Tropical Fruit Bake

Couple of weeks back I found a ripened papaya, 3 mangoes and a few bananas to be used asap in my kitchen. The mangoes & papaya flew all the way from Florida with Shankar. We hardly get these yummy tropical treats in our part of the country and at this time of the year, they are also at the end of their growing season. Hence I have found that the best way to give a boost to their flavors is by baking these fruits. Here is my simple Caribbean-ish recipe. 

Slice / chop all the fruits and mix in a big bowl with 2 tbsps of sugar, 2 pinches of nutmeg, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of cardamom. Also add a couple of pinches of salt and for this bake, I also added a dash of ground pepper. Then came  a few teaspoons of Palm sugar (Karupatti) ground with a few almonds. Then went in 1/2 tsp of grated ginger and 3-4 tbsp of ginger liqueur (Canton). Finally I sprinkled a handful of grated coconut, transferred the salad to a baking dish and baked in a 350F oven for about 20 minutes. I like mine served with yogurt and some granola for added crunchiness. Yummy!

I am sending this recipe to  Monthly Mingle, hosted by Deeba of Passionate about Baking.

Weekend Rangoli & a Recipe

Shankar & I spent last part of last weekend in Chicago - we went to watch the show "Traces" which sure did leave  trace in me, had a wonderful dinner @ Le Colonial - a French Vietnamese restaurant. And staying in downtown in a room with a view from the 38th floor was a splendid bonus. On Saturday we had brunch at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill and did some shopping. We also managed to gorge on the Diwali Special buffet at Priya Restaurant on our way home. After all the activity, Sunday was a relaxed day at home. I managed to spread out my painting supplies once again on the dining table and painted a small 8x8 Rangoli. The pattern extends to two of the sides. The best thing is, it is already spoken for :) Now at the collection of David Hill, Madison.

Rangoli with acrylics on canvas

For dinner on Sunday, I also managed to make a few dishes including this simple Brussels sprouts side dish. I simply halved these vegetables, sautéed them in olive oil + butter, added salt & pepper for seasoning and let it cook for a few minutes, Then transferred them into a baking dish, sprinkled some chopped toasted walnuts and shredded Gruyère cheese. I also sprinkled a handful of shredded parsnips (being used in another dish), for crunchiness. Baked for about 10 minutes in 350F oven. Yummy!

Latest from my table

I started to play around and try making a couple of these highly customizable beaded bookmarks as an option for the fundraiser I am doing in my friend's memory. And to my utter delight, a friend who came over picked up both the "pilot" pieces I made, motivating me to make more. And here they are - from my little corner craft table today! I am hoping to list them for sale on my site by the end of the week, with all proceeds benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Beaded Metal Bookmarks

Irish Lace Cookies

I made these lace cookies for my lab meeting the first time. Since it takes only less than 10 minutes to prep and another 10 minutes to bake, I have since made them a couple of times. Also, this recipe is so versatile, once I made them just by throwing a handful of different ingredients together :)

The ratio is basically use 1 part of flour to 4 parts of butter, sugar (creamed together) and rolled oats. I started with powdering a handful of almonds with a little sugar, then adding the above ingredients (butter at room temperature) in the food processor along with a pinch of cardamom, and 1/2 tsp vanilla flavor. Drop the dough by a teaspoon leaving room between the cookies and flattening a little. Baked in a pre-heated 350F oven, they turned out to be so good. I also drizzled a little bit of melted blueberries & lavender dark chocolate :)

The blog I used for this recipe has been removed since and hence no reference :(

Samoan Coconut Rice with Ginger Pesto

This was a simple yet flavorful dish I made when I was in St. Louis a few months back. These recipes were adapted from the book Sam Choy's Polynesian Kitchen. The coconut rice was super easy to make - the rice is cooked in a mixture of water + coconut milk - I used about 1/2 a can and a couple of pinches of salt. I also sprinkled a pinch of nutmeg when the rice was cooking. For the ginger pesto, I ground together the following: 1/4 cup of cilantro and mint leaves, 1 inch thick piece of ginger, a handful of walnuts, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 small shallot - chopped, a tsp of olive oil, salt and pepper and some water. We had this as a side dish with our dinner.

Samoan Coconut Rice with Ginger Pesto

Playing with Yarn

Though I learnt to crochet years back, I hadn't been working diligently on any projects or finishing the one Afghan I started. Recently, with the inspiration from the fund raiser, I have been working with the yarn I have accumulated and making neck warmer/ scarfs. The rose colored one is the neck warmer I am sending to one of my friends. I also added three buttons to it and it is made from a wool / acrylic blend yarn. The middle lavender with silver strand one is more lengthier and made of a acrylic/rayon/nylon yarn. The most recent one in awesome gold/orange is actually made with two different skeins of yarn - I just pulled them together through the hook. 

The first two have the same 'Dew drops' pattern and the last one has a 'Tipsy cluster' pattern. The stitches are from the book "The complete photo guide to crochet" by Margaret Hubert. I have loaned this book from the library, but it is so good, especially with pictorial representation on the stitches that the book is making it to my wishlist! I might have made more progress on my crocheting if I had come across this book before. But right now, I seriously wish I could pick up skills with MATLAB as fast as I can with yarns & hooks :)

Blitva from Croatia

Croatian Blitva was so easy to make and so delicious, it is going to be a recurring dish in my kitchen, especially as I look forward to using all the left over greens in the garden. I followed the recipe from Maninas: Food Matters. In a small pan, I sautéed chopped potatoes in olive oil, added a little water and let them cook till soft. I used two kinds of potatoes as you can see in the picture. To this, I added chopped rainbow swiss chard and 3 cloves of minced garlic. Seasoned with salt and pepper and once the chard has also cooked, mixed in a couple of tbsp of crushed peanuts. We had this with rice and Eritrean Alitcha Birsen for dinner!

 
I am sending this dish to the food blogging event Dish Name Starts with: B, hosted by Akila's Kitchen.

Brussels Sprouts Au Gratin

For Blog Bites #8, Nupur of One Hot Stove has challenged the food bloggers to come up with new ideas for one dish meals. I love one pot meals and for this BB8, I have modified Kevin's recipe from Closet Cooking and inspired by a couple of other recipes, made a one dish meal with Brussels sprouts. Not only do I like one pot meals, I use only one pot (in this case a pan) to make them. I am so glad to have these Acroflam pans that can go from the microwave to the stove to the oven to the table! 

I started with shredding a few parsnips, given by a friend from her CSA box. I also chopped up an onion, and halved roasted chestnuts. In my pan I initially boiled the Brussels sprouts for a few minutes. I saved them and in the pan heated up a tsp of butter + olive oil and sauteed the onions and parsnips. I removed these from the pan and heated a tbsp of butter till it was brown. I made a simple sauce by adding flour to the butter and whisking it with milk. Then came about a tsp of veggie broth powder and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg. Into this sauce went the Brussels sprouts, onions and parsnip along with salt and pepper. I also added the roasted chestnut and some leftover plain cooked rice that I had. I also added one whisked egg to this mixture. Topped it off with bread crumbs and a mixture of cheddar cheese + raw cow's milk cheese. Then the pan went into the over preheated at 400F for a good 25 minutes. The au gratin was delicious served with a dollop of Greek yogurt!