Churros with Mango and Strawberry Dips

Aaaaah churros! Who doesn't love some good old churros? Greasy, sugary goodness. 
They always take me back to my very first trip to Spain when I was 8 years old (since then, Spain has become one of my favourite countries to visit). My parents and I drove around the stunning region of Andalusia - a region famous for its sherry, horses, flamenco, beautiful cities and not to forget the region's probably most celebrated son - Pablo Picasso. 

We visited quite a few cities during our time there, but the one I remember the best (strangely enough) is Jerez de la Frontera. I might just remember it the best, because we did the most sherry tasting there... Imagine an 8 year old, pale as paper girl running from one bodega to another in the crazy hot August weather. It was a rather memorable stay for me and let me tell you - now I know my sherries! Not that I could take part in sherry tasting sessions back then (to be fair, I was allowed to take a nip of the one or the other glass of sherry), but I still remember a bit of what we were told at Sandeman, Tio Pepe & Co.

Anyways - what was memorable as well was breakfast in Jerez. We never had breakfast at the hotel, simply because my parents wanted to experience the city of Jerez, rather than the hotel's continental breakfast (that's actually a great tip for anyone who likes to travel IMO), so we used to go to the city's market hall in the morning- "Mercado Central de Abastos".   It's just as amazing as probably most other Spanish mercado - lovely flair, food and people. 

In the market there's a little booth that was selling freshly fried churros tossed in cinnamon sugar. Believe you me from the first bite on I was in love with this deliciousness and it went on to be our -or at least my- breakfast for the rest of our stay in Jerez. 

I for one prefer to eat churros without any dip at all, just sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar and I'm good to go. I've tried them dipped in chocolate sauce once it honestly destroyed the whole dish for me...but that might also be, because I just don't really care for chocolate (oh God, have I just given away my biggest secret?!). 
The only thing that I could see myself enjoying was dipping the churros in something light and fresh, something that kind of "breaks" the richness of the churros, not enhances it. 
So I came up with 2 yummy dipping sauces - a mango/ ginger dip and a strawberry/ lime dip.

Now, heat up the oil, listen to some Paco de Lucia, pour yourself a glass of sherry and get cooking!:-)

xoxo
Agnes

Churros with mango and strawberry dipping sauce

serves 4 

Ingredients:

Churros:

1 Cup (250 ml) water

1 Cup (160 g) all purpose flour

½ Cup (110 g) butter

3 eggs

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Oil for frying

Cinnamon Sugar:

¼ Cup (40 g) sugar

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

Mango Dip:

1 mango

½ tbsp honey

¼ tsp ground fresh ginger

1 tsp lime juice

Strawberry Dip:

1 ½ Cups (300 g) fresh (or frozen) strawberries

1 tbsp honey

juice of ½ lime and

zest of 1 lime

Method:

1. In a medium sized pot, bring water and butter to a boil. Stir in the flour and keep stirring quite vigorously until all the flour is incorporated and there are no more lumps.
2. Take the pot off the heat and add in the eggs. Stir after each egg until it’s fully worked into the dough. Finally, whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla.
3. Fill a pan with oil (you want it to be about half-full) – for frying the churros. Using an icing bag, pipe the batter into the hot oil and fry until the churros turn a nice, golden brown colour.
4. Drain off any excess fat by placing the churros on a paper towel.
5. Mix sugar and cinnamon, then toss the churros in the sugar mixture.
6. Place all the ingredients for the mango dip in a mixer and blend until smooth. Do the same for making the strawberry dip. Alternatively you could use a hand-held blender or a fork.
7. Churros are best served warm.

NO-CHURN STAWBERRY-LIME ICE CREAM and HOMEMADE ICE CREAM CONES

My favorite kind of ice cream is strawberry ice cream (that and the little known "fiocco" which is essentially just straight up frozen heavy-cream with a ton of sugar. It's abnormally delicious and also happened to be Ingrid Bergman's favorite ice cream flavor. Didn't know that? You're welcome. Yes, she's the chick from "Casablanca"), because it's that perfect blend of sweetness and fruitiness.
The awesome thing is that you can make the most delicious strawberry ice cream yourself using just 3 (or 2, if you don't care for the lime) ingredients, your blender and your freezer. It's just THAT easy. Nobody needs an ice cream maker, come on! Unless you're planning on opening an ice cream parlor in the future, I don't see the need of buying a bulky machine that you're probably gonna use less than 10 times a year. Seriously!
Be that as it may, also ice cream cones -surprisingly- aren't the most intricate food you can make. By working with what essentially is similar to a crêpe batter, you can make your own, delicious cones.

For this recipe I'm adding lime to the mixture, as it gives the whole thing a subtle tart flavor.
Honestly, you could do many more variations on this recipe, the only ingredient you should keep in the mix is the condensed milk. I for one can only recommend making strawberry+cherry ice cream by simple replacing the lime with frozen cherries. Another flavor worth a try - apple+cinnamon (peel the apple before chopping it up and freezing it).
Also, you can OF COURSE keep both of these recipes completely vegan. Want some delicious vegan strawberry lime ice cream? Just replace the condensed milk with dairy-free condensed milk (which you can easily make yourself btw, I've got a recipe I'll share with you soon) and you've got yourself a lovely vegan treat for a hot summer day. As for the ice cream cones - instead of dairy milk you can use (you know the drill) any plant based milk and in place of the eggs you can use my favorite "faux eggs" -  "chia eggs" (for 1 egg take 1 tbsp ground chia seeds and 3 tbsp water, stir and let the mixture sit for about 5-10 minutes). You're welcome ;-)


STRAWBERRY LIME ICE CREAM 

Ingredients:

350g frozen strawberries (I'd recommend letting the strawberries thaw for some 15-30 minutes, just until they're not rock-hard anymore. I feel like slightly defrosted strawberries make for a smoother result)
100g condensed milk
zest of 2 limes
juice of 1 lime

Method:

1.  Put all the ingredients in your mixer and blend for about 1 minute on "high". Have a taste - if it's too sweet add more lime juice, if it's too sour for your taste add in some more condensed milk.

