Trailmix Turtles

I was so inspired by Peter's childhood treats that I had to make my own, with a few twists. Peter, I saw your post one early morning and I craved them all day long :)

I have been trying different recipes for snack bars with numerous fruit and nut combinations. I now take them with me to work on a regular basis. They are wholesome, filling, and tasty with a variety of flavors and textures, just a perfect snack at anytime.

Read my post at Naturopath.ca for the recipe for Trailmix Turtles, made with dried pluots and strawberries from a local farmers' market.

Mango Shrikhand

May is my month! I was born in May not too many years ago, and where I was born in India, this is a hot, Summer month. There, May is also the month of mangoes. If I was in India now, I would be eating a mango with every meal and some in between. I am making May the month of mangoes, with many if not all of my posts dedicated to the "King of Fruits." This was also the first batch of the mango season which I found ripe and sweet enough in Seattle, so the first dish I made was Mango Shrikhand.

Shrikhand ("shree-khund") is yogurt drained of all its liquid, then sweetened and spiced with any flavors you like. It is not so much an Indian dessert as it is regional, and very popular in my home state of Gujarat. Yogurt itself is widely eaten all over India, especially in Summer because of its cooling properties.

I loved shrikhand so much as a kid that I would eat it plain, even with no fruit, just cardamom. My school was right next door to a big creamery -- the largest producer of packaged shrikhand in India (it was like going to school next to Breyers). Once each year the school took us on a field trip, a tour of the shrikhand manufacturing and packaging plant; boy! how I waited for that trip!

Usually the shrikhand we ate at home was not packaged, we made it ourselves as we also made our own yogurt. Here in Seattle though, it is harder to get the milk to curdle with our relatively cool, damp climate. We still make yogurt at home, but often turn to the best we can find locally. In Seattle we are fortunate to have many alternatives!

Greek Gods is one locally manufactured yogurt that has been perfect for shrikhand. They are available all over the U.S. -- try their Store Locator. Greek Gods yogurt is a strained yogurt, so it cuts my shrikhand-making work in half. It is so fresh and high quality that it is the closest thing to the home-made shrikhand I grew up eating!

If you can't find Greek Gods, for one alternative you can use regular yogurt, with a little more work. You will need to tie it up and hang it in a cheese cloth overnight, to drain the water. Kefir cheese and any other plain, Mediterranean style, strained yogurt will work the best and you may be able to avoid the draining step. Strained yogurts are also manufactured with a higher pectin content, so they will require less sugar than a regular yogurt you strain at home.

Depending on how fresh the yogurt is and other factors, its tartness will vary. Sugar levels vary widely, and this is one reason it is hard to give precise measurements in recipes for traditional foods. You have to trust your tongue, taste as you go, and learn by doing.

Shrikhand is traditionally eaten with poori or roti, but once you taste it, you'll eat it all by itself! Below is my recipe for Mango Shrikhand ...

I used:
2 cups Greek Gods plain yogurt
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tspn ground cardamom (I've seen people over-do this lately and it kills me! Don't use too much cardamom.)
2-3 tbspn crushed nuts
1 ripe and diced Ataulfo mango (Mango tip for Seattleites: Ballard Town & Country has had a few amazing batches, but you've got to pick them properly! Ataulfo are currently in season and widely available ... please leave some for me ;)

My method:
1. Take the yogurt in a medium bowl and hand-beat with a whisk, till it is nice and smooth. It takes about 3 minutes.
2. Mix in the sugar next. Taste it! If it tastes acidic or "too yogurty," you need more sugar! 1/2 cup is what I needed to turn this yogurt into Shrikhand, you might need more or less.
3. Add the cardamom and mix.
4. Cover and refrigerate. It will solidify slightly, too.
5. Right before serving, top with nuts and mangoes.

Go Pollock on Eggless Scones!

When I had finished making my Eggless Scones, and my baking sheets were dripping with dark chocolate sauce made from Theo's Madagascar, I suddenly felt like I was channeling Jackson Pollock, one of my all-time favorite American painters. (Yes, I am hooked on Theo!) I enjoyed learning about Pollock in Fine Art classes, but I truly loved making my food action painting, which was also a great stress buster!

