Limeade Made with Palm Sugar

You tap a maple, you get maple syrup. You cut into the flower buds of a palm tree, you get palm nectar that you can cook down into palm sugar. (Specifically, you can tap sugar date palms, sago palms, and coconut palms.) If you let the palm sugar dry out and go from a semi-liquid to a hard block, you can grind it up to create granulated palm or coconut sugar.

Typically, the term “palm” sugar refers to the sap tapped from sugar palm and sago trees, while “coconut” sugar indicates that the source was a coconut palm tree…but often the terms are confused and/or used interchangeably. No matter which palm was tapped, though, these natural sweeteners taste absolutely lovely. And seeing as palm sugar isn’t processed into send-your-blood-sugar-rocketing, over-the-top sugar oblivion, palm sugar also imparts flavor along with its pleasant not-too-sweet sweetness.

Palm sugar in its semi-liquid form dissolves easily in hot and cold liquids and is my favorite sweetener for hot chocolate. Granulated coconut sugar is perfect to sprinkle onto fruit, desserts, or ice cream…or to whisk into quick breads and muffins in place of refined white sugar. To me, the semi-solid palm sugar has a slightly stronger and more unique flavor than the granulated coconut sugar.

Coconut nectar is another lush sweetener and is more free-flowing than semi-solid palm sugar. That’s because the nectar is the liquid that initially wells up out of the cut flower; the darker, semi-solid palm sugar is created by boiling down that nectar. Again, I prefer the deeper-tasting palm sugar. (It somehow reminds me of candy corn!) And because it’s so flavorfully sweet, I find that I use a lot less of it. When I make hot chocolate, for example, I either use a full tablespoon of maple syrup or a half tablespoon of palm sugar.

Whichever you’re looking for, you’ll find these palm-sourced sweeteners in the baking section of well-stocked natural foods/health foods stores and sometimes in mainstream stores. Since palm sugar — also called “jaggery” in Indian cuisine — is used extensively in Southeast Asia, you might also find the palm sugar nestled into the Asian section.

Fresh Limeade with Palm Sugar

To make this refreshing and decidedly tropical drink, pour the juice of 1 lime into a tall glass. Stir in 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 T. palm sugar, stirring well to dissolve the palm sugar. Add 4 ice cubes and top it off with water. Stir again. (This would make an excellent base for a rum or tequila cocktail, by the way.)

Enjoy!

Mandarin-Yogurt Bread

One of the few nice things about winter is that citrus is in season: grapefruit, tangerines, mandarin oranges, even kumquats. Any and all of those can perk up even the darkest, dreariest day. Usually, I like to just eat them out of hand — especially cute little kumquats with their very sweetly edible skins! — but this time I decided to see what would happen if I stirred fresh mandarin segments into a quick bread batter. Would they just turn to mush upon baking, leaving behind a wet, uncooked blob of batter?

As you can see, the answer is that the segments maintain their shape quite nicely when you bake them. You can’t overload the batter with too many of the juicy segments, but part of the fun of including them is the thrill of the chance of getting a slice with a big wedge of mandarin in it. If you want to be sure that every slice will, you could do some strategic push-and-poke segmenting right before popping the loaf into the oven. I decided to just stir as usual and take my chances.

Mandarin-Yogurt Bread

3/4 cup brown rice flour*
3/4 cup sorghum flour*
1/2 cup milllet or amaranth flour*
1/4 cup granulated honey OR sucanat (or 1/2 cup, if you’re aiming for a sweet bread)
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 mandarin orange or tangerine, split into its natural segments
3/4 cup whole-milk plain yogurt, Greek or otherwise
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil OR unrefined almond oil (both go well with citrus)
3 eggs, preferably from pastured hens

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a glass loaf pan (about 9″x5″) and set aside. I like to drizzle a bit of the olive oil into the loaf pan, then use my fingertips to spread the oil on the bottom and all of the sides. Any oil left on my hands gets rubbed into them. Why waste a nice hand moisturizer?

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, granulated honey, baking soda and powder, and salt. Gently stir in the mandarin segments.

