Chivda

My favorite recipe for Chivda comes from Padma's Kitchen.  I make mine in smaller quantities (maybe half recipe of the original) and don't use dalia and use dried curry leaves (since I can't get fresh ones here), but other than that, I follow the recipe pretty much to a tee and it has turned out very nicely each time I made it.

If you live in my area, all the ingredients are available at the Asian Grocery in central Torremolinos.   

Ronny loves this and can't keep his hands off this when I make some.

Thai Green Mango Salad

Growing-up in the Philippines, I ate a lot of green mangoes, and I miss them sometimes, as they are not easily found in many countries.  Luckily, a grocer in Torremolinos had a pretty hefty cargo of mangoes and some of them were pretty green.  These weren't imported ones, but locally produced Malaga mangoes.

In the Philippines, I used to just eat my green mangoes with salt, but since this was not perfectly green and the wrong variety of mangoes for eating this way, I decided to make a Thai Green Mango Salad.  My primary reference was this recipe from Globe Trotter Diaries.

Thai Green Mango Salad - Adapted from Globe Trotter Diaries
Serves 4-6 or 2 people who want to eat a lot of mango salad.

Ingredients

1 Big Green Mango (Thinly julienned)
1 Shallot (Thinly sliced)
2 Small Red Chiles (Bird's Eye preferrably, but if not any fresh red chilies to taste)
1/4 Cup Peanuts (Toasted in a pan)
1/4 Cup Dry Shrimp (Toasted in a pan)
1 Lime (the juice)
2 Tbsp Fish Sauce
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
Fresh Cilantro (to flavor and garnish)

Step 1:  Julienne the mango.

Step 2:  Toast the peanuts and set aside.

Step 3:  Toast the dried shrimp and set aside.

Step 4:  Slice the red chilies, shallot (or red onion) and toss them into a bowl with the mango.

Step 5:  Season and toss with the rest of the ingredients, adding more chili, fish sauce or brown sugar to taste.

Step 6:  Serve garnished with some extra cilantro.

Austrian Apple Strudel

Austrian Apple Strudel

I wasn't going to post this at first because I wasn't entirely happy with the results, but after my friend Martin Puhr had some kind words to say about this, I have been encouraged to post it after all.  He tells me his only complaint is that there isn't enough cinnamon in the filling...and I agree.

To be honest, I have never had genuine Austrian apple strudel.  From the references I have gleaned that it does not have a usual 'crust' and the aromatic filling is wrapped in many layers of very thin pastry.  You can either make this yourself, buy the ready made pastry if you are in Austria, or use phyllo as a substitute.

After looking at my primary reference and watching this video, where a master chef makes the pastry, I decided that I would opt for using phyllo pastry.  

Here is my adapted recipe in a smaller portion than the original.

Austrian Apple Strudel - Adapted from 'Kaffeehous' - Rick Rodgers 

Ingredients

Makes 25 cm Strudels x 2 

4 Cups (700g)+  Apples - around 4 green small ones

8 Phyllo Sheets

1.3 Tbsp (20 ml) Golden Rum

2 Tbsp (30ml) Golden Raisins

3 1/2 Tsp Cinnamon 

1/2 Cup  Sugar

150 g Butter  (for brushing the pastry)

1 Cup Bread Crumbs + 2 Tbsp butter

1/3 Cup or 50g Toasted  Coarsely Chopped Walnuts

Confectioner's Sugar (for sprinkling)

Step 1:  Melt your butter in the microwave and let it cool down.  I usually remove it before all the butter has melted and stir it so that the rest will melt.  Soak the raisins in the rum.

Step 2:  Core, peel and slice the apples in 3 mm or 1/8 inch slices, and then slice them again in two.  Put them in a bowl.

Step 3:  Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl (keep 6 Tbsp of the cinnamon sugar separate) and mix the rest in with the apples and let it sit.  

Step 4:  Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a pan and toast the bread crumbs until golden brown.  Remove the phyllo pastry from the refrigerator so that it is at room temperature at this point.  Everything should be at room temperature before you start.

Step 6:  Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400F (200C).

Step 7:  Put a baking sheet on top of a hard thin board that you can use to slide the strudels onto the oven tray.

Step 8: On a floured surface lay down the phyllo sheet making careful it does not rip, and paint it with butter, sprinkle some of the toasted buttery bread crumbs and place another sheet on top of it.  Repeat until you have a total of 4 layers.

Step 9:  You are going to roll these lengthwise now, so spread the walnuts in an area around 3 inches/8 cm from the short edge of the phyllo in a strip keeping in mind that you are going to roll this up.  

Step 10:  Drain the liquid from the apples.  Then pour the rum raisin mixture over the apples and toss.  Mix in as much bread crumbs as you can leaving a little bit to dust another 4 layers of phyllo.  Place this now moist but not soggy mixture over the walnuts.  Finish this off by sprinkling it with an extra 3 Tbsp cinnamon sugar.

Step 11:  Now roll this up, tucking in the edges, and place this on top of the cooking sheet that we prepared earlier.  Then brush it with butter before putting it in the oven.

Step 12:   Keep your eye on the strudel.  After 15 minutes or so you may want to move it to a lower rack and cover it with aluminum foil (let the foil float above it so that it's not really touching the strudel very much) if it is brown enough.  When you let it brown too much, it will look like a giant lumpia, rather than a strudel.  

Step 13:  Bake for around 30 minutes.  

Step 14: Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and sprinkle liberally with confectioner's sugar and serve!

Note: You may want to prepare the rum raisin mixture before hand and mix this in with the apple cinnamon sugar mixture to get rid of excess moisture hours before you start.   It's very important that the filling does not have excess moisture in it or it will ruin the texture of your strudel.  This recipe is still a work in progress and I will be revising it when I have another go at it.

We've been baking sourdough bread for a number of years now and this is our latest loaf.  I love the way they come out different every time.  For the recipe please click here.

Metropolitan Granola Cookies (CHOW)

I bought some pretty awful chocolate granola from Carrefour yesterday.  It was on sale and there was 750g of it.  I didn't relish eating it as it was, so I looked for a cookie recipe that used granola and found the recipe for Metropolitan Granola Cookies. 

My egg wasn't large and even if it was, it would have been a large Spanish egg, and not a large American one.  I guess this is why my cookies ended-up a little crunchier than they should have been but they were really good anyway!

If you ever buy a bag of granola you're not too happy with, I recommend this recipe for getting rid of it.