Mango and Black Bean Salad

Cooking Light magazine- great use for my mango sitting in the fruit basket. And easy to boot!

1 1/2 c. chopped, peeled ripe mango

1 c. thinly sliced green onions

1/2 c. cooked wild or brown rice

3 tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp. roasted tomatillo or fresh salsa

2 tbsp. fresh lime juice

2 tbsp. evoo

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1 (15-oz) can organic no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Toss gently to mix. Serves 6. Enjoy!

Strawberry Cream Cake

I actually made this cake last summer for David's birthday. It was so airy and light, perfect for a very hot Austin summer day. :) The cake layers absorb the berries' juice, so make sure to assemble cake at least 8 hours before serving. Btw, I always substitute pure cane sugar for white refined sugar. It always turns out fine and is better for you.

For strawberry filling:

2 pounds strawberries (about 3 pints)

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

For custard:

3 large egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup half-and-half

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon Punsch (Swedish liqueur) if desired

For cake layers:

1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

9 large eggs

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla

For whipped cream frosting:

1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar
Garnish: strawberries

Make filling: Trim and slice strawberries and in a bowl stir together with sugar and lemon juice. Let strawberry mixture stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, 4 hours. In a large sieve set over a bowl drain strawberry mixture and reserve strawberries and liquid separately.
Make custard: In a saucepan whisk together all custard ingredients except Punsch until combined well. Bring mixture to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly, and simmer, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Whisk Punsch into custard and transfer to a heatproof dish. Cool custard, its surface covered with a round of wax paper. Chill custard, covered, at least 3 hours, or until cold, and up to 2 days.

Make cake layers: Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter two 9- by 2-inch round cake pans and line bottoms with rounds of wax paper. Butter paper and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess flour.
Into a small bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In bowl of a standing electric mixer combine eggs and sugar and beat, beginning at moderate speed and gradually increasing to high speed, for a total of 9 to 10 minutes, or until very thick and pale and mixture forms a ribbon when beaters are lifted. Transfer egg mixture to a large bowl (for ease of folding).
Sift one third flour mixture over egg mixture and with a large rubber spatula fold in gently but thoroughly. Sift and fold remaining flour mixture into egg mixture in 2 more batches in same manner. Fold in butter and vanilla gently but thoroughly.
Divide batter between pans, smoothing tops, and bake in middle of oven, rotating pans on oven rack after 15 minutes (to ensure even baking), a total of 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake is springy to the touch and a tester comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans on racks 10 minutes and invert onto racks. Peel off paper and cool completely. Layers may be made 1 day ahead of cake assembly and kept, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, at room temperature.
Assemble cake:
With a long serrated knife halve each cake layer horizontally to make a total of 4 layers. Put 1 cake layer, cut side up, on a serving plate and top with half of reserved strawberry slices, arranging them in an even layer. Drizzle half of reserved strawberry liquid evenly over berries.
Top filling with second cake layer, cut side down. Whisk custard until smooth and spread layer evenly with custard. Top custard with third cake layer, cut side up. Spread layer evenly with remaining strawberries and drizzle with remaining strawberry liquid. Top filling with remaining cake layer, cut side down. Chill cake, covered with plastic wrap, at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.

Make frosting:

In a chilled bowl beat cream with sugar until cream just holds stiff peaks.
Spread frosting over top and sides of cake. Cake may be frosted 4 hours ahead and chilled. Bring cake to cool room temperature before serving.
Garnish top of cake with strawberries.

Ancho Chiles

This post is courtesy of Frontera's website. http://www.fronterakitchens.com/cooking/pantry/chiles.html
Helpful explanation for the recipe that follows. :)
Ancho (literally “wide”) is the name for a dried poblano. The dried chile will be in the neighborhood of 3 _ to 4 inches long, with board shoulders (2 to 2 _ inches wide) that taper to a point; the skin will be quite wrinkled, and in the package the chiles will look almost black (though holding one up to the light will show it to be a very dark burgundy). An average ancho weighs 1/2 ounce. Always look for untorn, clean, soft, aromatic chiles (they’ll smell a little like prunes). A puree of soaked chile anchos will be brownish red with a mild, rich, almost sweet taste (it reminds me a little of milk chocolate) and a bit of residual bitterness. Per ounce, anchos give more pulp than most chiles.
Regional names include: chile pasilla (Michoacán and vicinity, plus California); the generally descriptive chile de guiisar or chile de color/Colorado (Mazatlán, Tampico, Querétaro, among the smattering); and in the northwest and northern West-Central areas there is a small ancho they call chino.
Uses: Used almost exclusively in cooked dishes (like mole), crumbled toasted bits are a common garnish on soup in Michoacan and whole ones are ocasionally stuffed.