In another bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and stir well — but gently, for the sake of the segments! — to combine. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is lightly brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. If the top seems to be browning too fast, tent it with aluminum foil and continue baking until the loaf passes the toothpick test.

Let cool for at least 20 minutes before sliding the loaf out of the pan. I like to let both loaf and pan cool separately until both are completely cool, and then I put the loaf back into the pan for safekeeping. Note that you can only leave this loaf out at room temp for about 3 days — any longer, and the mandarin segments will start to ferment. Store the loaf in the fridge if you don’t finish it within a day or two.

Enjoy!

* These are gluten-free flours. If you’d rather make a wheat-based version, use a total of 2 cups of whole-wheat, kamut, or spelt flours instead.

Lemon & Basil Ice Cream

My basilophilic nature (yep, just made up that word) has spurred me to figure out yet another way to use my favorite summer herb: in ice cream. Freezing basil is pretty much only way you can chop, slice, or otherwise cut basil and still have it be green rather than chop, slice, or otherwise cut basil and have it turn black — cut basil quickly oxidizes at room temperature. Granted, judicious drying can preserve the greenness of whole leaves if you’re lucky, but drying basil takes time. Blending basil into milk and cream and then freezing it, on the other hand, is a snap.

Incidentally, basil is very high in omega 3 fats (4:1 ratio of omega 3s to omega 6s). Mint is, too (7:1). If you make this ice cream with milk from grass-fed cows* and yolks from pastured hens, you’ve moved your ice cream far out of the “junk” category and firmly into the “health food” category, especially since you’re using raw honey rather than white sugar and you’re including a heaping handful of fresh basil or mint. It’s all about the quality of the ingredients we use, folks, not what category the dish has traditionally been placed in. (Healthy ice cream vs. junky salad, for example; both are possible.)

Lemon & Basil Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups cream, preferably from grass-fed cows
1 1/2 cups whole milk, preferably from grass-fed cows
2 egg yolks, preferably from pastured hens
15 large basil leaves OR 20 large mint leaves
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon OR 1 lime (it’s worth getting organic since you’re using the outer skin)
1/3 to 1/2 cup honey depending on how sweet you’d like your ice cream to be

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Immediately pour into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions to freeze your ice cream. Since this ice cream is not too high in fat (you’re cutting the cream half/half with milk) and it’s low in sugar (you’re using honey instead of white sugar, plus you’re using less of it overall — ah, the beauties of making your own ice cream!), it will be softest when it’s freshly made. If you have leftover ice cream to put in the freezer, you may need to take it out 10 minutes ahead of scooping it the next day so that it has time to transition from almost-sorbet-hard to scoop-able. You could use all cream rather than a cream/milk blend to make your ice cream thicker and smoother-scooping, but I prefer a lighter approach to such a summery-tasting ice cream.

Enjoy!

* Remember that the legal definition of “organic” has nothing to do with whether an animal is grass-fed or is fed the conventional corn-and-soy blend. Many grass-fed operations — i.e., actual farms — do go to the trouble to be certified as “organic,” but we’re talking two different concepts here. Those of us living in Metro Detroit have the extreme fortune of having grass-fed Calder Dairy products available in our local markets. Organic Valley is another good choice.

Ugli Fruit

Okay, I’ll admit it — I’ve been shallow.  For years, I’ve avoided the ugli fruit because it was called an ugli fruit.  (And because it didn’t look weird enough.  I get so curious about strange foods I’ve never seen before that I would happily try something called “ugly” as long as it looked weird enough.)

I love citrus, though, and I realized that I’d tried all the other oddball citruses:  pomelos, tangerines, kumquats, yuzus, tangelos, blood oranges, even limequats.  (Yes, they look like kumquats and taste like limes.)  It was just time for things to get ugli.