I was thrilled to find and began with an Eggless Scone recipe by Tyler Florence. It looked simple and simple to tweak, too, so I replaced the fruits and glaze, and a few other things :)

I had a customer with high expectations who had said they would not eat the scones if they were too dry. Under pressure and against the reputation of scones everywhere, these Eggless Scones were up to the challenge! The cream especially helped them stay moist throughout baking.

See Tyler’s recipe for details, but for my part I replaced the blueberries with dried strawberries, which I had found at Sosio's in Pike Place Market. I added sliced almonds, and I replaced the regular sugar with brown sugar.

While my scones cooled, I made a chocolate sauce with Madagascar from Theo and heavy cream. I thinned the tempered chocolate with cream (you can use half & half if you like) till I had a smooth and thin enough consistency to drizzle, or paint?! with. When the scones were cooled to almost room temperature, I went crazy with the chocolate! Then I let the scones sit till the chocolate firmed up, and stored the scones in an air tight container.

Bring out your own inner Pollock or release some stress with this cool Flash canvas online! If you make these Eggless Scones, go Pollock on them and have fun – remember you can always lick the chocolate off your canvas ;)

Dates back to my childhood ...

When I was a kid, around this time of year my mom made a traditional treat of dates dipped in amazing, home-made ghee with sweet spices and nuts! It was what you ate in Winter, as it was supposed to make you strong & smart ;) yeah right! In season, I ate them with milk every morning before going to school.

It is true that dates have some nutrients which may aid in strength of body and/or mind, such as iron, potassium, calcium, vitamin B-complex, and most of all: high natural sugar for high energy. No wonder they call dates "marathon runners' food." When you add the nuts, they're even better for you!

Here in Seattle, I have been searching for good dates for a while now. Finally when I saw them at my market, I bought in bulk -- organic, Medjool dates!

These Medjools were big, juicy, & great for stuffing. Following the core ingredients of my mother's recipe, I worked sugar, cardamom, pistachios, and almonds into a ghee-cream. It's very much like the butter cream you see in frostings, except ghee is clarified and therefore better than butter.

To keep up with my new feature -- sharing one of my mother's traditional recipes every month -- here are Winter Dates, done slightly differently I will admit! as I dressed them up. I am looking forward to being a kid all over again, though, as I grab a date before work every morning, & appreciate how lucky I am to have been born into a family of great cooks!

Winter Dates

I used:

2 dozen Medjool dates, slitted, pits removed
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup ground raw pistachios and almonds
2-3 tablespoons cold ghee (clarified butter)
a couple pinches of ground cardamom

My Method:

1. Whip up a cold ghee-cream, by beating the ghee and sugar to this consistency:

2. Mix the cardamom, pistachios, and almonds with the ghee-cream. Cream the ghee further while working the mixture in, one quarter cup or so at a time, until it is stiff and ready for piping:

3. Pipe the filling into slit and pitted dates. I filled a Ziploc® bag with the filling, then snipped off a bottom corner for inexpensive and easily controlled piping. Refrigerate your Winter Dates.

I now have two dozen stuffed Medjool dates, updated from my childhood, easing me into Winter workdays or a holiday party :) Thank you, Mom - Enjoy the Indian Winter!!!

If I was a squirrel I'd find my way to the Pacific Northwest...

...because they have the best hazelnuts! It's a good thing I'm already in the NW :) We recently tried two varieties from Holmquist Orchards @ the Phinney Farmer's Market, and we liked these unusually longer-than-normal ones. I was saving them to use for an occasion but they were so good that I could not resist the temptation of just chopping a few for my chocolate ice cream tonight. They are perfectly toasted and almost sweet tasting hazelnuts, like none I've tried before. So delicious, that now I really want to go visit one of these farms in Washington or Oregon, one of the world's major hazelnut producing regions ... just like how I always wanted to visit where cashews come from! ... for now I'll be forgetting the Nutella!



And, no I haven't forgotten mangoes ;)