Stephanie's Sapid Adventures

NYE Bean Dip

2011-12-30T22:30:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick and ridiculously yummy dip for your parties tomorrow. Its pretty approximate, but the ratios of bean to cream cheese are accurate, and double easily

3/4 cup dry black beans ( equivalent two cans cooked )
Soak beans overnight
Put on low heat with about 3 cups of water
3 to 5 minced garlic cloves
Add a scant teaspoon of cinnamon
About 1/4 teaspoon of the hottest cayenne you can find
And a tablespoon of cumin

Cook for two hours on lowest heat. After two hours when beans are soft turn heat up to medium low and cook off remaining liquid. Stir in 12 oz of cream cheese. Put in ovenproof ceramic dish and heat when ready to serve.

TIPS
Using dried beans cut down on sodium, and stops the beans from going mushy. Adding salt when soaking the beans prevents the skins from splitting. Cutting out this step does however make this a 5 minute recipe

Marshmallow you Cute?!

2011-12-04T00:42:00.000-08:00

Other titles considered:

It's a Marshmallow World
It's a Marshmallow Life
She's an out of this world Baking Marsh-ian!

You know I am at the end of the semester when my humor gets bad and my kitchen projects get GOOD!

This is a variation on a Food Network recipe that i opened in my browser nearly two weeks ago and have refused to close.

Since I knew i was in for three days of academic torture..

I allowed myself to make a recipe.
Just one.

It was not allowed to involve the oven.

Making Bailey's flavored marshmallows seemed an appropriate solution.

It was so much easier than I thought it would be, and I succeeded without a candy thermometer! ( risking the ruin of precious baking ingredients - nerve wracking!) Essentially what I did, was dump three packages of gelatin into my mixer with a half a cup of ice cold water. On the stove I heated water, corn syrup, sugar, and a pinch of salt, for exactly 7 minutes, on exactly medium heat, and hoped i pulled it off before the sugar started crystallizing.

AND I DID!

And then I turned Black Betty (wham-a-lam) on for her triumphant return, and slowly poured the hot sugary liquid in the mixer.

High speed, high steam!

After about 5 minutes it stopped frothing and started foaming. Excellent.

The hardest part, is just letting it mix. For about 12 minutes. Patience is not one of my numerous virtues.

Oh wait, then I added Baileys instead of vanilla extract. Two glugs to be exact. Not as much as I wanted for sure.

Child friendly Marshmallows. Child friendly Marshmallows. Child friendly Marshmallows. Child friendly Marshmallows. *sigh

Eventually it became thick like meringue, and it got poured into a greased and dusted dish to set, and dusted on top a bit more. (cornstarch/icing sugar even mix. The cornstarch doesn't dissolve the way the sugar does and keeps them from getting sticky)

Then cut, rolled in more powder.

Here's a few hints for you

Don't refrigerate these if you don't want them to get sticky.

Much like fondant they will sweat a little bit if they chill too long.

Also if you want to scoop the marshmallow mix it into a piping bag and pipe a long tube onto dusted parchment paper, then you can let them set and cut the stripes into mini marshmallows.

Also, dust you pizza roller with the cornstarch and powdered sugar mixture

The initial process takes less than 10 minutes. I left the room while the mixer ran! However, the slicing and powdering takes a while.

The marshmallow brick needs at least 4 hours to set before you can handle it, so you can make these and cut later

I threw them in the bowl to dust, put the marshmallows in the sieve and shook the excess off.

Uhm, these may not make it into everyone's stockings. Hot chocolate with baileys marshmallows for paper writing reward? And not even boozy!! I think so.

do you sprout?

2011-12-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

You should sprout

If you don't, what are you waiting for?

It costs you pennies, it's delicious, and far less risk of bacteria, because you cut down on packaging and shipping times.

This will be ready to eat sandwich sprouts in another day or so

And these are going in tomorrow night's dinner

All you do is pour water over them a few times a day, and it drains down through the trays.

VOILA!

Go forth and sprout!!

Two Ingredients..

2011-11-20T16:11:00.000-08:00

Saurkraut.

