Mango, Orange and Nectarine Smoothie or Soup

Posted August 6, 2013

Filed under breakfast, dessert, fruit, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

A typical American Breakfast often includes, bacon, eggs, hashbrown and biscuit. But is it something that most people eat?

I know in France we basically eat bread, jelly, and “biscotte” pour le petit-dejeuner. Sometimes we will eat madeleine, pain d’epice and croissant for breakfast, but that is not the norm. A few of us will also eat fruit, cheese and maybe a yogurt. My mom, she would eat herrings and sardines for breakfast. YUK!!! Some children will eat cereals.

I am pretty sure that we do no eat/drink smoothies… I drink them now from times to times, because they are easy to make, can be swallowed in a seconds and are easy to digest.

Last week, I bought tons of fruit with the intentions of making smoothies for my morning snacks ( since my trainer suggested that i eat every 2-3 hours) so i have been making a few here and there.

I drank this one today and it was very yummy;-)

I would personally serve it as a dessert in a martini glass at the end of a summer dinner. Light, fruity and easy on the stomach.

Ingredients for 2 servings ( or 2 full glass):

1 fresh mango peeled, and cubed
the juice of 2 oranges pressed
1 nectarine

Peel all the fruits and place them into a chopper or in a a mixer.
Press until the mixture is smooth.
Pour into individuals glasses, decorate as you wish and enjoy;-)

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Tropical Oatmeal Breakfast

Posted June 7, 2013

Filed under breakfast, deep flexipan, Eating experiences, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

School has been over for about a week for me, and I will tell you: I am liking it😉 It is nice to wake up a bit late, not being on any type of schedule and do whatever I want to do. This week has been all about recharging and resting. For many people, recharging may mean different things, but for me this means going to the gym, cook, read, and hang out in my backyard. And this is exactly what I have been doing. I know.. I have not been much productive, but we have to recharge sometimes, right???

Well among the things I have been doing, one has been of course playing in my kitchen. This week, I have been playing with my breakfast. I wanted to add variety to this boring oatmeal i am trying to eat so today I will share with you my Tropical Oatmeal.

Ingredients for 2-3 :

1 fresh mango sliced and cubed.
1 fresh coconut or about 1/3 cup of coconut flakes toasted
1 cup of oatmeal
1 cup of coconut milk,
1 cup of regular milk ( I used Fat free Lactaid)
1 tsp of Pure Madagascar Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp of Muscovado Brown Sugar ( Raw Brown Sugar from the Mauritian Islands- to be found in special grocery stores)

Turn the oven to 475.
Place the diced mango into a bowl and sprinkle 1 tbsp of the Muscovado brown sugar. Stir to coat the mango with the sugar.
Empty those diced mangos onto a deep flexipat that you would have placed on a perforated sheet. Set aside.
If you are using some fresh coconut, shave some coconut ( about 1/3 cup or even less) with a potato peeler and lay it on the flexipat as well.
Cook both in the oven for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the cooked oatmeal. Place the oatmeal, the coconut milk and the milk into a medium-sized bowl and cook the oatmeal for 3 minutes in the microwave. Watch that the milk does not boil over. It will start rising at about 2 1/2 minutes.
Stir and set aside to let the oatmeal expand and cool. I don’t like when it is too hot…
Add the vanilla, and 1 tsp of brown sugar and stir.
Divide the oatmeal equally in 2 or 3 portions in individual bowls. Then add the cooked mangos, and the toasted coconut to each bowl.
Sprinkle some Muscovado Brown sugar over the fruits, and you may even want to grate more fresh coconut.
Eat up;-)

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

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Mango, Raspberry and Coconut Sorbet Star

Posted January 13, 2013

Filed under Fleximolds, fruit, ice-cream. sorbet, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

On Christmas eve, I am always in charge of desserts. This year I made a chocolate Buche de Noel, but I also brought a mango, raspberry and coconut ice-cream cake. It is yummy, refreshing and it is light to your stomach. You can make your own sorbets. I usually do, but this year I ran out of time so I just bought good quality sorbets.

This is a very quick dessert to make, but because you are softening the ice-cream, make sure to do the day before or to provide enough time for the ice-cream to freeze back.

I used those 3 flavors because they are some of my favorite ice-cream, but of course you can duplicate this recipe with any flavors sorbets or ice-cream.

