Satsuma mandarins and click

In telugu, "narinja" would refer to mandarin oranges that could be easily peeled and eaten versus "battayi" is something like navel oranges but with green skin and yellow flesh. I like mandarin oranges because they are sweet and tart at the same time. I bought a few "Satsuma mandarin" oranges - easy to peel, seedless variety. They are small in size, so can be put into the power juice without the use of a knife. I dont need to emphasize on how deliciously refreshing "freshly squeezed" orange juice can be. One thing to keep up with fresh juices is they need to be consumed within 10 minutes after preparing them, else they loose the nutritional value. One more thing we cannot get with a bottled juice - the froth over the fresh juice!Simply tasty.

A juicy way to spice up orange juice is to mix with carrot juice and sprinkle of rose water to give a blend that is out of the world tasty. Just clicked the pictures in time - sending them to CLICK "liquids" event hosted by jugalbandi.

Here's another drink - strawberry margarita, and it didnt make it to the contest. I will do the writeup for this soon :) Until then here's a quick look

Banana and Cinnamon

The question I had after looking at Sunita's "Think Spice - cinnamon" event "Which is the dessert I repeat often and cannot do without cinnamon in that". The answer was there besides me in a plate - Baked banana with cinnamon. I make two versions of "banana and cinnamon" combination so often because they are very satisfying and low calorie at the same time. Both the dishes take less than 10 minutes to make. The baked or caramelized bananas wouldn't taste the same without the subtle rooty cinnamony flavor on the background.


Version 1: Baked Banana with Brown Sugar and Cinnamon


Ingredients:
1. One banana - slit midway twice into four pieces
2. Brown sugar - 2 tbsp. I use splenda brown sugar
3. Cinnamon powder - 2 tsp

Mix brown sugar and cinnamon powder in a bowl. Preheat oven to 275F. Place the bananas on a baking sheet,and smother them with butter. I usually use PAM butter spray. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture onto the bananas and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until the brown sugar has melted. Sprinkle some Oats or nuts and enjoy it with low fat vanilla yogurt.


Version 2: Cinnamon caramelized bananas in orange syrup


Ingredients:
1. One banana - slit midway twice into four pieces
2. Brown sugar - 2 tbsp
3. Cinnamon powder - 2 tsp
4. Orange juice - 3 tbsp + orange rind - 2 tsp. Lemon can also be used.
5. Persimmon or dates or strawberries - 3-4 tbsp chopped (optional)
6. Pistachios - roasted and roughly chopped
7. Butter/Smart balance - 1/2 tbsp

In a pan heat butter, brown sugar and cinnamon powder until the sugar melts. Add the bananas, persimmons and orange rind and juice. Coat the bananas with the syrup while cooking and turn them over. Cook until the bananas soften, about 5 minutes. Serve with chopped pistachios and cream or yogurt. Drizzle the left over syrup on the cream or yogurt.

Spicy Persimmon Salsa

I noticed this recipe in the "cooking light" edition this month. When I tried the recipe, I really loved it-Spicy taste with the cinnamony sweet crunch of Persimmons bites. The Salsa is very easy to put together. Combine the following in a bowl and serve over rice crackers for a quick healthy snack. The chat masala is the indian touch to this recipe.

1. 1 cup Persimmon (chopped into small pieces)
2. 3-4 tbsp cup Spring Onions (chopped)
3. 1 jalapeno (finely chopped)
4. 2-3 tbsp Cilantro and mint leaves chopped
5. 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
6. Pinch of salt and chat masala

A note for people wanting to buy the Persimmon fruit - it has to be ripe before eaten. There are couple of varieties - Hachiya and Fuyu. The Hachiya variety is not palatable in its unripe state. So, it wold be better to take the suggestion of the food monger if you are trying these fruits for the first time.

Thai sticky coconut rice with mango

Thai is one of my favorite cuisines - and this particular dessert is very easy to make. It is similar to "kheer" in Indian cuisine with a different texture due to the sticky sweet rice used in this dish. Sticky rice is served with mango,egg custard generally.

The sweet sticky rice is available at the grocery stores. It is a short and fat grain rice and when cooked, as the name suggests, the rice is "STICKY" and has amazingly good absorbing nature. So anything you put into the rice when its warm will be absorbed into the rice. I used coconut milk here that is traditionally used, but I guess we can add vanilla milk or badam milk etc.

Whats needed (serving for 4) -
1 cup sticky rice - cooked with 2 cups of water
1 cup coconut milk
5-6tbsp of sugar (adjust sugar based on you sweet levels)
pinch of salt


The procedure is very easy too - In a pan heat coconut milk, sugar and salt - until it starts to bubble. Add this mixture to the hot sweet sticky rice (cooked) and mix. The coconut milk is absorbed by the rice. Serve it with mango pieces - totally delicious and easy dessert.

Date Cinnamon Porridge

I saw the AFAM Dates event recently and was pondering over what to make. I first wanted to make Date pistacho kulfi - but since I am in still in my picky mode - no heavy cream for me. After that I forgot about the event until yesterday - I was having my breakfast (apple cinnamon oatmeal) - flash flash - why not use Dates instead of apple and have something like a date cinnamon combination for the breakfast. So here I present Date-Cinnamon Porridge that I prepared today for breakfast. Its totally heavenly - I had it with few slices of strawberries and banana.