If you don't like it - I can't help you. If you enjoy pungent, home made, lacto-fermented natural foods, you have come to the right place!

Step 1) Thinly slice organic cabbage into shreds

Step 2) Salt and smash cabbage. Bruise it up nicely. Mortar and pestle works, or just your fists in a big clean bowl.

Step 3) Press into a food grade container. The salt should draw enough liquid out to cover the cabbage. Obviously - I used a canning jar. Because canning jars are my answer to almost everything.

Step 4) Cover and weight down the future kraut. I used a plastic lid cut to size, and a smaller jar of water. If there isn't enough water for an inch of brine, add some boiled and cooled salt water to keep this covered. The salt water is like a protective layer to protect your krauty goodness.

The fresh, green, unfermented jar

Step 5) Cover with cheesecloth and let ferment. Yes. On the counter.

Step 6) Taste. When ready refrigerate to slow fermentation.

Step 7) Remember to use clean, non-reactive utensils to retrive the sauerkraut. This can be a plastic or wooden spoon, I like chopsticks because my jar is deep.

If you want to continue, salt and smash some fresh cabbage, empty your jar and add the new cabbage to the bottom.


Finished: my sauerkraut hanging out in the fridge. Afterthought - perhaps I should have cleaned my fridge.

Usual Disclaimer: if you do this wrong you may make yourself ill. Lacto-fermented foods done wrong mean either the yeast or bacteria takes over the other.. I just happen to be the owner of a steel stomach, and friendly bacterial environment in my house. Also I am crazy neurotic about using only clean, sanitized, non metallic tools for this.

It gets better tasting the long it sits, and looses more and more color.

Justify the purchase of totally unhealthy perogies and gobble. Also enjoyed on smash up of day old boiled potatoes, onion and a bit of bacon left over from breakfast.

Enjoy!

Autumn Chutney

2011-11-16T00:25:00.000-08:00

SO many pears and delicious squashy things around at this time of the year...

I was inspired by a recipe posted by a local produce merchant I subscribe to. There was a recipe for a Pear Chutney.... After some googling and a trip to the grocery store I was prepared.

In the pot went:

3 lbs of Pears with skins on, cubed

2 cups of apple cider vinegar

*my family loves vinegar-y foods, more than is good for us. You can cut this down a bit but please keep in mind if you plan on canning or processing this chutney acidity is what will keep it microbe free!

1 1/2 C brown sugar, plus a healthy squeeze of honey.
* the recipe called for 2 cups of brown sugar, but again, honey is naturally antibacterial, and I ran out of sugar.

a big handful of GOLDEN raisins
*will make the chutney, get some of these instead of dark ones while you are in the bulk section buying the....

candied ginger. Again, the recipe called for 1/4 cup. I eyeballed this as about 8 or 9 chunks. minced up really small

half a large, stinky yellow cooking onion that made me cry, minced

2 Tsp mustard seeds (if you are hesitating, put them in anyways)

1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon and ground cloves
I would cut down the cloves a little if you dont like your chutneys extra strong!

Ok, so it all goes into a pot

and it cooks...

and cooks
until it is thick and saucy looking.
and when it wasn't thickening, I added a nice grainy cooking apple to sauce and thicken it up

In the meantime, you will need to wash your 250 ml jars, put them on a cookie sheet and put them in a COLD oven. Then turn the oven on to 350, no higher or the jars might crack while you fill them hot. It's like I have learned all of these things the Stephanie Way before (read: the hard way)

I decided that my chutney needed closer to 2 hours of cooking to chutney-fy instead of one. You and I may differ on what chutney should look and taste like. I also left the skins on my pears, because I like my preserves THICK, and not sloshing around in the jar looking messy. If you are new to this skins = pectin and texture. I wanted it to be more like a compote than a sweet, runny mango chutney.

Cold Jars:

Hot Jars:

Yes, and that large canning pot you conveniently keep at hand like I do? Fill 'er up 2/3 of the way and bring it to a boil - if you've done this before you know it takes a while to get to a roll. Make sure to salt the water, raise the temperature

I threw the seals in a pan to soften. Take the jars out of the oven about 2 minutes before filling them. Don't fill when they are sizzling hot - I learned that this is only okay for high risk foods and not for anything with a sugar structure you need intact like jelly or jam or sauce.