So they did.  I found out that ugli fruits are oddly baggy — it seems like the skin is a bit too big for the inner sections — and that they taste like a tangy-yet-sweet grapefruit.  The fact that the juicy sections are too small for their britches makes them a bit tricky to squeeze on my citrus juicer but also makes them rather handy to pull out and eat.  All in all, I would say that ugli fruit can be treated like a tart orange or a sweet grapefruit, depending on how you’d like to use it (as drinking juice, tossed with salads, squeezed onto seafood, etc.).  One thing is certain:  ugli fruits sure do taste pretty!

Lime Sections

Limes have a certain pizazz that lemons just don’t.  Grapefruit doesn’t, either…in fact, not even tangerines can match up to a lime’s potential to play a sweet/sour role as a  keynote flavor or background blend.  A squirt of lime juice also lends a dish a Mexican or Caribbean flavor that an orange simply can’t provide.    Besides, not many populations are nicknamed after fruits — Limeys and Kiwis are the only ones I can think of.  (The British acquired theirs because their navy routinely stocked its ships with limes to prevent British sailors from getting scurvy, a deterioration of the body that happens when vitamin C is in scant or no supply.)

From a cook’s standpoint, there’s also a lot to be said for the juiciness of limes vs. lemons — despite their smaller size, limes yield just as much juice as lemons do, especially if they’re squeezed at room temperature rather than fresh from the fridge.  This juiciness has to do with their thin skins, which equals more juice per volume and wedges that are more easily compressed and wrung out.  A lime’s skin, however, is its Kryptonite as well as its headlining feature since it means that the lime will dry out and shrivel more quickly than a lemon or orange or grapefruit.  The low humidity of a refrigerator will hasten its descent into hard woodenness.

Hence, the best way to store limes is on the counter, not in the fridge.  Once cut, a lime wedge won’t fare any better than a refrigerated whole lime, however, and for the same tendency-to-dry-out reason.  The best way I’ve found to prolong the life of my limes is to place the cut sections in a ziploc plastic bag with a small piece of damp paper towel — that arrangement seems to provide enough humidity to keep the lime juicy for about a week before it begins to mold.  It’s still not a terribly long-lived fruit, but if you have extra pre-cut lime wedges on hand, just pop them into a cool glass of water for a refreshing drink.  You can also use them to zip up salad dressings, add zing to fish (or nearly any other dish), make guacamole, acidulate water, etc.  The limeabilities are endless!

What a curious word; it sounds downright Lewis-Carrollian. It would fit well into his “Jabberwocky” poem: “‘Beware the kumquats, my son!’” (Also an excellent word to know when playing Scrabble.)

Kumquats look like tiny, oval oranges. Like oranges, they are rich in potassium and vitamins A and C. Their popularity has spread from their native Asia to Europe and the U.S. Two varieties are commonly eaten: one with bitter skin and a sweet inside, and one with sweet skin and bitter innards. The latter is the one we generally find in State-side produce markets.

To enjoy a sweet-outside-bitter-inside kumquat, cut it in half and squeeze out the seeds and most of the juice. The sweet skin will be refreshing and will retain enough of the bitter interior to have a bright, contrasting flavor. I like kumquats best eaten out of hand, but as in the case of bitter oranges, they make a fine marmalade. You could also serve cut-and-squeezed kumquats alongside quartered fresh figs for an exotic and easy dessert.

Their small size also makes them a very portable and healthy snack food–just do the cut-and-squeeze ahead of time, slip them in a bag, and go!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup quick-cooking barley (you can also use quinoa or couscous)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon salt (or less, depending on the saltiness of the broth)

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 can (16 oz) chickpeas, drained

1 1/2 cups corn kernels (can use frozen or fresh)

1 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup (4 oz) Feta cheese, crumbled (or more to taste)

Heat the oil and add barley and garlic.  Sauteé for 5 minutes.   Add broth, salt, and pepper.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until the barley is chewy and tender.  Drain and place in a large serving bowl.

Add the chickpeas, corn, red pepper, and Feta.  Toss to combine.

Toss the barley mixture in the dressing.  (Recipe follows.)

Citrus Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil

juice of 2 limes

1 tablespoon minced red onion

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Combine all ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake vigorously to blend.

Dressing yield:  3/4 cup

Salad makes 8 side-dish servings.

Enjoy!