April 20, 2013

No Bake | Mulberry Strawberry Buttermilk Sorbet & Mulberry Jam … In season with mulberries!

“I put everything I can into the mulberry of my mind and hope that it is going to ferment and make a decent wine. How that process happens, I’m sorry to tell you, I can’t describe.”
John Hurt

Mulberry Strawberry Buttermilk Sorbet & Mulberry Jam! Here we go round the mulberry ~~bush~~ tree, and looks like I’m going to stay right under it! We’re enjoying a very short and very sweet mulberry season. I feel so inspired! Seems like it’s going to be mulberries all the way.

Mulberries are actually a good source of raw food protein, a rarity in the fruit kingdom. They are also a good source of magnesium, potassium, riboflavin, iron, calcium, vitamin C, and fiber. One of the mulberry’s greatest health assets is it’s high concentration of resveratrol, an antioxidant currently being studied for its effects on heart health.

The sudden mulberry distraction {maybe madness} arrived unannounced as usual. This post is more about the story around the fruit, than the sorbet or jam itself. The latter would barely spin a tale, though the sorbet recipe is a real winner!

A large number of us joined the very large hearted and talented Neel at Learn Food Photography to polish our photography knowledge and skills. A few of you might know that I am still very lost about the technicalities behind the camera and am a compulsive auto shooter.

So thanks to this 30 day exercise, we are down almost 3 weeks doing what we like to do best. That includes virtually meeting and interacting with a huge like minded community. {The photograph below is one of my favourite shots from last week.}

In addition to some serious photog learning, the interactions are also a huge take away. It’s fascinating to see how food photography can reunite folk from India to Mexico! Together we’ve played with light, angles, DOF, backgrounds, props, diffusers and so much more. Maybe you can catch bits in my photographs. You can see the sorbet in many different hues, from an early morning shot, to a rather deep pink late evening one. An enriching experience!

It was on the forum that I chanced upon a photograph of mulberries that Ozan from Turkey shared. That made me sit up. What happened to our mulberry season? Why didn’t I remember? Man Friday was immediately summoned and commissioned with ‘the mulberry task’.

He never fails…never! He soon brought me a bag of pretty, juicy mulberries, sweet as sweet could be. Morning saw me stirring mulberry jam! Nothing to the recipe. Just the berries with equal sugar, a vanilla bean, a dash of lime juice. I threw in some aged balsamic too. Simmered until soft over low heat, then cooked until it thickened somewhat. TADA! Jam! No pectin, nothing!

I get a HUGE bagful every alternate day. I’ve frozen some. Throw them into smoothies for the kids. A strawberry mulberry smoothie is beautiful. Then I wanted to make something I’ve waited long to make, a buttermilk sorbet. I added some mulberries instead of just a strawberry sorbet. Delightful!

This mixed berry sorbet is light, refreshing, summery and beautiful! I shot it in many different ways in the ongoing LFP exercise. It included styling – napkins, garnish, Pinterest inspiration etc. I got some right shots, and some very wrong. So much fun, and so much to learn.

It was three days of ‘mulberry shots‘! Another huge bagful came in this morning so the head is buzzing with mulberry coloured thoughts again. Any recipe suggestions are more than welcome. Hopefully I’ll have another mulberry centric post out this month!

Until then, please help yourself to really really refreshing and pretty Mulberry Strawberry Buttermilk Sorbet. The Mulberry Jam is quite sweet and makes for a nice addition in a berry dessert sauce, added to whipped cream into a fool, dolloped over breakfast cereal or slathered onto a warm buttery toast! I love cooking in season!

Recipe:Mulberry Strawberry Buttermilk Sorbet

Summary: Sweet, tangy, refreshing, light, the berry buttermilk sorbet is addictive good. Great way to use summer berries. Makes about 1 ltr.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

200g mulberries, frozen
200g strawberries, frozen
150g vanilla sugar
2 tbsp kirsch
Juice of 1 lime
500ml buttermilk, frozen in ice cube tray {for Thermomix recipe}

Method:

Thermomix
Place all ingredients in bowl of TM and process at speed 10 for a minute at a time until pulverized to smooth consistency Use TM scraper to scrape down sides now and then.
Transfer to freezer safe bowl and freeze until desired {or serve immediately!}
Ice cream maker
Remove the stems of the mulberries if you like {I didn’t}
Place all the ingredients in bowl of processor and blend well until smooth. Taste and adjust sugar if required.
Pour into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer instructions.

Recipe: Mulberry Jam

Summary: Sweet, simple and full of berry goodness, this is another great way to use the seasonal berry. Makes about 2 jars.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:

500g mulberries
500g sugar
1 vanilla bean
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Method:

Pull out the stems of the mulberries.
Place the berries in a heavy bottom saucepan, crush them with the back of a spoon so that they release their juices. Bring to a simmering boil, then add the remaining ingredients.
Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook to desired consistency, about 15 minutes.
Transfer to sterilised jars. I refrigerated mine as I didn’t seal them.