Down to a science:

Fill

Lift and Lid

Tighten bands

Process 20 minutes in hard boiling canner

Remove into wire rack

Cool

Listen (to your seals 'taking', and the nice loud POP!)

Show it off, or stuff it in a stocking.

Delicious with an antipasto plate, pork dishes, or on a piece of toast with a hard sharp cheese. Such a cool unique taste!

*this is not an official canning guide, if you are not familiar with the process please read a good book like Bernardin's guide to canning where you can learn all about pH levels and botulism!*

Revamping..

2011-11-12T15:28:00.000-08:00

Okay so I might not be trying a "new" food every day, because that was just getting too expensive, and difficult. I guess I am an adventurous eater already! So I am trying a new format and I have a couple of posts almost ready to roll out.

To come:

some of the crazy preserves I have been making

DIY projects such as sauerkraut

See you and your tastebuds soon!

xo! Steph

Tamarillo

2011-02-20T22:41:00.000-08:00

Well... just please have a look before i begin to try and describe!!

The skin is thin, and soft like a tomato...
but when you cut it open it looks like this!

yummmmmmmmm.... sort of...

well.. I don't like seeds in my fruit.. I think this point was covered in my Grenadilla post! When food is this much work without huge reward (ie - artichoke hearts) I find little reason to keep eating it..

So I suppose you want to know what it tastes like..

Well... Fleshy.. like a tomato.... with that weird texture I usually don't mind... but this might have been a touch bruised or overripe..

And sort of sweet at the same time.... But for the seeds...

Perhaps I should stick to non-seedy fruits!

I really don't know how to explain... this is a sweet but slightly sour tomato with a lot of juice and tiny hard black seeds in it...

If i had the time or energy I might make ketchup out of it.... I shall keep my eyes peeled!!!

I hope you try this one... it is probably the most difficult to describe I have eaten so far!

Kombucha: Traditional Sparkling Fermented Tea

2011-02-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

That's a mouthful of a title.

I have read so many good things about this. And honestly, I was curious what fermented tea would taste like. I like fermented grape juice. I like fermented bread (sourdough). I LOVE beer. What could it hurt to try it?

Well first of all the pocketbook. All I could think was "... damnit this better be good for $2.79"

Well I cracked the top in the car on the way home, and it hissed and smoked at me.

Oh boy..

Truth? It had a weird aftertaste. I now understand why there are so many flavored options! It wasn't bad at all... It actually reminded me of that metallic licoricey taste of the British sherbert candies we used to eat as young girls.

Not terrible, not something I can imagine drinking often enough for it to grow on me at that price..

Also, It sort of gave me the burps... big time... I prefer club soda and lime :(

Thai Green Eggplant

2011-02-16T12:59:00.000-08:00

I love Thai food.

I also love Curry.

I ADORE Thai Green Curry!

So, This little cutie pie at the market was one I needed to try!

The biggest different between this eggplant and a regular one, is that the "meat" stays really firm when you cook it. This was appealing to me at first, so i bought it.

However, the insides stay firm while the outer layer -and subsequently the skin - still cook. Then you were left with the spongy seedy part in the middle still firm, and the skins falling off. uh oh.

So I would recommend this for a stirfry! But I still like my eggplant melt in your mouth in my Thai food :) SO maybe I'm best staying with the regular purple and Asian eggplants.

Agave Syrup!

2011-02-13T15:46:00.000-08:00

This is one of the awesome things I started using over Christmas break that I forgot to write about!

It is basically the same plant that is used to make tequila. ( liking this already aren't you?)

It is also two times sweeter than sugar, and slightly lower in calories. Yes folks, my mathmetician brain has sorted out that when the quantity and calories are both halved.. its 1/4 as bad for you as sugar! RIGHT?!

(please, please, please don't correct this if I am wrong, I'll eventually realize this when I fail Economics at University)

All that you REALLY need to know is that is much lower on the Glycemic Index than regular sugar.

