Citrus & Ginger Cordial

My friend Ben recently gave me a large sack of different fruits. I feared early spoilage, what with limited refrigerator space and only myself to feed, and so set about on ways to utilize at least some of the fruits. Glancing around the net implanted some ideas in my head for a citrus cordial - a syrup mixer for creating drinks. I just made up my own ratios of fruit - I think it would be difficult to mess it up.
Prepare:
-Cut several citrus fruits in half, zest some of them as well. I used 2 oranges, 2 small mandarins, and 5 limes of various sizes-Peel and roughly chop a good amount of ginger
-Measure out about 2 1/2 cups of sugar (I used caster or icing sugar)
Cook:
-Juice the fruit-Mix the fruit juice with the sugar, ginger, zest in a medium pot-On medium-high heat, bring to a boil; lower and let it simmer healthily for a while
-Once it has reduced a bit and started getting more syrupy and viscous, turn off heat-Let cool and then filter out the ginger/zest.
-Store in an airtight bottle and enjoy as you wish
Tips:
-The cordial is quite sweet and so you would only use it mixed with soda water and not anything else sweetened like tonic water. I imagine it will go quite well with alcohol as well. I already used a teaspoon mixed with some boiling water and it resulted in a very nice hot lemon "tea"

Melon Oatmeal

I make smoothies/juices often and usually there some left. I put it in a tupperware and freeze it and then use it to "kick-start" my next smoothie. Somewhere down the line, I was hankering for some oatmeal (I use rolled oats) and thought, "hmm, instead of milk or water, why don't I use smoothie?" I did and it worked.
Yesterday morning I got up, hankering for some oatmeal. I didn't have any smoothie but what I did have was some canteloupe and watermelon. So I did it.
Prepare:
-3/4 cup of rolled oats (1 cup is a big portion)
-about 5 big bite-size pieces each of watermelon and canteloupe
Cook:
-Seed and blend the melon
-In a small pot on medium heat, mix the oats with the melon puree-Cook for about 5 minutes or until consistency you like is reached. If there's too little liquid after a couple minutes, add some milk/water/more puree

Kiwi Sorbet

At the beautiful farmer's market on Saturday, I noticed a stall selling 12 kiwis for $2 (AUD). I thought that that was a bargain and a half and so I did what most shoppers are often compelled to do: buy something simply because of the value, not the need. Well, luckily, I had a brunch I was cooking the next day and so I brainstormed for a use for these kiwi. It was between kiwi jam or a sorbet and I settled for the latter. Most recipes online call for an ice cream machine, which I obviously don't have. The recipe I used was pretty simple, though a little annoying in its manifest, and came out delicious - my guests were most impressed. This makes about 6 servings, pending on how much you eat at a time.
Prepare:
-In a saucepan/small pot, add 1 and 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar and heat on medium low. The recipe said that you shouldn't mix it until it starts to boil, and then let it simmer for 5 minutes. After that, place pot somewhere cool (ie fridge)-Peel 8 kiwis and then puree (I had a little more extra puree for myself with 8... you might get away with 7, I think the point is to have equal parts kiwi and water)-Mix in 1 tsp lemon or lime juice
"Cook":
-Mix pureed kiwi and sugar water in container and place in freezer-About 2 or 3 hours later, once its set a bit, mix it around a lot
-Several hours later, once its fully frozen, mix it again
-Mix it again several hours later
-EnjoyTips:
-I recommend starting making this in the morning. I made the mistake of starting it in the late evening and ended up waking up at 2:30 in the morning (not with an alarm - just my own panic) to beat the sorbet!
-This was great plain... eating it with fresh fruit or mint or champagne or something would be delicious, I'm sure
-Other recipes I saw online suggested seeding the fruit. I don't quite know how one goes around seeding kiwi, but as I like the seeds this wasn't a problem for me

