GarnishFoodBlog - Fruit Carving Arrangements and Food Garnishes

Sausage Bouquet in the Pumpkin Frame

>> 7/10/2012

Sausage bouquet and baked garlic

First time I saw a sausage bouquet at A Mouse On The Table (Visual Food) blog by Rita Loccisano. The bouquet seemed to me a great idea of snack serving. Truly Rita's blog is full of smart food ideas.

I added some carving work to Rita's bouquet and it turned into the sausage bouquet framed in pumpkin.

You need:

a pumpkin of medium size,

sausages,

sprouting onion.

Tools:

paring knife,

V-shape or U-shape cutter,

toothpicks and bamboo skewers

Pumpkin, sausages and onion

Cut the punpkin in parts. One part for a base and a central part for a frame.

Take a central part and remove a pumpkin meat . This is a frame.

Decorate it with U or V shape knife.

Decorate a pumpkin base (it's optional)

now set the frame on the base and fix them using toothpicks

fix with toothpicks

Set sausages in bamboo skewers. Looks like a reed, does'n it?

and arrange the sausages in the pumpkin ring.

Add some green onion. Small tomatos made the final look.

While writing this article I got an idea. If you carve a frog out of green bell pepper and set it on the pumpkin base the reed bouquet will get a completely naturalistic look.

By the way, using salt bread sticks instead of wooden skewers let you make the sausage bouquet absolutely edible!

Salted bread sticks

Edible sausage reed

Use the pumpkin frame for making vegetable bouquets like on the picture below:

Sweet Fruit Garnishes For Desserts and Drinks

>> 6/25/2012

Gallery of fruit garnishes for drinks and desserts

I digged my blog and found some cute garnishes. Let remember them, most of them are how-to tutorials.

Cute orange garnish for kids (How-To)

Baked banana and ice cream dessert garnished with pear gear-wheel and apple traffic sign (How-To)

Milky shake with plum flower (How-To)

Baby Melon Cups for ice cream: Pokemon (How-To)

Valentine drink garnish

Orange ice cream dessert with kiwi and nectarine garnishes (instruction included)

Orange Rose garnish for cocktail (How-To)

Apple garnish for drinks (How-To)

Apple cup to serve a dessert (How-To)

Popular Fruit Displays Made in June

Herewith I am sharing some of the popular displays. I made three or four copies of each display this month. They are Cornucopia and Watermelon Peacock with fruit tail.

Summer Soap Carving

>> 6/19/2012

Let me introduce a new Summer soap carving collection.

The soap carving collection was presented at a special event organized by the soap manufacturing company. I gave my carved soaps for a lottery at the event. As a back pay I got a bag of new soap bars.

All soaps in the picture are carved with a thai knife. I used some techniques I learnt in Japan.

Soap carving

Budget Fruit Display

>> 6/14/2012

Sometime I am asked by customers to make fruit displays on budget. This time it was urgent work. I was given by a set of fruits to make a quick display for children.

I got:

1 small watermelon

2 oranges

3 apples

3 kiwi

some black and green grapes.

I made apple flowers and zig-zag kiwi and oranges. Zig-zag cut method was really in help here (it's the quick and on-budget method :)). Apple flower is also a good choice for a budget display because you can make 2 flowers from one apple. I arranged apple flowers bouquet on a watermelon vase using wooden sticks.

As for tools, the set of 3 carving knives is perfect here.

Apple flowers bouquet in a watermelon vase

Check out other nice and budget fruit bouquets:

Simple Fruit Bouquet

Melon Bird

Melon Goldfish and Sea Treasure

>> 6/10/2012

The melon goldfish is a large copy of the lemon fish. I carved it using a thai knife only. On the plate you can see various sea creatures like crabs, conchs and corals.

Goldfish ingredients:
melon fjr the body,
pumpkin and carrot for the pins,
grapes for eyes.

Crabs from red apples,
Conchs from daikon,
corals from carrot,
sea weed from cucumber.

Tools:
The set of 3 carving knives will be perfect for making the Goldfish arrangement.

Japanese carving style

This post is linked to:

"Costa Del Sol" Orange Icecream Dessert

>> 6/06/2012

Are you going for a vacation this summer? I am not.
If you stay at your hometown like me cherish yourself with a lovely sunny dessert named after the famous resort in Spain, Costa Del Sol Orange Ice Cream Dessert. Put on your sunglasses and take out your food processor!

You need:
2-3 oranges
chocolate icecream
1 nectarine, some garpes and a kiwi for garnishing.

Method:
Peel oranges and put into a blender. Do not through away the peels. You can use them for decorations.

After the oranges are blended fill a glass half with the orange puree. Set glasses into a fridge to let the orange puree freeze up. As soon as the oranges get steady add melting chocolate icecream and freeze again.

Garnishing:
Use U and V-knives for making the garnishes.
Thai knife and V-shape knife for the leaves.
U-knife for the flower.

