Mango Showdown

Ahh here we are again, the first challenge of 2010. You may remember the chicken challenge from last year. Well, we're back again with mango challenge, AND we've added another contender. TINA! from Brooks Pepperfire / Peppermaster and Operation Ayiti and don't forget to head over to Snack to check out Caty's submission.

So this is Challenge #2 Mango Showdown. 2 dishes for this one, Mango Scallop Ceviche, and Smoky Spicy Mango Sorbet.

#1 Mango Scallop Ceviche: This summer I was fortunate enough to attend a cooking class in Old Montreal with 4 wonderful friends. One of the dishes we made was a scallop ceviche. A ceviche is a raw fish preparation, but the amount of citrus in the marinade 'cooks' the fish. I've adapted the recipe to be spicier and more tropical (i.e. Mango).

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped or grated zest of orange, lemon, and lime. Whatever combination / ratio you prefer.

3 toes garlic, minced (A Dutch friend of mine once sent me a recipe where he listed the garlic cloves as 'toes' I have loved that ever since)

The juice of 1 orange, 1 lime, and 1/2 lemon

8 large sea scallops (not bay scallops) sliced thinly

a pinch of salt

1 habanero pepper, minced

1 1/2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

the cheeks of an underripe mango. What cheeks means is the broad flat sides of the mango where you can get the most meat. If you want you can take the rest of the mago flesh off the narrow sides, but I found that it was enough just to use the cheeks. The mango needs to be hard enough that it doesn't fall apart or add too much juice to the marinade but ripe enough that it's actually edible.

So, right, the pictures...

I used a vegetable peeler to remove the zest (the outer coloured area of the peel) from the citrus fruits. However, I guess the skin on the lime was too thin and I trespassed into the pith. You can see in the picture below, the white part. This is bitter and must be removed.

Here are some nice plump scallops, they shouldn't be mushy or smell like fish at all.

And don't forget to tweet while juicing the fruits :)

All ingredients except for the cilantro and put it in the fridge for a few hours. At least 3. You can see that the scallops have already started to turn whitish, this means that the 'cooking' process is starting.

Just before serving, add the cilantro and mix it up. I garnished. Yeah, you know it.

#2 Smoky Spicy Mango Sorbet: So January is sorbet month, as I may have mentioned. This one is not designed to cool you however. I paired the sweet juicy mango with the smoky spiciness of a VERY hot pepper. The Bhut Jolokia (AKA Naga Jolokia) peppers that I bought from Épices de Cru were of the smoked variety, and VERY VERY hot.

Ingredients:

2 ripe mangoes (for some reason I can't help typing Mangies, I like that word better)

1 dried smoked Bhut Jolokia Pepper. For those of you who might be intimidated by the 'HOTTEST PEPPER' you might want to substitute with a chipotle or even an Ancho Pepper would be nice.

1/2 cup mango juice

2 cups simple syrup

1 1/2 cups of water

1/2 tsp vanilla

To add to the smokiness, I cut and peeled the mangoes and then placed them in a very hot pan in order to char them. This WILL make a mess of your pan (burnt sugar is eeeeevil). After the fruit is removed I added 1 1/2 cups of water and the dried pepper. This will dislodge some of the material from the bottom of the pan and help to reconstitute the pepper.

To make the simple syrup, just combine a 1:1 ratio of granulated sugar with water and heat until the mixture turns completely clear. Add that to a pot with the chopped charred mangoes (mangies) and the reconstituted pepper (also chopped), and the liquid from the frying pan.

Cook over medium heat until the mangoes are mushy and cooked through. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla and blend with an immersion blender or in a conventional blender. Add 2 tsp vodka and pour into a shallow pan. Freeze over night. And as usual, since the vodka is out, make a drink, otherwise it won't freeze, honest!

Then shave it with a spoon and put it into small cups to serve. Consider serving it with a piece of cake or buttered scone. This baby's spicy, you're going to need some help.

I can't wait to see what my 2 other challengers have cooked up, and you should too!

