Do you remember those ruby chocolates with passionfruit cream centers that completely failed to set, a few months back? I threw them in the freezer, because I’m frugal that way, figuring I’d come up with something to do with them eventually. Last night, I pulled half of them out, chopped them up, and then stirred them into a fresh batch of vanilla ice cream, along with about 1/4 c. of passionfruit puree. Reader, it was good.
I’m going to make a second batch, the next time I can get cream from the grocery store (they were only able to deliver half of what we’d ordered), and then will freeze for a party some sunny day from now. We’ll gather together again…
Heh. I went to go look up the new channel for my cooking videos — we’ll be putting another one up tomorrow, me and Kavi making Mango Fluff — and found that it only had one subscriber, which wasn’t even me. So I subscribed! Now there are two!
The flavor of the dragonfruit comes through more strongly in marshmallows than in chocolate, so it’s a little startling if you’re not used to that flavor! Honestly, I will pick passionfruit over dragonfruit any day.
But that said, it’s interesting and fruity, I’ll happily eat a few in a row, and if you’re looking to make a pretty dessert without using food coloring, this is a great option — it’s just colored with pure dehydrated dragonfruit powder.
I’m going to try dipping in chocolate and sprinkling more dragonfruit powder on the top — will report back with more photos, next week, probably.
*****
Dragonfruit Marshmallows, with Honey, Lime, and White Pepper
1/2 c. lime juice
1/4 t. white pepper
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 T dragonfruit powder
1/2 c. water
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
butter (for greasing the pan)
1. Add lime juice, white pepper, gelatin and dragonfruit powder to the bowl of stand mixer (whisk attachment). Stir briefly to combine.
(NOTE: If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can make marshmallows in a large bowl with a hand mixer — you just have to be willing to hold and beat it for 12 minutes. Prep the pan and spatula for the marshmallows ahead of time.)
2. In a small saucepan (a bigger one will be heavy and hard to hold steadily at a later stage) combine water, granulated sugar, honey, and salt. Cover and cook over medium high heat for 4 minutes. Uncover and cook until the mixture reaches soft ball stage (240 degrees if you have a candy thermometer), approximately 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from heat; if it continues, it will swiftly turn into hard candy.
3. Turn mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. (Be very careful with the sugar syrup, as it is scaldingly hot and will burn you badly if it gets on your skin.) Once you’ve added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high.
4. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 minutes.
5. While it’s whipping, butter a large 9 x 12 pan and dust with powdered sugar. Prepare an oiled spatula.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly (and swiftly) with an oiled spatula.
7. Dust the top with enough of the remaining powdered sugar to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
8. Turn onto a board, cut into squares and dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining powdered sugar, using additional if necessary. May be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks, or frozen.
I have to note that if you’re making these, you’d better cut the passionfruit really small (ideally a little smaller than I did in these photos), because dried passionfruit is quite chewy — the consistency is similar to a new stick of gum at first. Is it worth the extra effort? Well, I’m a passionfruit fiend, so I say yes; I thought these were delectable. .
Note: I find that a pair of kitchen shears is much easier to work with than a knife for cutting up sticky dried fruit.
Ingredients:
3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 c. sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 t. salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 c. dried passionfruit, chopped fine
1/2 c. crystallized ginger, chopped fine
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar; add the vanilla and salt. Then add flour and mix on low until dough forms. Stir in mango and ginger.
3. Turn out dough onto floured board. (If it’s not coming together into a dough, the heat of your hands will help.) Firmly pat flat (to desired cookie height, usually about 1/2 inch). If using cookie cutters, cut out shapes, place on parchment-covered baking sheet, and chill for 15 minutes (to help hold shape).
NOTE: Can be kept chilled at this point for several days, covered in plastic wrap, and then rolled, cut, and baked fresh.
Alternately, press into baking pan or shortbread mold, prick with fork. (For this batch, I did half cut-outs and half in a pan, using an 8 x 8 baking pan.) You can also cut shapes out after baking — shortbread is very forgiving that way — but then the individual cookie edges won’t be browned.
3. Remove from fridge and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges begin to brown, then remove to wire rack to cool. Delicious with chai! If you wanted to dress it up, you could drizzle with dark chocolate, but honestly, I love them just as they are.
Why all the soaps, Mary Anne? Well, one reason is that I’m planning to give some to some healthcare folks as a little thank you. Another is that I’ll put some in the spring surprise packages shipping out with book orders next week.
But I admit a third, perhaps most powerful reason, is that I’ve been holding off on experimenting with making interesting cocktails until the last big batch of paper grades is done.
This is incredibly responsible of me, I’ll have you know. I didn’t know I had this much willpower in me.
