iatebrisbane.com » Citrus

Mexican Lime Water

Sarah — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:09:19 +0000

This is an AUTHENTIC recipe! And that is why i’m so freaking excited about lime water right now. My dear sister’s boyfriend hails from the land of the chilis and beans and invited me into his kitchen to sample some tasty Mexican food. He created a beautiful Chocolate Chili (Poblano Mole) Chicken with Rice and served this lime water with it. Mr Mexico keeps a big jug of this in his fridge all the time – and drinks it like you would water. It’s a great thirst quencher – better than Gatorade. Actually, it almost works on the same principle as Gatorade and other sports waters. Sugar and Salt. I was recently reading a Dr Karl book (Never Mind the Bullocks – Nice. Edgy but cute too) where he tells of the science behind sports water, and gives a recipe for a tonic that will save you from dehydration when Cholera calls (which I hope it never does!)

8tsps Sugar
1tsp Salt
1 Litre Water

Well – this recipe kinda follows the same path. Salty, Sugary, Sour. Perfect for quenching those hell-fires after a Mexican Fiesta.

(My husband – rehydrating after a hard day )

Ingredients

(have a play around with the amounts – it’s all about your own taste)

5 Limes
2 handfuls of Sugar (Maybe 1/4 – 1/3 cup?)
Pinch Salt (or more if you like)
2L Chilled Water
Ice cubes

Method

To get as much juice out of your limes, Pop them in the microwave on high for about 15 seconds.
Cut them in half and squeeze the juice into a 2L sized jug. I use my hands to squeeze and scrape the juice from the pith. Limes don’t have seeds and the little citrus cells look so pretty floating in the water.

Add the sugar and salt and mix until the sugar is dissolved

Fill to the brim with chilled water and ice cubes.

Serve immediately with a sprig of mint and extra thin slices of lime, if you like.

This would be perfect as a mixer with spirits too! Tequila, vodka, White Rum….

YUM!

Ruby Fruit Salad spiked with Lime and Vanilla

Sarah — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:34:19 +0000

I heart colourful food. I don’t understand why marketing companies don’t go crazy hocking shiny colourful fruit and vegetables to toddlers – you know, get ‘em while they’re young. Just like cigarettes and liquor. Oh… that’s right… Mother Earth doesn’t have a huge marketing budget like Macca’s does! Maybe word of mouth will just have to do.

This salad is RED! I just went nuts at the green grocer buying pink and red fruits. I think it works well with the lime and vanilla too. This is my justification:

Vanilla has a variety from Tahiti – Tahitian Vanilla

Lime has a variety from Tahiti – Tahitian Limes

And often flavours grown in the same area go well together. The lime gives it a tropical zing and the vanilla smooths it out giving it a velvety base-note.

Ingredients

Watermelon

Red Apple

Strawberries

Cherries

Red Grapes

Lychees

…and anything else remotely ruby-toned.

1/4 lime

capful of vanilla extract.

Method

Cut all fruit into bitesized pieces, squeeze the lime, pour the vanilla. Mix carefully to combine.

Middle Eastern orange cake

Catherine — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:05:26 +0000

If I was describing the texture of a good cake I’d expect to describe it as one of either “light and fluffy” or “moist and dense”. Never did I imagine there could be such a sweet, delicious cake that is simultaneously light, moist AND dense. Does that make sense? Probably not – you’ll just have to make this cake to experience the phenomena for yourself!

Gazing into a cake cabinet one Sunday afternoon at Oliver and Co at South Brisbane I spied a cake flavour that intrigued me. It was called Middle Eastern orange cake. Weeks later I stumbled across Claudia Roden’s recipe for Middle Eastern Orange cake just in time for I ate Brisbane’s featured flavour. I really enjoyed making this cake!

This was so elegant in its simplicity with just four main ingredients. I loved watching the oranges bob around in the boiling water and enjoyed the sensation of halving them – it literally felt like a hot knife through butter!

