{Zespri Kiwifruit Recipes} Kiwi, Lime & Mint Cooler, Avocado with Gold Kiwifruit Salsa and Pan-fry Salmon with Green Kiwifruit

Using fresh fruits in either Cooking/Baking is always something that interests me. As you can search through my recipes list, I have tired many dishes with fresh fruit like mango, apple, orange, avocado and etc. And this “Kiwifruit” feast featured here was inspired by the ZESPRI Kiwifruit tasting event held at Heart Bistro which I have missed out last week.

With the goodwill of the folks from Edelman(ZESPRI's PR), they have sent me a set of their press kit which includes fresh kiwifruit, kiwifruit recipes, cute kiwifruit 2GB thumb drive and etc. Below are 3 recipes using fresh ZESPRI Kiwifruit which I would like to share with you and hopefully it would inspired you to in-cooperate some kiwifruit in your daily dishes too.

In Singapore you can easily get a pack of these yummy ZESPRI Kiwifruit from any leading supermarkets or fruit stalls. And do you know ZESPRI Kiwifruit are the most "nutrient dense" of popular fruits that belong in the "Super Fruits" category. Each bite contains more essential nutrients than the other 27 most popular fruits.

ZESPRI Kiwifruit also contains more than 210% of the recommended daily intakes of Vitamin C which gives you 2 times more Vitamin C than an orange. Furthermore it is also a good source of folate which is essential for healthy development of the foetus in early pregnancy. You can read more details HERE with a kiwifruit skin firmer recipe too.

KIWI, LIME AND MINT COOLER

If resources is possible do use fresh Green or Gold kiwifruit in your drinks if you are preparing kiwifruit juice or puree to get the full goodness out of them. Here to start off, let's have a glass of freshly blended "Kiwi, Lime and Mint Cooler" to refresh your body after a hectic day at work. And by adding mint leaves it also act as a fresh and aromatic flavor to the drink with a cool aftertaste.

(serves: 2 | Preparation: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
2 ZESPRI Gold Kiwifruit, cut into halves
2 ZESPRI Green Kiwifruit, cut into halves
1 Teaspoon of Honey
15ml, Juice of Half Lime
1/4 Cup Mint Leaves
1/2 Cup Ice Cubes, optional
150ml Chilled Sprinkling Water/Sprite/Wine

Method:-

1. Blend kiwifruit with honey, lime juice, mint leaves and ice cubes till combined. (I prefer mine without ice so usually i will used chilled sprinkling water/sprite)

2. Divide into cups and top with chilled sparking water and serve.

AVOCADO WITH GOLD KIWIFRUIT SALSA

For starter let's have some crunch to go with the cooler. Does this "Avocado with Gold Kiwifruit Salsa serve on Corn Chips" sound good to you? It is a refreshing dish with hint of sweet, sour and spicy taste due to the adding of lime juice and chopped chilli. This definitely serves well as a party food or tapas to go with cocktail or beer.

Recipe adapted and modify from ZESPRI, Singapore website HERE.
(serves: 2-3 | Preparation: 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Ripe ZESPRI Gold Kiwifruit, cubes
1 Ripe Avocado, cubes
1/2 Tablespoon Runny Honey
Juice of 1/2 Lime
1 Red Chilli, seed removed and chopped
1 Tablespoon Shredded Basil/Mint Leaves

Method:-

1. Mix honey, lime juice, chilies and herbs in a bowl.

2. Stir in kiwifruit and avocado cubes and marinate for about 15 - 30 minutes.

3. Upon serving, spoon mixture on corn chips and serve it as starter or pairing with wine and beer too.

You can also serve this salsa on it's own by the side of the main course or mix it together with some shredded chicken and salad greens and serve as a quick salad too. No matter which is your preference style I am sure this appetizing salsa will make your meal taste great.

PAN-FRY SALMON WITH GREEN KIWIFRUIT

Salmon has earned its research reputation as a health-supportive food based on it's amount of omega-3 fatty acid content. Here we are using two nutritious ingredients to form a main course which is so easy to prepare and yet so healthy for the whole family.

Recipe adapted and modify from ZESPRI, Kiwifruit Recipes booklet
(serves: 2 | Preparation: 15 minutes | Cooking: 6 - 8 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 - 3 ZESPRI Green Kiwifruit
1 Small Chilli, seeded and diced
1 Teaspoon Maple Syrup/Honey
450g Salmon Fillet, halves
1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 Servings of your desire Salad Greens

Dressing:
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Honey
2 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to Taste

Method:-

1. Place salmon in a deep bowl together with chili, vinegar and honey. Marinate for at least 15 - 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, peel and slice the ZESPRI Green Kiwifruit in wedges.

3. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and saute the drained salmon for 3 minutes or until just cooked (according to your own preference).

4. To assemble, pile the salad greens in individual serving plates, top with kiwifruit and salmon.

5. Combine the ingredients for the dressing and drizzle over the salad. Garnish with extra black peeper if desired.

Don't back off from this dish if you are worry about the "smell" of the salmon fish as the marinade from the chopped chilli and apple cider vinegar actually has mask it quite well to flavour this dish. And furthermore to ease your cooking chore, you can even place the salmon on a grease disposal foil tray and bake in the toaster oven for about 8 minutes(turning once) depending on your preference for cooking the salmon.

Coming Up Next

KIWIFRUIT AND LIME CUPCAKES

Lastly I hope you would enjoy the above 3 Kiwifruit Recipes which I have shared with you. And to finished up our kiwifruit feast with some yummy dessert, I have also prepared some "Kiwifruit and Lime Cupcakes" too. If you are keen to find out more about the above-mentioned recipe do stay around for the next upcoming post on Baking with Kiwifruit.

{Recipe and Game} Chocolate Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes With Vanilla Ice Cream Plus Blind Taste Test

Isn't these "ice-cream cone cupcakes" look great for special occasions such as Birthday party, school function or even tea-time. I am sure not only the Kids fancy this,  Adults like us will also love eating our favourite cake in a cone instead of on a plate too. So why not give this a try and start making your favourite cupcakes in ice-cream cones instead of paper cases. Or just like us if you don't fancy frosting your cupcakes you can even eat it on it's own or top it with an extra scoop of your favourite ice-cream.

I always love dessert such as Chocolate Brownie or Molten Chocolate Cake that serves with a generous scoop of premium Vanilla ice-cream. And when compared to other flavour, vanilla ice-cream is said to be the most popular flavour like by most consumers which is why you can always see vanilla ice-cream appears in most dessert corner or menu in major cafes/restaurants.

Since I am making some ice-cream cone cupcakes for my neighbours as one of our tea snacks we decided to play a small game while waiting for the cupcakes to cool off. To start off we gathered 3 different brands of vanilla ice-cream to do a blind taste test and see which is the most popular choice among us. In this game, each family contribute one of their favourite brand of vanilla ice-cream and I would scoop it into 3 different cups and let all the participants take a blind taste test on each of them.

For this test we had 9 participants from 3 different families with age group ranging from the youngest; 5 years old to the oldest 60 plus. Each participants will get to sample the prepared Vanilla Ice-cream from Haagen Dazs, New Zealand Natural and Ben And Jerry's without any knowledge of which brand they are tasting. So can you make a guess which is the most popular choice out of the 3 brands that most of them pick?(result is shown at the end of this post) But before we scroll down to read the "taste test" result, let's take a look at the Chocolate Ice-cream Cone Cupcakes recipe shown below first.

CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM CONE CUPCAKES
WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM

I have bookmarked this recipe for quite sometime but was not very keen to attempt due to the frosting part. So with some read-up and brainstorm with my facebook friends, I decided to give it a try without doing the frosting and replace it with a good scoop of Vanilla Ice-cream.

Recipe adapted from Donna Hay

Ingredients: (make 8 flat base ice-cream cones)
60g Butter, soften
80g Caster Sugar
1 Large Egg
50g Valrhona(Guanaja - 70%)Dark Chocolate, melted
95g Plain Flour
1 Tablespoon Dutch-process Cocoa Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
50ml Fresh Milk
8 Flat Base Ice-Cream Cones
40g Valrhona(Guanaja - 70%) Dark Chocolate, extra

Topping:
Premium Vanilla Ice-cream

Method:-

1. Melt 50g of dark chocolate in microwave on High for 40 seconds with an interval of 20 seconds each.

2. Arrange ice-cream cones on baking tray and place 2 feves of dark chocolate at the base of each cone.

3. Preheat oven to 160 degree. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl till light and creamy, add in egg and beat till well mixed.

4. Next sift over flour mixture(plain flour, baking powder and cocoa powder) and continue to beat until mixture became a gluey batter.

5. Fold in milk and stir with either a spatula or hand-held whisk till combine before stirring in the melted chocolate.

6. Spoon batter into each cone and fill up 0.5cm away from the rim. Bake in preheat oven for 15 minutes; increase oven temperate to 170 degree and continue to bake for another 10 minute or when skewer insert and comes out clean .

7. Allow cupcakes to cool for 10 minutes, running a small knife round the "hump" on top of the cake and remove it before stuffing it with a scoop of Premium Vanilla Ice-cream.

8. You can either drizzle extra melted chocolate, sprinkler or use the cut-off cake to place on the ice-cream to act as toppings.

