Showing posts with label black. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
A Jammy Weekend Recipes for Strawberry Balsamic Fig Vanilla Black Pepper Jam
A little cafe surrounded by a kitchen garden - windows with fluttering lace curtains - a big oven on one side - cinnamon, yeast, vanilla scents in the air - sounds of happy chatter - the aroma of fresh coffee brewing - people waiting in anticipation of a simple good time - a cup of good coffee or choice of tea with a scone or a muffin topped with some homemade jam - A girl can day dream right?
On Thursday, I ordered more fruit than I usually do for a week, especially strawberry and figs, with the intention of making jam. Im not much of a jam sandwich person. Give me a Mumbai style coriander-mint chutney and cucumber sandwich any day. But when you have a little boy at home wholl say Im hungry at the most unpredictable times of the day, it is good to have a loaf of bread and some spreads handy to make a snack in 2 minutes. He likes my Chocolate coconut Peanut Butter - well, I like it a lot myself and each batch gets over in a matter of 2-3 days. So I decided to make some jams anyway. What better way to preserve the goodness of seasonal fresh fruit for a couple more months?
Theres a lot more Id like to write about on jamming but the weekend chores beckon and I promised a few people that Ill be sharing the recipe on my blog before the end of the weekend, so here are the recipes for the two jams.
If you always wondered what the difference was between jelly, jam and preserve, read this.Id say my recipes are in between a jam and preserve, because while they do have a chunky texture, it is not that chunky because the fruit was fairly finely chopped to begin with. Contrary to popular belief that jam making is the job of old matronly housewives who wish to slave in the kitchen all day and night, these jams dont take more than 30-45 minutes each, including fruit chopping time, especially because were making only a small quantity at a time. Also, in both these jams, we dont need any added pectin because both fruits are full of seeds inside them which are a natural source of pectin. As for fig jam, most recipes from international websites dont ask for the fruit to be peeled, but Indian figs are very thick skinned, therefore better off peeled.
Strawberry Balsamic Preserve
Recipe adapted from Epicurious
Ingredients
750 grams strawberries (washed, patted dry and tops removed- I bought 1 kg and this was what I got after eating a few and removing the tops)
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp water
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp butter
Directions
- Finely chop the strawberries-youll get roughly 2 1/2 cups of chopped fruit
- In a heavy bottomed steel or anodised pan, put all the ingredients together, on a medium flame, bring this to a simmer.
- The butter prevents the mixture from foaming and splattering too much. In fact, mine didnt splatter at all.
- Simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the mixture is thick and translucent. Keep stirring off and on. Dont worry if its still a bit flowy and it will thicken further on cooling. So, switch off before the jam turns thick.
- Remove pan from heat and cool thoroughly.
- Meanwhile place two empty clean and dry glass jam jars bottles without their lids in the microwave for one minute. This is to quick sterilise the bottles.
- Once cooled to room temperature, spoon the jams into the two jars. Id say I got roughly two jars of 300-350 grams each.
- Close them tight and keep in fridge. Use within a month.
Recipe for Fig-Vanilla-Black Pepper Preserve
Adapted from Taste
Ingredients
Roughly 1 kg fresh figs
1 cup sugar
half a vanilla pod (or use a cinnamon stick + 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice or balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp butter
Directions
- Wash, dry and remove stems of figs. Peel and chop finely.
- Slice the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds with the end of the knife, add this to the chopped figs.
- In a large bowl, add all the ingredients, including the scraped vanilla pod, cover and keep overnight. [at this stage you could either keep the bowl of ingredients covered in the refrigerator overnight and proceed with jam making in the morning or proceed with the process immediately. I left it in the fridge overnight]
- After the mixture has sat in the fridge overnight, transfer them to a heavy bottomed steel pan or anodized pan, bring to a simmer on medium flame.
- Keep stirring off and on so that the sugar does not stick to the bottom and burn.
- In around 20 minutes, the mixture will start to thicken. Remove from flame. Cool thoroughly.
- Meanwhile place two empty clean and dry glass jam jars bottles without their lids in the microwave for one minute. This is to quick sterilise the bottles.
- Once cooled to room temperature, spoon the jams into the two jars. Id say I got roughly two jars of 300-350 grams each.
- Close them tight and keep in fridge. Use within a month.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas Gluten Free Fabuloso
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| These gluten-free enchiladas won the Whole Foods Budget recipe contest. |
Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas
This budget-friendly vegetarian enchilada recipe is one of those happy accidents that spring from a burst of creative inspiration. I was craving the soft and spicy comfort of enchiladas one windy spring night back in 2003, and I had none of the usual suspects on hand (no chicken, or beef, no pinto beans).
