Sasha's Kitchen: Mango Salad with Mint Vinaigrette

Mango and mint go together so well.  I love making this salad, which is a simple mango goat cheese salad with a minty vinaigrette, which I have always referred to for some reason as my "mighty mint" vinaigrette.  It has a fresh, mint taste, along with a bit of a tropical aura.  This is an easy salad to make on a weeknight, and is always satisfying.  I've been under some external stressors lately that have been cutting into my cooking energy but this is a meal that's healthy which I can make even when I'm busy dealing with other things. 

Sasha's Mango Salad with Mint Vinaigrette

1 mango, diced

fresh mixed salad greens

pecans, either halves or chopped

4 oz crumbled goat cheese

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp meadow honey

2 T diced mint

1 tsp mustard

2 T red wine vinegar

Assemble the salad with the mango, greens, pecans and goat cheese.  Combine the mint, honey, oil, vinegar and mustard for the dressing and shake well. 

Sasha's 

Sasha's Kitchen: Mango Salad with Mint Vinaigrette

Sasha's Kitchen: Passover Mango Noodle Kugel

For the second night of Passover, I thought I would share my recipe for kosher for Passover noodle kugel, a Jewish version of noodle pudding made with gluten-free Kosher for Passover noodles.  During Passover, Jews cannot eat any leavened bread for eight days to commemorate the fact that they did not have time to wait for bread to rise when they escaped from slavery in Egypt.  This extends to pasta, hence special gluten-free Kosher for Passover noodles were used in this recipe.

This kugel recipe can be made two ways, either with or without half a cup of sugar.  If you use the sugar, it will be sweet like a conventional noodle kugel, but without the sugar, it is more of a noodle kugel with a bit of fruit - but without a residual sweetness.  Therefore, I have left the sugar optional in the recipe, depending your preference.  In addition, you will find that most noodle kugel recipes use cottage cheese rather than ricotta cheese.  I always use a combination of ricotta and non-fat sour cream because I simply detest cottage cheese and it is one of the few ingredients that I refuse to incorporate into any recipe (a trait I apparently picked up from my mom who also hates cottage cheese).

Sasha's Kosher For Passover Mango Noodle Kugel
Two boxes of Geffen Kosher for Passover gluten-free wide noodles
1 1/2 cups non-fat sour cream
1/2 cup sugar (optional)
1 mango, diced
1/2 cup raisins
16 oz skim milk ricotta cheese
1/2 stick of butter, melted
6 eggs

Preheat the oven to 375.  This is quite simple to prepare.  Simply prepare the pasta and combine in a bowl with all of the other ingredients.  Put in a large casserole dish and bake for about 45 minutes until golden brown.   Serve warm.

Sasha's Kitchen: Passover Mango Noodle Kugel

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Cakes With Green Apple & Beets With a Spicy-Sweet Green Apple Chutney

For our dinner last night, I experimented with a new crab cake recipe that turned out to be quite delicious.  For the crab cakes, I used a number of fruits in the actual crab cake that I feel go well with crabs.  The idea was to have the crab be one of many flavors, and not necessarily a dominating flavor.  The fruits that I selected to incorporate into the crab cakes were mango, green apple and beet.  However,

I was not looking to create an overpoweringly sweet dish, so I incorporated a fusion of Indian spices and a little bit of smokiness into the crab cakes to temper the heat from the mango and green apple.  It worked - the crab cakes were flavorful, but not particularly sweet, though they did have little pockets of sweetness here and there (mostly when you bit into an apple), but as a whole, they were not sweet.   The chipotle puree adds a smokiness that tempers the sweetness, but does not add any heat.  The crab cakes also had a beautiful magenta color, thanks to the beets.

Every time I cook with beets (which isn't all that often, to be honest), I forget the reason I do not normally cook with beets.  They turn everything in their path magenta.  This is something to keep in mind when you make this recipe, for sure.  Even one beet has its way with turning everything in your kitchen magenta if you are not careful.  

I decided to serve these crab cakes with a sweet, but also spicy chutney.  In the past, I have made Tabla's green apple chutney, using the recipe from the New York Indian-American fusion restaurant in the cookbook, One Spice, Two Spice.  For tonight's recipe, I used Tabla's chutney as a reference, but modified the recipe (also using a variety of indian spices) to create my own green apple chutney.

I actually don't eat a lot of Indian food.  I generally find the dishes too heavy.  However, I love cooking with Indian spices in my own cuisine, for a fusion of Indian and American traditions.  My approach to American cooking often incorporates this fusion approach with other ethnic cusines.  I actually consider this to be true American cooking since America really is a melting pot of its cultural influences; so is American cooking.

Sasha's Green Apple & Beet Crabcakes

2/3 pound of Lump Crabmeat

1/2 cup diced green apple

1/2 cup diced mango

1/2 cup diced onion

1/2 cup diced beet (cooked first, by boiling)

1/2 tsp curry

3 tsps chipotle puree 

2 eggs

2  tsp pistachio oil

2 tsp canola oil, plus more for frying

1/2 tsp cumin

1 T diced chives

About 2 cups panko bread crubs

To prepare the crabcakes, saute the apples, mango, onions beets (which need to be cooked by boiling in a pot of water for about 25 minutes first), pistachio oil and spices in a tablespoon or two of canola oil, until all of the fruits and onions are soft.  Take off the heat and beat in two eggs.  Mix in the crab meat.   Then dredge and coat the crab cakes in the panko bread crumbs.  The next step is to cook the crab cakes by frying them with canola oil.  Cook them for long enough on both sides so that they are cooked through.