Okay, so not the sort of thing you would just "eat" straight up. But I like it in my coffee. And I like it when I bake whole wheat bread, but don't want the overwhelming honey taste. I still prefer to put chai tea mix or brown sugar in my oatmeal to sweeten, as agave doesn't have a very distinct flavor. I know cooks who use it in sauces, and it's getting more and more popular on Food Network channels!

Jokes aside, it is an awesome option, here is what you will find when you google it:

it's not refined, like sugar
it's becoming a huge Mexican export, and so the Americans have began investigating everything that could possibly be wrong with it
In the future when the vegans prove us all wrong , we will also be using it instead of honey
you can get "raw" agave nectar produced at "raw food" acceptable temperatures
it is still fructose, so it's not healthy if you eat a lot of it

So basically, this is one of the new foods i tried which has weaseled it's way into my morning routine!

I hope you enjoy

Kale

2011-02-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

BITTER GREENS!

One of my favourites growing up in an Italian household, was steamed rapini, that was sauteed in olive oil with garlic and chilli flakes.

Unfortunately, one day while shopping for "high iron" foods, the produce boys informed me that the broccolini, rapini, and other assorted bitter greens, actually began to loose their nutrient value the minute they were steamed.

http://www.google.ca/images/

So, the first time I tried Kale this year was slathered in salty peanut satay sauce.

Don't get me wrong, it tasted great. However, this wasn't healthy; the reason I was eating it!

Recently, kale is plentiful as a winter season organic and locally grown vegetable (hurray temperate coastal climate!) In my attempts at supporting global stewardship and the local food movement, I bought myself several bunches.

The my second first time "trying" the kale ( I say this because I could actually taste it this time) I was dissapointed. No amount of lemon juice or soy sauce masked that unmistakable bitter taste.

One day not too long after, I miraculously stumbled on Kath eating kale in her daily blog She sauteed it with... MAPLE SYRUP!?

Okay, there was two bunches to go!

It was amazing. my new rule: add a TOUCH of something sweet to the water when you are steaming the kale. DONE.

Or, as I did today with my lunch, I used steamed kale and added a touch of sweet to my salad dressing

Check out the recipe:

One bunch kale, stemmed, cut, steamed and drained
Three fingers of roasted yam, cold, and cut into chunks
Half a bosch pear
half an avocado (hurray sales! what a treat!)
sprinkle of red onion

Dressing, shaken in a jam jar:
grainy dijon
olive oil
white balsamic
salt
pepper
splash of maple syrup

mmmmmmmmm, you should try it!

Chayote Squash

2011-02-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Well I wasn't sure what to think.

I acquired this baby in a clearance tray for $1.99 at the produce market, along with a chunk of Taro root and another unidentified squash item.

It looks like a pear that was dropped on it's face as a baby.
It was described to taste like a zucchini.
And is said to be crunchy even after cooking in liquid.

But.. if it's good enough for Bobby Flay...

I chopped this into bite sized pieces, sauteed it in olive oil, salt and pepper. After it had cooked I added white balsamic vinegar and let the stove do it's thing. and do you know what?

It looked like pear, tasted JUST like zuchinni, and had absolutely no spongey texture...

It wasn't bad at ALL. I don't think I would buy it to eat as a side, but I will absolutely adding this to a chilli or stew for some "heartiness"

NOTE: It also has a large flat seed on the inside, but this is edible and tastes very similar to the flesh. unfortunately my camera flash ruined the rest of my chayote photos

Citrus: Five Six and Seven!

2011-02-04T23:58:00.000-08:00

Finally I have the conclusion for the citrus season!

Trains, Planes and Automobiles!

...Or, Key Limes, Blood Oranges and Tangerines!

Blood Oranges are Really tasty! They aren't as acidic as other citruses, so this is why they are so often used in sauces and fancy cocktails. Sweet and colorful! YUM!

Also Tangerines!

mmmm, these little guys are tough to get, the majority of little oranges are mandarins. These do have seeds, but taste just like that McDonalds Orange stuff you used to drink at track meets as a kid. *this was probably Tang*

Very Good!

