Spicy Kumquat Chutney

My mom has a kumquat tree in her backyard that produces tremendous amounts of fruit, and since she doesn't eat them, she ends up giving them away. I came home with a huge bag of these beautiful fruits a few weeks ago and decided that instead of making my usual jam, I'd try something different and make some chutney. The process of making chutney is quite similar to making jam or marmalade, except that spices are usually added.

Ingredients (Makes about a cup):
40 kumquats
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon coriander
water
chopped green peppers (optional)

Wash the kumquats and chop them, removing the seeds. This is the most time consuming part.

Place the kumquats in with just a bit of water to just cover the kumquats and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and continue cooking for 15 minutes, stirring every so often.

Now add in the vinegar, sugar, and coriander and bring back to a boil again. Turn the heat back down to medium and continue for another 30 minutes or so until the mixture has thickened. Make sure you keep stirring to prevent burning. You can then add in the chopped green peppers. Because of the kids, I left this out and added them individually to my serving.

Riley's Los Rios Rancho in Oak Glen, California

At the base of the San Bernardino mountains about an hour and a half east of Los Angeles sits a small apple growing community that gives meaning to the phrase "as American as apple pie". One of these apple farms is Riley's Los Rios Rancho, a historic apple farm in SoCal, and this was our destination on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Once you start heading up the lower slopes where Los Rios Rancho is located, you start finding yourself transported into a different world, that of one of a time when things were much simpler. The air is chilly up here, the folks friendly. I wanted my kids to experience the essence of autumn, and I found it here. If you want to pick your own apples, you can come here around the end of August to mid-November, but I wanted the kids to come when the leaves have really changed color. The trees in the orchards were bare at this time, but don't fret even if you come now as the farm's shop have plenty of apples of many varieties to sample.

There's also apple butter of many, many varieties to try out. I couldn't find the white egg and jalapeno one, but I will continue looking on my return trip here. Next weekend is actually the Apple Butter Festival here, so this would be a good time to go if you're interested.

Fresh baked apple pies abound.

C and J got some caramel apples to take home. They were Granny Smiths which are not my favorites, but the kids loved them.

We sampled some cider.

And then we really wanted to press our own apple cider as this handsome hunk was demonstrating, but alas, they had already taken the last group in.

So we settled for fresh already-pressed apple cider. It was absolutely delicious and sweet.

I saw this hound sitting there at the apple cider demo area and just had to take a photo. His little owner said that he's not that bright, but just look at him. By the way, there is a petting zoo and also hayrides offered at the farm, but we didn't have time to do these.

Cooking up some tri-tip just outside of the bakery. Smelled wonderful, but the lines were too long.

Now, like I said we didn't just come here for the food. After a lovely picnic, we took a nice, two hour hike on the trails of the adjacent Oak Glen Preserve. Both this preserve and Riley's are maintained by the Wildlands Conservatory. They've done an amazing job, because look at this beautiful picnic area on the trails that is just beyond the apple orchard itself.

You'll also pass huge Sequoais, pretty ponds full of birds, one of which has this floating dock.

Then as you follow the seasonal stream, you'll enter this deciduous forest. Doesn't it look like something out of a fairy tale or Anne of Green Gables?

On the return trail, you'll walk along a boardwalk through wetlands, which I'm planning to return to in the spring because I've read that there will be butterflies then. We spent a bit of time here on the return trail.

We had our picnic under gorgeous red Japanese maples. In a nutshell, I was in heaven.

How do you and your family celebrate autumn in your neck of the woods?

Riley's at Los Rios Rancho is located at 39611 Oak Glen Rd. #13, Oak Glen, CA (909) 797-1005

Green Mango with Sweet and Spicy Fish Sauce

Last month, a coworker of my mom's gave her this huge green mango (the size of a cantaloupe) to enjoy the way we Vietnamese often enjoy green mangoes. I'm not exaggerating the size either, and as evidence, that whole plate of mango below came from one mango.

There is a lot of confusion regarding what makes a green mango. Yes you can get the more common mango and eat them in their unripened stage, but they can be very, very sour, The mango we got is special because of its characteristics in its unripened stage, although I'm unsure of what exact species my mom got (as many varieties of special green mangoes exist). Even while unripened, specialized green mangoes are tart enough to be tart but not so sour that it makes your mouth pucker, and it has that wonderful crunchiness. As a note, if you leave the specialized green mango long enough, they do ripen to be sweeter, but usually not as sweet as the more common mangoes you'd find in a supermarket, and not as soft either. As least I've never left a green mango to ripen so much that it gets that soft or sweet- they're always eaten by then.

So getting back to how Vietnamese eat their green mangoes. We often dip it in a quick and easy sauce consisting of fish sauce, sugar, and hot chili peppers. The spicier for me, the better, but you can adjust it to your liking.

Recipe for the sauce:
2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2-3 thai chili peppers (or however many you'd like)

Mix this all together to create a thick syrup, and if you'd like it sweeter, add some more sugar.
I've actually tried regular sweet mangoes with this sauce out of desperation for a spice kick, and although not as good with green mango, it's still yummy.

I know there are lots of ways to eat mangoes as a snack, from sprinkling them with chili or drying the sweet version. How do you eat your mangoes, and do you prefer them sweet or tart?

Persimmon and Marinated Salmon Salad

My parents have freaky persimmons. Perfect for Halloween. The first year their persimmon tree produced fruit, the persimmons were the size of cantelopes. I'm not joking. Thinking back I should have entered them into some strange persimmon contest, but I was too young back then to think entrepreneurially. Now the persimmons that the tree produces are smaller, but they are still strange looking and often have these spokes coming off of the main body. Like these....

