Pops

Another kitchen experiment while Kyle was gone was pops. I wanted him to have a little present when he got home since we were only going to overlap by an hour or so. We'd been looking for good icy treats for a while--something with recognizable ingredients that didn't taste like fake sugar and I wasn't having a ton of luck. So when I saw two pops recipe books at the library, I decided to make some myself.

I made three varieties: mango with ginger, Mexican chocolate, and coconut with a dash of cinnamon. There were lots of yummy-sounding fruit varieties involving strawberries and raspberries but I can't find either of those easily (or affordably) in Singapore.

The mango pops are made from mangoes blended with a ginger syrup. Very fruity. One of Kyle's favorites.

The Mexican chocolate pops had chocolate, brown sugar, cinnamon and a hint of pepper melted together. Kyle's other favorite.

The coconut pops were shredded coconut, coconut milk, whipped cream, and cinnamon. These are less sweet and thus my favorite.

I don't have pop molds, though there are a lot for sale on Amazon right now. I used mini paper cups, like the tiny Dixie cups you may have in your bathroom, and plastic cocktail picks. They worked really well.

It's nice to have a little homemade treat in the freezer.

Fun Fruits

You've already seen durian, but here are a few other fun fruits you may not have heard of before:

Mangosteen (sometimes called the queen to durian's king of the fruits):You take those and just kind of smash them on a counter to break them open, and here's what you get inside:

The red part is inedible, and can stain things. The white part is the fruit, which encases a seed. The fruit is tart and sweet, it reminds me of vitamin C. Quite refreshing really.

Next up is the rambutan:


pretty fun looking little guys, aren't they? They may be a little bit of a let down when you open one up, as they are kind of glorified wild grapes in my opinion, not terribly dissimilar from a longan or a lychee (if you know what those are). I cut them open with a knife to remove the skin, and inside is a white meat, again encasing a seed:
From my online reading, what you see here is an example of an overripe rambutan--maybe this is why they were so cheap. The meat is very tasty, but the seed has a papery skin on it, which in my case, easily came off when you pulled the meat away. This kind of ruined the experience, so I'll have to try and get some less ripe ones and compare soon. However, the flavor on these is very good, *very* sweet. In the end I carefully gnawed the meat off of a few, carefully cut the meat off of a few, and used several to juice--again, surprisingly sweet juice, and lots of it.

Finally, I present to you the dragonfruit:
Again, wow, they make cool fruits over here. Cut it open, and you might be surprised to find a white pulp dotted with black seeds (sorry my photo is just out of focus):
I haven't researched it, but I think dragonfruit must be closely related to kiwi, as the flavor is quite similar. The first time I had it, I thought "pleasant, but mild, definitely would prefer a kiwi with its more intense tart flavor". However, after having had a few, this fruit is quickly becoming a favorite. It's generally pretty mild, but there will be a few bites in any one that are more intensely sweet and satisfying. Plus they provide a lot of easy-to-eat fruit, generally for a pretty low price. They also come in a red version which is guaranteed to be more expensive (the pulp is red), but so far I find the white is actually more flavorful.

The First Few Days: Mostly Thoughts on Food

These first few days have been occupied by attempts to completely upend our sleeping schedule, become accustomed to sweating constantly, and of course, finding a nest to call our own.

There have been some good food adventures, trying laksa on day one, and then coming home to the tried-and-true chicken rice that night:Then going to dinner Friday night with my new boss, his wife, and another couple from my new group, to a nice Indian restaurant called Anjappar in little India. The chicken 65 is die-die must try. Apparently the chicken is killed on the 65th day, beyond this I can tell you nothing of how it was cooked, but it was little spicy yummy tender nuggets.

I've also had chicken mee that was excellent (thin rice noodles, chicken is flavored, again, I don't really know how, but with excellent spice and herbs. My mouth burned a solid 20 minutes after):
Cooling was attempted with a mango ice cream sandwich. These are often served on regular sandwich bread, just a thick slice of very cold ice cream-- but this time it was on thin wafers, which work very nicely:
Then tonight I decided to take the full-on head-first dive into southeast Asian food. The feared durian. A fruit like no other. Most of what I hear about this fruit does not make you want to try it. It is described as pungent, tasting of onions, or even including adjectives such as 'gym-sock'. The guys on the bizarre foods shows sometimes smile and chew on their pig organs, joints, rodents, offal, etc. and then are shown in the next scene unable to stomach the durian. Because of just its odor, it is not allowed on public transportation or many housing areas. But for others, it is the pinnacle of fruit, the most complex of flavors, a real delicacy.

