipping. This increases their stiffness and makes meringues brilliantly white.

Pancakes

If you’d like to use buttermilk but you haven’t any, add a tablespoon of cider vinegar to a cup of milk and leave it for five minutes before using.

Pastry

Instead of adding water to the flour-butter mixture, add flavour by adding cider vinegar, or half and half of cider vinegar and water.

Rice or pasta

Put a teaspoon of cider vinegar into the water and you’ll find the cooked rice or pasta is less sticky.

Salads, vegetables and fruit

Washing with a cider vinegar solution may help remove certain pesticides and potentially harmful bacteria. To make the solution mix 1 part cider vinegar to 9 parts water, immerse the produce and let it soak for 5 minutes, then rinse well.

Soups, gravy or a savoury sauce

Add 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar to improve the flavour.

Stock made with a chicken carcass or other bones

Add a tablespoon of cider vinegar to the water to enrich the stock with calcium from the bones.

Vegetables

When boiling or steaming vegetables, add a splash of cider vinegar to the water while cooking to help the vegetables retain their colour.