Breakfast #39: Summer Fruit Salad

I’ll be off to our summer trip in a bit…our first trip (well, first requiring a plane ride) as a family. We’ll be going to Iloilo, a province to the south of us where I have some family. From there we’ll be taking a small boat to the island of Guimaras where we will do our best efforts to “get back to nature” with the help of a private cove, tents for sleeping, and nights-only electricity. These tired city folk are very excited at the prospect of sitting amongst the famed triumvirate of tropical life – sun, sea, and sand. But that’s not the only thing we are looking forward to...Guimaras is famed for having the best mangoes in the country, in a country that defiantly claims to have the best mangoes in the world. Paradise here we come!

We will be there for about a week so I thought I’d leave you another summer breakfast before I go. And because they are just so in their prime now, and because I will soon be in the (is)land of the best of them, it’s a breakfast that (once again) includes mangoes. I hope you don’t mind.

Summer Fruit Salad

• 1 ripe mango
• 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks (this is from about 3 spears, torn into chunks, juices saved)
• 1 banana
• A scant 1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped (this will yield a scant tablespoon)

- Slice the banana in a bowl.
- Cut as much of the meaty cheeks off the mango. Score the flesh in a crisscross pattern. Scoop the flesh out directly over the bowl so all the juice drips into it.
- Toss in the pineapple with any juice that gathered while tearing.
- Add the mint and toss gently so as not to mush the fruit.
- Chill for about 30 minutes.
- Serves 2.

This is perfect to have during summer mornings, when you really want something cool, light, and brightly flavored to start your day. I used my own summer fruits here so feel free to substitute with your own. I love mint in a fruit salad and feel that it adds a lovely refreshing note. I don’t add any sweeteners to this because the fruit in itself is sweet enough. You can serve this as is or with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

I’d better go now and make sure our first aid kit is in order and mosquito repellants packed. Travelling with a little one is a whole different circus. Little C’s bag is bigger than any of ours!

See you when I get back and Happy Easter! :)

Chinese Goose Liver Sausage Steamed Over Rice

I love my rice cooker. But I didn’t really know this consciously until the day I found out that outside of my little sphere of existence it is considered a single-use appliance, a uni-tasker, a *gasp* non-necessity. Truth be told, I never even thought that much about it. It was always there, parked in a corner of our kitchen counter (it always had priority of space) in every single house I’ve lived in. When I got married it was one of the first things we chose for our registry. Not with much fanfare, just a sort of preliminary requirement before moving to more exciting things like the Rabbit and choosing the china pattern.

It went beyond necessity. It was a given. A never-thought-twice-about non-negotiable. People in favor of the rice cooker have cited that it can be used for other things as well. And I am all in favor of that. But that’s just icing on the cake for me. I need a rice cooker to cook rice…over and over and over again.

I am well aware that you can prepare rice on the stove top in any old pot that you can also use for a million and one other things, and quite easily at that. But not easier than throwing it all in the rice cooker, pushing a lever, and forgetting all about it until the “ting” that signals perfectly cooked rice…each and every time. And when you cook rice every single day, sometimes for every single meal, you need the easiest easy you can find.

My rice cooker comes with all sorts of attachments and add-ons. I have a steamer basket, a sort of four compartment pan for poaching eggs, and a basket for cooking noodles. These accoutrements are usually on the shelf, untouched, as the cooker focuses on its main task. A wonderful surprise gift though made me rethink that steamer basket. A good friend of mine from all the way back in university sent me a message that his sister had a stock of Chinese goose liver sausages and could spare a couple…would I like some? Would I?? Oh yes please and thank you with a cherry on top!