Chocolate Ice-cream Cone Cupcakes

These cupcakes taste great even without any frosting. The cake itself is soft, moist and infused with "Triple" chocolate content. With each bites you can taste 3 different texture in one mouthful such as the crispy ice-cream cone, moist chocolate cake and cold ice-cream all mingling in your mouth.

For your information these cupcakes are best to be eaten within an hour or warm so that the ice-cream cones will reminds crispy instead of soft and soggy after a few hours. But if you intend to keep for longer time you might want to consider reheat it in a 200 degree oven for about 3 minutes to revive the "crispness" of the ice-cream cones.

Result Of Our
BLIND TASTE TEST

Tata!!!!! Have you make the correct guess? Or you are surprised with the result shown above? Yes! I myself was surprised when I saw the results; out of the 9 participants, 4 voted(2 Young Adults, 1 Teenage and a Kid) for New Zealand Natural immediately after they tried all the 3 different cups of ice-cream whereas the other 5 participants still took sometime to decide which product to cast their vote.

As for products wise you can still see tiny bits of vanilla pods in both New Zealand Natural and Ben And Jerry's. But in term of taste New Zealand Natural has the smoothest texture and mild creamy taste which does not overpower the vanilla fragrance. So if you like vanilla ice-cream perhaps you can also gather a few brands and do a blind taste test like us, have fun and enjoy the process as well as the eating those cold and delicious ice-cream especially during hot and humid days.

Tropical Ice-Block With Yoghurt

During hot summer afternoon, I am sure one or two of these ice-pops/ice-blocks would be great to ease the summer heat and at the same time cool down  your warm and perspired body system. These icy treat can be made by freezing coloured or flavoured liquid such as fruit juice around a stick. Once the liquid freezes solid, the stick can be used as a handle to hold the ice-pop too.

Apart from my "[Durian or Avocado] Sago Gula Melaka" (read more HERE) which fulfil this month Aspiring Bakers theme on "Fruit", I would also like to submit this "Tropical Ice-Block with Yoghurt" as the next following post. This fruity ice-block use 3 different types of tropical fruits such as Mango, Orange and Passionfruits which gives the dessert a nice bright orangy colour which resemble bright sunny day.

Since it is Mango season now, you can easily grab a couples of sweet and decent mango at any supermarkets with valuable price as low as 3 for S$2.00.

Ingredients: (makes 4 - 6, 1/4 cup capacity ice-block)
100ml Plain/Mango Yoghurt
1 Medium Mango, sliced and cubes
100ml(1/2 cup)Fresh Orange Juice
2 - 3 Medium Passionfruit, halved

Notes:-

~ You can get this 4 - 6 holes, 1/4 cup capacity ice-block mould from Daiso(Singapore readers).

~ Cut passionfruit in half, using a teaspoon, scoop passionfruit pulp from halves.

Method:-

1. Spoon 1 tablespoon yoghurt into each ice-block mould.

2. Freeze for 1 hour or until just firm.

3. Blend Mango and orange juice until smooth, stir in passionfruit pulp.

4. Carefully spoon/pour mango mixture pour yoghurt in moulds.

5. Place lids on moulds, freeze for 4 hours or until frozen.

6. To serve, stand the ice-blocks at room temperature for 1 - 2 minutes before removing it from mould.


  For a switch of different flavour, you can also make use of Pineapple, Mango and Passionfruits for this recipes to achieve a more refreshing taste. If fresh Mango is not available at your area, you can always replace it with pre-packed mango juice.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #5 : Fruity March (March 2011) hosted by Jess @ Bakericious.

Eggless Dark Chocolate Ice-Cream

I have never thought of one day I could also churn up my very own Homemade Ice-cream even without using an ice-cream maker. In the past even though I have read up some really yummy ice-cream recipes, but yet still not a single one has lift up my motivation as I always thought it is a must to have an ice-cream maker before I could achieve those commercial like ice-cream texture.

I am sure most of us would like to have something sweet for after meal dessert or some frozen dessert to quench thirst during hot summer afternoon. No matter which is your choice I am sure either the refreshing Orange Sorbet or creamy Chocolate Ice-Cream will make some good rewards.

If you look at most of the ice-cream recipes, they usually called for "egg yolks" which are something that I always try to avoid while making dessert for my kid. But "Jess's" version( HERE) of recipe is definitely a keeper as it does not require any egg yolks in the ingredients. And to our surprised the end result taste just as rich and good as commerical ice-cream.