...and these...

Well, since my parents unloaded some of these freaky persimmons on me, I had to come up various ways to use them up. Now, I also love the Morey marinated, grilled wild Alaskan salmon from Costco and had some on hand, so I had to try persimmon and salmon salad.

I baked half a pound of salmon 400 degrees 20 minutes skin side down. That was enough for 6 servings of salad. You can use any salad and I prefer lots of spinach, but hubby had purchased whatever was on sale, and whatever was on sale was a romaine lettuce/iceberg lettuce/cabbage mix. I'm almost certain that this would taste better with a spinach salad mix.

Dice the persimmons. One to two medium sized persimmons is enough. And you don't need to use freaky persimmons either.

Assemble your salad and serve with ranch or blue cheese dressing. Using a larger portion of the salmon would be great too if you'd like the salad to be a meal in itself.

Has anyone come across persimmons like these?

Jujube Rice Pudding with Cinnamon and Honey

Yesterday, I had some time to come up with a snack for C and J while they were at school and baby R was taking his nap. I don't get too many opportunities like this in the mornings where I have the time and want to cook up something when I can be doing something for myself, like scrapbooking, or blogging. Like I said, I'm a selfish mommy, so don't make me cook more than once a day.

Anyways, so I promised to use up some of those jujubes I posted about previously. Rice pudding was doable enough, so here's my recipe for you to enjoy and perfect a little bit more. I also thought this would be a good submission for the online event Sugar High Friday created by Jennifer (Domestic Goddess). Hosting the event for this month is Anita (Pastry Girl) at Dessert First, and entries call for any sweet dish created using one or more spice.

Simmer about 8 diced jujubes in 1/2 cup water for 15 minutes.

Bring to boil 2 cups milk (I used 2%), 1 cup water, and 2 cups white jasmine rice. Reduce to simmer.

Add the softened jujubes to the rice and milk and simmer for another 20 minutes. Stir now and then, and towards the end, keep a watch out for the pudding. If you find that it starts to get too thick, you can add more water.

Add in 1 tablespoon honey, 1/3 cup sugar, and a 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.

This makes about six servings and can be eaten warm or cold. You can definitely add nuts or raisins as a variation. The next time I make this, I will peel those jujubes because the skin got in my teeth and was quite annoying. But, if you are short of time or are just plain lazy like me, leaving the peel on is fine and is probably healthier anyways. I am thinking about trying jububes with Thai black rice sometime in the distant future. So then, anyone have any other suggestions on cooking jujubes?

Jujube: The Apple Mini-Me

My mom has been giving me bags and bags of jujube from the supermarkets lately, as they are in season this month. When I first tried jujubes a few years ago, I took a look at the brown fruits and thought, is my mom trying to give me food poisoning by giving me over-ripened fruit? The fact is that these fruits start out green and then transition to spotted brown and then brownish red like this. The best time to eat jujubes is when they just turn this lovely brown color. After this, the fruits get wrinkly and not as crisp. Nevertheless, when I first gave C jujubes to try, his reaction was, "Ewwww, they're brown!" I guess he thought that I was trying to poison him too.

Jujubes are also called Chinese dates or red dates, or tao tau in Vietnamese, and are very high in Vitamin C. They definitely taste like an apple and have a core like an apple, but to me they are a little crispier than an apple.

Jujubes can be used in many dishes in various ways, although C and J both like to eat them as is. They are often candied and dried, but I'm planning on making some dessert with them sometime soon for the kids' snacks.

Fullerton Arboretum

A little known gem in SoCal is this little arboretum located on the campus of Cal State Fullerton. The entrance fee is donations only, and the grounds are beautiful with a pond full of ducks and turtles and sometimes other wildlife. There's a cute children's garden, a historical building to tour, and a gift and garden shop. And there are fruit trees and plants galore.

Now, a few years ago, I was admiring the fruit on the trees when I noticed the do not pick sign nearby. But my friend tipped me off to the fact that that policy has been changed, and you are allowed to pick a few fruit. The day we came, the caretaker actually helped us pick some of these gorgeous persimmons. My middle son, J, and I went with my friend and her daughter, and it was fun for both adults and children. Here's our loot from left to right: pomello, pomegranate, a non-astringent persimmon, and an astringent persimmon.

I didn't pick them, but we also saw tons of oranges, chestnuts, and guava, and my friend told me there were apples there a week ago, but they were all harvested by the time we went.

These next two photos are from a previous visit, but here's the historical building next to the pond:

A bird getting its food from the pond (yeah, that's one dead fish):

This year's crop of pumpkins from their very own pumpkin patch:

The Fullerton Arboretum is located at 1900 Associated Road, Fullerton CA (714) 278-3579

Guavalicious Smoothie

Two years ago when most of California went through a severe cold spell, the two guava trees we inherited when we moved into our home withered and browned and almost died from frost. I've been waiting patiently, hoping for our trees to bear fruit again. Finally a few weeks ago my hopes were answered. We now have enough to feed ourselves, our families and friends, and those birds!

I love our guavas. They are of the pink variety. Small, but so soft and sweet and so very fragrant. This afternoon I thought I'd fix a quick drink for the boys, so what better way to use up our supply of guava than to make a smoothie.

Guava Banana Smoothie recipe:

Mix in a blender:
4-5 pink guavas
1 banana
1 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of sugar (or more if desired)

You can certainly strain all of this to get rid of the seeds if you want to, but I usually eat the guava seeds anyways, so I skipped out on the straining. I thought a slice of guava made a beautiful garnish.

Of course you can enjoy the guavas whole...

...or sliced. Look how pretty they are on the inside.

Guavas ripening on the tree: