Stories from Paris with some Fruit Kebabs...

Sorry folks for the long silence. Actually I was away on a holiday. We spent the Easter holidays in Paris with some lovely friends. And ever since I got back I have been sleeping like Kumbhakarna and when not sleeping feeling rather blue. 

But lets not talk about blues. Lets talk about the good bits. Lets talk about Paris. Ah Paris. Apart from all that beauty and grandeur, the city has a hum. A creative hum. Parisians are such a creative lot. And so effortlessly. I wonder if they ever realise that the whole world is gaping at them? Maybe they do, which gives them the confidence to be so flamboyant. You got to be flamboyant to drag a grand piano on a busy intersection and proceed to play it. You got to be unselfconscious to stick some blue angels (I read they were ducks, somewhere) over your blue door and let people stop and photograph them. We were really lucky that we not only got to explore Paris, we also got a taste of French country living. We stayed in a commune called Fontainebleau in a charming French home. So much so that I often wondered if I had stepped into the pages of a  décor magazine?

I have not even starting to talk about the food we ate in Paris. Lets keep it for a separate post.

Some photographs from the trip. This is just the tip of the Paris berg, over the 5 days we were there, we clicked 970 photographs. Of course most of them are rubbish, but the ones which are decent still needs some organising. So more photographs to come over the next few weeks.

Eiffel Tower during the day

The view of Paris sprawled out, from the steps of  Sacré-Cœur Basilica. There was this guy who kept playing with a foot ball, while hanging from a lamp post.

The famous bookshop Shakespeare & Company. Movie buffs remember the movie Before Sunset? 

View from the boat ride along the Seine River

Window display

Concert happening on the road

Eiffel Tower all lighted up

Would you like to live in one of those apartments?

*****

Now the reason why I dragged my lazy self to post. It is time for my second Blog Hop Wednesday and I almost missed it, had it not been for an email in my inbox. Do not get me wrong. Initially after Radhika sent the list, I was amazed when I visited my partner's blog. Chef Mireille's Gourmet Global is truly an international cooking affair. Mireille has been cooking up a marathon of  global cuisines. I got super excited, this was my chance to try out some really innovative recipes. I wanted to try kuku, tatale, Indonesian chicken kebab and so many more recipes. But I got super busy before leaving for Paris, so thought that I will cook up a storm once I am back. And then I totally forgot about it till today. Since there is not much time left, also severely lacking on the enthusiasm and energy front,  decided to make the easiest recipe on Mireille's blog-- the Fruit Kebabs.

Frankly after all those super rich crème brulees, madeleines, macaroons and the heavy duty chocolates, not to mention the cups of hot chocolate that we had been happily guzzling on in Paris... fruits kind of appeal to us.  Also I have never eaten fruit kebabs before, so I was excited.

These kebabs are super easy to make. What you need are some fruits.  

1 ripe mango

1 medium sized pineapple

1 Granny Smith Apple

1 small honey dew melon

You can use whichever fruits you want. Just wash them and cut them into roughly same sized cubes. Along with this you need 2 table spoons of softened butter and 1 table spoon of soft brown sugar. Mix these two together. I added some crushed sea salt as well. After you organise the fruit pieces on skewers, use a brush to apply the butter mixture on them. Then heat a grilling pan till smoking hot and grill these beauties.

Before you start with the fruits, make the sauce, so that it can chill till the kebabs are made. For the sauce you need

Half a cup of plain yogurt

A pinch of ginger powder

3 to 4 mint leaves, rolled up and finely chopped

2 table spoons of honey

Mix everything, put it in the fridge to set. Once the kebabs are ready, pour the sauce on them and serve.

These kebabs are yum...the butter and the mint flavour stands out prominently...the apple brought lovely crunch while the pineapple and mangoes pieces were sheer delicacies, the melon was not doing much. I think I will leave out the melon next time. For someone like my husband who is not too fond of fruits this was a treat. He wished he was made to eat fruits like this when he was a kid. Looks like this is ready to be part of our summer BBQ menu!