Mangoes are tasty, but one last thing to note, don't cut too close to the seed. The seed is fibrous and you will be flossing for hours if you eat the flesh that's too close to the seed.

That's all for now kiddies. I will post very soon about the upcoming Wine to Water event in Montreal (tentatively scheduled for mid-May) sponsored by Barefoot wines. Until then, happy mangoes and thanks for visiting the cheeseandolive national zoo!

xoxo -Candace

Still an animal, but not quite as bovine, porcine, or avian

Come to think of it, isn’t that the flu we’re missing: The Bovine Flu? Wouldn’t that round it out nicely?
Anyways, I had mentioned that we were trying to eat less meat and be healthier, in response to that, a very dear friend of mine gave me a vegan cookbook The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen. I’ve already mined the book for tofu/ricotta/artichoke ravioli and am really looking forward to trying something with cashew cream, it has given me many happy ideas.
However this entry is not meatless, nor is it even kosher. It involves the lowly shrimp.
Kyle and I like to call it Shrimp Konkani, but we have no idea if it is in any way authentic to the Konkani culture of western India. It is essentially spicy cardamom shrimp with onions in coconut milk. We served it on jasmine rice with a green papaya salad. The way I learned to make the papaya salad was VERY spicy (I have since seen it otherwise, but to me it will always be a scorching salad) but because the shrimp is so spicy, I have done it here without any peppers. Feel free to add if you are a die hard chile-head.

Green papayas are relatively easy to find in Asian markets, they are white fleshed with white and black seeds. This is in contrast to the traditional sweeter, softer papaya with pink-orange flesh and all black seeds. Those should not be used here. If you can’t find a green papaya, you might be able to substitute a cucumber.

Green Papaya Salad
1/2 a green papaya (seeded, peeled, shredded)
4 cloves of garlic
juice of 3 limes
1 tbsp fish sauce -- can be substituted with soy sauce for vegetarians, but the colour will change.

Shrimp Konkani
750g shrimp (peeled and de-veined)
2 small - medium yellow onions; ground to a paste
2 small - medium yellow onions; sliced thinly
2 tbsp chilli paste (Sambal Olek)
3 Bay Leaves
1 can coconut milk
3 -7 green cardamom pods (depending on how much you like the flavour)
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

This, my friends is a green papaya. I find using a grapefruit spoon to get the seeds out works really well, but a regular spoon or a melon baller will work just as well. Just do it inside of a plastic bag because those little seeds fly everywhere, and if you have a playful animal they will delight in batting them around, and the next thing you know, you'll find one in your bed or shoe.


After peeling and cutting the papaya into chunks, I put it in the food processor with the grating blade, but you can also do it on a regular grater. If you are substituting with cucumber, I think grating with a box grater is best, the food processor might turn it to mush. After that, 4 finely chopped pieces of garlic are added.



The juice of 3 limes. (duh) Obvious picture I know, but they were so green, that I had to include it.



And the fish sauce -- I try not to think about what this stuff actually is. It seems like it should make you sick, but it doesn't and it's invaluable stuff. So you mix everything together and put it in the fridge for about an hour for the flavours to blend and also it's really good when it's nice and cold!!



On to the shreemp. First, as you can see, I started with an onion the size of my head. I split it in half and sliced one half thinly, and the other I put in the food processor and grated it. You can grate it on a regular box grater too, but make sure you have goggles and/or waterproof mascara.


Then I heat some oil in my giant wok and threw the spices in, they should fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Until they turn a little brown.



Then the sliced onions. Fry until browned. After that, the grated onions are tossed in along with the chili paste.



Then the coconut milk, at this point, there's a very strong possibility that your 'masala' could be violently orange/salmon colour. This all depends on how much Sambal Olek you use. Simmer for about 10 minutes until thickened.



And then you add the shreemps. I just realized that this is kind of a gross picture.
ew.
Anyways, sautee them until just pink. Salt and pepper to taste and...



