Grilled Peach Mango Coconut Tart

There's quite a bit of extra Mango Coconut Custard from the Strawberry Mango Coconut Tart I made for George's 25th birthday. We were going to have a couple of friends over for dinner, and I planned to make the tart again with different crust and topping. There was also the Tempeh and Strawberry Salad with Watermelon Dressing and Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Bake that I thought were going to "rock their boat". Unfortunately Adrian was not feeling well. Hence the dinner was canceled. Nevertheless, the show must go on even there's just the two of us.

For the base, I added to it ground almond.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup finely ground almond
  
• 2 Tablespoons natural cane sugar
• 80 gram cold butter, cubed
• 1 - 2 Tablespoons cold water

Start by sifting the dry ingredients together. Add in cold cubed butter and fold in with a cutter, or food processor. Add cold water to hold the mixture together. Shape it into a disk, sprinkle with flour and wrap in a piece of clingfilm. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Proceed as you would to make and bake the crust.

For the Topping, I used canned peach halves.

• 5 halves peaches, drained, dry and sliced
  
• Date honey
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence

Heat a skillet or grill over medium heat. Places peach slices over the heated surface in one layer. Flip and grill the other side when it's browned on one. Remove and let cool.

Mix together Date honey and vanilla. Drizzle this over the tart once assembled.

This was meant to be dessert for 4 persons. Adrian and I liked it so much we ate more than half of a 8" tart. I'm glad I managed to stop Adrian when he asked for more, or we couldn't have enjoyed it in the morning after.

Strawberry Mango Coconut Tart

It's George's 25th birthday today (7th May). He has organized and invited us to his birthday party tonight at Mae Kai Dee's Thai Vegetarian Restaurant. I don't know how you feel about it but to me, "part" and "vegetarian" somehow don't click.

Anyway I thought I would be nice and make him a cake of his choice. We went from "something chocolatety with peanut butter" to "monster cookies", and finally settled at Mango Pie. I would have flinched at it because of the pastry but I felt motivated by the pate brisee that I made for this quiche, and immediately said YES to George.

A quick search on internet turned out a whole lot of mango tart recipes but non of pies. "What's the difference between tart and pie?" I could see the "there-she-go-again" look on Adrian's face. He seems to think I'm capable of asking him questions that he has problem answering, which is a rare phenomenon. He told me tarts are small, and asked if I were a tart or pie. I turned to Google. According to Urban Dictionary "tart" also refers to nubile young temptress, who dresses teasingly and provocatively. I'm so tart.

Anyway I decided to make an open-face tart. I managed to pull together ideas from a few different recipe posts to come up with this tart with mango coconut custard filling, topped with fresh strawberries, instead of tart with custard topped with mangoes. How's that?

Sweet Short Crust Pastry

With the success from the last pate brisee, I set out to make this sweet short crust with just the right joyous confidence. I wonder why couldn't I do this before?

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup icing sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 small egg yolks

1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Process cold butter with dry ingredients until butter cubes are well coated. Stir in egg yolk and blend gently to combine well. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface, and shape it into a disk. Coat disk lightly with flour. Wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight.
2. When ready, take the dough disk out and let sit at room temperature for 10 - 15 minutes. At the mean time, place aluminum foil tightly over a 9" pie dish. Place dough in the center of prepared pie dish and roll it out to line the dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven at 180C. Remove from the fridge and cover with another layer of aluminum foil. Place on top either uncooked rice, beans or weight. Blind bake the pastry dough for about 15 minutes. Remove the weight and top layer of aluminum foil. Bake for another 8 - 10 minutes, until the base is golden brown. You may want to check on it from time to time so the edges do not burn. If it does, wrap the edges with aluminum foil and continue to bake until the base is golden brown. Let cool when done.
   

Mango Coconut Custard

I made lemon curd before, and it wasn't that difficult. Looking at the recipe instruction, there's little room for damage. It's true but not. It all went very well with me proclaiming it's going to be great "if the crust turns out fine". Little did I know..... I must have messed up the ingredients proportion somehow - the mixture wasn't thickening into the consistency I needed, even after a good 10 minutes of stirring (that's 5 minutes longer than required). This morning, I took it out from the fridge and sure enough, it's too liquidy to fill the tart. So I reheat the custard, and added to it another tablespoon of corn flour and egg yolk. After yet another 10 minutes (it felt longer) of constant stirring, it finally thickened up.

The recipe below is the improvised version.

• 2 ripe mangoes, flesh only
• juice of 2 small limes
• 1 Tablespoon sugar

• 1 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup corn flour
• 3 small egg yolks

1. To make mango puree, put mangoes, juice of lime and 1 tablespoon sugar in a blender and process until smooth. Taste and adjust with lime juice or sugar. This makes approximately 2 cups of mango puree.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together 1/4 cup sugar and corn flour. Stir in just enough coconut milk to blend. Fold in egg yolks.
3. In a sauce pan, warm coconut milk, 1/4cup sugar and 2 cups mango puree. Do not boil.
   
