Gourmet Global

Here is a Korean dessert beverage that is very addictive - It is so delicious - Don’t be alarmed by the amount of ginger in this recipe - It blends wonderful with the other ingredients and does not overpower the drink.
Ingredients

6 dried persimmon
6 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup ginger, sliced
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups ugar
10 pine nuts, garnish

Directions

Place the sliced ginger into a large pot with the cinnamon sticks and the water.  Bring to a boil  over high heat.  Reduce the flame and simmer for 40 minutes.
Strain ginger and cinnamon sticks.
Add sugar to liquid and stir to combine.
Remove center stem from persimmons and place in a large container.  Add sweetened liquid and place in refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
To serve, pour liquid in a glass with ice.  Place one dried persimmon in each glass and garnish with a few pine nuts.

VARIATION - Add some rum for a great cocktail and with St. Patrick’s Day coming around the corner - I don’t see how whiskey would do it any harm.

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So I had some ripe bananas and went about creating something different. I realize most of you wont have the variety of international food products located in my pantry, so use substitutions when appropriate, but the variety of flavors produced by the variety of products is one of the things that makes this stand out - I haven’t thought of a name yet for this recipes - Suggestions are welcome - Please post!!!

It is a wonderful low sugar dessert, having fruit and honey provide the sweetness, instead of processed sugar.

1/3 cup plantain flour (Caribbean)
1/3 cup manioc flour (Brazil) - aka as cassava or yuca
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup fig paste (Middle Eastern/Greek)
1/3 cup honey
14 oz. can peaches in pear juice
2 bananas, sliced
1 egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons grated coconut (not the flaked, sweetened stuff but the dessicated freshly grated)
non fat cooking spray

Combine all dry ingredients. Whisk in egg and buttermilk. Add honey and fig paste. Add 1/2 cup pear juice (from can of peaches). Mix well - make sure there are no clumps of fig paste.

Spray a casserole dish with non stick spray. Pour half of the above mixture in casserole. Place the peaches on top and then the sliced bananas. Cover with the rest of the batter. Top with coconut. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until knife inserted comes out clean.

Serve warm!!

Substitutions - Use 1 cup all purpose flour, instead of the variety of flours.
Any flavor preserves can be used as a substitution for the fig paste (strawberry would be wonderful)

Yesterday was Diwali, aka as “The Festival of Lights”. It is the most important Hindu holiday, celebrated as the Hindu New Year. No matter what strain of Hinduism you practice - Jain, Sikh and even some Buddhists - Diwali is the most important holiday on the calendar. It celebrates different things depending what strain you practice and where you are located - Some say it celebrates the birth of Lakshmi (Hindu Goddess of Wealth, Properity and Luck) while others believe it celebrates Lord Krishna defeating Indra. Click here for more information about Diwali.

It is called The Festival of Lights because lights line the cities where Diwali is celebrated and in homes, candles and diyas are lit in glory to the Gods. Here in America, Diwali was celebrated in many home with candles, diya and incense burning even if we were unable to make it to temple. Prayers are offered as well.

Sweet things are traditionally eaten on Diwali so that hopefully sweet things will occur in our lives in the coming year.
Here is a recipe for Gajar Halwa, which originates from the Indian state of Rajasthan:
500 grams of carrots, peeled and shredded
1 litre of milk
1 cup of sugar
25 grams each of almonds, pistacchios and raisins
4 dried dates
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
a few drops of Rose essence
ghee (clarified butter)

Instructions:
Soak dates in water for 15 minutes. Drain and chop.
Chop nuts and raisins.
Cook carrots and milk together, stirring frequently until the mixture is dry and thick.
Add sugar and continue stirring until the sugar is dissolved and absorbed by the carrot mixture.
Add 4 tablespoons of ghee and fry until the color has turned red.
Mix in essence and cardamom powder.
Serve, garnished with the nuts, dates and raisins.

Recipe taken from Aroona Reejhsinghani’s Best of Indian Sweets and Desserts

Urban Organic, which I mentioned in my last post, sends me carrots every single delivery. Needless to say, I am having to come up with interesting ways to use all my carrots. I came up with these wonderful low fat muffins. I used almond flour but you can use any kind of nut flour you like. This is a great way to boost the protein in muffins.

These muffins are great for kids, having very little sugar and virtually no fat. Instead of soaking the dried fruit in port, you can soak it in orange juice if you prefer. These are tasty, healthful muffins for everyone and very simple to make.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried fruit peel
1 cup port (or orange juice)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup natural applesauce (unsweetened)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup almond flour (or any nut flour - soy flour or oat flour are also good substitutions)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup grated carrots (about 3 average sized carrots)
1/4 cup grated coconut (use natural unsweetened coconut - not the flaked stuff)

Directions:
Soak dried fruits in port for 1/2 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, blend sugar and egg together until well blended, about 3 minutes.
Add half of the dry ingredients. Mix until well blended. Add the applesauce and vanilla. Mix until blended. Add the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix until well blended.
Using a rubber spatula, fold in carrots, dry fruit and coconut until thoroughly combined.
Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray or use paper muffin cups. Fill muffin pan about 2/3 fill with batter and bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
I use mini muffins tins to help control the size of the muffin and a great way to use portion control for us adults to control our caloric intake. These are not the HUGE muffins you get in deli’s and bakeries.

