Cook Share and Feast

Ingredients:

• 1 lb apple (granny smith would do good)
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons butter
• Grated rind of 1 orange
• ¼ cup fresh orange juice
• 1 cup mixed berries (blackberry and raspberry)
• Pinch of cinnamon

For the crumble topping

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup crushed almond (I used slivered almonds which I crushed with my hand)

Method:

• Pre heat oven to 350F
• Peel and core the apples and thinly slice them and then cut each slice diagonally into 2 pieces
• Add butter to a skillet and when it starts sizzling add apples and brown sugar and cook on low flame until apples are slightly cooked (make sure apples does not become too soft and mushy)
• Mix in the grated orange rind and cinnamon.
• Spread the apple mixture into a baking pan and sprinkle the berries on the top
• Pour orange juice all over the fruit mixture
• To make the crumble topping, mix flour and butter until they become like coarse bread crumbs
• Mix in sugar and crushed almond
• Spread the crumble mixture over the fruit base
• Press the topping lightly
• Bake for about 45 minutes or the crumble topping is lightly browned

• Note: if the topping does not turn brown, increase the temperature to 400F and leave for about 5 minutes or less to get the topping browned
• Yields: 5 – 6 servings as a dessert
• Serve topped with a scoop of ice cream or with fruit topping.  You can also serve this with a spoonful of custard

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh cherries pitted
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup castor sugar
• 2 whole eggs + 3 egg whites
• 1 oz unsalted butter melted
• 1 cup milk
• Pinch of salt

Method

• Pre heat oven to 350 F
• Butter generously a 9 inch pie plate
• Arrange pitted cherries in the plate in one layer
• In a bowl sift flour and add sugar and salt
• In a separate bowl beat eggs lightly and add milk and melted butter and mix together
• Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour the egg-milk mixture and mix well until free of lumps
• Pour this over the cherries and bake for about 45 minutes or the pie is golden and risen

Yields: about 6 servings

If you need a last minute dessert, this is the one.  This is so easy to make and you can use any combination fruits you have.  You can use fresh fruits, canned or even frozen fruits.  But the fresh ones give a better taste as usual .  I made this recipe with some left over berries I had in my  refrigerator.  I had blueberries, raspberries and a few black berries.  Also try a different version: tropical fruit cups where you can mix fruits like mango, banana, papaya, and kiwi.  Instead of raspberry jam add a little bit of honey.  Use cashew nuts instead of walnuts.

Ingredients

• ½ cup mixed berries
• 1 tablespoon raspberry jam
• 6 or more phyllo cups
• Cool whip or vanilla ice cream for topping
• Chopped walnuts toasted (optional)

Method

• Chop berries into very small pieces
• Mix with raspberry jam
• Toast the phyllo cups about 3  minutes in a toaster oven (be careful since these cups turn brown very quickly) and let cool for a few minutes
• Add a small amount of fruit mixture into the cup
• Top with a dollop of ice cream or cool whip
• sprinkle with chopped walnuts

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I wanted to make this fruit salad completely with tropical fruits (mango, papaya, pineapple, banana etc).  Since I couldn’t get any good papaya I replaced papayas with apple.  But this fruit salad tastes really good with papaya.  Also adding passion fruit puree gives a very nice flavor.  If fresh fruit is available, its pulp can be used in this recipe with or without the seeds.  Seeds of passion fruit gives a nice sour and cruncy taste on desserts.

I have never seen fresh jack fruit in the New Jersey area.  May be some specialty stores may have them.  But canned will do the work quite well.  These canned jack fruit can be bought in Indian grocery stores.  I used canned jack fruit for this recipe.  Here is a picture which shows jack fruit flesh

Ingredients

• 1 ripe mango
• 1 medium ripe banana
• ½ golden delicious or any other sweet apple
• 4 – 5 pieces of Jack/Jak fruit flesh
• 2 tablespoons passion fruit puree
• 7 – 8 cashew nuts roasted and finely chopped
• Scoop of vanilla ice cream

Method

• Cut all the fruits into very small pieces and mix well
• Add passion fruit puree and mix and refrigerate for about 1 – 2 hours before serving
• To serve, add fruit salad mix to a bowl and add a scoop of ice cream
• Top with roasted cashew nuts

Yields; 2 – 3 servings

This is a very light and refreshing dessert especially for the hot summer.

Ingredients

Panna Cotta:

• ¾ cup vanilla flavored low fat yogurt
• ¼ cup 1% milk
• 1 envelope gelatin
• 2 tablespoons boiling water

Fruit Topping:

• 4 oz strawberries
• ½ cup water
• Sugar

Method

Panna Cotta:

• Lightly grease 4 ramekins

• Beat yogurt and milk together
• Add gelatin to boiling water and dissolve completely
• Add the dissolved gelatin to yogurt mixture and beat well
• Pour them into ramekins and refrigerate for about 2 – 3 hours or until set

Fruit Topping:

• In a saucepan add water and strawberries and cook for about 10 minutes
• Mash the strawberries with the back of the spoon

To un mould, place the ramekins on a hot towel (towel dipped in hot water and squeezed out) and un mould on a serving plate.  Top with fruit topping.