And the taste oh the sweet, light, moist, dense taste! You’ll just have to make it to experience that for yourself! This is the perfect afternoon tea cake.

Ingredients

2 large oranges, washed
6 eggs
250g ground almonds
250g sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder

Recipe

Boil oranges in a little water in a covered saucepan for 2 hours. I used enough water to just about cover the oranges
Allow oranges to cool then cut them in half and scoop out the flesh. Chop the flesh roughly
Preheat the oven to 190^oC and prepare a springform tin (either butter and flour the tin or line with baking paper which I opted for)
Blend oranges and remaining ingredients in a food processor. For this step I used a Tupperware Quick Chef to finely chop the oranges and then used my KitchenAid to mix the ingredients thoroughly instead of using a food processor
Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour. If the cake is still wet, cook for a little longer
Allow to cool in tin before gently turning out

Pork Wontons in Lemongrass Broth

Sarah — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:44:11 +0000

This is a great way to use up lots of vegetables. It’s a really low fat dish and very cheap to make! It’s a dish that you can prepare in advance, arrange all the vegetables in the bowls, then when you are ready, pour over the broth. Please taste the broth as you go, making sure there is a balance of sweet/sour/salty/heat.

LEMONGRASS BROTH
500ml water
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
3 cloves garlic
1 thumb of Ginger
¼ onion
½ lemongrass shoot
1 tsp black pepper corns
1 tsp coriander seeds
½ fresh chilli
A few slices of dried shitake mushrooms

Chop all the ingredients roughly and put in a pot. Set to a slow simmer. Do this before all other steps and the flavours will have time to develop… check for seasoning.

WONTON
80g Pork Mince
A few slices of Ginger, finely diced
A small piece of onion, finely diced
Sprinkle of Garam Masala or Chinese Five Spice
6 Water Chestnuts, finely diced
Wonton Wrappers

1. Mix all ingredients together
2. Take small teaspoonfuls of mixture and fold into wonton wrappers.
3. Set aside until later

TO PREPARE
1. Prepare some noodles (Hokkien, Singapore or Soba) and divide them between two large soup bowls.
2. Finely chop lots of vegetables – REALLY thin! Use a mandolin if you have one (i wish i did!). The vegies i use are Fresh Mushroom, Carrot, Celery, Snow Peas, Pumpkin, onion, spring onion, capsicum, pak choy, asparagus etc etc
3. Place them around the edges of the bowls in groups (it looks fancy!)
4. Bring a pot of water to a simmer and put the wontons in for a few minutes. Take one out and cut it open to check to make sure the pork mince is cooked.
5. Place the wontons in the soup bowls
6. Strain the broth and ladle over the vegetables. The heat of the broth will cook the vegetables a little.
7. Serve with fresh herbs (parsley and coriander)
8. Have some Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce) on the table so they can add as much as they like.

Citrus Curd Tart

Sarah — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:44:26 +0000

This came about after I ran out of lemons for a lemon curd, then didn’t read a recipe right and put whole eggs in instead of just the yolks. I decided to run with it, and it turned out to be a lovely tart. It’s not quite a curd, not quite a custard.

I have used the microwave for this, however, if you wish, you can cook this on the oven top, just stir it continually. It may take a little longer.

Also, I have used a store bought pie shell, I had one in my freezer…it tasted good, but unfortunately, it makes the tart look like a commercially made one… Boo! A homemade shortcrust pastry would be lovely.

Zest of One Orange

100ml Orange Juice

50g Caster Sugar

2 eggs

30g Butter

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Pie Shell

1. Chuck all ingredients to a microwavable bowl, Microwave for 1 minute or until butter melts, Whisk ingredients until sugar is fairly dissolved.

2. Put on high in microwave for another 2-4 minutes, whisking every minute or so

3. Let it cool a little to thicken.

4. Pour into the pie shell, let it cool again.

5. Pop the tart into a slow oven (130-150 degrees) for about 15 minutes or until filling is set.

Serve with Yoghourt or Cream and a dusting of icing sugar.