Mango Sour Cream Soup

Spring is always time for new experiments. For a person who spends a lot of time at home, what's better than exploring new recipes?

After attending a potluck last week, i have yet to manage to use up all my sour cream. Frankly, i don't know whats got into me when I purchased this in family-size - Granted it was probably on sale, this is simply too much "fat" to put into one dish at once.  Now i am juggling through recipe ideas to figure to a creative way to use them up, well, eventually. 

Never daunt on me mango and sour cream will be a good combination, but the mango in my fruit basket happened to be ripe, juicy and very ready to eat today.  Normally i would just eat the mango as fruit by itself, but it turned out incorporating the mango into a creamy soup isn't bad, either.

i like this soup, but it is a bit dense and very rich. Small bowl of this soup is more enough to get that fulfilling sensation.  Maybe i should go with light or low fat version of sour cream and then dilute it with more milk to get that lighter texture next time?

Also, this soup is meant to be served chilled, yet i have hard time convincing myself to drink cold soup.  I decided to microwave for a good one and half minute and well, i couldn't call it better, but warm soup is more normal in my opinion.

Ingredients:

• one big size mango, peeled and seeded
• 1.5 cups of milk ( i used 1%)
• ½ cup sour cream
• Juice and zest of 6 or 8 kumquat
• 1 sprig fresh basil, minced

Get all the ingredients in a blender and puree till smooth, then ready to eat!


**this receipt is adapted from Champagne Mango.**

Baking kind of afternoon

Initially i was going for a loaf of bread based on a recipe i found here, but it turned out i don't have that fancy kind of dutch oven, and unwilling to purchase one just for the sake of an impulsive baking session on a Saturday afternoon, i switched gear and went with a fast and easy lemon sponge pie. I get to prepare, bake, and eat them all within 2 hours. Yes, efficiency is the key ingredient in my cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup milk
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked

Preparation:

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, lemon zest, lemon juice, milk, and egg yolks. Gently fold egg whites into mixture. Pour mixture into pastry-lined pie pan. Bake lemon sponge pie at 350° for 40 minutes, or until done.

Here comes the lesson I learned:
beating egg white with a pair of chopsticks are just morally wrong.
Do you know how long it takes to beat the white to "stiff peaks form"
After more than 30 minutes of intensive workout, my arm is sored, my neck is tense, and honestly, I just don't care about stiff peaks form at that point. I think it looks good enough and dump it in the mixture, but we all know well it would take another good 15-20 mins of good beating to get to that stage of perfection. I gave up voluntarily and told myself there will be no more baking until I steal an egg beater from my parents' house next time.

How does it taste, though?
texture was ok. For an inexperienced person like me, i wasn't sure what a sponge pie looks like, so i take what I can get, and it doesn't look bad, either. However, for some odd reason I forgot to add the sugar, and I didn't find out about this missing ingredient until half way through the baking. Since it is too late to fix anything, i sprinkle some brown sugar on the top to make it sparkles. All I can say is better luck next time because i will be sure to add the sweet.



all set up and ready to for their steamy bath at 350F.


you will be so much better with sugar. *sigh*