Chocolate Gluten-free Puddings with Custard

I was browsing some women's magazine in the doctor's office a couple weeks ago, searching for recipes as per usual, when this one for Chocolate "Christmas" Puddings jumped out it me: it looked really good and didn't require any wheat-flour. Our discussion tutor has Coeliac's disease and thus needs to eat gluten-free foods. I surreptitiously ripped the page out of the magazine and readied to make this delectable food. Note: 'pudding' in British countries means, essentially, moist cake.
Prepare puddings:
-200g (a bit more than a cup) of chopped dried fruit (I had dates, apricots, raisins, papaya, and apple)-2 tbsp Tia Maria or Kahlua
-1 cup of gluten-free flour (this can be rice, potato, corn, or a mixture
-1 1/4 cup caster sugar
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/3 cup dark cocoa
-200g (1 1/2 cup) butter, melted-3 eggs
-1 12-hole muffin pan, with slots greased and a bit of baking paper on the bottomCook:
-Preheat oven to 180C/375F
-Mix the fruit and the liquor, sit aside
-Sift together the powders in a large bowl, make a well in the middle and-Add eggs and butter, mix well until smooth
-Add fruits and mix till heterogeneous
-Pour batter into muffin tray, leaving maybe 1/2 inch/2cm from the top-Bake for 40 minutes, let cool for 15 minutes before taking out of the tray

Prepare custard (note, this was hectic and thus I was unable to take pictures):
-1/4 cup of honey/golden syrup
-1 cup Tia Maria or Kahlua
-2 1/2 tbsp gluten-free flour
-300 ml of cream
-50g (~1/3 cup) butter
Cook:
-Melt butter in sauce pan/small pot-Mix in flour, cook for 1 minute
-Add the remaining ingredients
-Lower heat to medium low and stir constantly until sauce begins to boil lightly and thickens
-Remove and immediately cover in plastic wrap to prevent skin formingTips:
-You could substitute the mixed fruit for just one of your favorite fruits, to concentrate the flavor. Alternatively if you used half fruit and half chocolate chips, this would turn out much more chocolatey
-Make sure to grease the trey pretty well, as I had a hard time removing the puddings
-Would work great with fresh berries on top
-Do not let the custard actually boil: maintain a level of almost-boiling-ness while stirring
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과일빙수 (Kwah-Il BingSu: Fruit Ice Bowl)

During the summer in Korea, these kinds of dishes are a very popular dessert item to refresh and cool down. Sold in most coffee shops, ice cream parlors, and spas, the exact contents vary but usually accord in a few base ingredients. The most common kind is 팥빙수, Pat BingSu, which has a sweet red bean mixed in. Unfortunately, I didn't have that lying around the house. The other really Korean ingredient that is really necessary is 선식, SunSheek, a cereal powder made from tons of different grains, rice, vegetables, and other dried goodies (website in Korean but a pic with all the contents). If you don't feel like purchasing it, it could be substituted for crushed cereal crumbs/crushed granola/etc. Regardless, it's very easy and tasty and a welcome change from the typical bowl of cereal in the morning.
Prepare:
-Peel and dice the fruits that you like/have: I used kiwi, banana, orange, and dried datesCook:
-Crush several cubes of ice, pour into a large bowl-Add fruit
-Add cereal powder on top-Add 1-2 tbsp of yogurt (I used vanilla)
-Mix up and enjoyTips:
-Other fruits that go well would be strawberry (or any berry), peach, pear, nectarine, or (seeded) grapes
-You could sprinkle some cocoa powder on top for a chocolatey taste, or some crushed mint

Fruit Smoothie

After an early bike ride, there's nothing better than a high sugar, cool, tasty smoothie for breakfast. Smoothies are pretty easy to do: just throw in whatever you have lying around. But I think it's important to keep a balance... crisp-sweet (watermelon, pear) plus tart sweet (citrus), and some milk or yogurt for richness and consistency. Anyway:
2 mandarins, seeded
half a carrot, grated
1 kiwi
1 banana
some fresh lime
soy milk
iceThen blend well, check for taste. If it's not sweet enough for your liking, honey is a good additive. Also a bit of vanilla can accent creamier tastes like banana, if you were