The Saffron TouchRawWorld cuisine with an Indian touch...

Strawberry fruit roll up with a kiss of spice

There is something special about the fruits in season. Although you get strawberries pretty much throughout the year in the supermarket, the ones you get in the Farmers market right in middle of june are just out of this world. Super sweet, juicy and red to the core, they are perfect to make many dishes. I always make Strawberry preserve and of course strawberry ice-cream & milkshake. I also dehydrate the strawberries for a later use.

Yesterday when I went to market I got a large flat of berries, when I got home I realized that they had to be eaten today. Since that was practically impossible, I decided to try something fun, decided to make a fruit leather with half of the berries.

Whenever we talk about Fruit leather, I think of the summers in India. I fondly remember my mom making fruit leather with jackfruit and mango pulp. She would make the pulp and pour in the steel plates. Those plates would go out on the terrace and in the 90-110 F , the fruit leather would be ready in a day or two. Many times before my mom could bring the dried fruit leather inside, we would already picked a few pieces, it was just too hard to resist.

Today I decided to make the fruit leather but as many other dishes I decided to add a little spice to it. One of the favorite things I recall from summers growing up is the ‘Kokum’ drink. Kokum is a fruit, very tart in taste, very pretty color and had amazing medicinal properties. It is known to aid in weight loss and also has a cooling effect on the body.

When my Mom makes a sherbet/drink with Kokum, she always add a pinch of roasted cumin and some rock salt. The Kokum color is a pretty pink, just like the strawberries so I decided to bring in those flavors in my fruit leather.

Ingredients

1 lb of ripe strawberries

1-2 tbsp of sugar

1/2 tsp lime juice

1/4 tsp rock salt/black salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Method

Grind the strawberries in a blender, add sugar & lime juice and grind again. Now stir in all the dry ingredients.

If you have dehydrator you can use that or just go with good old sun dried method.

Depending on the method you are using and the thickness of the leather, it will be ready in 6-24 hours.

Now lay the dried leather on a parchment paper. Cut in strips 2-3 inch wide and roll it up. Your Strawberry fruit leather is ready to enjoy.

Ceviche – a healthy, flavorful way to eat fish

Tilapia Ceviche

The weather is warmer and the family wants to eat fresh fruits, lighter meals. It is not easy to cook something which is fresh, healthy and tasty. And of course it has to be easy to make.
One such dish is Ceviche.

The first time I ate Ceviche in Cabo San Lucas. We were on our annual vacation. All of us are big foodies so invariably the first thing we do when we go to a new place is to find out good food joints. When we asked the person who cleaned our room what her favorite place to eat was, she told us about this small place near the beach. We got out of the resort, took a local bus and reached this small village. There was this cobble stone street that went all the way to the beach. The village center was a church and around that there were many vendors selling various things. We also had the best fish tacos there.
We found the small shop that lady had recommended, that is where I are Ceviche the first time.
Let me tell you, I am not a fish lover rather I eat only select kind of fish. So for someone like me the idea of eating raw( it does get cooked in the acid) was pretty tough to try. But am I glad I did. That fish was perfectly cooked and marinated in the lime juice and paired very beautifully with crunchy cucumbers, onion, creamy avocado and with a kick from Serrano pepper.
It was a perfect warm weather snack.

So here is my take on Ceviche.

Ingredients:

2 tilapia fillet, chopped in small pieces
1 cup lime juice

1/4 onion finely chopped 2 Persian cucumbers chopped fine(you can also use equivalent English cucumber)
1 Serrano pepper chopped fine
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 tomato chopped ( don’t take the seeds)
Salt to taste

It is important to chop the vegetables in a uniform fashion, it looks pretty and you get a sample of all in one bite.

Method:

Mix the lime juice and tilapia pieces. Make sure you use a shallow container so that all pieces are covered in the lime juice. Sometimes I like to use orange juice in addition to the limes you use. Here I have used a blood orange that has given nice pink hue to the fish.
Let it sit for at least 45 minutes in the fridge. Then you take it out, the fish would look white, very opaque. This is the sign that the fish is cooked in the acid.

Drain the fish in the colander.

While the fish is in the fridge, chop all the vegetables and mix them in a bowl together. Add salt to taste.
Add the drained fish to the vegetable mixture and mix everything well but with the light hand. You don’t want the fish or the avocado to break and become mushy.

It has a very fresh crisp taste and goes really well with crostinis, pita chips, tortilla chips or even in lettuce cups. I serve it in empty avocado shells, it makes for a great presentation.