Enjoy and watch the kids love this healthy version of a muffin!! Please try this recipe and let me know your feedback!!

Purim is a very festive holiday celebrated by Jewish people the world over - complete with noisemakers, heroes and villains. In short, it is a story of deliverance of the Persian Jews. For the full story, please see here
But over to food, which is what I blog about. One of the greatest things about Purim is Hamentaschen. Fruit filled butter cookies that melt in your mouth. I am not Jewish, but I think this is one of the best reasons to celebrate Purim with your Jewish friends (not diminishing the importance of the holiday for them).
Here is a recipe for Hamentaschen (I will not take credit for the recipe - I simply pasted it from a Jewish website) - You don’t have to be Jewish to make these!!

Recipe for Hamentaschen
2/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup orange juice (the smooth kind, not the pulpy)
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour (DO NOT substitute white flour! The wheat flour is necessary to achieve the right texture!)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
Various preserves, fruit butters and/or pie fillings.
Blend butter and sugar thoroughly. Add the egg and blend thoroughly. Add OJ and blend thoroughly. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, alternating white and wheat, blending thoroughly between each. Add the baking powder and cinnamon with the last half cup of flour. Refrigerate batter overnight or at least a few hours. Roll as thin as you can without getting holes in the batter (roll it between two sheets of wax paper lightly dusted with flour for best results). Cut out 3 or 4 inch circles.
Put a dollop of filling in the middle of each circle. Fold up the sides to make a triangle, folding the last corner under the starting point, so that each side has corner that folds over and a corner that folds under (see picture at right). Folding in this “pinwheel” style will reduce the likelihood that the last side will fall open while cooking, spilling out the filling. It also tends to make a better triangle shape.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, until golden brown but before the filling boils over!
Traditional fillings are poppy seed and prune, but apricot is my favorite. Apple butter, pineapple preserves, and cherry pie filling all work quite well. I usually use Pathmark grocery store brand fruit preserves, and of course the traditional Simon Fischer brand prune lekvar. I have also made some with Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread); I find it a bit dry that way, but some people like it.
The number of cookies this recipe makes depends on the size of your cutting tool and the thickness you roll. I use a 4-1/4 inch cutting tool and roll to a medium thickness, and I get 20-24 cookies out of this recipe.

Being from the Northeast, rhubarb (photo on right) is not a common vegetable for me. You rarely, if ever, have rhubarb anything in NYC restaurants. From watching television shows and reading books that take place in the South and other parts of the country where rhubarb is eaten on a regular basis, I had a curiosity for this vegetable used in dessert pies. Since I could not find a restaurant that served rhubarb pie, I decided I had to make it myself so off I went on an Internet search for rhubarb pie recipes. And all of the recipes also included strawberries. I could not find a single recipe that had only rhubarb and I could not figure out why, but I said oh well, let me just try it this way and see how it tastes.

Oh my gosh, once I cooked the rhubarb, I realized why the strawberries and ton of sugar needed to be added. This is the the most tart vegetable in the American diet. The only thing that compares to it is karela (see photo on left), an Indian vegetable my mom has been trying to force me to eat since I was a child. Rhubarb is so bitter that it cannot be eaten without a large amount of sugar added. Anyway, I tried the rhubarb strawberry pie and it was so delicious it became one of my favorite pies. Whenever the Amish people come to the Farmers Markets I always buy one, since I don’t always have time to make it.

Rhubarb is not something that you can usually find at your local supermarket - you have to go to one of the gourmet markets to get it - Fairway, Whole Foods or Manhattan Fruit Exchange in Chelsea Market are good places in the city to find it. Of course, it is also available at the Union Square Farmers Market when it is in season. Instead of a pie, here is another way to use rhubarb. - please experiment with this unusual ingredient and let me know what you think of this recipe! In addition to rhubarb, cardamom is used in this recipe. Cardamom is the most common sweet spice used in Indian and Scandinavian cuisine. It is the equivalent of cinnamon, for American cuisine. It is very strong - one of those things you either love or hate - like cilantro!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp with Cardamom and Nutmeg
Serves 6
Ingredients:
Topping
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Filling
5 cups 1/2-inch thick slices fresh rhubarb (approximately 2 pounds)
2 cups halved strawberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Directions:
Mix first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until moist clumps form.
For filling, preheat oven to 375 F. Butter a square baking dish. In a large bowl, combine all filling ingredients and stir to combine. Let stand about 15 minutes.
Spread filling in baking dish, Sprinkle topping over the top of filling. Bake until topping is golden brown and crisp and filling is bubbling around the edges, about 45 minutes.
Serve warm with whipped cream of vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!!!