But I had one lovely mother of a sweet potato.
I had a can of organic black beans in the pantry.
Some roasted green chiles.
One lonely lime.
And your intrepid Mamacita at large thought, Hmmm. Why not?
Deliciousness ensued.
These wrapped little gems are soft and creamy and a little bit spicy- just like a certain cook, my point-scoring husband wisecracks. It's the yams, I tell him. Er, sweet potato. I can never tell the difference. In the end, it doesn't matter.
What matters is how it tastes.
And Babycakes, these are so very mucho scrumptious. Seriously. I kid you not. Make a batch for a girls' night in, or a laid back Sunday brunch.
Or dazzle a vegetarian on Thanksgiving day.
Read more + get the recipe >>
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Random Recipes Beetroot and Black Cumin Soup
For the New Year, Dom at Belleau Kitchen has invited us to cook from a new cookbook. Now I only got one cookbook for Christmas and it features nothing but...CHOCOLATE! However, the house is still full of chocs and biscuits, the fridge still has two jars of homemade mincemeat and we have only just finished the Christmas cake, so I really couldnt face making any more sweet things.
So instead I turned to the books I won from Ren Behan at Fabulicious Food, I got all three of the Moro cookbooks by Sam and Sam Clark. I randomly chose the original Moro book from the three. Then I opened the book in a random sort of way and found that I had chosen
Beetroot Soup with Black Cumin
Beetroot Soup with Black Cumin
4tbsp olive oil
1/2 large Spanish onion,thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 rounded tsp black cumin or normal cumin seeds
750g raw beetroot, peeled and finely diced
1 large potato, finely diced
1.25 litres cold water
3 tbsp good quality red wine vinegar
1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
100g home-made or Greek yoghurt, thinned iwht a little milk an seasoned with 1 garlic clove crushed to a paste with sea salt and black pepper
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook for 10 mintues, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to colour. Now add the garlic and cumin and cook for 2 more minutes to release their flavour, followed by the beetroot and potato. Pour in the water, bring to a gentle simmer and cook until soft, about 15 minutes (I dont think I chopped mine small enough as it took much longer to soften). Place the vegetables and the cooking liquid in a blender or food processor and blend until just smooth. You may need to do this in two stages. Return to the pan, add the vinegar, half the parsely and salt and pepper to taste, bearing in mind you may need more salt than you think to blance out the acidity of the vinegar. Servie with a little yoghurt on top, the rest of the parsley and an extra drizzle of olive oil.
The soup was very easy to make and looks incredible, it has an interesting sweet and sour taste with the combination of the sweet beetroot and the red wine vinegar. I was a bit disappointed that I couldnt taste the cumin and I did actually use black cumin but I cant say it was obvious. I would make it again but might increase the amount of cumin, or maybe use some ground as well as cumin seeds.
1/2 large Spanish onion,thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 rounded tsp black cumin or normal cumin seeds
750g raw beetroot, peeled and finely diced
1 large potato, finely diced
1.25 litres cold water
3 tbsp good quality red wine vinegar
1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
100g home-made or Greek yoghurt, thinned iwht a little milk an seasoned with 1 garlic clove crushed to a paste with sea salt and black pepper
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook for 10 mintues, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to colour. Now add the garlic and cumin and cook for 2 more minutes to release their flavour, followed by the beetroot and potato. Pour in the water, bring to a gentle simmer and cook until soft, about 15 minutes (I dont think I chopped mine small enough as it took much longer to soften). Place the vegetables and the cooking liquid in a blender or food processor and blend until just smooth. You may need to do this in two stages. Return to the pan, add the vinegar, half the parsely and salt and pepper to taste, bearing in mind you may need more salt than you think to blance out the acidity of the vinegar. Servie with a little yoghurt on top, the rest of the parsley and an extra drizzle of olive oil.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Black forest frosty
Black forest frosty
Ingredients
- Cherries 1 cup pitted
- Chocolate ice cream 1 ½ cup
- Cream whipped ½ cup for decoration
- Chocolate cake or brownie 1 cup
- Milk ½ cup
- Crushed ice 1 cup
- Sugar 2 tbsp
Method
- Blend altogether Cherries 1 cup pitted, Chocolate ice cream 1 ½ cup, Chocolate cake or brownie 1 cup, Milk ½ cup, Crushed ice 1 cup, Sugar 2 tbsp pour in glass serve garnished with whipped cream.
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