If I wanted to make a game out of searching for inconsistencies and missing information, I’d steer you to the new cookbook Eating Clean in Costa Rica. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a lovely warm-hearted read, filled with excellent recipes that you’ll want to try. But it’s reliably missing or contradicting information left, right and center. Test your editorial skills. Get a copy and practice figuring out what needs to be clarified. Then, when you’ve finished analysing, test out a recipe or two. This first one was a huge hit. (The next one is extraordinary – subscribe to Jittery Cook now so you don’t miss it!)
Fruit Compote
- 1 lime, juiced and zested
- 2 oranges, juiced
- 4 oz raisins
- 2 T honey
- 1 t each cinnamon, powdered ginger, vanilla
- 1 large mango, cut into strips
- 2 apples, peeled, cored, sliced
- 2 pears, peeled, cored, sliced
- 1 c dried figs, halved
- 2 cloves
- 2 – 3 T slivered almonds, toasted
- fresh mint, chiffonade
In a small bowl, add half the orange juice to the raisins and allow them to rest for 1 hour.
In a small pot, over low heat, simmer the remainder of the orange juice, lime juice, zest, honey, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla and cloves for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large ovenproof pot, or a tagine dish, combine apples, pears, mango and figs with honey sauce. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes. Add the raisins and orange juice, and cook 15 minutes more. Serve garnished with toasted almonds and mint chiffonade. Serves 8. Delicious on its own, or with yogurt or ice cream. Can also be served atop steel cut oats or quinoatmeal.
For a wonderful breakfast covering all the bases, try this combo:
Amazing Breakfast
- 1/4 c cooked steel cut oats ( freshly made or pre-cooked and reheated)
- 1/3 – 1/2 c Fruit Compote
- 1 t each ground flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, toasted almond flakes
- 1/2 t each sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds
- 3 each mulberries, goji berries
- 2 T 2% Greek yogurt
Combine all ingredients and enjoy!
Quinoatmeal with Fruit Compote
- 1/4 c tricolor quinoa, rinsed
- 1/4 c steel-cut oats
- 1/2 c milk
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 1/3 c Fruit Compote, garnished with toasted slivered almonds and mint
Combine oats and quinoa in a small pot and add 1 cup of boiling water. Let it sit overnight.
Bring oats and quinoa to a boil, add milk and salt, and simmer, stirring occasionally until mixture thickens to preferred texture. Top quinoatmeal with Fruit Compote, garnished with toasted slivered almonds and mint.
Fruit Compote and Breakfast Recipes Print Ready Recipes
Final notes:
- Quinoatmeal idea was spawned here.
- Eating Clean in Costa Rica is a yoga retreat cookbook labour of love.
- And speaking of yoga, these Liforme mats are clearly calling out to all serious yoginis with cash to burn.
- On a more serious yoga note, please read this request from my yoga teacher Barrie Risman:
Dear friends,
Imagine you have back pain. Now imagine you live in rural Africa and have back pain. In the first scenario, you get a paid leave from work and access to care. In scenario 2 your family might not eat, your child might be pulled from school to do the work you no longer can, and your humble means of filling the family coffers become impossible. Your community (stretched to it’s limits) cannot take care of you. Your life and the lives of those who rely on you are in jeopardy. This is the reality of spine issues in the developing world.
This April I will be travelling to Botswana with World Spine Care as co-director/creator of the Yoga Program. Along with Vancouver teacher Erin Moon and World Spine Care’s Clinical Director, Geoff Outerbridge, we will be introducing Yoga as a healing modality and pain management technique to the medical community of Botswana.
We will then go to the WSC clinic in Shoshong to teach local clinicians and community volunteers to be YOGA TEACHERS for Back Care and Pain Management. This is very different from the western model of TT as it is specific to the local culture and the mandate of WSC. We will be giving a skills in chair/wall postures, breath and mindfulness techniques to local people who will in turn help their neighbours who are suffering from back pain, as part of the rehabilitation program offered at the clinic.
Please consider supporting this very worthwhile initiative to bring yoga to communities most in need. Here is how you can help:
- You can donate directly to World Spine Care (specify that it is for the Yoga Program) – http://www.worldspinecare.
org/ - Yoga teachers: you can have your studio donate the proceeds from a class or series of classes to WSC. It is a 501 3c and a tax write off in the USA and Canada.
- We also need help with ANY and ALL connections to Yoga publications where we can get articles published to draw more awareness to what we are doing. Message me if you have any leads.
We have enough money to send one of us and we need enough to send us both without dipping into WSC meagre funds (which are used to do things like set up the clinics, pay for surgical scholarships for local doctors (who then come back to serve their communities as the trade-off) and so much more. Thank you so much for your time and attention!
Barrie Risman
My favorite time to eat fruit – at breakfast. Your recipes look delicious.
I also start everyday with fruit. Thanks for liking! You are too good to me Jovina!