Chinese Goose Liver Sausage Steamed Over Rice

• 300 grams white rice (I used a variety called Angelica that is grown by my organic farmer...yes, he grows organic rice too!)
• 400 ml water
• 2 Chinese goose liver sausages (about 60 grams total weight)
• 100 grams shitake mushrooms, stems trimmed and sliced
• 50 grams pechay or bok choy

- Rinse and drain the rice a couple of times. Place it in the rice cooker and make sure that rice is evenly spread across the bottom.
- Arrange the sausages, mushrooms, and pechay in the steamer basket and place on top of the rice.
- Cover and turn the cooker on.
- Midway through cooking turn the sausages and move the vegetables around a bit so they take on some of the oil from the sausages.
- When done, remove steamer basket. Fluff the rice with a fork and return steamer basket on top. Cover and keep on the “Keep Warm” setting for an additional 10 minutes.
- Slice the sausages thinly on the diagonal. Place rice in individual bowls and top with sausage and vegetables.
- Serves 2 (although you will have leftover rice). You can also use a regular pot with a steamer basket on top to make this if you really don’t think a rice cooker should be part of your life.

My searches through the internet for a recipe to prepare the sausages came up sadly lacking. My friend, and a few others on Twitter, suggested steaming it with rice. Hence my rice cooker’s steamer basket was pulled into active duty. Cooking it this way is perfect as the flavorful oils from the sausages drip onto the rice while it steams. As the flavor of the goose liver sausage is quite strong I added some vegetables to the steamer alongside the sausages – some pechay to counter the sausages’ richness and shitake mushrooms to complement it. This worked so well that I am putting the steamer basket into regular rotation and finally elevating my rice cooker into something more than just the one-trick pony it is accused of being.

So to all those “non-negotiable fixtures” in our life that are so essential, yet so often under-appreciated…I salute you! You keep on truckin’ so we can keep on truckin’. May your constancy never make us complacent.

(And to all those generous food gifting friends a big fat thank you!!! I received another gift recently as well – a set of the cutest tiny cookie cutters from a reader. She had read my post on cheese crackers for little C and had chanced upon these in a store. She emailed saying that she thought of me when she saw them and, if I didn’t mind, could she mail them over? After some semi-bashful foot-shuffling on my part I accepted as graciously as I could. Thank you so much N! I love them! I am so wanting to make cute cookies right now!)

Breakfast #38: Apple and Mango Muesli

I love oatmeal. There is no doubting that. I will make it for breakfast even if it’s sweltering outside and in, and I have to stand at the stove-top with sweat trickling down my back (I’ll have it for dinner too if I’m lazy). But not everyone would, and as luck would have it, we don’t have to. There is a hot-weather, no-cook alternative to oatmeal…its raw, Swiss, cousin, muesli.

Muesli (or Müesli) was invented by a Swiss doctor called Maximilian Bircher-Benner in the 1900’s. He was quite a rebel, our Maximilian. At a time when meat and bread (a diet high in protein and calories) ruled the table he espoused a diet raw vegetables, fruits, and nuts. He believed that food shouldn’t just be about making us full but, more importantly, about making us healthy. He developed muesli based on a dish that was served to him by shepherds while he was hiking in the Swiss Alps. Maximilian made a similar mixture of raw oats, soaked overnight to soften, with fresh fruit and nuts, and served this to his patients as part of their healing. In Switzerland, muesli is still referred to as Bircher Müesli.

I think Max and I (can I call him Max? Is that too familiar of me?) would have gotten along famously. I love oats, and more specifically, I love muesli. I love Switzerland (and it was in Switzerland where I fell in love with muesli for the very first time). I also believe that food heals as well as satiates. And, I love the name Maximilian. The only thing we would have been at odds with as far as I can see would be the hiking.

Since I don’t have Max with me, I have pretty much had to hunt down a good muesli recipe on my own. I have gone to bed many a times with soaking oats tucked away in my fridge, visions of delicious muesli breakfasts dancing in my head, only to wake up to half-soft oats swimming in a flavorless pool of liquid. Not anymore! I am happy to report that I have found the recipe that works for me…and it’s all thanks to Shelby at Bone, Mugs, & Harmony and her Apple Muesli (which I stumbled upon at the kitchn). This is my adaptation – I’ve reduced the recipe to suit our consumption and I have added that most glorious of summer fruit from our shores…mango.