Sasha's Green Apple Chutney (Adapted From Tabla's Original Recipe)

3 green apples, peeled and diced

1 1/2 cup apple cider

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

cinnamon stick,  1 T dried pomegranate seeds, and 1 star anise (put in a tea bag or cheesecloth sachet)

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/8 tsp black salt

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp lemon juice

I love making chutneys, ever since I discovered tropical chutneys as a kid (my first was jerk chicken with a mango chutney).  They always have a jam-like consistency and every chutney that you will make includes the basic ingredients of a fruit, a sugar and vinegar.  To prepare this chutney, simply combine the apples, apple cider and vinegar.  Add a sachet bag with the additional spices and bring to a boil.  Then add the other ingredients and simmer for abut 30 minutes until the chutney has a jam-like thickened consistency.  Add the lemon juice at the end when you take it off the heat, as this helps balance the flavors.  

Black salt is an Indian salt (you can find it at an Indian Market) called Kala Namak that was a carry-over from the Tabla recipe in this dish.  It is actually pale pink in color.  It is often used in chutneys and other Indian condiments to balance out the flavors, even though it has a pungent oder prior to incorporating it into the dish.  Dried pomegranate seeds are also available at most Indian markets.

Serve the crab cakes with the chutney on the side, with diced chives.  This dish paired nicely with a beer called Domaine DuPage from the Two Brothers Brewing Company, a Chicago-based brewery, that we picked up at Bierkraft.   This beer is a French-style country amber ale with hints of caramel and a light floral finish.

Crab is one of the ingredients of the month on A Kitchen In Brooklyn.  For another crab cake recipe, click here.  For my crab couscous, click here.

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Cakes With Green Apple & Beets With a Spicy-Sweet Green Apple Chutney

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Couscous with Green Apple, Mango, Saffron and Lemon

Crab is one of the featured ingredients of the month for February here on A Kitchen In Brooklyn.  For the first crab recipe, I decided to use some fresh lump crabmeat from my local fish market (unfortunately, I was not able to obtain king crab) and decided to prepare a couscous dish.  The crab was not intended to be the star of this dish, but to be featured as one of several complementary flavors.  There are several foods that I think make spectacular food combinations with crab.  These include green apple, tamarind, lemon, avocado, beets, sugar snap peas, snow peas, mango and eggs (not all in the same dish, of course).  I look forward to experimenting with different ways of presenting crab this month.

For my couscous, I decided to complement the crab with some tang/tartness, so I selected green apple, lemon and mango, and also threw in the sugar snap peas.  I added the saffron because the couscous needed a bit of a pick me up, plus it made for a beautiful pale yellow color.  Saffron is very powerful, so you only need a little bit or else it will overpower the other flavors.  The balance of this dish is nice.  Don't forget the lemon at the end, as it adds an important complement and acidity necessary to balance the dish.  This might be one of my best recipes yet, and I'm sharing.

Sasha's Crab Couscous With Green Apple, Mango and Saffron (serves 4)

1 1/2 cups of couscous

1 cup of sugar snap peas (or snow peas, if you prefer)

olive oil (added as described below)

2 diced cloves of garlic

2 T mascarpone cheese

1 diced shallot

1 medium sized mango, diced

2 green apples, peeled and diced

1 lemon, cut into slices

1/8 tsp saffron

salt and pepper to taste

To prepare this dish, I boiled a quart of water and cooked the sugar snap peas until softened (I guess they no longer will "snap").  Then I removed the sugar snap peas and added the couscous to the water.  I cooked the couscous, as per typical instructions, until al dente, about seven minutes.  Then I drained the couscous from the remaining water and mixed with 2T of olive oil.

Next comes the fun part, deciding how to jazz up ordinary couscous to create a new recipe.  I sauteed the shallot and the garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil.  Then I cooked the diced mango and apple for a few minutes, until softened.  Next, I added the sugar snap peas and the couscous and cooked for a few minutes over medium heat, adding the saffron and seasoning with salt and pepper.

Then, I added the crab and the mascarpone to the hot couscous and mixed well, to melt the mascarpone.  (you could substitute butter if you prefer).  

Finally, for presentation, I used a small bowl to mold the couscous, and garnished with some of the purple cauliflower presented in last night's post.  (I don't suggest eating the cauliflower with this dish, its too bitter, but it looks to pretty).  When you are ready to eat, season with some of the lemon juice.  I used a Meyer lemon.

This dish is one I will make again and again.  An aside here, it really bothers me when people eat lousy food (that I have to be present to see or smell).  I don't mean foods I don't like, per se, just poor quality food - frozen meals, bad restaurant food, poor quality ingredients, lots of chemicals that serve no purpose, msg etc...  You're putting this stuff in your body so you should care too.  Food is an art and should be treated as such, without dumbing down our taste buds.  

For another dish with crab, check out my crabcakes prepared using Marcus Samuelsson's recipe from his new cookbook.

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Couscous with Green Apple, Mango, Saffron and Lemon