Thai Mango Salad

About a year ago I was in Thailand and to bring back the memories I looked up the recipe for Thai Mango Salad.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanuts
• 2 firm mangoes, (about 2 lbs/1 kg)
• 1 sweet red pepper
• 2 carrots, coarsely grated
• 4 cups torn mixed greens
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh mint

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp grated lime rind
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp minced hot pepper
• 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Toast peanuts over medium heat until fragrant and dark golden, about 8 minutes. Stay by the pan, don't burn any. Set aside.


Thinly slice mangoes lengthwise. Thinly slice red pepper and remove the pepper seeds and the core.

In large bowl, whisk together oil, lime rind and juice, fish sauce, sugar, hot pepper, salt and pepper. Add mangoes, red pepper, carrots, mixed greens, green onions and mint; toss to coat. Serve sprinkled with peanuts.

Butternut Hummus

Hummus is a paste made from basically chickpeas and sesame seed paste (tahini). I recently came an article in which there spread was butternut hummus. I loved the idea so I got to work in my kitchen and this is what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 butternut
• pepper
• salt
• garlic
• peanut oil
• sesame seed paste
• sriracha hot chili sauce

First of all you cut up the butternut up into dice of the same size and throw them in a bowl to coat them with (peanut) oil, pepper, salt and garlic. You put them in a preheated oven on 180 degrees Celsius and bake them until they are golden brown.

Once they are ready I 've put them in a tray and into the fridge so that the pieces can cool down. First I blended the butternut into a puree and then I added the sesame seed paste and blended it down again. I got a smooth sweet orange paste but it needed some kick (I just returned from South-East Asia and like my food spicy) so I added some sriracha chili sauce to it to finish it of with some heat and acidity.

Jalapeño Salsa

The other day one of my friends was at my place when we came home from a night out and had munchies. I know that you can't feed Mogwai after midnight but anyways we had a snack and this salsa before going to bed.

Ingredients:
- onion
- vinegar
- jalapeño peppers

Dice the onion and peppers, put them in a bowl, blend it down you will get a green paste under which I mix some vinegar for taste and better preservation.

Lizano Style Sauce

Ingredients:
- onion
- carrot
- tomato
- habanero/jalapeño (depending on how hot you like it)
- cilantro
- lime
- vinegar
- ground coriander
- chili powder
- garlic powder
- brown sugar
- stock cube
- water

I had this sauce over my rice for the first time when I was in Costa Rica. I made sushi before so I know vinegar and rice work very well together.

I did not put any amounts in the ingredients list since it it up to you to experiment and find the right balance you like so there is no 'wrong' just you trying to make it better.

I heat the water, dissolve my stock cube and add the (diced) onion, (diced) carrot, (diced) tomato, habaneros and cilantro. Let it simmer until the carrot is soft enough a baby can bite through it.

Dash 2 spoons of vinegar in the pot. Add 2 tablespoons of salt. Add cumin, ground coriander, chili powder, garlic powder, lime juice and brown sugar for the taste. You have to find the balance for your taste.

Cook it on a low heat for 10 to 20 minutes. I blend it down and if the consistency of the sauce is not thick enough you can add some cold water with thickening agent dissolved in it and put some heat underneath your pot.

According to the person that gave me the recipe it keeps up to two weeks but usually I am out by then because it works really well.

Smores

Ingredients:
- cookies, 2 for every smore
- chocolate
- marshmallows

I was recently on a trip through Canada and stopped in Black Diamond, Alberta to ask for directions to a campsite and this simple story was how I discovered marshmallows and smores.

In Canada most camping sites have a fire pit and I told my new friends how I saw children roast their marshmallows on a stick. I had never done that before and my friends had plans to change that.

I knew what marshmallows were but growing up in Belgium I basically know it from the movies and a thing we call Sinterklaas. The good, old saint sometimes brought us marshmallows but shaped in a different shape not the one I know from the movies.

So to put a long story short I ended up in a garden of a beautiful house with wonderful people. We had marshmallows around a fire pit and the subject of smores came up.

The idea is pretty simple, you take a marshmallow and roast it (we roasted on pitchforks, an invention by my host to feed the whole family at once :) ) and put it on a cookie, put a layer of roasted marshmallow, a layer of chocolate and another cookie.

It is very basic, but it was fun and a total new experience but great thanks to the wonderful people who made me discover this simple recipe.

Pan Dulce

Recently I was in Costa Rica, I visited a place called the Durika Reserve. I ate there something called Pan Dulce and liked it so much so that I asked if I could have the recipe. Here it is:

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 grams of butter
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon liquid vanilla

Mix the sugar with the milk and vanilla. Add the melted butter and mix until the mixture has cooled down. During the cooling down dissolve the sugar in the mixture.

Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture. The dough has a slightly thicker consistency than that for pancakes make. Add the desired flavor (cocoa, raisins, peanuts, strawberries, etc ...).

Place the dough in the pan and bake for 1 hour at 350 ° C until the cake from the inside is dry.

Tiramisu

A classic desert and very easy to make

Ingredients:
- 500 grams of mascarpone
- biscuits, it can be the traditional ones but you can go any direction depending on what you like
- pure dark cacao
- a cup of good dark strong coffee
- 6 spoons of amaretto
- 4 egg whites
- 5 egg yolks

Let the coffee cool down and add the amaretto. Soak your biscuits (but not too long) and make your first layer in the tray.

Add 3 spoons of sugar to your egg whites and whisk it until you got a smooth mixture. Add 3 spoons of sugar to the egg yolks and do the same. Now add the mascarpone to the sugary egg yolk and mix it so you have a yellow creamy mixture. Work the sugary egg white mixture under the mascarpone mixture without breaking the texture of your whisked egg whites.

Spread with a spatula a layer of your mascarpone mix on the first layer of cookies. Add another layer of cookies and mascarpone mix and continue until the tray is full. Let this rest overnight in the fridge and right before serving sprinkle the cacao over the top.

I made variants working with speculoos, working with cacao in the mascarpone mix, you can go as crazy as you want once you understand the basics of this recipe