I'd been wanting to try this stuff ever since I heard of it, but I wanted to be sure I got a good one. After all, when you try durian for the first time, considering what you are told it may taste like, how will you know if it is rotten? Today I ventured to the Geylang area with this one goal in mind, finding my first durian. I was advised that the D24 variety was quite good (apparently there are like 300 cultivars, each with distinct taste, etc.), so I found a location from some googling that was recommended-- Wonderful Fruit Enterprise at 147 Sims Avenue. I then opted for a D24 from this wall of durian. As you can see, this fruit has clearly come to us from another planet.

They choose a fruit for you, cut it open, and seat you at a table to eat it there:

The white part is just husk and is inedible. The yellow part is the meat, which is subdivided further into sections that each contain a seed. The meat encapsulates the seed, and is best described as a custard that you just kind of suck off (toss the seed). It was pleasantly sweet, not overwhelmingly stinky in the least, and definitely a mouth full of complex flavor. I'm not sure where to start and probably should have taken tasting notes. Onion is definitely a flavor that comes through, but I did not think it was overwhelming at all, and onion is, after all, a nice flavor, just not one most are accustomed to in their fruit. There's definite nuttiness, and then something else that I'm not sure is like anything I've ever had. I'm sure I was helped tremendously by building myself up for this, knowing pretty well what to expect, and wanting to give it a fair shake-- but I kind of loved it.

I believe the greatest disservice to this food is its belonging to the kingdom of plants and being a fruit. If this were some variety of cheese, a pate, a caviar, or something else that was served by the hoity-toity at fancy dinner parties, I imagine it would be received much better.

Of course, this was just one durian. I wonder if part of the problem is that not all durians are created equal. Some others may be much smellier and much more onion/gym-sock/dead animal. Further research will be conducted. It is worth pointing out that a local joined me at my table. He had purchased the cheap durian, a quarter of the price of mine. He agreed I had gotten the best kind. As I neared the end, I offered a section to him, figuring he'd really appreciate it, and tried his last section in exchange. Surprise to us both, they were very very similar. So it does not seem to be the case that the only reason mine was bearable was because it was the best variety.

In other news, no nest has been located as yet. Apartments apparently are released in batches, almost entirely on Saturdays, so mid-week is a dead zone, and we hope that Saturday will bring us the right place.

Pie. Yum.

I know there are other things to do with apples besides make apple pie. But apple pie is SO GOOD. Yesterday I made 1.5 after work. I was an apple pie making machine. (Also my internet didn't work at the time so what else was I going to do?)

The first was delivered to a friend, who then asked me to stay and have a slice, which was really very nice of her. Plus she gave me this "Bedtime Tea" from Trader Joe's which was fantastic. I need to add that to my shopping list.

My venting cuts are a little off center, but other than that, it turned out wonderfully! And it was a really nice visit and chat too. Maybe I should make pies for people more often.

When I told Kyle I was going on pie delivery he sounded all sad and left out. So I had to make him a baby pie with part of the apples. I only have one pie plate, so a full sized pie was out of the question. Plus I was almost out of flour. The result was cute though.


I think it could have stood a little more time in the oven (this picture is pre-baked). Kyle said the crust was just a little doughy, but that was an experiment with the dish and the size and how long it would take. It was cute though and a nice two to three-serving size (Kyle says 1 to 1.5, but is displaying his restraint by breaking it into 2 separate dessert sessions). I'll keep working on the cook time.

Also, please note Kyle's favorite shirt that sort of hurts my feelings.

Sunday Dinner

Sunday after church Kyle went back to work and I cooked. A lot. For about four hours straight. I don't feel like I have nearly enough to show for my efforts, but then I did spend at least half of that time washing the same dishes over and over again.

Above you'll see the main course, poorly lit: Swiss steak and a salad. Swiss steak is my mother's favorite meal when my grandmother cooks it. I don't think she'd say the same for this version, though it wasn't bad at all. Just not the same.

I used minute steak from the meat share, breaded and browned, then baked with canned tomatoes, sauteed peppers and onions, and served over rice. Nana uses her own home-canned tomatoes and I think that helps immensely. After 13 weeks of fresh produce, I thought the tomatoes tasted really "canned;" I could tell a difference. On the side, a fresh and spicy salad. The mixed greens had a real kick to them this time.

For dessert: apple pie, of course. You can't get a dozen New England apples without making apple pie. I used a recipe that my dad clipped from somewhere and mailed me about a year ago. It's a reliable, good and easy pie. Though I've yet to master a basket-woven top crust, this year's version looks better than last year's. And apple pie is fantastic for breakfast in case you were wondering.

Besides that I made a mushroom bisque loosely based on the New England Soup Factory recipe using dried mushrooms and farm share potatoes and onions. We'll have that for dinner tonight.