Also seen in the first picture are key limes and tangellos. Key Limes are usually used in pies.... I tried to make jelly out of these as well. Unfortunately the skins are very bitter unlike the sweet juice, and i was not impressed. Tangellos are also delicious but very sour and acidic. A very "sharp" orange taste!

I hope that this wraps things up!

Cirtus Week: Day Four

2011-01-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

The Meyer Lemon!

When life throws lemons at you hard, I usually recommend a vodka martini, neat...

However nobody would want to throw a beautiful Meyer Lemon!

Meyer lemons are known for being very sweet, and used to make good ol' Southern lemonaide. The skins aren't bitter either - as far as lemons go. They are a sort of natural cross between a tangerine and a lemon.

I have obviously been on a bit of a Homesteader kick this January, and have decided that the most practical thing to go is make more preserves with them. *of course* everyone sighs.

I wish there was a better way to describe how this Lemon Jam is both sweet and tangy without being bitter or sour like regular marmalade...

There is not much physically different about a Meyer lemon at first glace... the only difference I could determine was the thinner skin they have, and obviously the sweeter taste.

This time, i took about 2/3 of the fruit and cut it with the membranes attached still ( the "inside" skins). The other third i scraped the peel clean and chopped it, keeping all the remaining pith and skins in the muslin bag... So I would call this lemon shard or lemon jam instead of jelly, because it is definitely cloudy in the jars, but has no butter or egg yolks like lemon curd

However, this extra fruit resulted in glorious, golden lemon jelly that didn't require a single iota of pectin (rejoyce!) and jelled just like storebought!! (double hallelujah!)

I'm not sure if i could emphasize enough the cheerful sunny yellow color of this jelly!! So appealing...

I wish I had made two batches of this instead of two batches of the marmalade! It is truly a unique and delicious flavour! You will have to cajole me to share this treat folks :)

Here is a glimpse at the things I have canned so far this month!

Green Beans, Meyer Lemon, and Seville Oranges!

Cirtus Week: Day Three

2011-01-26T17:45:00.000-08:00

The Melo Gold!

Yup, not quite sure what it is, or if it is a hybrid, because the grocery store did not give the species name.

It is a giant, pithy, and pale citrus fruit which resembles the grapefruit. The key difference being every second segment is much larger alternately. This makes for a pretty cool looking fruit.

In case you were wondering, it is less tart than the grapefruit, pretty tasty ( I tend to peel the segments of my citrus fruits out of the skin because it's the bitter part) And delicious although for the price I would prefer a sweet grapefruit.

And for those of you who were wondering... yes I had marmalade for dinner again! =)

Citrus Week: Day Two

2011-01-25T23:48:00.000-08:00

Seville Oranges.

aka Sour Oranges or Marmalade Oranges

This is a detailed one folks! Although I have tried store bought marmalade before, the only kind I have ever liked has been homemade, the rest have been overpowering, and chewy. I decided since these oranges are only in season for about 2 or 3 weeks of the year, and I was able to get unsprayed ones, I would go ahead and attempt to make myself some pots of gold.

I admit, the first batch was a disaster. It was also the most delicious. This was certainly because the sugar/water/peel ratio was 'off'. Everything was perfect but the thickness. The marmalade was golden, and the orange peels were melt in your mouth.

Marmalade "sets" from the pectin, found in the pith of the peel. Most fruit jams require you to add pectin, like Certo, to gel. Well even after two packages of pectin I came to realize that my jars were still swishing. So I retried, opening all of the seals, and recooked my marmalade from last night.

This worked well, but overcooking the marmalade causes it to become a very dark color, and since I like to use my canned goods as gifts (pickled beans are my specialty) I was sad that they were a very light brown color.

Usually it doesn't require any pectin at all, so I figured I missed a step in the recipe I used and tried again from scratch tonight. Right now my pot of peels is on the back of the stove soaking, which I will explain in one moment..

