As promised I went to the Night Market Philadelphia last night. There was plenty of hype surrounding this event as it was advertised to include as many as 15 food trucks offering “exotic eats, fun drinks and live music.” One of the more attractive aspects of this event was that all food and drink was $5 or less. I was particularly excited to enjoy a Vietnamese hoagie. If you’ve never had one of these incredible sandwiches you’re missing out! They are delicious and taste incredibly fresh as they are typically topped off with some sort of vegetable assortment. The best part, these sandwiches are so inexpensive I’m tempted to tell the Vietnamese stores that they should be charging more. Anyways, I am sorry to report that this event was a total disappointment. The food options were minimal and seemed like it consisted of several taco stands and one beer stand. It was hardly what I had in mind when I think of exotic. I tried the shrimp ceviche made by one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in the city, Cantina Los Caballitos, and it confirmed once again my distaste for the texture of shrimp. Furthermore, due to the overwhelming flavors of other ingredients on the dish, I could not even taste the shrimp. At that point I decided I had enough disappointment for one night and went home (Turns out it wasn’t the end of day’s disappointment as I watched the Twins blow another lead against the Yankees and now trail 0-2 in their ALDS playoff series).
In an attempt to redeem my night I decided to make some caramel apples. However, not just any caramel apples, but red wine caramel apples. I had such great success with my red wine sauce that accompanied my filet a couple posts ago that I had to try to make these which were featured on Gourmet’s website. They were simple to make and the subtle tastes of the red wine brought an enjoyable variety to an old fall treat.
Red Wine Caramel Apples (from Gourmet)
This is a very inexpensive fall treat. Chances are you already have most of the ingredients at home. Eight McIntosh apples, 2 cups sugar, 1.5 cups red wine, 0.5 cup water, and 6 tablespoons heavy whipping cream. I struggled momentarily to find sticks for my apples, but then had the great idea to use chop sticks that I came across while shopping at Whole Foods.
To make the caramel sauce, boil the red wine for 10 minutes to reduce the volume by about half. Set aside. In a separate pot, mix the sugar and water and add heat until the sugar is dissolved. Stop mixing and allow the sugar mixture to boil until it turns a dark amber color. Mix in the red wine, then the cream. Allow the caramel to reach 238 degrees and then remove from heat and let sit until it reaches 200 degrees.
At this point I began dipping my apples in the red wine caramel. However, I found that the caramel sticks to the apples better if you wait until the temperature cools even more. There wasn’t much viscosity to the caramel at 200 degrees so I would suggest waiting another 10 minutes or so after hitting the 200 degree mark to dip your apples. Let the caramel solidify and then enjoy!
Here are a few more photos of the apples:
(Ph)ood 