Apple & Mango Muesli
(adapted from Bone, Mugs, & Harmony)

• 1 apple, shredded
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 dates, chopped
• 1/2 cup cubed mango
• 1/2 cup nuts (I used a combination of walnuts and almonds)
• Yogurt or milk to serve
• Extra fruit and nuts to top

- Shred the apple in a food processor. Remove and set aside.
- Place the oats, dates, and nuts in the food processor and pulse until lightly chopped.
- Return the shredded apple to the food processor along with the mango and pulse until everything is roughly chopped.
- Place your preferred serving size of yogurt in a bowl and top generously with the muesli mixture. Add extra chopped nuts and fresh fruits on top (I added more mango and banana).

This is the muesli of my dreams – soft and moist yet still feels raw and chewy. The fruits do their job of adding sweetness though you can add the sweetener of your choice if needed. Leela of the kitchn describes the feeling of this as a “deconstructed, fruity oatmeal cookie”, and this is indeed what it tastes like. Another thing I love about this recipe, as opposed to the others I’ve tried, is that no soaking is required. It does acquire a pleasant mellowness after having rested in the fridge overnight but really, I could eat this straight out of the food processor with a spoon. Feel free to try this with fruits other than mango (blueberries were used in the original recipe). Whatever is in season on your side of the world would be ideal. Change the nuts around too, use your favorites or what you've got in your pantry.

The irony of it all is that it actually rained this morning giving everything a much needed cool-down. So a warm bowl of oatmeal would have been perfect. But this muesli is a winner rain or shine!

Breakfast #37: Summer Mango Straight Up

I can’t talk about summer breakfasts without talking about mangoes. And, if you’ve been reading for a while, I can’t talk about our mangoes without getting a little too hyperbolic. So I will try to restrain myself as much possible.

I can only speak from my own personal experience that our mangoes are the sweetest fruit I have ever tasted. Not just the sweetest mangoes. The sweetest fruit. To my fellow countrymen, I know sometimes you may feel like we might not have much too brag about** but people, I tell you this, this is chest-puffing, feet-strutting, head-bobbing braggable. Something we can all click our heels over my friends. I know that I often bemoan our lack our fresh figs and berries and wild forest mushrooms, but really, I would never trade. Never ever***.

You can get mangoes almost year round here, as some farmers and fruit producers do their sorcery to get more harvests in a year. But the best mangoes are still the ones that come in the summer. Impossible sweet and juicy. And if you can find a farm that harvests only once a year, when the fruit is truly in season, that is gold. These mangoes are the pinnacle of everything a mango should be and are proof positive that produce is truly best when they are in season.

You can imagine my excitement when our supplier alerted her buyers that that those very mangoes, those that we have patiently (or impatiently) waited a year for, were now being harvested! We placed our order and the three of us went to pick up our 5-kilo box.

Yes, 5 kilos of mangoes. It’s summer after all and we will be having it from breakfast (and dessert) quite often. I top my yogurt with generous chunks and C has some smoothies planned. Little C will also be partaking of this most brilliant of tropical fruits -- already one of her favorite snacks.

But before all that, my best summer breakfast ever. I’d like to present you with a grand meal in which mangoes have been deliciously and skillfully incorporated. If I am honest though, I have to say that, for me, the absolute best way to enjoy our mangoes is straight up. And there is no better way to greet a sunny summer morning than with one of these.

Now, don’t be fooled. This is simple but by no means haphazard. First you need to wait until the mango is at its prime moment of ripeness – the skin will be uniformly deep yellow bordering on orange, the fruit will still be firm with just a bit of yield, losing its unripe rigidity, and above all else the smell…the smell of it will waft through the room and will be at its most concentrated in its stem portion. Once optimum ripeness is determined I like to place the mango in the refrigerator. I know, I know, for some it is a sacrilege to place fruit in the fridge, but believe me, once you have tried a well chilled mango on a hot summer morning you will be changing you tune. Slice as much of the cheeks from the seed as you can and scoop out the flesh with a spoon (as in the photo). After you are done you can peel the skin off the sides of the seed and bite off the flesh from there as well. Every bit is worth it!

Happy summer everyone! :)

**That’s aside from the lovely beaches, lechon (best pig ever according to Anthony Bourdain!), and our charm ;)
***Permanently that is. The occasional barter is definitely accepted!