Dates have distinctly exotic flavor. They are called as "Kharjuram" in telugu.Wiki has a wonderful report on dates. I was amazed to see the varieties of cultivars in dates. I used medjool dates which are succlent, soft and sweet variety. Also, dates are healthy option to satisfy your sweet/candy cravings. Look at the data - Dates (100 gms) come upto about 280 calories while the same amount of M&M's are about 510 calories. Top of it - dates are totally fat free while M&M's - 27.8 grams of fat in that 100 gms!

Ingredients-
1. 7-8 Dates - chopped ( The amount can be adjusted as per your sweet taste levels)
2. milk - 1 cup
3. Quinoa (prewashed) - 1/2 cup
4. 1 tsp cinnamon powder.
5. 1 tbsp honey
Pistachios for garnish

Add cinnamon powder to milk and bring to a boil. If you donot have powder, boil the milk with cinnamon sticks and remove them later. Add dates and 1 tbsp honey. The amount of honey and dates can be adjusted for the level of sweetness desired. After the milk starts to boil, add quinoa. Cover the pot and simmer the mixture in low heat until the milk is absorbed by Quinoa which takes about 12-15 minutes. The porridge is done and what a sweetly-tastly breakfast - This dish can totally pass into the dessert category with vanilla icecream on the side!Ooh - another idea - how about making a date prasadam with rava? I will try that on some festival day.

Enjoy the warm porridge garnished with pistachios and strawberries.


Food & Music - My combination

Saw the movie Ratatouille? Whenever Remy the rat tastes something very nice and delicious - his mind goes all flashing and musical. The same thing happens to me sometimes. Whenever I eat something very nice - a song pops up in my mind - most of the time its associated with the food or may be was I listening to that song too much?.

Anyway, Eating the date porridge with a strawberry - the prelude of the song "Hum ko Sirf" popped in my mind. This one is surely associated to the dish. The music starts with a slow sound and then the pop - you hear the violin and then drums and then the whistle. Same with the porridge. The taste grows on you like the violin prelude with the sweet taste of strawberry coming as the first piano music introduction. The quinoa porridge hits you like the violin and then starts the drums and whistles of the exotic date flavor.

Listen to the song here

Pomegranate Margarita

Its pomegranate season - and whats more than to have a drink with the taste on the background. Making margaritas is fun. Here are the tips

1. To salt the rim of the glass - try rubbing the rim of the glass with a lemon wedge and then dip it in salt.
2. Proportion of fruit juice to tequila ( this can be altered based on your taste) - 1.5 cups of juice and 3/4 cup of tequila. A little bit of sugar syrup can also be added. Blend the mixture and pour on ice cubes and serve.
3. Make ice cubes of fruit juice and use them to blend with tequila for a smooth crushed ice textured margarita

Angel food cake with mixed berries in a trifle dish

This is the easiest and the most prettiest dessert that will give a "WOW" expression from everyone - looking at it and also tasting it.

First - you have to make angel food cake. It can also be bought at stores. But i used the betty croker mix. Just follow the instructions on the box. I made two square pans cake with the mix. My trifle dish was round and i dont have round baking dishes at home - so just adjusted with the square ones - but it didnt matter in the end. Allow the cakes to cool down for atleast an hour. and then using a serrated knife to slice each cake midway into two halves. As the name suggests - The crunchy crust and the soft, super spongy cake all by istelf is heavenly.


Ingredients required:
2 cup strawberries sliced
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blueberries
1 cup black berries
1/2cup water
1/2 cup sugar
vanilla extract
Frozen Dessert whipped topping - Thaw this one in the refrigerator for 4 hours before use.

In a pan, put a tbsp of butter and put in all the berries. After a minute add the sugar and water. Allow the mixture to bubble a bit and the berries soften and then add vanilla/strawberry extract. I added a tbsp of corn starch mixed with water to thicken this syrup - so that it ends up with a spreadable jam like consistency.

Now for the decoration - be as creative as you can - any decoration will be good

First layer - I put in one layer of angel food cake, spread the mixed berries spread and also used some fresh berries on this layer,

Second layer - layer of cake with whipped cream spread

Third layer - cake with mixed berries spread and fresh berries

Fourth and top layer - put in the cake and add a heavy dose of whipped cream so that the it reaches the top of the trifle dish and then decorate the top with fresh berries. I also added few mint leaves for garnish.

Cover the dish and place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours before serving.

Fruit salad - mango, raspberry, mint & basil

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Ever tried mixing fruits with herbs? You ought to try this one and it can be one of the salads you serve on the thanksgiving table or as a dessert. Its part of my thanksgiving dinner table. My tryst with this salad happened at a display counter in central market. It was just mango and basil salad. The mint and raspberries are my addition to this recipe. The flavors in the salad are so distinct yet when combined - the salad is heavenly.

Ingredients -
1 cup chopped mango
1/2 cup raspberries (optional)
1 tbsp basil chopped
1 tbsp mint chopped
1 tsp lime juice

Mix the above ingredients and savour all the tastes that pop in your mouth. The mangoes i bought are a bit tart - so i added 1 tsp of splenda - artificial sweeteners or sugar can be added.