Thai Basil Lime Aqua Fresca

Great cooking ideas many times arise from the abundance of ingredients. Pickles are one great example. This drink is another. I have posted my Thai basil fried rice mentioning that this is the best year for Thai basil since I have lived in Austin. I owe it to my beloved husband to turn our beautiful and nutritious compost and get our soil ready for each planting season. I also owe it to heavy rainfalls we had this year, including an amazing one today that dropped the temperature by 20 degrees.

There are many delicious recipes for aqua fresca out there including many from Matt at MattBites. I made his cucumber lemongrass (those are also the two ingredients that I have so much of) and it was so light and refreshing. You can probably go wild with it. I also tried cucumber melon, blackberry ginger, watermelon mint and ginger peach. The Thai basil lime is my most favorite. All these ingredients are at your local farmers' market, right now. These ingredients are the reason I long for summer and are the tools for me to get through summer.

The surplus of Thai basil this year inspired me to make this refreshing drink. I harvested 6 pounds of basil from my own garden the other day, six whole pounds. It's so easy and fast to make. You can of course make much less if you don't need to feed the customers at a Thai restaurant like I do.

Thai Basil Lime Aqua Fresca

4 cups Thai basil
1/2 to 3/4 cup lime juice
2 cup simple syrup (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, bring to a simmer or until sugar is dissolved)

put everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Strain it through cheese cloth or fine sieve. Top with sparkling or still water about 1/3 basil lime mix and 2/3 water/sparkling water.

Strawberry Birthday Cake

If you remember my birthday cake post last year, it's that time again. My boy just turned four and he requested a strawberry birthday cake. I am determined to make all of his birthday cakes (as long as I continue to make them) from ingredients I find locally. His request couldn't be more perfect.

Although strawberry season in Texas is short lived, we have frozen some when they were in season just a few weeks ago. I searched for a recipe and came across this Pink Lady Cake from Smitten Kitchen. Deb has saved me many occasions from Graham cracker, chocolate wafer cookies, pineapple upside down cake, meringue cookies (when we had too much egg whites left from making ice cream) and many more. It's apparent that Deb has covered pretty much all recipes on earth (or close anyway).

This time is big because it's a birthday cake. The kind that was requested. This recipe is the only one I found that did not involve cake mix from the box or food coloring (if you choose not to) or flavored gelatin. I ( or in fact Laura, our brand new baker in the house. Glad to have you on board) changed it up by making it gluten free using the recipe of gluten free flour mix from Annalise and Claudia at Food Philosopher. We didn't add Xanthan Gum as we thought it was not necessary. The outcome? Delicious and fluffy cake with no gluten in it.

I am not a gluten free girl but I am allergic to wheat products. I have exercise-induced anaphylaxis. I will puff up like an elephant and may end up in an emergency room on a bad day or scratching myself like a little monkey on a good occasion. Or, I have to sit on the couch after eating wheat products and nothing will happen. I always made a joke about how I can't dance and drink (especially beer) at the same time. I have to either drink and be seated and smile or dance and pretend that I am drunk so people won't mind that I dance so crazily. The emergence of gluten free products and ideas came as a life saver for me. On occasions, I still dive into wheat products and make sure I don't go running.





The celebration is not complete without action figures and this year his choice was Iron Man and Spiderwoman. There was no party, just a small gathering of mama and daddy and a few employees and it was a super sweet moment. The cake was delicious and I could totally taste strawberry in it. Who said pink is for girls?




Strawberry Birthday Cake
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

cake
4 1/2 cups gluten free flour (6 cups rice flour, I used white rice flour, 2 cups potato starch and 1 cup tapioca flour)
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pureed frozen strawberries
8 egg whites (thanks for helping us getting rid of our egg whites, again)
2/3 cup milk
1 to 2 drops beet juice (I just freshly juice the beets for this.)

the cream cheese frosting (we cut the frosting to 2/3 of the recipe but this is the full recipe. The calories in cream cheese freaked me out a little)
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons beet juice

Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter three 9-inch round. Line with parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix to blend the ingredients. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk and beet juice, if using, to blend. Add the whites to the batter in two or three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans.

