Tropical Fruit Cups
One, two or three!
What do you do when you have leftover ingredients from the Joust? And a fridge full of unused fruit? You make fruit salad! Or as "modern" publications call them....Fruit Cups. Seriously though, its a good way to increase your fruit intake. Chop up a whole batch of fruit, squeeze some lime, add some passionfruit pulp add a good amount of thick Greek yogurt and top with freshly toasted coconut. The final touch is to grate some fresh lime zest. Aaaahhh...I'm dreaming of tropical temperatures again!
More Fruit Cups
I basically used what I had around. I chopped up some bananas and pears and squeezed some lime juice over them so they wouldn't go brown. Add some oranges, kiwi fruit and mango and voila! The real treat was the lime zest. It provided the right amount of "zing" and "zestiness". Mmmmm...and lets not forget the toasted coconut. Another added treat. I wish I could breakfast like this every day.
Add some lime zest...for that "extra" touch
Banana Jam
Pixie from "You Say Tomatoh, I Say Tomayto" and Rosie from "Rosie Bakes, A Peace Of Cake" are holding a food blogging event titled "Putting Up". These lovely lasses are asking for us to submit recipes relating to home made preserves, jams, jellies, curds, butters etc... I recently had the pleasure of making my first curd using passionfruit. It was received with wonderful success and I enjoyed using it in a variety of sweet dishes. For this event I wanted to try something a little different. I searched long and hard and found a wonderful recipe from fellow Australian blogger Matt who writes a blog called Abstract Gourmet. He featured a wonderful jam made with bananas and I thought "Yes!".
First off, let me say that I was worried about sterilising the jar and lid. In the end it was quite easy, actually. I boiled them and once the water had drained I filled them with my banana jam mixture. Also, make sure you use a non reactive pot, like stainless steel when making the jam. This jam is absolutely delicious and very addictive. I made one batch and plan on a few more with some slight variations. Its wonderful over buttered hot toast and I think it would work well with scones. Make sure your bananas are quite ripe as their flavour will be stronger and the jam will be more pungent. The recipe has cinnamon added to it and I also used some vanilla bean to further enhance the flavour.
Banana Jam...everywhere!
RECIPE FOR BANANA JAM
- 4-5 medium to large ripe bananas
- juice of one lime
- 1 1/2 cup of castor sugar
- 1 cup of water
- 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
- 1/4 of a vanilla bean
- Chop up your bananas in small chunky pieces and place in a bowl with the lime juice.
- Bring the sugar and water to a boil over a medium heat.
- Once the sugar syrup is bubbling away, lower the heat, add the chopped bananas and stir everything up.
- Add the cinnamon and vanilla bean.
- Keep stirring to make sure things don't get too sticky!
- Keep an eye on things, (constantly stirring) for about half an hour.
- The jam is ready when it coats the back of a wooden spoon and it sticks well.
- Store in a sterilised jar.
(this recipe makes one medium sized jar...remember, there's only one of me ;()
I plan on making more of this jam but varying some of the ingredients. I think I will try it with some brown sugar, coconut maybe even some rum!
PS Pixie also tagged me for the 6 word memoir. I'll do that in my next post in the next few days.
Thank You's and...Baked Figs
I only realised the other day that I had officially forgotten to thank Ivy on my own blog, for giving me an "excellent Blog" award. Oops! I'm so sorry for that. I know I left a comment in your comments section but I realised I hadn't done that here. Thank you again and it is really nice to be appreciated. All the other bloggers that I would have liked to award it to have already received one! So much love in the foodie blogosphere at the moment!
So on with today's recipe...
Beautiful, soft, delicious figs
When I was at the markets the other day, I noticed some fresh figs on display and I noted to myself that I hadn't really cooked with them this summer. The owner explained they were nearing the end of their cycle and that this batch would be very ripe. I picked up a few and got home thinking about creating a dish with them. They're very popular in Greek cooking often served dried and with cheese and walnuts. They are used in sweets and in jams. I wanted to go a different route with them. I had seen a few recipes about on the net and on many cooking shows where fresh figs are often baked in an oven wrapped in prosciutto and stuffed with a gorgonzola cheese. Well I have issues with strong smelly cheeses. So I opted to bake my figs with mozzarella or the little balls of mozzarella often known as bocconcini. The taste was simpler but before baking them I drizzled some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. They turned out a treat! The cheese had melted through and the balsamic had slightly caramelized. Try this for something different.
RECIPE FOR BAKED FIGS WITH MOZZARELLA
6 freh figs cut with a criss cross shape
Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella or fresh Bocconcini Balls or pearls
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
a good "splash" of balsamic
salt an pepper to taste
Once you've cut a cris cross shape on each fig, gently stuff it with a piece of mozzarella or bocconcini. Drizzle a little amount of good quality extra virgin olive oil and a good "splash" of balsamic. Season with a little salt and pepper. Bake in a 200 deg C preheated oven for 10 mins. Serve warm and enjoy this soft, sensual dish.
They almost look like flowers...
Passionfruit Curd
Passionfruit
Whilst I was at the markets recently I picked up a whole box of passionfruit. The colours and aromas were so intense I had to just get it. So after spooning it on my breakfast cereal every morning, I still had half a box left. "What will I do with the rest?" I thought. So a good deal of "research" later i.e. scanning cook books and magazines, I saw this great recipe for passionfruit curd. Mmmmm...my mind went into overdrive. I'm not aware of how familiar people are with sweet curds. They're basically similar to jams or jellies (as the Americans call them) and they are used on cakes or as a spread on bread. Lemon curd is a very popular spread in the UK often finding its way in traditional high teas. The passionfruit curd I made is similar to the lemon one. I'll follow it up over the next few days about how I used it. Its sweet, silky and very sexy. Trust me, you'll be happy you made this.
Juicy Passionfruit
PASSIONFRUIT CURD
This recipe has been adapted from Australia's own Bill Granger.
6 ripe passionfruit...scooping out the whole inner flesh...seeds and all
2 organic eggs
80 g of caster sugar
60 g of butter
Place the passionfruit pulp, eggs and sugar in a heatproof bowl and place that bowl over a saucepan with simmering water (aka the double boiler method). Whisk continuously until the mixture begins to thicken. This whisking will probably take up to about ten minutes at the most. Just be patient. Once the mixture has thickened take it off the heat and whisk in the cold butter. Let the curd cool and store it in a sterilised jar. It will keep up to about one week in the fridge.
