Welcome to HomeFresh News!
Spring is a great time to get enthusiastic about cooking again, especially with all the great new produce becoming available.
And with the warmer weather its great to start
entertaining again too.
We're featuring
mangoes in this issue - what you can cook with them, how to store them, how to check whether they are ripe
and more. Read on for some great original recipes...
October is the start of the local mango season. Mangoes are grown mostly in
India but have been grown in Queensland since 1840.
There are over 200 varieties of
mangoes and they come in all colours so
colour isn't a good indicator when checking for ripeness. A better guide
is smell. If it smells like kerosene then you know its not ripe. Put
it in a warm place for a couple of days and it will then be ready to enjoy. The
skin should
give slightly under gentle pressure when ripe.
Who doesn't want a dead simple desert?
Samantha has created a mango upside down cake
that is super easy to make yet looks fabulous and
will definitely impress your guests!
You don't
have to use mangoes - it works well with any fruit
you enjoy.
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Samantha's Mango
Upside
Down Cake
Caramel
600g sugar
400ml water
Mix sugar and water
together in a pot. Because sugar
recrystalises, wet your hand and and wipe the
edges of the pot to make sure you remove all
sugar from the side. Make sure that the pot handle
is turned inward.
Boil until the mix
turns brown. Remove from heat. Stop the sugar
from continuing to cook by placing the pot
straight into a bowl of water (prepare the water
as soon as you put the sugar on so its ready to
go). Be careful to face the handle away
form you at all times.
When the sugar has
stopped cooking carefully pour the mixture into
a 20cm round cake tin, making sure its evenly
spread around the tin.
Mangoes
Peel and slice
2 mangoes. Fan the slices around the bottom of
the tin
on top of the caramel.
Cake mix
250g butter
250g sugar
250g eggs (around 4 depending on weight of each)
125g self raising flour
125g ground almonds
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Mix the butter
and sugar in a bowl until creamy.
In a jug, lightly beat
eggs with the vanilla essence.
Slowly pour the eggs
into the bowl. If the mix starts
to separate, add a little flour
before adding more egg.
Add the flour and
ground almonds and mix together until combined.
Pour the cake
mix on top of
the mangoes.
Place
in a preheated oven at about 170C
and cook for approximately 20 mins. The cake is ready
when you place a knife through and it comes
out clean.
When the cake is
cooked, take it out of the oven and immediately
remove the cake from the tin by putting a plate
on top and flipping the tin and plate over. This
stops the caramel from sticking to the pan and
causes it to fan around the edges of the cake.
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TIP: Be very careful when making the caramel. I
always keep my kids out of the kitchen at all times while the caramel is cooking
and make sure the saucepan handle is turned to the back.
I have seen many caramel burns and it can happen very
quickly. While working as head pastry chef of the Sheraton on the Park in
London. I poured caramel down my thumb and received 3rd degree burns.
Although the time off was nice, the pain was not.
TIP: To clean your pot from the
caramel, just fill it with water and reboil, this
will remove any left over caramel.
Mangoes may not be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about
what to cook for an evening meal but they make a great contrasting flavour to
many dishes.
Johan has created this special recipe just for HomeFresh News readers to
inspire you to give mangoes a try:
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Johan's Mango &
Beef Salad
500gm steak
bunch of asparagus
salt & ground pepper
olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
10g butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce
½ lemon
½ mango
rocket
chili (optional)
Slice beef into 1cm strips, toss in salt, pepper
and a splash of olive oil then pan fry until
medium rare. Remove from pan.
Break off woody stalks of asparagus and cut in
half. Add butter and a splash of olive oil to
same pan used to cook beef. Pan fry asparagus.
Half-way through
cooking squeeze lemon juice over asparagus, add
sesame seeds and soy sauce. Cook down a little
and then remove from heat.
Place rocket leaves on
plate, top with beef and asparagus. Slice mango
thinly and place on top. Deglaze pan with 3-4
tablespoons water and use as dressing over
salad.
You can add some finely
sliced chili on top for an extra kick.
Serves 2-3. |
Tuckers Natural Gourmet Crackers are created by Sam Tucker, an Adelaide
entrepreneur.
Sam was the driving force behind The Great Australian Baking Co and Food Service Solutions.
He saw an opportunity for natural gourmet crackers and then spent 2 years refining the
manufacturing process until he was happy with the end product.
The handmade gourmet crackers
are infused with flavour by mixing the raw natural ingredients through the dough
mix before baking and not sprinkling seasoning on top.
The Tucker’s Natural range is yeast free, preservative free and has no
artificial colours or flavours.
The pizza wedge shapes are perfect for using with your favorite dip or salsa.
Some of the Tucker's Gourmet Crackers we've added recently include:
Coriander & Cracked Pepper
Caramelised Onion
Poppyseed
To help match the crackers, each pack comes with an original gourmet dip recipe.
Thanks!
If you have any feedback on this edition of HomeFresh News, our
website, the service we offer or products you'd like to see added
then get in touch because we'd love to hear from you!
Email here: info@homefreshorganics.com.au
Or give us a call: 3715 5381.
(If you get an answering machine then we are busy with another
customer. So leave a message and we WILL call you back just as
soon as we can.)
Go Fresh!
Samantha &
Johan
Samantha, Johan & the HomeFresh Team.
HomeFreshOrganics.com.au
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