Bake the cakes for 30 to 34 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the layers to cool in the pans for 10 to 15 minutes. Invert and turn out onto wire racks and peel off the paper liners. Let stand until completely cooled before assembling the cake, at least an hour. (well, we didn't have that much time, so, our frosting kind of melted a little but it was still pretty good)

Make the cream cheese frosting

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, beet juice (if you would like your frosting pink) and then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Laura added beet juice to the frosting by accident so we just went with pink frosting which turned out perfect. We used left over white frosting to decorate the cake.

Frost and assemble the cake

Place one cake layer on a cake board or platter. Spread about 2/3 cup frosting over the layer, spreading it to the edge. Repeat with the second layer. Add the top layer and frost the top and sides of cake with remaining frosting.

Green Mango Salad w/ smoked salmon

I had this delicious hot smoked salmon sitting in my fridge for a while and didn't get to it. Hot smoked salmon is salmon that is smoked with heat for 6-12 hours and is cooked all the way through. Joe, who used to be at Sunset Valley Farmers' Market back when I started in 2003, brought this in a while ago. His smoked salmon is out of this world. He was doing it to raise funds for Texas River School that he started in 1992. Read more on the school and see some photos also on Austin American Statesman. Now, he only does it for friends and we are glad we are one of his circle. Joe found us when we just opened. He would bring in smoked salmon and trade for Thai food. We of course went for it.

I am a busy woman, you know, running a restaurant, weeding the garden and raising a four year old, I sometimes left things in the fridge until some great ideas came up to make it with. Naomi, our employee, mentioned I should probably use those smoked salmon. It took me one whole night to think what I could do with it. I had made salad w/ greens and all but I didn't want to do the same thing. In the middle of the night, I thought of this most-requested-but-I-never-made-it salad. Perfect time of the year to find green mangoes so I got some.



Usually, this green mango salad is tossed on top of crispy catfish. But I don't eat farm catfish, which is pretty what you see at the grocery stores these days, and I thought smoked salmon would be perfect for it. I got some mangoes the next day and made this delicious salad. Green mangoes around here is never a true green mangoes. The inside is always a little yellow. Once in a while, I would find some green mangoes that are still super green inside, and of course crispy.

When picking green mangoes, you want it to be very firm, not even a little soft. It will make shredding it easier. Also, if your mangoes are firm, your salad will keep better. I like mine actually with a little yellow flesh. Although the mangoes were a little too soft for me, the flavors were perfect, a little sweet, a little tangy.



You can shred these two ways. You can follow my instructions on shredding the papaya from this recipe or you can get one of these Kiwi ultimate shredder from Thailand. It's perfect for green papaya and it's perfect for green mangoes. It works with carrots too. I'm sure you can also find them at some Asian grocery stores too.





I also tried to make the salad with cucumbers. It's the perfect time for cucumbers because they are pretty much everywhere at the farmers' market. I have a few growing in my garden. De-seed the cucumbers and cut them into match sticks. Cucumbers have more water, so it's best to eat it right away. I love it both ways. I think it will also work with carrots or anything that is firm. Beets should work wonderfully except that you will probably end up with red dressing. I love beets, so I never really mind that it stains everything.



Be creative and try different things. Add different kinds of nuts to it, cashew, almond or pecans . You can also fry the nuts before adding them to the salad or you can just use toasted nuts. If you choose to fry the nuts, blanch the nuts before frying to prevent the nuts from burning.

This recipe is pretty a guesstimate of what I did. Feel free to add a little more of that or a little less of this to adjust it to your own liking.

Green Mango Salad w/ smoked salmon

2 cups shredded green mango
1/4 cups thinly sliced shallots or red onions
1/4 cups any kind of toasted or fried nuts (I used toasted peanuts)
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/4 cup shredded smoked salmon

dressing
3 tbsp lime juice (more is using cucumbers or carrots)
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 minced Thai chillies
1 tsp sugar

Put everything in a bowl and toss. There you go, you have it.