Eating has gotten oddly random around here, in pandemic time, mostly dependent on my mood at any given moment. Sometimes I tell the kids, “Mommy’s busy, make yourself a sandwich or a bowl of cereal or something.” Sometimes Kevin cooks for them (like tonight, when I’m grading).
But sometimes, just randomly on a Tuesday afternoon, I decide to make them a beautiful cheese omelette with bacon, banana bread scones, and a bowl of sliced berries, just for the heck of it. But tomorrow, gruel!
Okay, so the banana scones I’d made, I realized, were actually pretty darn good, especially with candied ginger and dried cranberry stirred in, but they still needed SOMETHING. Maybe a glaze would be the answer? Usually I don’t necessarily want a glaze on scones, but a lot of the time that’s because I find store-bought scones in America too sweet already. But this batch was more like the scones I had in Dublin, not very sweet at all, and so a drizzle of glaze over the top might be just the thing.
But what kind of glaze? Some people do a maple glaze on banana scones, and that’d be fine, but I was craving something different. Maybe a brown butter glaze? Oh yes, that would work. So I made a little brown butter (more than I needed, but y’know, there are many ways to enjoy brown butter, so having a little extra in the fridge is not a bad thing). And then I made a brown butter glaze with powdered sugar, etc., and put it on a scone, and yes, that was good. Very good. I could have stopped there. But I wanted more. MORE.
I wanted a jaggery & brown butter glaze. I’d never seen such a thing, but surely it would be good? The dark, complex notes of jaggery — like brown sugar, but more so. Mmm… But glazes are typically made with powdered sugar — would jaggery actually powder? It has more moisture than white table sugar…
…and though I ran it through a food processor, my assumption was correct — it didn’t actually want to powder. Well. I tried making the glaze anyway, with the fine-ground jaggery (after food-processing, it was pretty much the same as what came out of the package, so no need for that step). And the flavor — SO YUM. But there was still a little graininess, which made me sad. But you know what, people? I have a microwave.
Thirty seconds in the microwave, and that was the answer. The last of the jaggery dissolved into the brown butter mixture, and I was left with a liquid dark deliciousness that was PERFECT for drizzling on a banana scone. I ended up doing a criss-cross pattern, actually — first the regular brown butter glaze, crossed with the jaggery brown butter glaze. And it is so, so tasty.
*****
Banana Scones with Cranberry & Crystallized Ginger,
Glazed with Jaggery & Brown Butter
This makes two standard batches, so approximately 32 mini scones or 16 traditional. Once the batter is made, any portion of it can be wrapped in plastic and frozen for another day; scones are best made fresh, if possible!
INGREDIENTS FOR BANANA SCONES:
1 cup very ripe banana, about 3 bananas (I usually frozen ones that I’ve thawed; we toss them in the freezer when they start to go, so we always have plenty on hand for scones and bread)
1 extra-large, extra-ripe banana, mashed (1/2 cup)
2/3 c. heavy cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 t. vanilla
4 c. all-purpose flour
2/3 cup packed jaggery (or dark brown sugar)
5 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 c. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces (it’s important that it be cold)
1 c. chopped cranberries (unsweetened is ideal)
1 c. chopped crystallized ginger
1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. In a medium bowl, blend the banana, cream, beaten egg, and vanilla.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, jaggery, baking powder, and salt. Add the cold sliced butter — you can use a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingers (but you have to work fast, so the butter stays in little chunks and doesn’t start to melt from the heat of your hands). Alton Brown uses a food processor for this, which also works fine. You’re aiming to break up the butter into lots of little pieces distributed all through the dough.
3. Combine with the banana mixture and the cranberries and ginger, stirring with a wooden spoon until all the dough has been moistened and it’s well-blended.
4. At this point, you can either spoon it into a scone mold (spray first with some Baker’s Joy to guarantee a smooth release, although the butter in the scones usually is sufficient here), or place the dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. If the latter, pat it into a circle, and then cut the circle into eight equal triangles.
5. Bake until golden brown and cooked through (about 16-22 minutes, depending on the size of your scones). Turn scones out on to a wire rack to cool.
You could just eat them straight up, sliced in half and slathered with butter, which would be quite good. OR, you can let them cool completely, and then glaze:
INGREDIENTS FOR JAGGERY GLAZE
3/4 c. ground jaggery
1 T + 2 t. whole milk
1 T brown butter, melted
1/8 t. vanilla
pinch of salt
1. Whisk together the jaggery, milk, brown butter, vanilla, and salt. If the resulting mixture is a little grainy, microwave for about 30 seconds and stir; it should dissolve nicely.
2. Let it cool a little, so it thickens slightly — maybe 10 minutes? Then drizzle the tops of the cooled scones with the jaggery glaze. (If you want to do what I did, make a second batch of glaze with powdered sugar instead of jaggery, and then you can criss-cross the glazes; let the white glaze set before drizzling with the jaggery glaze.)
Slather with butter, if you like. Fabulous with hot tea.
Anonymous Donor Book Giveaway for A Feast of Serendib!
March 2020
People are reaching out with wonderful, creative ways of helping. Two anonymous donors have offered to help make A Feast of Serendib available to people who want the book but can’t afford to buy it right now. Together these generous folks have donated a total of $1,000 in books for this purpose!
To make the donations go as far as possible, and because we want everyone to be able to access the book in the format that is best for them, we’ve dropped the price too, so we can offer a combination of 15 hardcovers and 30 paperbacks; Serendib Press will match the physical book donations with 50 additional eBook copies as well.
From one of the anonymous donors: “I’m doing this because I have found Mary Anne’s cookbook to be so key in helping me feed myself good food this year and I want other people to be able to care for themselves in the same way.”
We’re going to do this on a first come, first serve basis, for people who want the book but can’t afford to buy it right now, on the honor system. Physical books can only be shipped within the U.S., but eBooks are available internationally!
If you’d like a copy of the book, please comment on the post at the link below and let us know if you’d prefer hardcover, paperback, or eBook. We’ll contact you within a day or two to get your mailing information.
(The paperback doesn’t have photos in the book, but comes with a link to a full web archive of color photos. The eBook reviews indicate that people are finding it works really well for them as an option for a tablet, esp. on a stand in the kitchen.)
A Feast of Serendib launched officially March 6, 2020, and we hope it’ll be widely available in bookstores and libraries. You can request it from your local bookstore or library! Please do! It’ll also be available on Amazon US, UK, and Canada; you can order it online.
ORDERING INFO:
978-1-64543-275-3 Hardcover (distributed by Ingram)
978-1-64543-377-4 ebook (on Amazon, etc.)
2370000696366 (trade paperback; only available directly from me, at Serendib Kitchen site; you can also buy the hardcover or ebook there)
2) REVIEW OR BUY IT HERE (reviews are hugely helpful in boosting visibility!):
3) JOIN THE COOKBOOK CLUB: If you’d like to support the development of more mostly Sri Lankan recipes, I’d love to have you join the cookbook club — for $2 / month, you’ll get recipes delivered to your inbox (fairly) regularly: https://www.patreon.com/mohanraj. For $10 / month, you can subscribe for fabulous treats mailed to you! (US-only).
5) PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY starred review: “Mohanraj (Bodies in Motion), a literature professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, introduces readers to the comforting cuisine of Sri Lanka in this illuminating collection of more than 100 recipes. Waves of immigration from China, England, the Netherlands, and Portugal influenced the unique cuisine of Sri Lanka, Mohanraj writes, as evidenced by such dishes as Chinese rolls (a take on classic egg rolls in the form of stuffed crepes that are breaded and fried); fish cutlets (a culinary cousin of Dutch bitterballen fried croquettes); and English tea sandwiches (filled here with beets, spinach, and carrots). With Sri Lanka’s proximity to India, curry figures heavily, with options for chicken, lamb, cuttlefish, or mackerel. A number of poriyal dishes, consisting of sautéed vegetables with a featured ingredient, such as asparagus or brussels sprouts, showcase a Tamil influence. Throughout, Mohanraj does a superb job of combining easily sourced ingredients with clear, instructive guidance and menu recommendations for all manner of events, including a Royal Feast for over 200 people. This is a terrific survey of an overlooked cuisine.”
*****
Thanks so much for your support! Indie publishing is absolutely reliant on word of mouth and the support of friends, family, and friendly internet acquaintances.
ALLITERATIVE FLASH SALE! Serendib Spring Surprise Boxes (US-only for this one, sorry!):
a) Small: a random assortment of sweets, postcards, and a handmade soap, plus an ebook of Feast (if you have one already, feel free to gift this) – $19.99 + $8 shipping and handling
b) Medium: same as small, plus bath salts, a paperback of Feast & a 4 oz. bag of curry powder – $34.99 + $15 shipping and handling
c) Large: same as medium, plus body butter, a hardcover of Feast and an 8 oz. jar of curry powder – $54.99 + $20 shipping and handling
Comment on the *main post* to order; I’ll confirm in comments and give you info on payment options. I think I can do about 15-20 boxes, based on the supplies I have on hand; it’s a little hard to estimate, since I don’t know what size boxes people will go for.
*****
Go HERE to order:
https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj/posts/10160683118589616
*****
We’re hoping to get the Shopify set up in the next few weeks, which will make it easier to ship internationally, etc. So if that’s you, hang in there — though I’ll have to do more research on what’s involved on shipping food internationally before I can offer that, so that bit might be quite a while.