Nectarine leaves made with thai knife and V-knife

Kiwi turtle, nectarine flower and nectarine leaves

This recipe is shared at

Mrs.Fox's Sweets Link Party

eRecipeCards

Fruit Basket and Watermelon Drama

>> 6/05/2012

Sometime it happens. You can't forecast the situation untill you start carving a watermelon.

Early morning I have been carving a watermelon for a fruit basket. I was about to finish it when I found out that the design ruined down. The watermelon was hollow inside. There was a hole in place of the flower! Terrible sigh!

The most terrible thing was the time limitation. The basket had to be done in a couple of hours. The watermelon was the main part of the display! I was about to panic.

I had nothing to do but buying a new one. I went to 24 hours food store and... got stressed again. No watermelons! No one! My broken watermelon seemed to be the last watermelon that day.

The broken watermelon
weight 2 kg, price 10$

"Ok, no tears" I said to myself. I grabbed a proper melon and run to carve it.

The final display looked pale with the melon. I added red fruits for the color balance.

Fruit basket with the melon

That was the first time I totally spoiled a carving work. Frankly speaking I was not ready for that.

Practise your carving skils with professional carving tools!

Cook Like a Star - Barefoot Contessa (Smoked Salmon and Egg Salad Tartines)

>> 5/28/2012

I found the recipe at Food Network - Barefoot Contessa Salmon is a frequent ingredient in our menu here. Smoked salmon and egg salad tartines were really delicious. I didn't modify the recipe. I prepared the tartines following exactly the original recipe of Ina Garten. The only thing I added was a radish batterfly garnish. And yes, I reduced the ingredient's quantity.

The recipe source here

Ingredients
8 servings

3 eggs
1 tablespoon good mayonnaise
1 teaspoons whole-grain mustard ( I ground it)
1 tablespoons minced fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 ground black pepper
8 slices French bread
8 slices good smoked salmon

Directions

Boil the eggs. Peel them and chop.
Transfer the chopped eggs to a bowl and add the mayonnaise, mustard, dill, salt, and pepper. Combine lightly with a fork.

Toast or grill the bread. Lay 1 slice of salmon on each piece of bread, spread on the egg salad, then garnish with a sprig of dill. I used a radish garnish. Serve at room temperature.

Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten recipe

The day before I made a vegetable carving arrangement for my class and carving tools presentation. It consists of pumpkin, cucmber, carrot and daikon.

The recipe is linked to Cook like a Star blog hop event organized by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids).

1. Sakura Blossoms. 2.Food Stories Award

>> 5/27/2012

I've been out of blogging for a while by some reasons. My younger brother got sick in hospital. He needed blood transfusion. We asked relatives and friends to be donors to help him. Moreover I found out that I have a rare blood type... I was out of order because of all the situations.

Thanks heaven my brother is getting better now.

It's Sakura blossom season in Sakhalin. Japanese people say that the short sakura time is like a woman beauty. Fades quickly. I can't agree with the statement. Today we have good cosmetic treatments to stay younger ;)

Sakura trees in Yuzhno city streets

Chekov monument in front of the Sakhalin library

Sakura by my office building

Apple tree blossoms

I carved Sakura soap.

Sakura soap

Food Stories award

I was nominated for the Food Stories Award for Excellence in Storytelling by my blooger friend CJ (Food Story). Now I have to share a random thing about myself. Well the thing is the following:

I have never had iPhone.

Update on The Samsung Global Blogger Contest

>> 5/22/2012

I have good news!
I passed through the Samsung Global Blogger audition contest to the second round!
First of all I thank all my readers and friends for watching and supporting me in this activity.

Now I am on my second task with making a report about a sport event in my hometown.
You can watch my ~~video report here~~ at the SGB page

~~http:// samsungglobalblogger .r u.msn.com/videos/3867~~

The video will be judged by a team of the independent judges, but you can yet help them to pick up a best one by supporting the participant :))

A video report should meet the following criteria:
i. News sense - have they told the story well and effectively? Have they aimed it at the right audience? Have they taken an interesting angle?
ii. Good presenting skills - exhibiting a passion for the subject matter, confidence and energy in front of the camera and a sense of what looks good on camera
iii. The skill exhibited in producing the video, including elements such as location choice, camera skills, etc.
iv. Editing skills - length of video, pace, use of voiceover, etc.

After watching my video I understood that I MUST go to London to improve my accent to sound more british :)

I would be happy to get your opinion about the video. Critic is welcome as well.

THANK YOU!!!

Huckleberry Tart With Apple Rose Garnish

>> 5/06/2012

Huckleberry tart

I found this easy recipe of the berry tart at TheScootaBaker

Roll out a sheet of puff pastry. Spread berries on the sheet surface and fold the edges like on the photo. I used frozen huckleberry sprinkled with sugar powder.

Fold the edges of the sheet

For the tart garnishing I made roses of apple.
Quarter and core an apple. Slice it as thin as you can. Now you need to blanch the slices in the syrup.
Take 1/2 cup of sugar and 3 cups of water, bring to the boil. If you want to change a color of apple add a few drops of food coloring (or some berry juice). Boil for 5-7 minutes and take out to drain.

Lay the slices out to get a strip as on the picture.