Don’t miss a post
Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India

June 25, 2012

Baking | Macaron à la Peaches et Crème … Vacation Macs!

“A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.”
Robert Orben

It’s been literally a mac-vacation for me, a vacation I dislike as it keeps me away from a challenge I love with a vengeance. I’m back on board to get in with the fun and beautiful Mac Attack Jamie and I host each month. This time our call was for Vacation Macs … and how better could I get there with my mac-a-vacations … Macaron à la Peaches et Crème {pardon my French please}The flavours are reminiscent of one of the best vacations we enjoyed a few years ago in the Himalayas. We’ve had some other fabulous ones include Goa, Sydney, Hong Kong, Gangtok … but the one the ‘now threatening to be quite terrible just turned 13‘ teen remembers every single day is this one at Ramgarh. Nothing like the serenity of the Himalayas to unwind!

That vacation filled in perfectly with our call this month. Our best macarons reminiscent of that ideal vacation or that perfect holiday spot. Mountains, seaside, tiny hamlet lost in the countryside, large, bustling city teeming with restaurants and museums, these are our inspiration. With the best vacation that comes to mind, from that thought, memory or distant dream, create a fabulous Vacation Macaron!

We stayed at a beautiful heritage cottage surrounded by peach trees and since it was peak summer, we walked by peach trees plucking fresh, juicy fruit right off the tree. This is where my lad became a peach monster and developed a deep love for the fruit.Summer is for stone fruit is my chant. I just cannot have enough of these delicious fruit that are reaching us in the foothills of the Himalayas; better quality and quantity every year! This summer I have had a field day with stone fruit…… Apricot Peach Sorbet, Dark Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cake, Mini Quark Vanilla Cheesecakes with Balsamic Cherries, Black Forest Cake, Oatmeal Peach Apricot Mango Smoothie {yet to post}, Dark Chocolate Cherry Wholewheat Cakelets {yet to post} … and my fridge is full of cherries, peaches, mangoes and apricots!I have also been developing some food recipes for Del Monte for their website World Foody. The peach ice cream above is one I made last week from their canned peaches, beautiful cling peaches with a fabulous deep flavour. Will let you know when the recipe is up on the website; until then it’s Macaron à la Peaches et Crème!The macaron shells were going to be perfect, something deep within me said to me when I was done folding the macaronage. BUT … in my hurry to beat the power cut, I switched on the upper element instead of the lower one, so my feet popped out with the thermal shock and the skins developed a ‘peach‘ blush. It was too late to salvage the batch, and the little macronage left proved my feeling right! Aaaargh! And did I tell you that at 45C ice-cream melts SO FAST? I was RACING!I used the several times tried and tested David Lebovitz recipe that lives in my head. It never goes wrong if you mix the macronage correctly and let it rest! However, a little more advice follows …

Do you want to join us making MACARONS?

If you do, you are most welcome to join us for this challenge, or the next. You can find all the information at our dedicated macaron blog MacTweets. We generally post the round-up by the end of every month, following which a new challenge is posted!

… these cookies are fiddly creatures and are dependent on way too many things. egg whites {aged or not}, almond meal,oven temperature, room temperature, humidity levels, the hand that mixes them, the way you pipe them out … and above all, lady luck!

Before I get onto the recipe, I’d like to thank Chillibreeze for interviewing me. You can read it here if you like.I’d also like to thank the Financial Times, Times of India, for including me so generously in their feature ‘Gurgaon is Blogging & How‘ on Business Street, 21st June, 2012. Last but not the least, thank you Javelin Warrior for adding my Dark Chocolate Cherry Mousse Cake in your delicious Friday Food Fetish.

Thank you all! I feel really honoured.

Monthly Mingle is the brainchild of the lovely Meeta @ Whats For Lunch Honey, and this month it celebrates Barbara’s spirit at the wonderful Jeanne @ Cook Sister with a Taste of Yellow. I am sending this to the MM for July 2012.

