Mini Heirloom Tomato Salad on a Stick

The mini heirloom tomatoes were served so nicely with mozzarella at a party and I thought of showing them to you. Very simply done but tasty and colorful. I added cucumber and romaine lettuce for green.

Cut the tomatoes in half and sandwich the mozzarella or Persian cucumber and fasten them with a bamboo skewer. 

Sprinkle your favorite dressing just before serving or on the side for dipping. I love to use balsamic vinegar, grated garlic, sea salt and olive oil as base for the dressing. You can add lemon juice or black pepper too if you wish.

If the skewers are a bother you can always remove or not put them at all. Your salad will still be as nice.

Enjoy!

Airy Potato Crisps

There are no potato chips in the house but we make them now and then whenever we get big potatoes from the farm. Somehow new potatoes are tastier and crispier when fried in light oil. We make them a little fancier than the store-bought ones with different shapes and plenty of holes. We use my homemade tools for fun. That is what makes them light and airy!

Enjoy them plain without salt or with your favorite dipping sauce!

Blood Orange Marmalade Homemade

Blood oranges are here again! They come in deferent shades red. So good to eat or drink at any time and  of course marmalade for breakfast. I made two batches of light and dark that have slight difference in taste but both are really delicious.

Six oranges is quite enough to fill one large jar. This first batch are the lighter red and taste a bit sweeter. 

Wash and scrub the oranges thoroughly even if they are not treated and organic. Remove the rind of the four with a potato peeler and julienne the strips thinly. With a paring knife remove the pith of the oranges and set aside.

This is how much rind you get from four oranges.

Squeeze the juice of the remaining 2 together with 1 lemon. Cut up the pulp of both lemon and the 2 oranges and put the in a double lined cheese cloth together with the pith and tie to a pouch for the natural  pectin. Slice up the 4 oranges and remove any seed you find. The seeds can be added to the pectin pouch too.

Boil everything with 3cups of water including the pectin pouch for at list 15 minutes or until soft. Check doneness by tasting.

Remove the pectin pouch and squeeze out every pectin as much as possible to add to the pot when cold to the touch. Measure the cooked compote in cups and determine the sugar to add. This yielded 3 cups and put 1 1/2 cups of sugar. It's up to you to add more if it is not sweet enough. Boil and simmer until your desired consistency. I like it spreadable but chunky. Bottle and serve.

Enjoy!

Watermelon Radish Salad and Hummingbirds

Meet the watermelon radish! It is round and encased in a thin light green skin with a pinkish hue inside. This unusual radish actually resembles its namesake. They come in light red to fuchsia and offers a mild and sweet flavor for a radish. I love the crunch and fresh taste even slightly peppery too at times. They can be prepared like any other radish but this one you can eat raw or in a salad. Just toss it in little rice wine vinegar and sprinkle some black sesame seeds for effects.

You can also sprinkle olive oil, lemon juice and sea salt for a radish carpaccio. 

I carved some flowers and hummingbirds from the same fruit to show you the beautiful colors of the radish. 

Tweet!

Prickly Pear Lemonade and Jelly

The prickly pears are a sight to behold when they are ripe on the leaves. As flowers they are spectacular too.  The cactus is found in all of the desserts of the American Southwest and Mexico. Cultivated in some farms and sold in local markets as Tunas, the Mexicans call it. Even here around where I live, they grow in the backyards or outside the fences. They can be prepared in so many ways like syrup, jelly, candy,popsicle or even for margaritas. Well, today we shall make lemonade and jelly for you.

Here's how to peel the beautiful fruit safely without any thorns on the side. The prickly pear has almost invisible thorns that break off and lodge on to your skin and can be quite irritating. Use rubber gloves or tongs to peel the fruit. Cut both ends and split the thick skin on one side and pry open and scoop the inside fruit and discard the peel right away. 

This bright magenta colored fruit can be very sweet to almost bland but always so fresh and juicy. 

The tuna is full of seeds that are edible but too hard to chew. So hard, they can ruin you tooth if your not careful. I think they are best enjoyed juicing them. You can easily extract the juice by pulsing them in a blender quickly and strain the seeds. I got a tall glass and a half of juice from 10 tunas. For the refreshing  lemonade, squeeze half a lemon and lime into a glass of tuna juice and sweeten with muscovado sugar.

This drink is so good and refreshing, you've got to try it!

For the jelly just add a tablespoon of agar agar and sugar to 1 cup of water and boil until all is completely dissolved. Remove from flame and add 2 cups of tuna juice, half of lemon and lime juice. Put into molds, cool and serve. I got some of the cactus leaves and carved some iguanas for accompaniment. Enjoy!

Golden Baskets - Thai Inspired Appetizers

Appetizers like these are usually called with different names from one Thai restaurant to another. My favorite one calls them golden baskets. I made some with the same name only and the rest is my own version. You can make them too with your own preferred ingredients. Here is how you can make them.

You will need 1/2 a cup of ground shrimps and 1/2 cup of ground chicken breast. Mix a sprig of minced cilantro and 2 scallion,white part only. Then season lightly with salt and white pepper. Wilt the leaves of six scallions for 1 minute in the microwave oven. Cut a 4 square inch feuille de brik or a good quality spring roll wrapper, about 24 pieces. Now put 1/3 of a teaspoon of the ground filling in the center of the brik and gather the four corners and press with fingers over the filling to make a purse or basket and tie it with the wilted scallion leaf.

Deep fry them in any light vegetable oil like canola until golden. I use a small saucepan that I fill with 2 cups of oil so as not to waste too much oil and they fry very well in it. When done put on paper towels to drain excess oil. Surprisingly they don't absorb too much oil.

Now make the sweet and sour sauce for the dip.

For the sauce mince one sweet pepper, grate garlic and juice a knob of ginger. Mucovado sugar for sweetness and red wine vinegar for sour. The quantity of seasoning depends on everyones taste. Boil with 1 1/2 cup of water until the soft and sauce consistency. Always taste and correct if necessary. Thicken with a teaspoon of cornstarch if too runny.

Add a pinch of cayenne pepper powder too if you want. Here is for an individual serving or for a couple of guests.

Enjoy!