Ingredients for 8 individual star ice-cream cakes:

1 pint of mango sorbet ( I chose Talenti Gelato)
1 pint of raspberry sorbet
1 pint of coconut ice-cream

Ingredients for 1 star mold ice-cream cake (serves 8):

2 pint of mango sorbet ( I chose Talenti Gelato)
1 pint of raspberry sorbet
2 pint of coconut ice-cream

Let the ice-cream stand for 30 minutes at room temperature or use the soften option of your microwave.
First soften the raspberry sorbet, and scoop a big tablespoon of the sorbet in each opening of the star mold.
Place the mold into the freezer for 30 minutes.
Soften the mango sorbet and scoop the ice-cream on top the raspberry sorbet. Place the tray back into the freezer for another 30 minutes.
Repeat step 4 for the coconut ice-cream. The
Then place the tray in the freezer for at least 4 hours.

Serve as it is, or decorate the plate with various syrup and fruit. Be quick because the ice-cream or sorbet softens very very quickly.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Fast and Yummy Mango Smoothie

Posted January 4, 2013

Filed under breakfast, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Smoothies have never been a favorite of mine. Perhaps because they did not feel me enough, perhaps because they often looked complicated to make, and I never had all the ingredients to make them. Well it all changed this week. For some reason, my traditional breakfast did not suit with me this week. I did not feel like eating toast, or scrambled eggs or anything else really. But as a firm believer that breakfast should not be skipped, i scouted my fridge for something to eat. Fruits did not appeal to me… so what???? I had bananas getting brown and that’s when I decided that instead of wasting them, I could use them for a smoothie. I will tell you that I did not follow any recipe here, I just used what I had on hand and threw things here and there in my mixer.

Ingredients for 2 tall glasses:

1 large banana
1 mango ripe
1 cup of milk ( almond, coconut or regular ) I used skim lactaid.
2 tbsp of brown sugar, or honey, or agave.

Place all ingredients besides the sugar in a mixer.
Pulse
Add sugar if you deem it necessary
You may add more milk if you wish to make your smoothie more liquid.

You can substitute any fruit to the mango. One day i used strawberries, another day I used blueberries.

The recipe makes 2 tall glasses, so you can either share with a person in your household ( i did with my daughter Lisa one day), or you can keep one for snacks ( I also did that several days in a row.) Thos smoothies are very filling, and I was fully satisfied ans satiated. Give it a try, it is a nice healthy option for breakfast. Now I am a smoothie addict;-)

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Fun Summer Fruit Carpaccio

Posted August 30, 2012

Filed under dessert, fruit, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Among your friends or family, do you have any people who do not like chocolate, or cream, or simply desserts? I have a few of them. It does not matter to me if my guests want or not want dessert at the end of a meal but the issue becomes delicate when you are hosting a seat down dinner and you know that a person in the audience does not like dessert. What do you do? You can’t exactly serve the rest of the table with dessert and ignore the other ones. What you can do is either propose a choice of dessert ( highly improbable) or just offer a dessert that consists mainly of fruits. It is difficult to think of anything fun and exciting to serve… You could serve a fruit salad, a fruit soup or even a fruit carpaccio. They are easy to make, and they look great.

For 4 people: 1 whole mango, 16 strawberries, 20 raspberries, 1/2 cup of blueberries, maple syrup to drizzle.

Cut and chop all the fruits individually. Then use some fun plates ( squares work the best), and make lines of chopped fruits as shown below.

Drizzle the fruit with good quality maple syrup. Et voila!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Fish or Chicken Taco Bowls

Posted July 26, 2012

Filed under entree, Fleximolds, meat, poultry, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, seafood, vegetables, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

What to eat when it is 100 outside??? light and easy fare that takes no time to cook. This recipe was inspired by a recipe from the Demarleathome website. I simplified the recipe so it would not take 15 minutes to cook but only a few minutes;-)

Recipe for 4 people: 4 soft Mexican tortilla shells (white or whole wheat), 2-3 tilapia or catfish filet, 1 mango ripe but firm to touch, 1 large avocado ripe but firm also, 1 lime, 2 tbsp of chopped cilantro, salt, pepper, 1/2 cup of italian bread crumb such as panko, 1 egg, 1 tsp of demarleathome zesty Mediterranean Herb blend, 1/4 of boston lettuce chopped, 1/2 cup of greek yogurt or fat free sour cream.

Take the large round mold tray and lay a tortilla in each opening. Set aside.

Cut the fish in small strips and place them in a bowl. Add 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of pepper, 1 egg and stir well to coat the fish with the egg mixture. In another bowl, add 1/2 cup of panko breadcrumb and 1 tsp of zesty mediterranean herb and mix well. Take the fish out of the bowl, and place the fish strips in the bread crumbs. Stir well to coat the fish with the bread crumbs. Place the fish strips on the silpat and cook in the oven for 4-5 minutes in an already warm oven of 400. At the same time, place the large round tray in the oven also to cook the tortillas.

