Basmati Rice with Coconut and Lime--Delicious Warm or Cold

It has been very quiet in my neighborhood, as it is only on holidays. There was not even much traffic on the black Friday, probably because nowadays you can buy everything on the Internet, without looking for a parking spot and waiting in long lines at the cashiers. People are not shopping for food, still finishing the remains of the recent feast, but I am already looking forward to trying something different than we ate in the past weeks. And I need to hurry up, as soon enough Christmas food aroma will overtake my kitchen.

Recently, while going through the pile of Metropolitan Home magazine, in search of a minimalistic garden furniture idea, I found a recipe that intrigued me right away. Did I tell already that I deplore terribly that this magazine has been discontinued? I loved not only the architecture and the interior ideas it proposed, but also the culinary recipes it featured on its pages once a month.

One of them, salmon in green sauce, has been in my repertoire for years and became my guests favorite salmon version--interesting in taste, easy, and elegant. Today's coconut rice is my new hit which came from Metropolitan Home. I made it already several times and tested on friends . So far, it was loved by everyone, including my picky kids and already a couple of friends asked me to share that recipe. Originally, it was supposed to be a salad, and I am sure it will be a wonderful summer meal, but these days I serve it warm as meat accompaniment.

Basmati Rice with Coconut and Lime

Ingredients:
2 cups basmati rice,
2 tbsp vegetable oil,
1 small onion diced,
2 garlic cloves minced,
2 tbsp grated ginger,
1tsp turmeric powder,
1 can (13-14 oz) unsweetened coconut milk,
1/2 cup unsalted roasted cashews chopped,
1 bunch spring onion, thinly sliced,
2 limes,
salt to taste.

Preparation:
1. Rinse rice well in cold water.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan, adding onion, garlic, ginger, and cook until onion is soft.
3. Stir in turmeric and add rice. Saute for about 3 minutes.
4. Add the coconut milk, 2 1/2 cup water, and about 1 tsp of salt. (If you use a rice cooker, first transfer the rice mix to the cooker and then follow with coconut milk and water).
5. Bring rice to boiling, reduce heat, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until all the liquid evaporates.
6. If you serve it warm, add cashews, spring onion, and peel and juice from one lime. Mix and serve decorated with lime wedges. If you serve it as a salad, cool down the rice and serve cold.

Mango with Ginger--Surprising Simplicity

My confession will not sound humble at all but, as my culinary experience evolves, it becomes more and more difficult to impress me. By being interested in cooking for many years I can tell, as many food lovers would, what ingredients were used in a particular dish, or often, just by looking at the ingredients list, I could guess if the recipe would be worth trying. As my notebooks are filled with recipes I rarely ask the "How do you make it?" question any more.

But please do not take me for a culinary snob. I do not eat foie gras, caviar, ducks, or even sushi, and many others delicacies. Although I am somewhat spoiled by good food, at the same time, I am a most grateful guest. I could not be happier to be invited for a simple pasta dinner, which always tastes better if I do not have to cook it myself.  And, I do get impressed.  Funny enough, it does not have to be a sophisticated culinary creation, which could cause many fastidious food lovers to drool, but a most simple one, that can make me think "Wow! It is so easy and so delicious. How could I have never thought about such a combination?"

Last year, I was invited for a dinner by a German friend. I knew he was a great cook and, indeed, everything he prepared for that dinner was superb, from salad to the main dish (I brought the dessert). During the dinner not once, but twice I had to pose the "How did you make it?" questions and, for the first time in a long time, I left the dinner party with two new recipes.

I will share both of them. Today it will be the first one--a simple and easy side dish made with mango and ginger, which is a great fish or meat accompaniment. My previous post featured it as a side dish to the sole in macadamia nuts crust.

This mango dish is very delicate and sharp at the same time, thanks to ginger. And it is composed basically from these two ingredients. Wouldn't you appreciate such a short shopping list--just mango and ginger--and later indulge yourself with its slightly exotic, but subtle taste?

If you are a mango lover and appreciate interesting combinations, that dish will likely become one of your favorites.

Mango with Ginger

Ingredients:
3 mangoes, ripe but still firm,
1-2 inch-long pieces of fresh ginger,
2 tbsp butter,
1/2 of a lime.

Preparation:
1. Peel off the mangoes,
2. Cut a flesh from four sides, not too close to the seed.
3. Cut it in smaller, diagonal pieces.
4. Peel off the ginger root and grate it on a grater with very small holes.
5. In a pot, melt butter and add mango.
6. Cook fruits for about 5 minutes (until they soften up).
7. Add ginger--if you like it mild, add about 1 inch of grated ginger, if you like a stronger taste, grate two inches.
8. Cook it together for another 5-10 minutes, depending on how ripe the mangoes are.

Serve with chicken, any meats and fish.If mango happens to be very sweet, a squeeze of lime on top will help offset some of its sweetness.

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Life Savers--Apple Juice with Mint and Honey Lemonade

Around the world, August is probably the most popular vacation month of the year. Not only, traditionally, in France and Italy, but even in the culinary blogosphere. Blog hosts leave on vacation, close their blogs for the entire month, and later share more pictures of the places they visit than recipes. Check Mowielicious, What's for lunch, Honey?, Jul's Kitchen, and some others.

Well, I am on vacation too, far away from DC, at the Masurian Lakes, my native region in the north east of Poland. But even here I cannot forget about my blog and not only do I collect new recipes and copy the old ones, some of which I forgot about a long time ago, but also continue to write and--despite many technical difficulties and the lack of a decent camera--try to post new blogs from time to time.

I found a recipe book that I created more than thirty years ago. It was my culinary bible for many years. I wrote down in it and clipped out into it the recipes from all over the world, which were then so rarely appearing in Polish magazines. There are even traces of whipped eggs, also more than thirty years old, that I splashed on my notebook when I was using it to make some of the cakes that became very popular with my friends and family. You would not believe how many of these recipes I recreate at least once a month at my American home. And you would not believe from how many different cuisines of the world they come from. There you find the Croatian pumpkin, Flemish beef, Czech dumplings, German Quarktorte, Cypriot noodles, and hundreds of others. I will try to share the most interesting ones in my posts, starting this fall. But, until then, I also will mostly write rather than cook, but hopefully not only for those who just like to read about food.

Anyway, it is very hot here which means that not only fruits and vegetables are at their peak and taste great but, most of all, we drink a lot.

My younger son is addicted to a very Polish summer drink, which is apple juice with mint. It is very simple to make but I have not found it anywhere else, even though apple juice is probably even more popular for instance in the United States than here. I will try to imitate something similar by adding to it fresh mint leaves from my garden, or by mixing apple juice with cold mint tea--this should work one way or another.

Honey lemonade is another very refreshing drink for these boiling hot days. Honey is very popular in Poland and considered very healthy, as opposed to sugar. Our bees make it from many different flowers and in different colors. At this time of the year, honey is very fresh, wonderfully running, and aromatic. I will not specify any proportions for this lemonade as there is nothing simpler than this. Just squeeze into a pitcher of spring water a few lemons and/or limes and add some running honey, according to your taste. Chill it down with a few ice cubes and enjoy the respite this wonderful homemade drink provides on an unbearably hot August day.