Amazing Ambrosia Salad aka Food for the Gods!

OK, so if I ever wrote a book about simple dishes that look complicated, this would be the cover-page! It tastes DELICIOUS! Takes less than 2 minutes to prepare.. if you are fast at opening canned fruit.

I never heard of this salad before, until I saw it being served at work for brunch. I never knew what was in it exactly but ate bowls and bowls of it. I later investigated and found out it was only 5 ingredients: coconut shavings, sour cream, pineapple, marshmallows and mandarin oranges.

I then looked up where it originated and this is what I found:

"Ambrosia. The food of the gods in classical mythology. The term may mean food in the narrow sense of eatables, in which case it is the counterpart of nectar, the drink of the gods; or it may mean food in the wider sense of sustenance, when it embraces drink also. What the gods were actually supposed to eat is a matter of conjecture. In the English language any especially delicious food may be called ambrosia; but this usage has become uncommon."

---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 14)

No wonder they named it this. Its amazing.

Remember, its equal parts of each ingredient.

1 cup diced pineapple

1 cup canned mandarin oranges

1 cup sour cream

1 cup mini marshmallows

1 cup sweetened coconut shavings

Gently mix together equal parts of all the ingredients and... its ready!

Usually I decorate it with a round pineapple in the middle, oranges around it and cherries lining the bowl.. But I didn't have much fruit left today.

Hope you enjoy this salad, its perfect for the summer. Great dish to bring to a bbq as well!

Seafood Risotto in 20 minutes

So I received this over-advertised kitchen tool as a gift yesterday, and decided to try it out. I must say the infomercial with the infamous Sham wow guy whatever his name is, draws my attention everytime.. I just can't look away. Same withe that couple making a 5 course meal with their Magic Bullet. Well, it's not as great as it looks. Maybe I'm just not strong enough but my wrists are sore from punching that thing down! It did cut the onions pretty quick, but then I had to wash it for 10 minutes because they got stuck in the blades. I will probably use it to make fruit salad in the future, as its softer and I usually make a large portions of it so it does same time peeling and cutting fruit.

Anyway, on to the recipe!

What I used:

4 medium sized sweet onions

3 cups of fish stock

1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

2 cups Arborio rice

Olive oil

Assorted Seafood

In a saucepan, heat up olive oil and brown the chopped onions in it.

Once the onions are done, pour in the rice and let the olive oil coat each piece.

Let it simmer on medium heat for 2 minutes then slowly start adding the fish stock to the rice.

Add the stock half a cup at a time, and let the rice absorb it before pouring in more.

I turned the heat down a bit for this process, it may take longer but the risotto will be more flavourful and moist as the stock won't evaporate as quickly.

Add in the seafood and Parmesan after a cup of stock has been added. I usually pre cook the seafood a little, so it doesn't undercook.

Garnish and serve hot. I like to have it on its own, but you can also serve it as a side!