As an attempt to keep approximately 10 leftover bratwursts from a baseball team cookout from going bad, Deputy Editor Mary Clare Greenlees’ Mom found a peculiar apple/brat/potato dish that she wanted to recreate now that it’s fall, aka prime apple season. 

Cooking potatoes is not a fun business, it’s long and nothing happens for the longest time. Equally unenjoyable is sweating while making this recipe, not from stress or difficulty, but from poor circulation in your Plimpton kitchen which makes it so that every time you turn on a burner, you truly feel the heat. However, this recipe is worth the obnoxious, “will it, won’t it?” cook time of potatoes. These apple fries marry the good things about fall into a beautiful dish with the spectacular golden finish on the potatoes paired with the soft apples. As a big fan of eggs, I added an egg over easy on top, and in my opinion, this really sold the dish for me. It’s texture and taste have me coming back for more week after week! This recipe yields enough food for two people or one person plus left-overs, for a single meal, half the recipe!

Ingredients: 2 red potatoes (or whichever type you prefer), 1 Fuji apple (can substitute for other apples), 1 cup of apple cider, olive oil, minced garlic, kosher salt, pepper, onion salt

  1. Begin by washing and cutting your potato. Once washed, cut the potato in half and slice it into small chunks.
  2. Get your skillet out and start on medium heat, pour a generous amount of olive oil into the skillet and start throwing potatoes in there! (Be careful of hot oil!)
  3. Let the potatoes cook for around 2 minutes, then pour in your 1 cup of apple cider, which will slowly cook off into a delicious goo that tastes amazing on the potatoes.
  4. Time to play the waiting game! You can speed this up by putting a lid on your skillet, but my skillet, unfortunately, does not have a lid so I could not do this. After a few minutes, throw in around 1-2 tablespoons of butter into the skillet.
  5. Slowly but surely, you will start to see a golden crust starting to form on your potatoes! Excellent! Time to start seasoning. Throw in around 1-2 tablespoons of minced garlic, a generous pinch of kosher salt, several cranks of pepper, and a dash of onion salt.
  6. Cut your apple into similar sized chunks as your potatoes and throw them into the skillet.
  7. This is when I had time to fry my egg, put around 1 tablespoon of butter into a frying pan, wait for it to start to melt and crack a large egg into it. Once the white has started to set completely on the bottom, give it a good flip and leave it there for around 30 seconds, so that it still stays runny. Flip the egg onto a paper towel on a plate and wait until you are ready to plate your dish.
  8. Once your apples are reasonably soft, but still hold their shape, and the potatoes are a golden brown, it’s time to serve! Pull them off the burner and set aside for a minute to cool down.
  9. Spoon a portion onto your place and top with your fried egg! Enjoy!

This is a great dinner for when you want to cook something for yourself, but don’t want to put TOO much effort into what you are making. Go to your local farmer’s market and support local farms! The one on 115th and Broadway is Thursdays and Sundays, perfect times to make your (plus maybe your friends) a nice home-cooked dinner.

P.S. I didn’t include the bratwurst because I was lazy and didn’t want to cook it.

ugh look at that amazing! via Mary Clare Greenlees