4. Pour 1/3 of mango mixture into the corn flour mix. Repeat twice more until mango mix and flour mix are well combine. Return the mixture into sauce pan and heat it for another 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken.
5. Cover it with clingfilm and keep in refrigerator for an hour or overnight.

To Assemble

• Fresh strawberries, halved
• Almond slivers, lightly toasted
  
• 9" Sweet short crust
  
• Mango Coconut Custard

Pour custard over baked and cooled crust. Top it with fresh strawberries. Sprinkle with almond slivers. The tart may be chilled for a few hours before serving although it's best to serve immediately because the custard may make the crust soggy.

Mango and Avocado Salsa

Nook Thanyaporn has mango trees growing around her house. It's mango season and she has more produce than she and her family can stomach. So she brought me 6 of them, still green. I gave away three and wrapped the other three with towel, and stored them in the kitchen cabinet. I was told to wait for a few days.

5 days in the closet and still no sign of ripening. I patiently await. Two weeks and the mangoes still look suspiciously premature. By this time, not only has Nook's family eaten whatever left of their harvest, but people whom I gave the mangoes to, too, had enjoyed the sweetness from these homegrown fruits. I was told my kitchen is not as warm. Hmmm....

16 days after first received and TA TAA!!! Not uniformly yellow but I could smell the sweetness nonetheless. First mango was used in an impromptu mixed fruit salad - not much to rave about. Since they were gifts from friend I felt they deserve better. Dessert? Mango lassi? Sticky rice?

For some reason Adrian craved for avocado coconut milk shake the other day and bought more than needed for a one-time fling. I decided to put two together and make a Mango Salsa. It's easy to put together and refreshing to serve in many way. In any case I know Adrian would definitely approve of the sweet tartness of the salsa. This would at least keep him happy and more opened to the Beet Hash Brown that came with it on breakfast table.

And it did.

Ingredients:

• 1 mango, diced
• 1 avocado, diced
• 4 cherry tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 jalapeno pepper, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon cilantro leaves, chopped
• salt and black pepper to taste
  

Mix all the ingredients together, toss to coat well. Adjust and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Spicy Broccoli Mango Salad

I wish I have better description for this salad: It's a perfect blend of smooth and sweet from the dressing and mangoes, crunch from the broccoli and a little heat from the sweet-hot pecans.
When I saw the fresh peaches, I simply couldn't resist its succulence. I figured given the similar texture and sweet-tartness, peaches should work just as good as mangoes would in this salad. I'm glad I was right.

I also sprinkled the salad with more ground red pepper just to spice things up. Adrian and I give this dish a two-thumb up :) Try it with the Tofu Steak!

Ingredients:
(serves 3 cups)

SWEET-HOT PECANS:
2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup pecan, coarsely chopped

DRESSING:
6oz natural passion fruit yogurt
1/6 cup mayonnaise
1/1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
pinch of salt

SALAD:
2 1/2 cup fresh broccoli florets and cut up stems
1 medium mango, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon red onion, finely chopped.

1. Lightly oil a skillet. Add sugar and red pepper; mix well. Stir in pecans. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar mixture is melted and pecans are coated. Remove from heat; set aside on a plate to cool.
2. In a small bowl, mix all dressing ingredients with a wire whisk until smooth.
3. In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients.
4. Add dressing to salad; toss gently to mix. Store in the refrigerator and sprinkle in hot pecan just before serving.
   

Baked Coconut French Toast with Tropical Fruit Compote

The French toast is plain and easy, just like the many other you can find easily. What's special lies with the fruit compote. The tart sweetness of the marinade is perfect for the tropical fruits, not to mention the crispy coconut flakes. I also sprinkled some almond flakes to the French toast prior to baking. Feel free to experiment with other fruits such as papaya for a more colorful display.

For a balanced morning breakfast, I served up a Scrambled Egg with spinach, sun dried tomato and goat cheese with sprinkle of chopped thyme.

Ingredients:

(makes 2)
Fruit Compote:

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh pineapple
• 1/4 cup chopped peeled mango
• 1/4 cup chopped dragon fruits
  
• 1/4 cup chopped peeled kiwifruit
• handful of dried blueberry and raisins (option)
  
• 1 tablespoons agave nectar (or honey/ maple syrup/ sugar)
  
• 1 tablespoons fresh lime juice

French toast:

• 4 (1-inch-thick) slices diagonally cut French bread baguette
  
• Coconut oil
  
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 egg
• 2 Tablespoon maple syrup
  
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinches of cinnamon powder and nutmeg (option)
  
• 1/4 cup flaked sweetened coconut

1. To prepare compote, combine all ingredients. Cover and chill overnight.
2. To prepare the French toast, arrange bread in a single layer in a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Combine coconut milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg (if using) stirring with a whisk, and pour evenly over bread. Turn the bread over to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 175°C.
4. Remove bread mixture from refrigerator, and uncover. Turn bread slices over, and sprinkle evenly with flaked coconut. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes. Bake, uncovered, at 175ºC for 30 minutes or until coconut is golden. Serve warm with fruit compote.