food & photography
My life has seen a short yet sweet and vibrant serendipity, just like these sweet and saffron colored vibrant mangoes. And I need to tell you all lovely readers, the reason for this sweet happening. After all, it is all your love and appreciation, which I have been blessed with, all these years. …
So we wanted to go out and spend the entire day on weekend in a farm or some park or even near a river, if possible. Because it is spring officially for us. Winters are long gone and it’s definitely the time to step out. Sun is rising and shining with cool breeze flowing through the ears. Such immense pleasure to soak up all that positivity which this bright and sunny weather brings along with it! I had been waiting for this weather eagerly and lots of ideas were playing on my mind since then. I wanted to make lots of picnic food and bake those lovely fruity summer berry cakes. But rarely the things go the way you would have thought them to happen! It wasn’t different anyway this time too. Friends had plans of their own for almost during the entire Spring season. And I couldn’t wait. So, I baked these lovely strawberry & almond friands, bottled some fresh milk, tucked in some seasonal juicy berries, a bottle of jam, a flask of tea and few books to read and of course a dear friend to share this joy with me. Though we couldn’t find a river but we got ourselves this beautiful airy and sunny solace in the middle of a farm nearby, where we soaked in the beauty of greener fields. It was a dream which we lived through our entire day in that farm, munching on to these yummy berry cakes, reading books, and soaking up sun.
While I got a little late in posting this recipe by few days, it is still not that late. As you’d still be able to find the last of persimmon fruit this season, somewhere tucked on the shelves of your local fruit merchant. Persimmon make their appearance although for a very short time during the months of fall season, them being the sturdy fruit with longer shelf life, they tend to stay for sometime. At least good enough for you to make something delicious out of them. Last year we enjoyed them with some yougurt and homemade granola, served in small tumblers, just as a healthy alternative to an indulgent parfait. I baked this indulgent persimmon maple upside down cake a couple of weeks back, but I couldn’t get time to publish this on the blog. Persimmons are not new to us. We’ve been enjoying these sweet pulpy fruit every year from a very long time now. On my recent trip to mountains, we enjoyed them a lot too. You’d find them in plenty on mountains, where they call it Ramphal in local language. The ones I bought were quite firm,which would be good to be baked in a cake or a pie. The recipe is from a book called Indulgent Cakes, which I bought recently. The beautiful pictures made me swoon over all the recipes in the book. While I found the pictures quite awe-inspiring, I found the recipe measurements slightly off. The proportions of butter and sugar to flour appeared way more indulgent to me, than I would generally prefer. So, I cut them down slightly and I found the final outcome perfectly sweet for my tastebuds. I would still like to try few more recipes from the book, before I come to any conclusion. To be honest, I really liked the combination of flavors which have been brought together. This has got maple syrup, persimmon, pistachios and semolina. Quite unusual pairings, yet very tasteful.