Grilled Pork with Manchamantel Sauce

For this dish out of my Gourmet cookbook, it actually calls for pork tenderloin and for kebab style. All I had were pork chops, so I grilled those instead. They won't be quite as tender but oh well. This is a central Mexican dish, whose sauce translates as "tablecloth stainer," and is a nice balance of sweet fruit and spicy chiles. The pork should marinate at least 4-6 hours, preferably more. I marinated one batch for 6 hours, and then am marinating a second for 24. I'll post how the 24-hour ones compared. The sauce and marinade are fairly time consuming but worth it.

Marinade:
1 dried ancho chile
1 c. cold water
1 onion, chopped
4 chopped garlic cloves
2 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme
2 tbsp. chopped fresh oregano
1 1/2 tbsp. ground cumin
2 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
2 tsp. black peepper corns, crushed
1/3 c. olive oil
1/3 c. lemon juice
2 1/4 lbs. pork, cut into cubes if you are doing kebabs
24 (1-inch) fresh pineapple chuncks (from a 4 lb pineapple)
24 (1-inch) red onion chunks (only if you do kebabs)

Heat a dry skillet over moderately low heat until hot. Toast chile, turning once and pressing down with tongs, until slightly darker and spotted, about 1 minute. Halve chile lengthwise and remove and discard most seeds, and all of the stem and rib. (Spice it up!) Transfer chile to a bowl, pour boiling water over it and let stand. Meanwhile, prep the other marinade ingredients- chopping etc.
Drain chile and coarsely chop.

Combine chile, cold water, onion, garlic, thyme, oregano, cumin, salt, peppercorns, oil and lemon joice in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour marinade into large gallon size sealable plastic bag, add pork, press out excess air, and seal, turning to coat pork with marinade. Marinade, refrigerated, for minimum 4-6 hours, overnight if you can.

Grilling: Drain pork and pat dry; discard marinade. Skewer pork if doing kebabs, otherwise slow cook pork chops or tenderloin until medium well.

Now for the sauce!
Manchamantel Sauce
Serve this sauce with the grilled pork or shrimp (for another option). Recommended to make the day before since it is time-consuming. Let cool and reheat for serving.

2 oz. (3-5) dried ancho chiles
3 1/3 tbsp. vege oil
1 c. finely chopped onion
1 tbsp. minced garlic
2 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar, or to taste
1 c. chicken or vege stock
1/2 c. water
1 c. chopped fresh pineapple (or 1 can in juice- but go fresh!)
1 small banana sliced
1/2 tsp. ground cinammon
Pinch of freshly ground cloves

Heat dry skillet over moderately low heat until hot. Toast chiles as described above. (See grilled pork recipe). Let chiles stand in boiling water. Then drain and chop. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in 4-qt heavy saucepan over moderately low heat. Add onion, garlic, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened and pale golden, about 15 minutes. (Make sure to have the heat on med-low not med).

Add sugar, vinegar and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Transfer mixture to blender. Add chiles, stock, water, pineapple, banana, cinamon, cloves, salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. Add addl. vinegar if desired.

Heat remaining 1 1/2 tbsp. oil in cleaned saucepan over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Oil will pop and splatter- caution. Add sauce and simmer for 5 minutes while stirring. Serve sauce warm.
*** Note: A lot of Manchamantel Sauces call to 1/4- 1/2 lb of tomatoes. Adding these would give a very red color and more sweetness to the sauce. Good variation to try.

Bamboo bowls

Check out these great colorful bamboo bowls. Found them at www.branchhome.com
Great eco-friendly gifts! Add some color to your kitchen!

Herbed Buttermilk Dressing

This Dressing is great on cold crudites (veggies). Without hydrogenated oils and preservatives, I feel better eating it!
This recipe is taken from my Gourmet cookbook (a fabulous one):
1 c. well-shaken buttermilk
1/2 c. mayonaise
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Combine ALL ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Covered and refrigerated, the dressing will keep for up to 1 week.
* If you like a stronger dressing, try adding a tad more chives and a large garlic clove as opposed to the smaller ones. :)

Muesli

Muesli has become my favorite breakfast. Served up cold and with plenty of fruit, it is sure to fill you up for an active morning.

Here's a great and easy recipe:

1 1/2 cups muesli (I use Dorset Cereals- featured to the L)
1 1/4 cups milk
3/4 cup plain or fruit flavored yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup orange juice
2 apple, chopped or grated
10 strawberry, thinly sliced
1/2 banana, thinly sliced
1 cup seedless grapes, halved

Directions
1Mix together müesli, milk, yogurt, lemon juice and orange juice. Let stand for 10 minutes.
2Add fruit to cereal and mix well.
3Refrigerate for one hour.
4Remove from refrigerator 10 minutes before serving.

You can find Dorset Cereals at Whole Foods and online at dorsetcereals.co.uk