While the tortillas and the fish strips are cooking, prepare the salsa. Peel the mango and the avocado. Slice and cut in small cubes the fruits. Place those cubes into a large bowl. Add the zest of a lime, the juice of a lime, 1 tbsp of chopped cilantro, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of pepper to the fruit and mix well.

The sauce/ dressing: mix the sour cream/ or the greek yoghurt and 1tbsp of cilantro and mix well.

To serve, place each tortilla cup on a plate. Fill the cup with about 1/2 cup of chopped lettuce. Top the lettuce with about 1/3 cup of mango/avocado salsa. Place the fish on top of the mango salsa and add a dollop of the sour cream mixture. C’est tout!!

NB: if you don’t like fish, you may substitute the fish with chicken. Tenderize 2 chicken breasts, cut the chicken strips into small strips and coat the chicken with the pank mixture as explained above. Cook the chicken for 6-8 minutes at 400.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Curry Shrimps over Mango and Green Peppers

Posted July 22, 2012

Filed under appetizers, entree, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, seafood, shrimps, silpat, stainless steel cookware

My brother-in-law came back from Hilton head yesterday, and brought me some fresh shrimps, big ole large shrimps. I could have just season them with olive oil, salt and pepper but I had seen that cute recipe in one of my cookbooks entitled cuilleres de Frederic Barque that I had to try. The mixture of the green pepper and mango sounded so refreshing that I had to try;-)

Ingredients for 2-3 people: 1 lb of large shrimps or about 27, 1 mango, 1 green pepper, 1 sweet onion, salt, pepper, olive oil, 2 tbsp of white balsamic vinegar, 1 garlic clove peeled and crushed, the juice of 1 lemon, 1/4 tsp of yellow curry, 1/4 cup of sour cream, 1 tbsp of chopped chives.

Peel, devein and rinse the shrimps. Place them in a bowl and season the shrimps with 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of pepper, 2 tbsp of olive oil, the juice of a lemon and 1/4 tsp of curry powder. Stir and place the shrimp in the fridge to marinade. Meanwhile, cut the mango and the green pepper in very titsy tiny cubes.

Take a medium-sized frying pan and heat up 1 tbsp of olive oil. When the oil is warm, add 1/2 of an onion sliced. Stir and cook until the onion is becoming golden and transparent. Then add the mango, and the green pepper and saute them for a few minutes. Season with salt, pepper. Add 2 tbsp of white balsamic vinegar, and mix it in. Bring the mixture to boil . When the mixture has come to boil, lower the temperature and cook for a few minutes (2-3). Meanwhile, cook the shrimps. You may cook them in the oven on the silpat for 6 minutes at 400, or you can grill them onto a hot grill for 2 minutes on each sides.

To serve, place a few tablespoons of the mango mixture on each plate and top it up with the shrimps. I served about 8 shrimps per person. In a small bowl, mix the sour cream with the chopped chives and place a few tbps of this mixture on each plate atop the shrimps as seen on the picture below. Et voila.

You may also serve single bit portion as shown on the very top picture. Great Appetizers!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Fillo Cups with Mascarpone Mousse and Mango Fruit Salad

Posted April 27, 2012

Filed under dessert, Fleximolds, fruit, Mousses, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

Ahhh Spring… Finally. I am so ready for all the wonderful fruits that it brings such as strawberries and berries and melon…As far as desserts, I am more of a chocolate fan, but I love fruits too! My favorite desserts with fruits are those where the fruits are served as they are, uncooked and au naturel. I love fruit tarts, vacherin ( icecream and meringue cake on top of which fruits are added), pavlovas. The problem with some of those desserts is the time that it takes to make them. When I have time, I love to make them but since I am often limited with times, I have to find desserts that are fast, look great and that taste yummy.

There is so much you can do with mousse and fresh fruits but I was thinking of something for my cooking class that would be very easy and that would not involve too much time. Fillo dough is that magical medium that allows you to do all that. It is so light that it takes no time to cook. It is so easy to mold into what you want your desserts to look like that using something else. Finally it is so light and airy that it almost becomes transparent and let the fruits shine since it is not empowering the dessert.

Ingredients for 12 people or 12 cups:

1 cup of heavy cream,
1/2 container of mascarpone cheese at room temperature,
2 tbsp of maple syrup for the mousse, and more for drizzling
1 cup of fresh strawberry,
2 mangos peeled and diced thinly.

Use only one package of the fillo dough and place the rest back into your freezer.

