Pomegranate Salad with Maple-Spiced Walnuts and Honey-Mint Lemon Dressing

I love a good fruit salad. It's the kind of dish that doesn't seem like much and requires some thought to make an impression . You know what I mean? Most fruit salads I have at restaurants are just mindless jumble of seasonal fruits. The more creative ones would add yogurt as topping. And that was my education of fruit salads through eating out.

I'm glad I'm a learner and I educate myself pretty well otherwise I may never discovered the beauty of a GOOD fruit salad. Especially the type that is filled with season's best, picked at their peak, and speaks FRESH in every bite. This fruit salad is a winner because it's tossed in a light sauce of fresh squeezed lemon juice, honey, fresh mint and a touch of cane sugar: just enough to bring out the natural sweetness in the fruits without overwhelming it while the fresh mint works as a refreshing compliment.

The key is to use fresh ripe fruit. Under ripe or overly ripe will kill it. And if you must, canned fruit such as mandarin orange wedges or even peaches can be used, but fresh is truly best. This is a very versatile recipe; you can use other fruits combination: blackberries, apples, pears, peach, etc.

This salad would be perfect for breakfast, brunch, dessert or potluck. It will also serve as compliment to French toast, waffle, or pancakes.

Ingredients:
(makes 4 side servings)

• 1 banana, peeled and sliced
  
• 1 pomegranate, peeled and break seeds apart
• 1 C seedless grapes, halved

Honey-Mint Lemon Dressing

• 3 TB pure honey
• 3 TB fresh mint, chopped
• 3 TB fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 3 TB natural cane sugar

Combine all ingredients together in a bowl. Refrigerate until ready to toss with fresh fruits.

Caramelized Walnuts (optional)

• 1/2 C walnuts
• 1/3 TB Maple syrup
• salt and pepper
  

Combine walnuts, maple syrup, pinch of salt and pepper in a medium bowl, tossing well to coat. Spread pecan mixture evenly onto a baking sheet coated with oil. Bake at 180° for 15 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes. Cool completely and break nuts into small pieces.

Mix cut, fresh fruits and Honey-Mint Lemon Dressing in a serving bowl. Toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with chopped caramelized walnuts. Garnish with sprigs of fresh mint.

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Technically, it's not a type of cheese. It's made from the by-product of cheese making - whey -. For those of us who lack access to cheese-making by-products, there is a very easy way of making Ricotta, without the needs for special cheese-making ingredients such as rennet. Most people would already have the ingredients at home: cow milk (or a blend of cow and goat milk), vinegar (or lemon juice), and salt. All you need to do is heat them up and drain. 30 minutes is all it takes for a delicious homemade warm fresh Ricotta.

Instead of using white vinegar, I use fresh squeezed lemon juice since it provides the acid needed for curdling just as well as vinegar. You can also make Ricotta using buttermilk without the need for acid. I adapted the recipe from David Lebovitz.

Ingredients:
(makes 2 C)

• 8 C whole milk
• 1 C homemade plain yogurt
• 1/2 C cream (optional)
  
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

1. In a saucepan, heat all ingredient to boil.

2. Turn the heat down to a gentle boil for another one or two minutes, until mixture is curdled.

3. Line a few layers of cheesecloth over a deep bowl. Pour the mixture over and let drain for 15 minutes, or less for a creamier texture.

4. Serve it warm or refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Polenta Lemon Muffin with Lemon Curd Filling

I'm totally into polenta since the Polenta and Ricotta Cake. Well, maybe it's not the polenta but the divine fragrance of baked honey..... MmmHmm.... whatever. Got to make good use of the bag of polenta anyway.

The original recipe uses all-purpose flour and a lemon curd recipe that has more steps than necessary. I replaced the flour with 1 cup uncooked polenta + 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour and used the Lemon Curd Recipe in one of my earlier posts. Didn't make any changes except I'm using organic sugar instead of natural cane sugar. The color turns out in a pretty yellow instead of the less appetizing brownish hue I had before. The ingredients listed make for 1 cup of lemon curd. You can also double the amount and save the extra for other recipes such as Lemon Curd Bar or use lemon curd as dressing for savory such as Smoked Salmon Quinoa.

