Summer/Fall Fruit Salad

We made fruit salad with the addition of herbs from the garden.  We had Pineapple Mint, Lemon Balm and Stevia.  Students could choose any combination of fruit and herbs to make their own signature fruit salad.  The fruit choices were Figs, Apples, Grapes, Watermelon, Honeydew, Persimmons and Limes.  At least half the students ate figs for the first time and quite a few also had their first taste of persimmon.

Nectarine Jicama Salsa

We were lucky to use the first Passion Fruit of the season from the Peralta Gardens. We included the juice in a Nectarine and Jicama Salsa.  The recipe as usual is more guidelines then exact amounts.  Use what you have and tastes the way you like.

2 White Nectarines (Peaches or Yellow Nectarines are fine also)
1 Cup Jicama
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
1 or 1/2 Jalapeño Pepper
2 Tablespoons Chopped Cilantro
1 Tablespoon Passion Fruit Pulp or Juice
Salt to taste

Cut the Nectarines and Jicama into small pieces.  Mix everything together and enjoy.

Chayote

Chopping Cucumbers

The intersection of a fourth grade class reading a book that included curries and a great harvest of Chayote developed into an wonderful cooking event. The class worked together to make Chayote Coconut Milk Curry, Cucumber Raita and Fresh Carrot Chutney.  We also had rice and apple, peach chutney.  The cumber raita was pretty close to this recipe but we added some crushed garlic.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cucumber-raita/


The carrot chutney included - 
2 Grated Carrots
1 Tablespoon Grated Ginger
2 Tablespoons Grated Fresh Coconut
1 Tablespoon Chopped Cilantro
1 Jalapeno Pepper
1 TablespoonFresh Lime Juice
1 Tablespoon Palm Sugar or brown sugar

Salt to taste  
(These quantities are approximate)

Grating Coconut                                

Grating Carrots

Chopping Mint 

The Chayote Curry is from 'Indonesian Street  Food Secrets' by Keith Ruskin Miller.

1 lb. Chayote

1 Tbs fresh grated turmeric or 2 tsp. dried
2 cloves garlic
2 shallot
1 tsp. soy sauce

1 Tbs oil
1/2 cup coconut milk

Peel and cut the chayote into 1" x 2" pieces. Saute the spices in oil for 2 minutes.  Add the chayote and a little water, cook for about 5 minutes.  Add the coconut milk and salt to taste and cook until the chayote is tender about 10 minutes.

The original recipe also includes 2 hot chili peppers but we did not include them.

Enjoying our cooking

Passion Fruit Shave Ice

The yard at Peralta has a prolific passion fruit vine that is just starting to ripen.  The kids sometimes call them snot bombs, because they are filled with greenish yellow slime but they have a wonderful sweet, tart taste and delicious aroma.

We cut them in half and scooped out the seeds and pulp and then drained the pulp and added simple syrup.

I had shaved a bag of ice with an electric ice shaver but we had a few hand held ones that we used also. We poured the syrup on the ice and added some pomegranate seeds for additional texture and color and started to dream about what else we could use to make shave ice.

Passion Fruit Shave Ice with Pomegranate Seeds

Apple Cake

We have been making apple cake all week so I thought someone might be interested in the recipe.  The recipe that I use at home is from Saveur, and the cake that I make at school is a based on this recipe. http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Apple-Bundt-Cake

When we bake it school it is not very precise, maybe one group uses 1 cup of apples and another group uses 1 1/2 cups depending on how much grated apple stays on the table and how much goes into the batter so this recipe is more a guide then a strict formula.

2 Cups  Flour

1  teaspoon baking soda

1  teaspoon baking powder

1  teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

3/4 sugar

2 eggs

3 - 4  grated apples

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another.  Mix the wet into the dry, the batter can be stiff, pour or scrape into a greased 9" x 12" pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes until it feels firm and pulls away from the sides a little.

APPLES

Kids usually like to eat apples, we made it extra fun by covering our apple slices with whipped ricotta and honey and using raisins and grapes for features.

Strawberry Orange Salad

Cutting the Oranges and Strawberries

The filling for the crepes was so delicious that we had to make a fruit salad with strawberries and oranges.  I don't usually think of these two fruits together but they compliment each other nicely and the end of the orange season is the beginning of the strawberry season so it makes sense.  Strawberries have been wonderful for the last few weeks and we have been using them as much as we can.  You don't really need a recipe for this just cut up strawberries and oranges and mix - some tangerine segments are a nice addition.