Regarding the sevilles, they are VERY SOUR! So i only tried a little taste! However I will post pictures of my more successful jars tomorrow, but the marm process basically goes as follows after the jump! (it's long)

Cut oranges in half
Juice them
scrape pith and membranes into cheesecloth
slice orange peels
tie up the piths Tom Sawyer style in a cheesecloth bag
put the peels, juice, cheesecloth bag, in a pot of water and soak overnight with a plate on top to submerge everything underwater
(I didn't do this last time, and it should extract more pectin by letting them soak)
Tomorrow, the pot with the peels and pith are boiled, eventually the gel is squeezed out of the cheesecloth
Sugar is added, jars are sterilized, by the time jars have been in the oven long enough, the marm should be ready to be canned and sealed!

(the oranges after 8 hours of soaking)
this is a very short description of the process, but the Seville Orange is a January treat, you should try one, just be sure to boil it in a pot of sugar and water and put it on hot buttered toast!

Citrus Week: Day One

2011-01-24T22:19:00.000-08:00

Aaaand I am finally back!

This week I am trying out all of the crazy and lovely citrus fruits that are in season.

The choice of the day is the Mango Orange.

Looks crazy doesn't it?

The coloring on these oranges is beautiful!

And once you get into the eating aspect of things, you notice.....

It doesn't taste like an orange.

IN FACT: It tastes like a Mango!

Now, I actually haven't been able to find out of this is a GMO fruit, or if it is just a "red navel" which is what the internet seems to want me to believe. Regardless, it is pretty amazing once you realize that the orange you are eating is in fact quite sweet and not at all citrus-y!

I suggest you try these if you pass them in the supermarket. Also DELICIOUS and in season (which I always make sure to buy) are CaraCara Oranges. They will make you wonder why the Navel is more popular domesticated orange...

In case you missed the last attempts at citrus foods, click here to read about my kumquat adventures.

This week I also make Seville Orange marmalade, and a few more citruses to be purchased!

I'm BAACCCKK!

2011-01-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years to one and all!

Today I got a new home! This means a fridge and a stove once more, rejoice! I have already started back on my food adventures today. Keep your eyeballs peeled for my exploits tasting a Korean Melon.

Also this week will be my first attempts baking a homemade sourdough from scratch, and a new woman in my love life named Betty. She is 575 watts of satisfaction i could never ever tire from... hey wait - minds out of the gutter! What I was trying to say is that I am the proud owner of a new Professional Kitchenaid Mixer courtesy of Santa Claus, whom i have adeptly named Black Betty, and she is the new love in my life.

Boasting a 5.2 Litre capacity and - A DOUGH HOOK! I will need to make a conscious effort to talk to and visit with real people, and not lose my youthful figure eating bread and sweeties all day in my apartment.

Here's to a new year full of many adventures of the culinary kind. My apologies for the innuendo - I am still recovering from my festivities last night.

Thanks for reading guys I am looking forward to next year!

Technical Difficulties

2010-12-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

Hello one and all,

This started out as a fun adventure, and it is so exciting to see that lots of you are reading, and hopefully going out and trying some of these foods I would have passed over once before! I have really enjoyed the feedback so far, and please feel free to comment on the post your ideas for foods i should try in the future. I have adjusted the settings and you do not need a google email account to comment now, so bring 'em on!

However, I am in between places at the moment, flooded out, without a stove and with plenty of woes, so there will not be any new food blogs until after the New Year.

In the event of this unlikely delay, I am going to leave a list of seasonal items you should ALL try to taste, and instead of avoid at the buffet tables this holiday season:

1) Marzipan. Unless you are allergic to almonds, then I promise you will really really like this. Marzipan desserts are not ancient like the shaped fruits your grandmothers used to eat. It's made of a sweetened almond paste, and has a nice smooth finish to it. Try rolling marzipan balls in chocolate and gifting them as truffles. I personally like to use it rolled out in a black forest cake, the almond compliments the kirsch beautifully. It's about as festive a food as you can try.

2) Try adding Brandy to mulled wine. It tastes even better, and gets you even drunker, there is no discussion here!

3) Antipasto. It looks like old Italian salsa, but really it is everything delicious about the cheese and olive plate all in one convenient scoop. If you are really lucky like myself you will have some homemade available to you it's extra MMM!!!

