Agave Syrup!

This is one of the awesome things I started using over Christmas break that I forgot to write about!

It is basically the same plant that is used to make tequila. ( liking this already aren't you?)

It is also two times sweeter than sugar, and slightly lower in calories. Yes folks, my mathmetician  brain has sorted out that when the quantity and calories are both halved.. its 1/4 as bad for you as sugar! RIGHT?!

(please, please, please don't correct this if I am wrong, I'll eventually realize this when I fail Economics at University)

All that you REALLY need to know is that is much lower on the Glycemic Index than regular sugar.


Okay, so not the sort of thing you would just "eat" straight up. But I like it in my coffee. And I like it when I bake whole wheat bread, but don't want the overwhelming honey taste. I still prefer to put chai tea mix or brown sugar in my oatmeal to sweeten, as agave doesn't have a very distinct flavor. I know cooks who use it in sauces, and it's getting more and more popular on Food Network channels!

Jokes aside, it is an awesome option, here is what you will find when you google it:

• it's not refined, like sugar
•  it's becoming a huge Mexican export, and so the Americans have began investigating everything that could possibly be wrong with it
•  In the future when the vegans prove us all wrong , we will also be using it instead of honey
• you can get "raw" agave nectar produced at "raw food" acceptable temperatures
• it is still fructose, so it's not healthy if you eat a lot of it

So basically, this is one of the new foods i tried which has weaseled it's way into my morning routine!

I hope you enjoy

Citrus Week: Day One

Aaaand I am finally back!

This week I am trying out all of the crazy and lovely citrus fruits that are in season.

The choice of the day is the Mango Orange.

Looks crazy doesn't it?

The coloring on these oranges is beautiful!

And once you get into the eating aspect of things, you notice.....

It doesn't taste like an orange.

IN FACT: It tastes like a Mango!

Now, I actually haven't been able to find out of this is a GMO fruit, or if it is just a "red navel" which is what the internet seems to want me to believe. Regardless, it is pretty amazing once you realize that the orange you are eating is in fact quite sweet and not at all citrus-y!

I suggest you try these if you pass them in the supermarket. Also DELICIOUS and in season (which I always make sure to buy) are CaraCara Oranges. They will make you wonder why the Navel is more popular domesticated orange...

In case you missed the last attempts at citrus foods, click here to read about my kumquat adventures.

This week I also make Seville Orange marmalade, and a few more citruses to be purchased!

Cotton Candy Really Does Grow on Trees...

Today I tried jackfruit! The largest tree-bourne fruit in the world!

it has an incredible sweet taste without being sugary, and a crazy texture, but let me start from the beginning..

I bought it at the market in a small chunk, because a whole jackfruit is massive, and incredibly expensive per pound. it's got giant nobby bumps on it.

The fruit is not hard although it appears that way, even the rind under the skin is sort of soft and stringy.

When unripe, it can be cooked in desserts or curried dishes, but when ripe it's delicious alone. There are also lobes in this fruit, with a soft stringy rind in between them.

Jackfruit was delicious! it tasted like a very ripe banana without the pasty dairy-ish banana aftertaste i dislike, with a dash of cotton candy in the mix! Sort of juicy, but still a pretty solid fruit.

It was really sweet, and my dishes and hands smell so good! Mmmm, I want to go somewhere hot on a beach and eat this all day long :) Hurray for successful food adventures!

Kumquats

What is sweet on the outside and sour on the inside? ....No, not me, but that is a good guess...

Let's try again: What's sweet on the outside, sour on the inside, is a fruit, and rhymes with bum squats?

KUMQUATS!

This fine evening I finally got around to trying these crazy little guys! This food is for my cousin Becca, who found it to be the most amusing sounding food name to suggest to me. (It is a fun word to say over and over again fast, just try it!)

So here we go, "I ate a kumquat!"

Okay well these kumquats look like little oranges

Some varieties are sweet on the inside and sour on the outside, and others are the other way around.

I think I had one of the sour on the inside varieties. Regardless, they started out with a sharp lemony taste, but shockingly ended without any bitter aftertaste. They were yummy enough, but not something I would want to go chomping on over and over again. To boot, they had lots of seeds in them.

Thinking they would be really tasty with some other chopped fruit I added them to some mango. This was great, but what was even better was mango kumquat salsa! Be sure to cut the kumquats into quarters, and scrape all of the little seeds out. You can even add just the peels and scrape the filling out instead, the outside is the tasty part.

How much more delicious could this be!? (I promise, not much more delicious)


For those of you who were wondering what the heck is in here:
1 cubed haden mango
1/4 lb of kumquats,
juice from a large half of a VERY very ripe and juicy lime (you should use a whole one) 
about a cup of cubed cucumber
about 2 tablespoons of diced red onion
and lots of cilantro. 

Tastes great with a little sea salt, but be sure to eat within a day after adding the salt, because it draws the juices out and it gets watery!