Ingredients (serves 4 - 6)

20g Dutch Process Cocoa Powder, sieved
90g Valrhona 70% Dark Chocolate
* 50g - 70g of Caster Sugar
1 Cup(200ml) Whipping Cream
125ml Fresh Milk
1 Tablespoon Kahlua / Tia Maria, optional

Note:

~ The amount of sugar added will depend on the type of chocolate used and your sweetness preference. (I used 50g for my 70% Dark Chocolate which can be purchased from either SunLik or Shermay Cooking School)

~ For creamy texture, you can replace whipping cream with thick cream.

~ To make chocolate sauce: Melt 30g Chocolate in microwave safe bowl on High Powder for 2 minutes with 30 second interval, stir the mixture between each interval to have a sauce like consistency.

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan combine cream, cocoa powder, sugar and whisk it over medium heat till combined and sugar melts.
2. Bring mixture to a gentle boil, stirring often, remove from heat and immediately whisk in chocolate until completely melted.
3. Next whisk in milk till mixture is glossy and well mixed before adding liquor if using.
4. Sieved the mixture through fine strainer into the loaf pan/tray, cool to room temperature.
5. Churn above mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions or alternatively, if you don't have an ice cream maker, freeze it for at least 2 hours or until firm.
6. Use a fork/spoon break out mixture and process it in blender (or whisk it using hand-held beater) for a few second till creamy. You might need to repeat the process at least twice if you prefer a smoother texture.
7. Return mixture to pan, freeze for another 3 hours or until firm. (I freeze it overnight)
8. Serve scoops of ice-cream with extra chocolate sauce and topping in cones or cups.


Are you ready for a scoop or two of this Homemade Dark Chocolate Ice-Cream.


Finally after a day of whisking, freezing and waiting..... here is our very first Homemade Chocolate Ice-cream. Each scoop is filled with rich and creamy texture that melts our heart with its semi-bittersweet chocolate taste.  And most importantly we get to choose the quality of ingredients used such as low fat milk/cream ad etc. So which is your choice? Cone or Cup?

For better presentation and finishing taste, you can drizzle some melt chocolate sauce(see notes above) together with your flavour chopped nuts or sprinkles topping on it. Enjoy!!! Have a great weekend everyone.





Eggless Dark Chocolate Ice-Cream

Orange Cinnamon Sorbet

It has being ages since my last post on Sorbet which was around May 2006 where Tracy shared with me her encounter on making "Mango Kaffir Lime Sorbet". (you can check out the recipe HERE) And from there I also modify a similar recipe to make some "Durian Sorbet" which my family loves.

To beat the recent heat craze and hot waves, let's take a step to prepare some really cold and refreshing dessert for the family to cool down the heat.........

But for this post I will be sharing the recipe on Orange Cinnamon Sorbet instead of Durian because now it is the peak season where you can get really huge and sweet oranges to make yummy dessert.

Some of us might tends to get confuse with Sorbet and Granita which somehow or rather look similar in a way. But if you notice carefully sorbet has a smoother texture and it is make with fresh fruit comparing to Granita, which has a coarser and crystalline texture that often makes from flavouring water and sugar.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

300ml Freshly Squeeze Orange Juice, about 3 1/2 Oranges
30ml Water
2cm Cinnamon Stick
*30 - 50g Caster Sugar
*Shredded Rind of 1 Orange
1/2 Orange, sliced into Segments

Note:-

~ The amount of sugar use will depend on the taste of the fresh orange juice and individual preference.
~ You can refer to the read-up on "How to shred and grate orange rind" at this link HERE.

Method:

1. In a small saucepan bring sugar, 30ml of water, cinnamon stick and shredded orange rind to boil over medium heat.
2. When the mixture comes to boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 3 - 5 minutes by stirring occasionally to avoid burning.
3. Next remove the pan away from heat and leave the mixture to cool to room temperature.
4. Before mixing the orange juice with the sugar syrup till combined, remove the cooked orange rind and reserved it as garnish together with 1 teaspoon of sugar syrup in a small container.
5. Pour the orange juice mixture into a loaf pan, freeze for 3 hours or until firm.
6. Working quickly, use a metal spoon to break up sorbet and blend it until changed in colour and smooth.
7. Return mixture to pan, freeze it for another 2 hours or till firm.
8. Serve scoops of sorbet with some fresh orange segments and reserved candied orange peels.

Don't worry about whether this sorbet is being strongly infused with cinnamon taste. I can guarantee you that it’s only a very mild fragrant that act as a finishing touch to balance the citrus taste. But by all means if you just want a pure orange sorbet you can always omit the cinnamon stick.

ATTENTION!!! 

More Heat Cooler Coming Up!

For ice-cream lovers do look out for this space on the next upcoming recipe which I will  feature the "Eggless Homemade Dark Chocolate Ice Cream". If you are interested, do stay tune!!!!!




Orange Cinnamon Sorbet