4) the outside of the brie: now some people just don't like this by nature, however if you are at an open house, the very good quality bries have an incredible tasting rind, much more complex and flavorful than any other cheese you will find

Those are my four legitimate seasonal enjoyments, I hope you try one of them yourself, and have a wonderful holiday season!

Stephanie

Kiwano Horned Melon

2010-12-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

Well this was an interesting one folks..

I tried a horned melon, related to both the cucumber and melons, I thought this can't be too bad!

If you are curious as to how this little orange weapon looks on the inside...

I'm sure you weren't expecting it to be green slime! As I was cutting the melon in half it started gushing liquid and I thought, oh no, here we go..

The fruit itself was nothing to write home about, it tasted like a very very watered down kiwi fruit, and was sort of slimy but pleasant textured. It would make sense that this is a traditional staple food in really hot climates, because it was incredibly juicy, and easy to eat.

However, after my adventures with the delicious surprise that was the jackfruit and kumquats, I wouldn't put this at the top of my list of recommendations for new and exciting foods.

However, if you are interested in tasting a cucumber kiwi melon hybrid, the horned melon is the way for you to go!

Cotton Candy Really Does Grow on Trees...

2010-12-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

Today I tried jackfruit! The largest tree-bourne fruit in the world!

it has an incredible sweet taste without being sugary, and a crazy texture, but let me start from the beginning..

I bought it at the market in a small chunk, because a whole jackfruit is massive, and incredibly expensive per pound. it's got giant nobby bumps on it.

The fruit is not hard although it appears that way, even the rind under the skin is sort of soft and stringy.

When unripe, it can be cooked in desserts or curried dishes, but when ripe it's delicious alone. There are also lobes in this fruit, with a soft stringy rind in between them.

Jackfruit was delicious! it tasted like a very ripe banana without the pasty dairy-ish banana aftertaste i dislike, with a dash of cotton candy in the mix! Sort of juicy, but still a pretty solid fruit.

It was really sweet, and my dishes and hands smell so good! Mmmm, I want to go somewhere hot on a beach and eat this all day long :) Hurray for successful food adventures!

Kumquats

2010-12-01T20:59:00.000-08:00

What is sweet on the outside and sour on the inside? ....No, not me, but that is a good guess...

Let's try again: What's sweet on the outside, sour on the inside, is a fruit, and rhymes with bum squats?

KUMQUATS!

This fine evening I finally got around to trying these crazy little guys! This food is for my cousin Becca, who found it to be the most amusing sounding food name to suggest to me. (It is a fun word to say over and over again fast, just try it!)

So here we go, "I ate a kumquat!"

Okay well these kumquats look like little oranges

Some varieties are sweet on the inside and sour on the outside, and others are the other way around.

I think I had one of the sour on the inside varieties. Regardless, they started out with a sharp lemony taste, but shockingly ended without any bitter aftertaste. They were yummy enough, but not something I would want to go chomping on over and over again. To boot, they had lots of seeds in them.

Thinking they would be really tasty with some other chopped fruit I added them to some mango. This was great, but what was even better was mango kumquat salsa! Be sure to cut the kumquats into quarters, and scrape all of the little seeds out. You can even add just the peels and scrape the filling out instead, the outside is the tasty part.

How much more delicious could this be!? (I promise, not much more delicious)

For those of you who were wondering what the heck is in here:
1 cubed haden mango
1/4 lb of kumquats,
juice from a large half of a VERY very ripe and juicy lime (you should use a whole one)
about a cup of cubed cucumber
about 2 tablespoons of diced red onion
and lots of cilantro.

Tastes great with a little sea salt, but be sure to eat within a day after adding the salt, because it draws the juices out and it gets watery!

Unidentified Food Objects

2010-11-27T22:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days. It is term paper time!! And I feel like my head is exploding! And I am in the library all day and can't bring myself to browse, peruse, search or seek anything new to eat with my spare time!

*this is an illustration of the author's mental capacity at this very moment*

So as a pittance for my negligence in tasting new and exciting foods, and since I have no gourmet cakes to share with you while I write on economic market transformation, I offer a guessing game for my lovely readers!