I also made a smoothie, but that hardly seems worth mentioning. (Except that I mentioned it. See, dinner, dessert, another dinner, and also a smoothie! All in one Sunday afternoon!)

week 10 veggies

This week I managed to pick up quite a load of veggies-- I almost forgot and arrived right at the end of pickup, and there was some extras.

I snagged:
about 8 smallish bright red tomatoes
about 7 smallish yellow cucumbers
about 2.5lbs of beans
6 green bell peppers
4 giant purple eggplant
lots of basil (time to make pesto I think.)
4 onions
2 chard (1 red, 1 yellow)
6 pretty large carrots
2 pints cherry tomatoes
1 pint blueberries
1 cantaloupe/musk melon

tonight I've already gone through a pint of cherry tomatoes and a few cucumbers. good stuff. I also got into the cantaloupe, but unfortunately this one is just really not any good, too mealy, not very sweet. oh well.

sweet black rice

We used the neat black rice we bought at C-Mart to make some sweet sticky black rice. I just cooked it in my rice cooker (brown rice setting). While it was cooking, I used one of the cans of coconut milk we purchased- tossed it in a sauce pan, added a half cup sugar, a half teaspoon salt, and stirred it and heated it until everything was dissolved good. Once the rice was done, we filled a bowl, ladled over the sweet coconut milk sauce to our satisfaction, and tossed in a few frozen strawberries and some store-bought frozen mango (the heat from the rice and coconut milk made quickly thawed it to a nice consistency).
I thought it was excellent-- the black rice was just a little bit nutty, flavorful, and a good substantive texture without being chewy. It's technically brown rice (bran intact), so this is good for you, right? I had it again this morning for breakfast.

Vegetable Share Distribution - Week Five

This week we got:

1 pint blueberries
1 bunch kale (the curly ended kind)
2 heads red leaf lettuce
1 bunch beets and greens
1 bunch carrots (bigger bunch than before, 7 or 8 carrots) and pretty carrot greens
1 extra large zucchini
1 average sized garlic clove, along with an extra 4 feet of stem (I'm not sure why we got all of this)
and... 20 salad cucumbers. nice.

so cucumber recipes, people. we need 'em.

Strawberry Ice Cream

We used some more strawberries-- I took one of those quart bags, containing an unmeasured quantity of sliced strawberries, from the freezer, thawed it a few hours on the counter, and added the berries to this recipe. The results are pretty fantastic. It is the first time I've made ice cream with raw eggs and just decided to let them go as is-- so far, no detectable effects of salmonella...

Strawberries!

It took quite a bit of time, but we've finally done something with all of our strawberries. Monday night, I prepared 5 cups of strawberry freezer jam, roughly following the linked recipe-- I just bought plastic ball jars and ball freezer jam fruit pectin, and the recipe was on the pectin. Here's a picture of those:I also washed and sliced about 2 quarts of stawberries, then put enough into the 1 quart reynold's handi-vac bags so I could lay them flat in the freezer-- this filled 5 bags. Once they were frozen pretty hard, I vacuumed away the evil air.
I also prepared a strawberry cool whip dessert, following this recipe from their website, I'll just post an image from the .pdf (click it if you want to read it):
That was all I could accomplish Monday night before Alli came home. I let that freeze overnight, and we had it for dessert Tuesday after I coated it with cool whip and fresh strawberries. Here's what some of our partially eaten dessert looked like:
Then Tuesday night after dinner I took care of the rest of the strawberries. I prepared 1 vacuum pack quart bag, packed full, of unwashed whole strawberries, then sliced about a quart and stuck it in a tupperware container ready to eat, and sliced and packed fairly full another vacuum bag and tried to suck some air out of it, but put it in the fridge. So I'm hopeful we can take care of the sliced ones in the fridge for some strawberry ice cream (or yogurt) soon, and some strawberry banana pancakes, if I can ever get up early enough to make them, more topping for our dessert, and of course, general snacking.
Another picture for your enjoyment:
I do want to take a moment to say these strawberries were on their way bad pretty fast. When I picked them, there were just a few that I thought "well, there's a little spot that's maybe a tad soft", but I'll just cut that off soon. I think by the next day those few strawberries were mush. Each day I tried to set aside the strawberries that looked hardiest and would make it until tomorrow, and by the next day there seemed to always be a few with soft spots soon to be mold. I also picked a few berries that I thought were underripe, but after a day or two time I didn't think any berries would pass for underripe.
Point being, it's no small wonder that strawberries are available year-round in your local grocery store. I'm sure they've selected for the hardy ones, and they probably pick them green and all, but it's still pretty amazing.
Even so, we only lost maybe a pint out of 10 quarts, so not too awful, just something to consider.