Recipe: Macaron à la Peaches et Crème

Summary: Vanilla macarons sandwiched with a home made low fat peach & cream ice cream. Perfect for those hot summer days!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes {plus resting time}
Ingredients:

Vanilla Macarons
{recipe adapted from David Lebovitz}
1 egg white {35gm} {I didn’t age mine}
2 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar {I used granulated vanilla sugar}
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 tsp egg white powder
1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder
Peach ice cream for filling

Method:

Run the powdered sugar, almond meal, vanilla bean powder and egg white powder in blender until well blended. Sift into a bowl.
Beat the egg white until foamy, then add the granulated sugar and beat for approximately 2 minutes until stiff peaks form.
Fold in 1/4 of the dry mix until no streaks remain, then add the remainder of the dry mix and gently fold in until you get a lava like batter. {Donot overfold}
Place into a piping bag and pipe circles onto parchment paper.
Tap the trays sharply to get rid of air bubbles and allow to rest for 30-45 minutes.
Bake in double trays at 140C for 12-15 minutes, until the shells are firm and no longer jiggly. {My oven uses just the lower element for baking, so I place the double trays towards the top of the oven}
Cool and sandwich with softened ice cream. Store in freezer and serve directly from there.

Don’t miss a post
Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India

June 20, 2012

Frozen Dessert | Apricot Peach Sorbet … when life offers you more stone fruit!

“No matter how full I am, I’m always ready to dig into a bowl of icy cool sorbet after dinner.”
David Lebovitz, the Perfect Scoop

Inspiration rules. Sylvie is one of the most talented food bloggers, stylists and photographers I have virtually met, and her blog Gourmande in the Kitchen never ceases to amaze. Those apricots ~~called~~ shouted my name out loud. It must have been more than a coincidence that I carried some rather fetching yet not so sweet apricots home, because I had my answer… Apricot Peach Sorbet.The paintwork has been completed and I if I expected all the stuff to grow feet and saunter back into place, I was dreaming. Torn between apricots, the cocker spaniel, ladders and getting the house into order was a strange dilemma; I had a finger in every pie, but first it had to be the apricots as Sylvies post had me haunted.Ambitious me! I only got as far as the fruit being pitted and cooked. Don’t you just love these beautiful babies? They give up the pits so cleanly and willingly, that I look at peaches rather sternly! Wouldn’t it help if they did it with such ease too? No wine on hand, so the simmering happened in sugar + water with a vanilla bean thrown in.Just a matter of minutes and we had gorgeous apricots in syrup. Cooled and chilled they tasted sublime, but lack of time saw them in the fridge for 2 more days. WORK WORK WORK! The dog had to be bathed as she was ‘smothered‘ in paint, her feet, her ears all ‘painted‘ in dust as she was constantly in and out of everything. She is NAUGHTY at one year but absolutely charming … and now scrubbed clean!The teens just don’t seem to lift a finger these days. Between Castle, Desperate Housewives, Junior MasterChef Australia, MasterChef Australia, more TV, sleeping, eating, going out, all in no particular order, they do NOTHING! Well almost nothing … other than whizzing smoothies and stir fries in the kitchen {read dirty D I S H E S}; also wanting to make Shannon Bennett’s involved Peach Melba…sigh! … which meant that instead of making the mascarpone I intended to serve the fruit over, I was relegated to more clearing and cleaning. The fruit eventually landed up in the freezer, syrup and all, followed rather hastily with some peaches that I had bought too. Some good would come out of it I thought …… and it did! Nothing better to beat the incessant summer heat with a fruity, delightful cold sorbet. I loved the colours, the tangy sweetness that flooded the mouth, the beautiful texture … the ever so slight hint of bitter almond. Beautiful!

#lovestonefruit

Sorbets are quite similar to granitas, both are dairy free and egg free {unlike ice creams which have custard base}. They are both made from blended fruit, fruit juice or maybe a simple sugar syrup. The difference lies in the way the two are made. Sorbets are made by ice cream machines and churned to give a soft, airy, ice cream like smooth texture, whereas granitas are hand made. Granitas are grainier in texture, coarser, full of ice crystals … and both are a wonderful end to a meal.

Recipe: Apricot Peach Sorbet

Summary: Tart, sweet, refreshing, healthy and easy, this apricot peach sorbet is a wonderful end to a meal. Just right for summer! Inspired by Gourmande in the Kitchen

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes {plus cooling/chilling time}
Ingredients:

Apricots in syrup
12 apricots, halved, stoned
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 vanilla bean
Juice of 1 lime
600g peaches, halved, stoned, frozen
50g sugar

Method:

Apricots in syrup
Simmer honey, sugar, water and vanilla bean in a non reactive pan until the sugar has melted. Slide the apricots in and simmer gently for 4-5 minutes, until they are just tender.
Take off heat, add a squeeze of lime, cool and then chill. Discard vanilla bean and freeze with liquid for Thermomix recipe.
Making the sorbet {TM recipe}
Place apricots frozen with syrup {cut up into chunks}, frozen peaches and sugar in bowl of TM, and process on speed 8 going up to 10 for 1-2 minutes, until smooth. Taste and adjust sugar if required.
Pipe into serving glasses and serve immediately, or freeze.
Note: If using ice cream machine, puree the cooled apricots in syrup with the peaches and sugar, and proceed according the manufacturer instructions.