1. Take the fillo dough out to thaw it out.

2. With some scissors, cut squares of about 2 1/2 inches.

3. Take 3-4 sheets and layer them inside each cupcake hole.

4. With a pastry brush, brush some melted butter or olive oil on the sides of each of those cups, or use a oil spray and spray the cups.

5. And bake those cups at 375 for 5-8 minutes or until they become golden brown.

6. Meanwhile place the heavy cream in a large bowl and with a whisk, beat the cream until it starts forming soft peaks.

7. Add the mascarpone and beat well.

8. Add 2-3 tbsp of maple syrup and beat well again.

9. Spoon the cream mixture into each cup.

10. In a large bowl, mix the diced strawberries and the diced mangos. Spoon the fruit salad over the cream and drizzle more maple syrup over the cups and fruit. Devour!!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Easy Dessert or Snack: Tropical Fruit Salad.

Posted January 31, 2012

Filed under fruit, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

I cook most days. Sometimes though things happen that makes it difficult to have dinner in a timely fashion. Tonite was one of those night. I had been running all day and all evening and had so much work to do still that I told my husband he would be on his own as far as his dinner. Me? I was not very hungry but was craving something fresh and light. I did not want to just eat a fruit, too boring and so unappetizing… I had some kiwis, mango and those wonderful persimmons in my fridge and though I had bought them to make a tropical dessert of some sorts, tonight they looked like a very appetizing dinner;-) and so this is what I had: Tropical Fruit Salad.

For two servings: 1 whole mango, 2 kiwis, 2 persimmons. Peel all the fruits and dice them in small cubes. Place them in a small bowl. Add 1 tsp of turbinado brown sugar and stir. You may also add 1 tsp of flavored rhum. Yum! Et voila!!!

This was such a treat!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

Mango and Lemongrass Pie- so fresh…. and so yummy!!!

Posted September 15, 2011

Filed under fruit, Recipe with Demarle Cookware, Tarts and Pies, What's Up in Cecile's Kitchen

I had a few mangoes left, and I wanted to make sure to use them before they went bad. But what to do?!?! I had made a fruit salad, a sorbet, so the next step was making a cake or a pie. I chose to make a pie since they are somewhat lighter to eat than cake. There are so many mango pie recipes out there that I really did not know which one to use. So this recipe is the amalgam of several recipes. I love tarts but don’t get to fix them often since noone here eats desserts with fruits, I have to wait for dinner parties, or cooking classes to make those recipes. Thanskfully, it was my son’s birthday this week-end so I had a reason to make one;-) There was going to be chocolate cake for them, and mango pie for me and a few other guests!!!!

This recipe is a bit long, since I chose to make the pie dough ( much much worth it), but it is a different pie dough as it includes dry coconut and this makes the pie amazing!

Ingredients for the dough: 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 125 g of of cold butter, 1/2 cup of dry unsweetened coconut, 1 tbsp of sugar.

In a mixer, place all the ingredients above and mix until the dough sticks together. You may need to add water if needed, but I did not feel it needed it. Place the dough on the roulpat, and roll out the dough to fix the tart tray. You may not be able to lift the dough as it may be too soft, so roll the dough within you roulpat, and place in the fridge for 5 minutes. Take the dough back out the fridge, lift it off the roulpat and place onto the tart tray. Poke the dough with a fork to eliminate any air pocket that may form over the baking. Place a wax paper sheet over it, add dry beans and cook in a warm oven at 375 for 10-15 minutes until the sides of the pie are turning golden. Remove the dry beans and the wax paper and let cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the pie. You will need: a container of already prepared lemon grass ( in the organic section of your grocery store), 1 1/2 cups of whole milk or skim milk ( if you are cutting down calories). 4 eggs, 1/2 cups of sugar, 6 g of gelatin, 3 to 4 mangoes, brown sugar ( I used turbinado, because it has a great flavor).

In a small saucepan, pour the milk and the content of the lemon grass container. Bring to boil, and remove from the stove. Let the milk mixture cool and infuse for an hour. In a small cup, place the gelatin and pour 2 tbsp of cold water. Let the gelatin absorb the water. Strain the milk from the lemon grass, and bring to boil again. Add the gelatin in the milk and stir to melt the gelatin. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until the eggs turns whiter and have doubled in volume. Add the warm milk to the egg mixture, and cook at low temperature until it thickens and coat a spoon. Pour the cream onto the tart and let it cool down. Meanwhile, cut the mango in small cubes that you will spread randomly on top of the cream. Before you serve, drizzle 4 tbsp of flavored rum over the pie, and sprinkle the turbinado brown sugar. Caramelize the tart with a torch. You can unmold the pie out of the tart tray, or use a plastic knife to cut slices off the tray. Serve with a side of whipped cream. Enjoy!