Pistachio Cherry Trifle

It's CHERRY SEASON! We were invited to a small dinner party where the guests all cooked a number of small dishes each. We thought it best to make a smaller dessert, since we could not imagine having enough room in our stomachs to eat an entire tart after the feast (or maybe we could, so it's best we did this instead). Dorie Greenspan had us salivating over Pierre Herme's Streusel Tart with Pistachios and Cherries from The Cook's Book. This served as our inspiration as we decided to deconstruct the dessert and turn a tart recipe into a trifle recipe.

Well, the original recipe called for a pastry tart filled with almond pistachio cream and cherries and topped with an almond streusel. We applied our architects' mind, developed over many years of intense study and carefully crafted individual pistachio cherry trifles.

See the recipe after the jump.

Baked Split Banana

So.... after a two week hiatus, we have decided to start posting our recipes back on The Royal Kitchen and to keep our two blogs separate. More recipes to come... 
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Baked Split Banana

Ingredients
1 ripe banana
1/2 tsp. light brown sugar
cinnamon for dusting

The Recipe
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Split the banana in half, lengthwise. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Dust with cinnamon and serve.

Some Changes

In an effort to consolidate our blogs we started posting our recipes on our lifestyle blog The Royal Excursion. Hope you continue to check in to see what we are cooking! Lately we have made homemade granola, an open face tahini and veggie sandwich and baked split banana.

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Whole Wheat Banana Muffins

Banana muffins are great for breakfast or a snack on the run. We like to always have some ready for guests who stop by to visit. These muffins are adapted from Dorie Greenspan's wonderful column Baking with Dorie on Serious Eats. Lately we have been eating a lot of whole grains and have emitted butter from our diet (summer is officially on its way). Here we substituted whole wheat flour for regular flour, vegetable oil for butter, brown sugar for white sugar, almond milk for yogurt and added chopped mixed nuts instead of chocolate. So... having once made Dorie's delicious muffins, these muffins are completely different, but we think just as delicious. They are also a healthier version.

 Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup almond milk (you can alternatively use sour cream or plain yogurt)
3 ounces chopped mixed nuts, optional (I used a combination of Brazilian nuts, hazel nuts, walnuts and almonds)

The Recipe
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray 12 regular-size muffin cups.
Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together well.
Add the sugar to the oil, beat at medium speed for around two minutes. Beat in the vanilla, then the egg, beating for about 1 minute. Mix in the bananas. Then, mix in half the dry ingredients, all the almond milk and then the rest of the flour mixture. Stir in the chopped nuts. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake for 10 to 20 minutes (pay attention since every oven is different, we burned ours a little-oops), or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Transfer the muffin tin to a rack, cool for 3 minutes, then gently turn the muffins out of the tin. Cool to room temperature on a rack.

A Healthy Oatmeal Breakfast

We don't like eating a sugary breakfast and this delicious whole oatmeal is a healthy alternative.

Ingredients:
6 tbs. raw whole oats (not Quaker)
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup almond milk (you can also use soy, rice or regular milk)

for the topping:
1 banana. sliced
1tbs. raisins
1tbs. pumpkin seeds (not salted, we like to use organic)
1tbs. sunflower seeds (not salted)
1tbs. almonds

The Recipe:
Cook the oatmeal and liquids in a small pot over medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. When done, remove from heat and top with bananas, seeds, nuts and raisins.

Thai Black Grape and Cashew Muffins

In Bangkok we bought the wonderful Doi Khan Cookbook. It's a funny little cookbook, with a collection of recipes compiled by the Royal Project Foundation. The recipes are all written by Thai aristocrats including the Royal Highness herself! Though most of the book is Thai food, we found this delicious recipe for Black Grapes and Cashew Muffins and had to try it out. Apparently, Thais don't only eat Thai food, and if it's fit for their Queen, it will most certainly suit us Royals.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup lightly crushed cashews
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
125gr melted butter
1 cup fresh black grapes

The recipe:
Preheat the oven to 200 C.
In a large bowl sift together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Mix in the cashews.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs together with the butter and milk and then combine with the flour mixture. Finally, lightly stir in the black grapes.
Spoon into buttered muffin pans, making sure you don't fill them up completely (allow room for them to rise).
Bake for about 20 minutes, and serve warm.

Citrus Juice!

Our weekly organic produce delivery has been delivering tons of citrus fruits lately. So after many orange-lemon-grapefruit jams we made a big batch of citrus juice. Summertime is near!

Kumquat Marmalade

Come winter, kumquats start to appear everywhere and we couldn't resist buying a large package of these sweet and delicate treats.

We also found a wonderful recipe for kumquat marmalade at Gothamist, a New York based web magazine we like to read. We combined our adoration of kumquats, marmalade and winter and filled a few jars with excellent results.

