.: evil jungle prince :.

Over the weekend, my mother invited some neighbors over for dinner and asked what we might have for dessert that night. Though I'm not a big dessert-eater, the words blueberry crumble erupted from my mouth in the same way an fiesty lava flow might suddenly emerge from the center of the earth and swallow a small village. I had spotted this recipe somewhere and been meaning to try it for months. Now I had the perfect excuse.

The result was a smash hit: bubbly, oozy sweet blueberries topped with a chewy-oat topping. Sort of like a pie on a diet. Everybody loved it, including myself, so I thought I'd go ahead and post the recipe.

1. Begin by making the blueberry "interior" by placing the following into a small pot or pan: 4 cups blueberries (can be frozen), 1/2 cup white sugar, and 3 tsp cornstarch. Heat until bubbly, mushy, and lava-like. Okay to start the process with a tsp or two of water, as the mixture starts on the dry side. Remove from heat and add 1 tsp lemon juice. Pour into a scalloped oven-proof dish or pie-pan.

2. The oatmeal crumble (which can be made in advance, probably preferable) is created by mixing the following with a fork: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Use a fork to mix until the texture is a rough dough.

3. Crumble the oatmeal mixture evenly on the top of the blueberry mixture. Bake at 375F for 15-20 mins or until the oats begin to brown. Remove and served warm, room temperature, or cold.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

At Trader Joe's today I found a packet of dried dragonfruit, so I decided to try integrating this unusual item into a vegan recipe for scones. Here's what I did.

First I cut the dragonfruit into very small pieces -- about 1/2 cup of them. These were then allowed to soak in Crème de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur). (This gives the pieces color, sweet taste, and softens them enough to be integrated into this recipe).

Second, I added the following to my Kitchenaid mixer with the paddle attachment: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/3 cup butter/margarine cut into small cubes, 2 tsp Stevia. I whisked these until the mixture resembled coarse crumbs.

Next I added 1/3 cup soy milk and mixed until a ball was formed. I then folded in the drained dragonfruit pieces by hand and pressed the mixture into a flattened ball shape. At this point I also cut the dough into eight wedge shapes.

This was then placed on to a buttered, floured baking sheet and baked at 350F for approx. 20 mins.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 07:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I'm not a big dessert eater, so preparing a dessert that is 75% butter is not exactly part of my regular repertoire. But when I stumbled across a receipe for "peach tart with almond cream" I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it: tropicalize it into a Pacific Rim dish using guavas.

This was more a fun experiment than anything, but I thought I'd go ahead and post my experiences as I can't be the only guava-lover out there looking for new ways to make use of this wacky tropical fruit.

I love the taste and smell of guavas. Though I have a guava tree in my backyard -- a rather unusual tree for California but thriving nonetheless -- it is still only a few years old and hasn't begun producing more than a couple guavas a year. So for this recipe I've used canned guavas which I purchased at the Mexican grocery store.

1. I started out by making the crust. First I placed 1 1/4 cups sifted flour, 3/4 tsp salt, 7 tsp cold butter cut into pieces, and 1 egg yolk into a mixer and mixed. Once mixed, I dropped 2-3 cold spoonfuls of water into the mixture (while mixing) and watched the mixture magically coalesce. This was formed into a ball with my hands and placed into the refrigerator (in a plastic bag) to cool.

2. While the crust dough cooled, I placed 2/3 cup blanched almonds and 2 tsp flour into a food processor and created an almond flour. I then placed this mixture into a mixer and combined it with the following: 7 tsp room temperature butter, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 tsp vanilla extract. This was beat until light and fluffy.

3. I then took the dough out, rolled out the dough on a flour surface, and transferred it to a tart pan. Once the dough was molded to the shape of the tart pan, I pricked the bottom with a fork and placed the pan into the refrigerator to cool.

4. While the dough was cooling again, I cut approx. 8 guavas into slices. I then (after about 10 mins or so) took the tart pan out and filled it with the almond cream, topping this with the guava slices.

5. The tart then went into an oven preheated to 400F, baked for 15 mins. The temp was then turned down to 350F for another 15 mins. During the last 10 mins, I placed two spoonfuls of sugar over the top to caramelize.

Lessons learned: leaving the guava seeds in doesn't work! They are too hard, so remove the guava seeds before arranging them on the tart. Also, do not pile the guava pieces to compactly in the center of the tart because they will release too much water. Other than this, this recipe worked for me and tasted yummy. But one piece was enough... this is sweet, fatty, and decadent!

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

When my friend so kindly gave me a bunch of her Hibiscus sabdariffa (Roselle) seeds, I must admit I planted them and promptly forgot about them. But as the plant matured and produced unusual, bulbous, deep-red calyces, I dove into the culture of the plant and learned that I had actually consumed it before in the form of Mexican jamaica -- a type of agua fresca. I love this drink and looked forward to making my own refreshing drink by boiling the succulent calyces myself.

I started my experiment by boiling a handful of Hibiscus sabdariffa calyces in hot water, mixing in about 1/4 cup sugar for about 10 mins. I then placed this mixture into the refrigerator to cool down. This alone makes a nice tea which can be enjoyed over ice.

I used a little bit of the tea and mixed it together with ginger ale, which created yet another fun drink. Hibiscus-infused ginger ale tasted zesty and sweet with just a hint of bitter which was immediately appealing. I plan on making it again.

I then went on to think how unique hibiscus frozen yogurt might taste. Armed with my new ice cream maker, I made my first batch by doing the following:

1. First I boiled down my Hibiscus tea until it was a syrupy liquid (about 1/4 cup of liquid). I let this cool completely to room temperature.

2. Next I fired up the ice cream maker and mixed 16 oz of Greek yogurt, the Hibiscus syrup, 1/4 cup of additional sugar (for total of 1/2 cup), and a dash of vanilla extract. I allowed to churn until very firm and then placed into the freezer to harden.

The result? My best frozen yogurt to date. The sour pungency of the yogurt worked perfectly with the sweet but slightly bitter Hibiscus syrup, mellowed by the aromatic vanilla essence. Ahhhhhhh, this recipe was a success and I'll be making it again.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

It's finally cooling off here in the desert, which means it's time to start harvesting citrus fruits! My small, still-young key lime tree managed to produce a few fruits this year, so supplementing them with a few grocery store bought key limes I thought I'd try out somethingg entirely new this time around: key lime pie "sorbet" ice cream, made in my new Kitchen Aid ice cream maker [attachment].

Though there are certainly more fun things to do than squeeze dozens of tiny, hard key limes for a measly 1/2 cup of juice, the idea of making my own ice cream for the first time injected some fun into the endeavor and the end goal made it worth the effort. I'm not sure I've ever tasted real key lime pie so I can't tell you how authentic tasting this recipe is, but the combination of sour and sweet was tasty, I thought.

1. Start out by squeezing key limes to produce 1/2 cup key lime juice. Strain and set aside.

2. Heat 3/4 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar on stove until the sugar dissolves. When dissolved, through in some ice cubes to cool down the liquid. Add 1/2 cup lime juice and a 14 oz can of sweetened, condensed milk. Mix. (The original recipe suggested icing down the liquid before going any further, though I didn't do that.)

3. Add a dash of vanilla extract to the liquid and a few drops of green food coloring.

4. Remove the ice cream freezer bowl from the freezer, pour in the liquid, and mix for 20-30 minutes until the ice cream begins to solidify. (I added some crunchy chocolate wafers for texture during the last minute.) Freeze in a non metallic container.

Who doesn't like ice cream?!

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)