This dessert soars! Truly.

If you read Blue Cayenne regularly, you know that I have a love affair with plums. I can’t be sure, but I think I would choose plums if I were stranded on a dessert desert island. That and vanilla ice cream and a good Malbec.

This recipe is from a dessert cookbook co-authored by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh. You remember Ottolenghi, of course. I’ve written about him a number of times on Blue Cayenne. He is the Israeli-born London superstar chef and restauranteur with five best-selling cookbooks and a unique way of incorporating Middle Eastern flavors into mostly vegetarian-forward dishes. Goh is a Malaysian-born Austrailian-raised chef who has worked with Ottolenghi for ten years as the lead product developer for his food businesses. (She also has a Ph.D. in psychology!) Together, they have written a dessert cookbook titled Sweet. You can buy their book here.

Today’s Blue Cayenne recipe post is for an Almond Butter Cake With Cardamom and Baked Plums from the Ottolenghi/Goh book. The forward to the recipe recounts Goh, then pastry chef at Melbourne’s Donovans, searching for an extra- special dessert to serve to two VIP guests at the restaurant. She served this cake with baked Morello cherries to wild applause. Here is my adaptation of that recipe.

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Need a little spice in your life?  (Who doesn’t?)

This spicy pozole soup should do the trick.

Pozole is the Spanish word for hominy. Hominy is a traditional ingredient in Mexican cooking. It’s use, in fact, dates back to the kitchens of the Aztecs when maize (or corn) was a sacred plant.

Today, pozole is cooked as either a soup or stew and is served as a special treat on celebratory days–Christmas, birthdays, Mexican Independence Day, etc.

If you are wondering how hominy differs from plain corn, hominy is prepared by treating dried field corn kernels in an alkali bath of lye or lime. This process is called nixtamalization. The treatment softens the corn removing its hull and germ. The remaining corn kernels swell. The resulting product is easier to grind and the grain of the corn sticks together when mixed with water making it possible to make masa for tortillas, tamales and other Hispanic foods. The alkali treatment also processes the niacin (vitamin B3) in the corn so that it is more digestible. In ancient times, the process also kept the corn from sprouting and allowed it to be stored for extended periods.

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This recipe is adapted from one that appears in the April 2019 issue of Eating Well Magazine. You can find the original recipe here.

Ever considered making your smoothies in your washing machine?

I didn’t think so.

Apparently others have. ABP, a Hindi news station in India, has reported instances where Indian smoothies, lassis, have been bulk produced in washing machines. HSBC , the British multinational banking and financial services holding company, even distributed a cute advertisement about the practice. You can see it here:  HBSC Lassi Washing Machines.

So, why am I bringing this up? Smoothies have been on my mind lately and I’ve been enjoying a lot of them as breakfast drinks.  I recently came across a recipe for Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt and I couldn’t wait to give that recipe a try.

A lassi, if you are unfamiliar with the drink, is an Indian smoothie made with dahi (yogurt) and water.  Indian sources are hazy about the ancient origins of the drink but not hesitant to tout its virtues. Lassi is claimed to have Ayurvedic healing properties, calming the mind and healing the body. Devotees credit the probiotic drink with everything from cooling you down on a hot day to aiding the digestion of heavy food.

The drink is a blank, creamy canvas for all sorts of variations including spice-laced lassis, sugared ones, and fruit-based ones like mango lassis. Sometimes there are other additives, too. Anthony Bourdain, ever the food adventurer, was able to seek out a lassi (a bhang lassi) laced with cannabis in Rajhastan. He recorded the experience on his program, No Reservations, and joked that he wanted a “wake up in the morning…what the hell happened?…where is my passport? these aren’t my clothes” kind of experience. Funny tragic man.

Here is the recipe for Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt. It is as delicious as it is beautiful.

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This recipe is adapted from one that appears on the Serious Eats site here.