For the muffin, if you don't have sour cream (as usual, I make it by mixing 1 TB lemon juice + 1 C cream) you can also use yogurt or buttermilk (I make this with 1TB lemon juice + 1 C milk). Don't expect the muffins to rise as they normally would with flour. You can use reduce polenta and increase flour if you like your muffins to rise more.

Do visit the original recipe - it's food blog by a very artistic duo. They did some fun decoration to their Meyer Lemon Cupcake with stencils: ninja monkey, skull and cross-bones, etc. Me? Just look at my vague attempt at dressing them with ricotta cheese. I'm a gourmand, you know?

Ingredients:

For filling

• 2 small eggs
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1/4 C organic sugar
• 2 TB butter

(makes 1 Cup)

1. Either use a double boiler or place one saucepan over a pan of simmering water (as shown in picture). Whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon juice until thicken.

2. Remove from heat and strain through a mesh. Stir in butter to melt. Add lemon zest and let cool slightly. The curd will thicken. Immediately cover to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate and move on to cupcake. You can refrigerate this for up to a week.

Lemon Muffins
(makes 6 large muffins)

• 1/2 C unsalted butter
• 1 C uncooked polenta
• 1/2 C unbleached all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 C sour cream
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 C natural cane sugar
  
• 2 large eggs
• Ricotta cheese (optional)
  

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease muffin tray.
   
2. In medium bowl, whisk together polenta, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest and juice.
   
3. In an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light in color. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in between. On low speed, add one third of the polenta mixture, one half of the sour cream mixture, one third of the polenta, the other half of the sour cream, and the rest of the polenta. Basically, alternate dry and wet - and don't overmix.
4. Divide batter evenly among muffin tray. Bake 35 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.
5. You may either use lemon curd as filling by spooning out the muffin center, or, swirl lemon curd on top as topping. Serve with cream or ricotta cheese.
   

Veggie Smoothies

It began with the extra hydroponic butterhead lettuce: it came with roots and I was happily keeping it alive in a jar of water next to the sink. Few days passed and still no sign of cooking at home. I got nervous and started surfing for inspiration. Not much. Then the conversation with Fredrik about juicer came to mind. Hmm.... so I typed "lettuce smoothie". And what do you know? GREEN SMOOTHIE, anyone?

With Lettuces

Banana, blueberry, golgi berry, yogurt, lettuces and cinnamon powder.

Who would have thought? No sign of green at all =)

It's not that different than our usual morning stable: banana with mixed berries yogurt smoothie. I just threw in another handful of lettuces. I was going to keep in mum but Adrian walked in and I could see the expression on his face. "It's ok. I know what I'm doing" said the cook. You got to give this man a lot of credit for the faith he has on me.

How did it turn out? Well, the tartness of the berries overpowered whatever green taste the lettuces may have. Would I do it again? Only when there's leftover lettuces again.

With Chinese Celery

Same ingredients as Lettuce Smoothie plus raspberry and Homemade Almond Milk in instead of Homemade Yogurt.

Pretty~

This was the result of a big mistake. I was looking for parsley and somehow mistook Chinese celery as the Italian flat-leaved parsley. Although I had a couple celery recipes (cream of celery soup, butternut/ apple soup)that I liked and enjoyed, I don't go around and search for celery recipe as I would with broccoli or eggplant. You know what I mean?

The damage is done and I just got to fix it, don't I? It would be a whole lot easier if I had a juicer. Since I don't just have to make it into smoothie. I found recipes for banana and celery soup, and cantaloupe, celery and blueberry salad. Well, I guess it's I can just throw in to the morning mixed berries smoothis as I did with lettuces.... how convenient.

Tomato Mozzarella Basil Tart

It came out nicely browned.

I bought rice for this recipe. Why? Because I don't have baking beads and do not know where to buy them. Besides, I was told by a professional baker it was not necessary to use baking beads. Beans and rice would suffice. Hence, I bought the cheapest, smallest package available on the shelf. Sorry, no organic, no whole wheat, no brown rice.