Serve.
(and eat)
(with rice)



So that was the first step in my transition towards a less red meat focused blog. To be fair, the shrimp isn’t that healthy with all that coconut milk, but it’s a step in the right direction. Besides, these recipes aren’t really meant to be your regular Tuesday night meals, for us they are our weekend treats.
There’s just one other thing that I’d like to mention here. A few of you may have heard of Doc Hendley, he was featured recently on CNN’s Heroes awards. He was one of the top 10 heroes of the year. Although he didn’t come in as number one, he did get the attention of this person (me). Doc runs an organization called Wine to Water, you can read all about it on their site. He started out as a bartender and today helps to bring clean water to all parts of the world. Recently I wrote to them to see how I could host a Wine to Water event. A very helpful and friendly Emily Whitworth wrote me back with a bunch of great information. So although it is in its embryonic stages, I will be hosting one of these events in the coming months. It is a wine tasting event where all proceeds go to Wine to Water, the best part about it is that even $100 raised buys one Bio Sand Filter that can bring clean water to a Ugandan family. At this point, my search starts with a location to host this event. Until I have that, it is still just an idea. Any suggestions? My house is just too dang small and the cats might get scared, or drunk (dirty bastards).

I’m really excited about the W2W event so if it piques anyone else’s interest or if anyone who has recently put something like this together (ahem… cupcake camp montreal) has any tips or ideas, please contact me, or post here, this is the first time I do anything like this…
Thanks for flying Air CheeseandOlive xoxoxo
-Candace

AY! AY! AY! THE HERBS ARE GOING BAD!

What to do?
Well, let’s go over said herbs, I’ve got 2 weary chives (not worth saving) a crumbling handful of thyme, a damp saggy pile of basil, a giant slimy bushel of cilantro, and a perfectly healthy bushel of flat leaf parsley. Well clearly this will have to be 2 dishes, I can’t work this all together without overpowering all the other tastes with cilantro. It’s a good thing I have some healthy herbs growing outside.
So supplemented with oregano and thyme from the potted plants, I decided on herby vongole pasta, and a cilantro pesto. The clam pasta was great, but I’m not sure what to do with the pesto except grind some Parmesan cheese into it eat it like soup…
What? Don’t judge me!


Here is the pathetic little pile of herbs that I had. Ordinarily I wouldn't add the basil at the beginning but the basil I had was very strong in flavour so I added it at the beginning



Lets see what I have out back to help us out, the basil is way too juvenile to be harvested.

Oh but the oregano and thyme will do nicely : )

Chop up a yellow onion and metric ton of garlic... or less, whatever.

Into the pan, keep the garlic chopped thick and the onions chopped thin, this way the onions will brown and the garlic won't burn.

I flung a few clams on the floor to see if it would lure the natives out of hiding. Sure enough it worked, but after a few sniffs they decided they weren't interested.
This is the newly famous Olive.

And big giant Sid happened by as well.

2 cans of baby clams and the herbs in the mix.

Adding some vermouth or white wine, you could also use some sort of stock, veg or bird.

It seems an anchovy is trying to escape from the jar. I punished it by adding it to the pan.

Added half a bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped coarsley for added fresh flavour.

Add red pepper flakes and heat on high to soften the parsley a little bit and boil off / concentrate the liquid a little bit.

Mix into the pasta (whole wheat spaghetti, drained, but I retained some of the cooking liquid) and let it mingle for a few minutes to soak up the juice.

Finish it with the juice of half a lemon (Save the other half, we'll use it in the pesto).

Herby Vongole Pasta... TADAAA!

Now to deal with this mess, look how slimy! Oh, you can also see the sad thyme sprigs before they became part of the pasta. So I cut off the parts of the cilantro that hadn't putrefied and washed them.

Added them to the mini food processor with the other half of the bushel of flat leaf parsley.

Add pine nuts

WZZZZ WZZZZZ WZZZZZ Then I added some olive oil, red wine vinegar, and the juice of the other half of that lemon. Now what?

Enjoy the pictures and if you have any suggestions for the cilantro pesto, don’t be shy.
So far the front runner is Kyle, Maybe he’ll post a comment and let the world know what it is