Since I am mainly living off of wilted wraps from the bottom of my backpack, Tuesday night's leftover casserole, and library cafe food...

Guess which of these things you want to eat after 18 cups of coffee, 23 journal articles, and CANNOT BE FOUND ANYWHERE AFTER 6 PM ON A STUDENT CAMPUS:

*jeopardy music*

Option A - fairtrade organic $4.00 latte

Option B - anything with lots of flax in it... muffins, rolls, cookies...

Option C a gloriously unhealthy cheeseburger, or pizza

Option D a vegetarian sandwich, WITH organic mixed greens to boot

Option E a pretentious bagel with dill cream cheese and smoked salmon lox

Well folks, if you thought, "cafes at universities wouldn't be so silly as to have smoked lox and organic sandwiches, but no pizza, burgers, or constipating white flour?! "

Welcome to the University of Over-Awareness!

99% of the time I am proud to join in the pretention

I drink my level-ground traded locally roasted extra dark drip from my stainless steel mug, while I nibble on a locally baked berry blast bran muffin, while I walk around in my Co-op Raincoat, while I discuss the post modern neo-neo synthesis of political theory with my other self-satisfied friends..

However, when cooped up like the very chickens my peers refuse to eat, I am going stir crazy for something that actually satisfies the rumblings of too many double americanos in the dark depths of my gut.

So be warned: if you see me, step aside before I start chewing on the sleeve of your supple leather jacket (yes veggies heads thats made of cows)

I'm starving for a good McDonalds. Or Megabite. Or Chowmein. My taste for cuisine seems to be deteriorating with my cognitive skills...

I'll try again tomorrow kids, have a good weekend!

A Wedding Cake sidebar for the day...

2010-11-23T13:43:00.000-08:00

So some of you might know that I am employed in the bakery industry. I have been decorating cakes and pastries to pay for school. I have a blast doing it, meeting lots of great people, Red Seal bakers, talented decorators, and all-round crazy people who also start work at 5 am..

So when my cousin's good friend had a last minute time crunch for her wedding, I was asked to make the cake. EXCITEMENT!

The theme was Malaysian ( if i recall correctly...) for the groom's heritage.

There was a unity symbol on the side, and a cherry blossom branch on the finished cake.

I made the cherry blossoms by cutting gum paste with a flower shaped cookie cutter.

I then used a wilton gumpaste tool and a flower shaping sponge, and pressed the flower into a 3D shape.

The centres were made by putting a dab of royal icing in the middle, and sprinkling yellow edible glitter in them.

When dried the flowers looked like this

The cake itself was a 2 tier, 4 layer chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry butter cream icing as the filling.

This was a first for me using chocolate cake, and the recipe was not as dense as I had expected when baked, which isn't ideal for a fondant cake.. Unfortunately, this made the fondant not my smoothest, but it still looked pretty good after a 20 minute drive in my passenger seat. At least - from what I was told - the cake itself was delicious, and I guess that's the important part. Who doesn't hate going to a wedding and getting tiny pieces of dry crumby cake with thick starchy fondant on tip..

I am going to call this one a success!

The Devil's Fruit..

2010-11-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

They don't call it snake fruit for no reason..

Also called "Salek", this is an Indonesian fruit with an odd scaly skin that lends it's name.

Now, this is supposed to be a 'citrusy' fruit with three lobes, each containing a pit. Thank you wikisearch, but let me tell you how it is....

You will begin by peeling back the scaly skin of the snake fruit. Then you will inhale, and notice the pungent aroma of feet wafting towards your eager epicurious nose.... But it can't be! (you will exclaim) This is a Balinese delicacy! (you will wash fruit in case shipping has disrupted it somehow)

The truth was, this fruit smelled like my running shoes, and possibly tasted worse. Really, it was like an overripe and sour pineapple. I can't say that I didn't try, but I got about halfway through before it hit the bin. Maybe i honestly bought an 'off' fruit, or it was just picked too early in order to be shipped...

Another dud, another day.

Thankfully my taste buds will persevere to be tortured again soon..