2. Transfer the mixture into a container and put it in the freezer. If you're planning on serving the ice cream that very day I suggest you stir it every 30 minutes or so, otherwise it WILL become hard as stone and you'll have to let it thaw for up to 30 minutes until you can serve it nicely.


ICE CREAM CONES 

 Ingredients  (makes 7-8 cones using a 6 inch pan): 

2 eggs
60g (1/3 cup) granulated white sugar
60g (4 tbsp) melted butter (at room temperature)
40g all purpose flour
1/4 tsp ground vanilla (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
2 tbsp milk
 a pinch of salt
flavorless oil for baking

Method:

1. In a bowl whisk the eggs and the sugar. Add the butter, milk, vanilla, flour and salt and mix until well combined. Let mixture sit for a minute. The mixture should still be quite liquidly, quite like a pancake batter.
2. Heat a (preferably non stick) pan to medium heat. Brush it with oil. Reduce heat to low, then pour in about 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan, immediately tipping and rotating it to spread the batter nice and thinly.
3. Let the "crepe" cook for about 2 minute or so, until you see the edges turn a light brown colour. Then flip the crepe and let it cook for another 30-45 seconds. Keep an eye on your pancake now, the batter gets burnt easily.

4. Once your cone-to be is fully cooked, transfer it onto either a smooth surface, or as I like to do it, a wire rack. You have to shape the cone while the crepe is still hot, so get your fingers ready for some hot stuff;-)
5. Form the cone and leave it to cool off. If everything was done right, the cone will become completely crisp within a few minutes.

 music: Morning stroll

 Josh Kirsch; Media Right Productions;

Like what you see? Follow me on twitter @headoverfood :-)

~♥Agnes

 

The perfect Red Velvet Muffin!

So, with Valentine's Day upon us the idea is obvious to post a recipe for something that somewhat has a "romantic" appearance, right? Once you can't get the romantic theme out of your head you're already thinking of love and what's the colour of love? Right! Red! What's red.... Actually the first thing that came to my mind weren't strawberries, raspberries, not even a bloody steak recipe was amongst my first thoughts! Haha. Well, anyways, what I was thinking of right away were Red Velvet Muffins! You might think now: Red Velvet Muffins? No Red Velvet Cupcakes? 
Don't get me wrong - I like cupcakes, I really do, but as of now I've got a bit of a "cupcake trauma". All the latest cupcakes I tried -not only the ones I made myself, but also those that were storebought- were incredibly sweet. The one and only thing that they tasted of sugar. So I'm on "team muffin" for now. Not for long, I hope (actually I KNOW, since there are so many yummy recipes to try that I won't be able to resist for too long). Then again, muffins are such a delicious treat an can be just as good, if not even better than cupcakes (just think of raspberry-streusel muffins!!*sigh*).
Now, you also can take this recipe say as a "cupcake base", as it's really delicious not only by itself, but also with any kind of frosting you like (a banana frosting for example, one of my favourites).

Here we go! Hope you like this red, chocolatey goodness just as much as I do:)

INGREDIENTS (makes 12 muffins)

85 g butter (3/4 stick; unsalted)
175 g granulated sugar (3/4 cup)
1 egg 
1 1/4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
190 ml milk (3/4 cup)
220 g all purpose flour (1 3/4 cup)
2 tbsp liquid red food colouring
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
 *note: all ingredients should be at room temperature
1)

Preheat your oven to 200°C (350°F). Put the butter and the sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer (if you don't have one, you can always use a hand mixer) and cream together, starting on low speed, when the butter and the sugar are roughly mixed together already, gradually turn on high speed, for about 4-6 minutes, or until mixture looks light and almost fluffy.

2)

 Put in the egg and mix together for another minute or so. 

3)

 While beating in the egg, take a small bowl and combine the cocoa powder, the food colouring and the vanilla, stiring the mixture until it's got a paste-like consitency. Then mix the "paste" into the batter -on medium speed- teaspoon after teaspoon. Keep on beating the mixture for another minute or two, just to make sure you end up with a smooth batter, without any cocoa-powder-lumps. Use a spatula to occasionally scrape batter from the sides of your mixing bowl.

4)

 Put the salt into the milk. When the cocoa powder paste is blended in, alternately mix in a bit of the milk and a bit of the flour (about 1/4 of the milk or the flour at a time), on low speed. Mix until the batter is smooth.

5)

 In a glass, put in the baking powder, then put in the apple cider. It will come to a reaction and bubble. Give it a stir and mix it into your Red Velvet batter on medium speed.

6)

 Either butter your muffin tray, or put some lovely muffin liners (there are so many beautiful designs, it never ceases to amaze me) in the forms. Now spread the batter into the forms, until each form is about 3/4 full (~1 heaped tablespoon). Bake for 17-20 minutes (to check if the muffins are ready to be taken out and enjoyed, take a toothpick, stick it right into the middle of one muffin and if it comes out clean, your muffins are done!), take them out of the oven, let your muffins cool completely and you're ready to indulge in these perfect, red velvet muffins! You can store them for 4-7 days:)

Happy Valentine's Day!