As with my previous recipes (with cream cheese, with pesto), this dough, too, is flavored. This time with garlic and basil. The recipe is pretty straight forward. I substituted 1/4 C of unbleached all purpose flour with whole wheat flour for a more crunchy crust.

The basil topping enhances the garlicky basil crust.


Love the oozy melty cheese.

Beetroot Hummus

"All hummus should be made with beetroot - it's so pretty" quote from Adrian. Should I remind him he used to dislike beetroot?

Here's a quick and nutritious recipe to use up beetroot and add a new twist to a traditional Middle Eastern dish - Hummus - .

Hummus is a staple of Middle Eastern cookery. Its blend of chick peas and sesame seeds are a valuable source of calcium, protein, vegetable fats, iron and B vitamins. The addition of beetroot increases the vitamin C content and adds magnesium. All of which combines to make this pretty much a super-food.

Beetroot added a pretty pink color to the otherwise bland-looking dip. You can either make this from scratch, with dried chick peas and fresh beetroot or you can whiz it up in 5 minutes using pre-cooked beetroot and a can of chickpeas / frozen chick peas. Serve it with toasted bread, fresh vegetable sticks or as a side dish.

For other twist on hummus and homemade tahini, go here. I dressed the dip with some roasted pine nuts. I guess I can call it Pink Hummus Snaubar. I meant to decorate it with parsley but I mistaken celery for flat-leaf parsley...... now what am I going to do with that bunch of celery in the fridge?

Ingredients:
1 beetroot, cooked and diced (roasted or boiled)
1C cooked chickpeas
1 TB white sesame, roasted (or tahini)
1 glove garlic, minced
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 TB olive oil


Blend the ingredients together in the following order:

1. lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, white sesame/ tahini
2. beetroot, chickpea (add water if necessary)
3. Season with salt if necessary.
   

Polenta and Ricotta Cake

It began from the day I bumped into a picture of polenta egg breakfast recipe. It continued with the discussion where to buy organic couscous and polenta in Bangkok, followed by talk of making gluten-free dishes for Contessa's daughter whom has Celiac disease. I took this series of events as a sign to experiment and cook with the yellow cornmeal.

Polenta was originally made with chestnut meal and farro. It was, and remains still, a peasant food. Nowadays it has been given life, with the blend of cheeses and tomatoes, from the essentially bland and common food into the menus in high-end restaurant and supermarket at high price.

You need a baking dish with removable bottom. Otherwise the cake will fall apart when you try to remove it from the dish. I used springform pan. A tip I learned years ago from my very first cheesecake-only recipe book: grease the pan and chilled it until needed. A recent tip I learned from Gordon Ramsey: to be safe, grease the chilled pan again. As a result, the cake pulled away from the edges intact.

This cake surprised me. It's really simple and yet can be classy, with its golden brown color, if you just spend some time to dress it up. I think I'm going to buy a piping tip so I can decorate my future cakes with swirls of pretty cream. The smell of baked honey was god-send: Adrian was wondering when we can eat it when I pulled it out from the oven at 10.30pm last night.I served it with homemade raspberry jam and cream. They compliment the honey-sweet of the cake very well.

You can substitute dried figs with dried apricots. You want them moist and plump. If need be, soak them in hot water, drain and pat dry before adding to the batter.

Ingredients:

• About 6 moist, plump dried figs, chopped into bite-size.
  
• 1 c medium-grain polenta
  
• ½ c all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 c fresh ricotta
  
• 1/3 c tepid water
• ¾ c natural cane sugar
• ¾ c organic honey
  
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 Tablespoon butter, cut into bits and chilled
• 2 large eggs

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 190C.

Lightly grease a 9" springform pan and wrap the bottom with aluminum foil to prevent leakage. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, honey, and lemon zest and beat until light. Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.

Pour about one third of the batter into the pan and scatter over the figs. Pour in the rest of the batter, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary, and dot the batter evenly with the chilled bits of butter.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the pan, and the butter will have left light-colored circles in the top. Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.