Category: fusion

Creamy Dodo Pasta

~ Sophie ~ 24 Comments

Another dodo recipe. Here is why. When the rainy season started, dodo sprouted from everywhere and it was very green, healthy and luscious that we could not let it over grow. So we started incorporating it in most of our meals. This is another recipe that has made dodo very enjoyable. I have always loved creamy white pasta sauce and maybe someday I will get around to making it but this creamy dodo is flavorful in its own way and not to mention the dodo itself has a ton of nutrients. Another time you find yourself with more than needed dodo, you can try this.
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What you will need:

250 Grams of pasta

2 Small Irish potatoes, peeled and halved

Four handfuls of dodo, washed

2 C. Milk

2 Medium tomatoes, chopped

1 Tsp. Garlic, finely chopped

1 Tsp. Ginger, finely chopped

½ C. Green onions chopped

A handful of crushed groundnuts

Oil

Salt

Method

In a medium saucepan, add water and one cup of milk and bring to a boil. Break the pasta strands in half and once the water has reached boiling point, add the pasta. Keep stirring the pasta to avoid it from clamping together. Sprinkle a little salt and after 5-8 minutes, remove the pasta from the fire and drain it then set aside to cool.  Boil Irish potatoes till tender and remove from fire.  Steam the dodo until almost tender. Remove from fire and let it cool.

In a blender, combine the steamed dodo (leave a few strands for later), boiled potatoes and the remaining cup of milk and salt to taste and blend till pureed.

In a separate saucepan, pour oil. After a minute, add the garlic and ginger and salt and let them brown a little. Next add the onions and tomatoes and stir till the tomatoes are soft. Pour in the dodo puree and stir well. Let it simmer for 10 minutes and then remove from fire. Pour the sauce over the pasta and mix well adding in the reserved strands of steamed dodo. Garnish with crushed groundnuts and sprinkle with lemon or orange juice. Serve.

Let me know how it turns out when you try it.

🙂

Sophie

 

 

PS: if  a lemon is too strong for you, you can use a raw orange which is slightly sour.

 

 

Three Drinks To Make With Mangoes

~ Sophie ~ 3 Comments

As much as the rain is still upon us, the sun still shines almost every day. Some days can be mild and some days can be scorching. The good thing about weather like this is the blessings that come with it. The fresh produce (I’m sure I have mentioned it before), air and many more things that we take for granted. Fruits are in season. Especially the mangoes and it is a wonderful moment…almost bitter sweet. Being surrounded by all types and sizes of mangoes either from local markets, street vendors or mere mango trees. It brings out the beauty of fresh fruit.

The feeling of plucking(more of stoning really!) a fresh fruit from a tree and eating it as it is(after washing), juicing it or simply making something really good out of it is so satisfying. I hope you find this mango season a blessing…a satisfying blessing. There are a few drinks I have made on the blog here and I was thinking with all these abundant mangoes, why can’t we substitute them and get drinking or sipping. So here are three drinks to make with mangoes.

Papaya slushie

 

Lemongrass flavored passion fruit juice

 

DSC09347tAvocado shake

 

By simply substituting the fruit in the recipe for mangoes, you can have the goodness of mangoes. Hope you get juicing.

What other ways are you eating your mangoes? Also, what one thing do you love about this weather?

 

🙂

Sophie

 

PS: Currently I am trying to make ice cream…or something like it. Will let you know soon.

Tea Masala Mango-Pear Pie

~ Sophie ~ 6 Comments

Its mango season y’all. You wont believe how exciting this time is for almost everyone. It is where kids damage things because the  stoning of the mangoes gets out of hand, where tree owners become protective of their mangoes stating that all children should wait till the mangoes are ripe. But what is the fun in that really? I personally have equal excitement when eating both raw and ripe mangoes except that the former is more fun(salt and piripiri anyone?).  So as the season slowly climaxes, generous neighbors are giving away mangoes because, well, if they don’t, they will rot and nobody wants that.

I have been searching far and wide(A.K.A Google) the meaning of ‘from scratch’. because I have always questioned the concept behind it.  Based on what I gathered and understood, cooking from scratch means cooking and  using  items or rather ingredients within your reach, your house or garden(and neighbors?!?).  In a  way this pie was made from scratch and you don’t need a lot of fancy ingredients really. Let me show you how.

What you’ll need:

Pie dough
2 C. Baking flour
½ C. Margarine (blue band)/ Butter
1/2 C. Cold water
2 Tsp. Sugar
½ Tsp. Salt

For the filling

2 Ripe mangoes

1/2 Pear

1/2 Tsp. Tea masala

1 Tbsp. Sugar

1/2 Tsp. Lemon Juice

Method

Sift flour in a bowl. Add salt and sugar. Mix well. Add margarine and using your hands mix it in the flour until the mixture becomes coarse. Next add the water, a tablespoon at a time, while mixing. Keep adding little water until a firm dough is formed. It should not be very wet and should not stick to your hands so much (you may need more or less water). After you have formed the dough, put it back in the bowl and keep it refrigerated for 15 minutes.

Peel and thinly slice the mangoes. Put in a bowl and set aside. Thinly slice the pear and add in bowl. Add the tea masala, sugar and lemon juice and mix well.

After 15 minutes, remove from the refrigerator and, on a floured surface, cut the dough into two equal parts. Using a floured rolling-pin or a glass bottle, roll the dough out till it is large enough (think chapatti size). Roll the second part of the dough too. Arrange the mango and pear slices on top center of the pie dough. Make sure you leave enough space for folding the dough. Fold the dough on top of the filling.

Bake in an oven until the crust starts to brown a little. This can take an approximation of 15 to 20 minutes depending on the oven you are using. I use an oven toaster(!).
Remove from the oven and let the pie cool and then serve.

Do you prefer raw or ripe mangoes?

Apart from juicing,  what do you plan on doing with the excess ripe mangoes?

Have a great week.

🙂

Sophie

PS: If you don’t fancy tea masala, you can substitute it for anything else like cinnamon.