Ingredients:

750 gr kumquats

4 cups water

4 cups sugar

The Recipe:

Slice the kumquats very thinly, reserving the seeds.

Transfer them to a large pot, add the water and seeds (tied in a cheese cloth). Let sit for 24 hours.

The next day, bring the mixture to a boil on the stove. Lower the heat and let simmer for an hour, reducing the mixture. 

Add the sugar while constantly stirring, and then cook for another 20 minutes.

Check to see if the marmalade is ready by dipping a teaspoon and watching the marmalade turning into jell when it cools.

Remover the bag of seeds, transfer the marmalade to jars (using whatever caning method you choose) and store in the fridge. This marmalade is so amazing you'll finish it up in no time...

Bitter Lemon Jam

A few weeks ago, we came back from a weekend brunch at E+D's overloaded with lemons straight from their lemon tree.

We sat staring at a huge pile of lemons and decided: we will make a lemon jam experiment. We asked ourselves: lemon jam?
The result turned out to be a bit bitter since we threw the lemons in with the peel intact. It goes very well with meat or on bread with sesame paste.

We ended up making a very large amount of jam (since we dragged home so many), storing it in glass bottles in the refrigerator.
This recipe should be enough for one jar.

Ingredients:
1 cup lemons, cut into four and then sliced, with the peel
1 parsimon, cut into four and then sliced
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 cloves
3 tbs white wine

The Recipe:
Place the ingredients in a pot on medium heat, stirring often.
When it starts to thicken remove from heat and pour into a sterilized jar. Close well, and store in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.

In order to store the jam for a longer period of time we followed Dorie Greenspan's advice on canning.
Another great canning information source is Saving the Season.

Coconut Cream, Coconut Milk

Ever wanted to know what's the difference between coconut cream and coconut milk?
Well, we have the answer.

Coconut cream is made by soaking fresh grated coconut in water and then squeezing the fluid out. Coconut milk is the same process a second time (the result is a lighter liquid).
What's inside the coconut when it's opened is coconut juice.

Deep Fried Bananas

An all time favorite snack, deep fried bananas are easy, fun and de-licious!

To make the batter you'll need 1/2 cup shredded fresh coconut, 1/2 cup white flour, 1 cup rice flour, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar and 1 cup water.
First mix the flours with the egg. Then add salt and sugar and mix again. Finally add the shredded coconut and knead into a dough (Shredded fresh coconut may be difficult to come by outside of South East Asia. Instead, You can soak dried coconut in a few tablespoons of coconut cream to retrieve the moisture to the dried flakes).
Transfer the dough to a large shallow container. Pour water and mix with your hands until the dough is completely incorporated into the batter. For extra crunchiness you may add 3 tbsp soda water. Finally, add about 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds and mix well.


Heat oil in a wok, slice the bananas lengthwise, 1/2 cm thick, and immediately dip in the batter. Throw the slices into the oil and fry for several minutes until golden on each side. Be sure to use low heat so the bananas won't burn.
Frying the bananas takes a bit of practice so don't feel discouraged if you don't get it right the first few times.

Not only bananas work with this recipe. The batter goes well with many vegetables like sweet potato, taro or squash. experiment!

Cooking Again, Bangkok

Our last day in Thailand was well spend with a final cooking class conducted privately by Lee at "Cafe The Flow". We collected a list of our favorite street food dishes and presented it to her a few days before. Lee showed no hesitation. She immediately jumped into her research, asking endless family members and "hawkers" (food stall owners) and came up with a fantastic one day workshop of Thailand's best: Fish ball soup, Satay sauce, Khao Mun Kai (Chinese chicken), Khao Kiab Pak Moh (steamed dumplings), sticky rice with mango and fried bananas. Yum, yum and yum.

Our Banana Lady, Bangkok

Our favorite lady vendor in all Bangkok makes the most delicious fried bananas we have had. Her stall was dangerously situated around the corner from our guesthouse (Samsen Road Soi 1, Bangkok, for those of you in the area). We think her secret lies in the sesame seeds added to the batter.
Deep fried bananas are a simple but divine delicacy. This one calls for a shorter yellow banana with a firmer body, sliced 1 cm thick (1/3 inch). The pieces are drowned in batter (the contents of which remain a mystery to us) and deep fried in a wok. Praise the Lord!

Deep fried bananas.


Our favorite woman in Bangkok.

Crispy Coconut and Other Stuff

Miang Khum:
This one is a very interesting and fun snack we tried at one of restaurants around the block. Bits of diced lime, red onion, fresh ginger, chillies, tiny dried shrimp and roasted peanuts are all arranged around a pile of roasted coconut flakes. A little bit of each is placed in a green mustard leaf and drenched in the accompanied sweet fish syrup. Enjoy.



You can also find this snack on the street, prepackaged for your convenience. Each ingredient is wrapped separately.