Dragonfruit-Basil Mascarpone Ice Cream and Mochi Ice Cream

Have you noticed how there've been way too many recipes using dragonfruit on this blog lately? It's not that I can't help myself, but I really can't! Red-fleshed dragonfruit is seasonal, just like strawberries, and rhubarb and God knows what else. It lasts a mere few months and then I have to wait nearly a whole year to do this again. A whole year of resisting using artificial pink food coloring. Yes, my name is Maya and I'm a PINK addict. Do you think I need to join a support group as a form of therapy? :-)

Mango, Cinnamon and Raspberry Pull-Apart Rolls, and YBR

No beets to be found anywhere for this week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, but here...here's another mango recipe. And I'm truly sorry about it. Isn't it odd, me apologizing for having too many mango recipes as a consequence of too many mangoes growing on our tree outside? Well, brace yourself this month, because I've scheduled several other mango posts, and you may start to get sick of this sweet, aromatic fruit. God forbid it, though.

You'll be glad to know that I've lightened up the mango overload by adding some raspberries into the mix. Growing up, we ate plenty of mangoes but not a single raspberry. Until I moved to study overseas, that is. Sad thing was, the taste of raspberries failed to enchant me as much as the sweetness of mangoes did. I guess there's a lot to be said about memory-associated eating... however, now that we have easy access to raspberries (albeit airflown ones), I have warmed up to the fruit a fair bit.

International Incident Party - Asparagus Fortress Terrine

I may have been waiting my whole life to make a terrine like this. As a matter of fact, I made it the day after Penny (Jeroxie.com) announced the International Incident Party theme for this month, which is Terrine. I had never really understood the hype surrounding this layered dish but couldn't wait any longer to create it and see for myself. It was a very long time ago that I ate my last terrine...was it in France? I am so ancient now, and I really can't remember.

So anyway, I dreamt about my terrine. That was how much it wouldn't leave me alone the first night. When I woke up, I immediately scribbled everything down on a scrap piece of paper. I wanted to hold on to the details and somehow turn it into something tangible, edible even, for this party. Luckily, it wasn't a convoluted series of images I ended up with because that's the way dreams oftentimes occur. Otherwise, my terrine would look some kind of bizarre....although, now that I think about it, my bizarre may be different from yours :-).

Dragonfruit and Black Sesame Mochi Ice Cream

Happiness, hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with a drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink

~ Florence And The Machine, Dog Days Are Over

My childhood friend and I had gotten together for lunch recently and for dessert, we treated ourselves to mochi ice cream at a Japanese restaurant. It was black sesame ice cream wrapped in a plain mochi shell and to say it was hea.ven.ly is an understatement. The creamy, nutty flavor was not unlike frozen peanut butter, with the black sesame ice cream melting effortlessly on the tongue. As for the mochi, oh the mochi...have you ever had it like this before? Despite being frozen, it retained its chewiness, softness and silkiness that it didn't require much of an effort to cut through it. That leisurely afternoon treat lodged an intention in my mind... I needed to learn how to make mochi ice cream at home!

French Fridays With Dorie - Mozarella,Tomato and Dragonfruit Salad

To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist -- the problem is entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's vinegar.

~ Oscar Wilde

I was so looking forward to this week's French Fridays with Dorie's recipe. That was, until I went looking for the ingredients and realised there was absolutely no fresh strawberries on the shelves anywhere. It was a repeat of the roasted rhubarb episode of last week... the MIA ingredient this time being strawberries due to it being out-of-season over here :-(.

No matter, I got the tomatoes, I got the mozarella and I even managed to get the fresh basil. All that was left was a suitable substitute for strawberries. Now if you were lucky enough to procure strawberries where you're at, then I was equally lucky to be able to get my hands on dragonfruit, of the red-fleshed variety, at that. As an aside, dragonfruit is also sold widely in France mainly due to the influence of the large Asian communities (especially Vietnamese) residing in its cities. So I guess my version of Dorie's summer salad is not totally out of the context of her cookbook, Around My French Table (well, not when you consider that Cola and Jam Spare Ribs have made it in there too!).

Instantly Gratifying Mango Donuts

Certain smells are hard to forget. More often than not,  they leave an indelible imprint on the psyche. The first whiff of rain that rises off the hot earth, for instance. Freshly cut grass. A freshly-bathed baby. The scent of cardamom. Hot laundry. Jasmine flowers in the evening. Ripe mangoes. And ghee. There are several others, of course, but this is a food blog and we shall try not to let everything - for want of a better word - hang out.

So, mangoes. And ghee. Why this combination? Well, mango season is well and truly here right now and at every market I've been to, the strong, sweet smell of mangoes seem to linger in the air. The mango trees in our garden are also starting to shower us with their bounty and subsequently, the whole house is also starting to smell of mangoes too. Not that I'm complaining, this is a once-a-year occurrence that gives me the opportunity to try out various mango-containing recipes. Lots of mango recipes!

Blackberry Bread Pudding with Bamboo Charcoal Bread and Poached Pear, and Giveaway Winner!

Here's a slightly alien-looking bread pudding I made. Alien not in the way of flavors, but in the type of bread used. It's greyish-black and made with bamboo charcoal powder. The bakeries sell these breads here, they come as sliced loaves, burger or hot dog buns. Bamboo charcoal is supposedly good for health, as it helps clean up toxins in our body. If you can get past the psychological hurdle of eating this healthy version of 200-day-old bread, there really isn't any difference in taste to regular bread. It's just like eating Century Egg...easy once you've prepared yourself mentally, that is :-).