Fresh Pick: Green Mangoes

After the Christmas season and the chilly wind and cold weather that it brings, the next most-awaited season for Pinoys is the summer. I am not a beach bum, though I love the water and the scenery, my incapability to swim and my not-so-beach-worthy physique kind of hinders me from being one, hehe. But as a foodie, one of the best perks summer could offer for me, is the availability of those summer fruits. My father-in-law bought a few parcels of land in Bulacan a couple of years back, the land came with a number of fruit-bearing trees, and other plants, and we're already reaping (literally, hahaha) the benefits of it all.

Photo below is that of the apple-mango tree in the backyard, adjacent to the dirty kitchen, I wasn't able to take pics of the other trees as the sun was blazing above me and I'm kinda not your regular happy sunny camper, I am more of a happy shady couch potato kind of person *grins*.

I'll do it next time...

Buco Salad

Ingredients:

• a can of fruit cocktail
• a small jar of kaong
• a small jar of nata de coco
• fresh coconut (buco), shredded
• condense milk
• all-purpose cream

Procedures:

• Just mix all the ingredients together in a wide canister, seal with a lid and refrigerate.
  
• You can serve it cold or frozen, it all depends on your preference.

Note: Keep in mind that the sweetness of a dessert lessen when you freeze it, so if you plan to serve your buco salad frozen, be sure to make it sweeter.

Buko Pandan

Note: I know it's not the yummiest picture you've ever seen but I just snapped that as we were preparing our Christmas feast, so please bear with it.



Ingredients:

• buko (young coconut), cut into strips
  
• all-purpose cream
• condensed milk
• tiny tapioca balls (optional)

*** for the gelatin:

• gelatin powder (if you can find a green-colored one, better)
  
• pandan leaves
• water
• green food color
• sugar (optional)

Procedures:

• Ratio of ingredients - In a mixture of 6 young coconuts and 1 big tray of green gelatin, I used 2 tetra packs of all-purpose cream and 2 cans of condensed milk, the quantity of tapioca balls depends on you, you can put as much or as little as you want.

*** for the gelatin:

• In a cooking pot, mix 7 cups of water and gelatin powder, when it completely dissolves, add a few pandan leaves (be sure to clean the leaves thoroughly) and then cook in medium heat. Add the green food color if you happen to buy a clear gelatin but if you have it in green, just let it be. If you want to add some sugar, you can do so. Simmer for a few minutes and then bring it to a boil, remember to stir from time to time as it might stick in the pot if you don't.
• Pour the gelatin mixture in a shallow tray or baking dish and let it cool. Cut into cubes and set aside.

*** for the actual buko pandan:

• Mix all the ingredients (preferably in a big plastic canister with cover so you can freeze it), buko strips, gelatin cubes, tapioca balls, all-purpose cream, condensed milk.
  
• Taste test and do the necessary alterations if there's any.
• Chill and serve cold.
  

Tip: If you're going to serve your buko pandan frozen, I suggest you leave the tapioca balls out, it is fun to eat when it's gummy but when it's hard, it's kinda unappetizing.


An entry to:

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Fruit Salad (kids-approved)

Ingredients:

• fruits, cut into different shapes (I used bananas - circle, apples - square and rectangle, pears - triangle, papaya - square and diamond - that's all the fruits I had when I made this), I suggest sweet mangoes and seedless grapes
  
• all purpose cream, chilled
• condensed milk, chilled

Procedures:

• As you cut the fruits in their respective shapes, do dunk them in cold water to prevent browning.
• In a bowl (a punch bowl would be nice) mix the chilled all-purpose cream and condensed milk until both ingredients are infused together.
• Throw in your preferred fruits, mix softly up until all the fruits are well-enveloped in the cream and milk mixture.
• Serve in a bed of crushed ice. Or you can put it in the freezer overnight and served it hard and icy the next day.
  

My son is not a veggie and fruit person, he only eats a selected few so I need to be creative in order to make him eat, or at least taste those that are not included in his elite list. And when I saw him ate a few chunks of those triangle pears and square papaya together with his all-time favorites, bananas and apples, I knew I succeeded, at least for a while *grins*.