Tango with Mango

Holi, the festival of colors, for some, it's just about splashing gulal, going filthy, arresting others and throwing them in the pool full of muddy water, but for others, it's quite the other way. My kiddo mind just can't help itself going back to those cuddly-buddly childhood days, especially when it's Holi and then on the top of that, when I don't happen to be in the 'Land of Colors'. The vivid memories of past, from waking up as early at 7am on a holiday to polishing your whole body with oil and cold-cream, this all can never be drawn blank. I remember gearing up in the morning before anyone could arrive, assembling all the possible colors, from dry gulal to pakka rang, even some silver tubes with that pungent smell. And then arranging gulab-jamuns and some 10 varieties of sweets and savories, also some grapes in those glass and steel bowls; filling old buckets with water and keeping them outside; pumping water into the flyseck red, yellow, green balloons, and finally getting dressed in some quondam clothes which had all the rights to go dirty. The day always used to begin with a bountiful smile, and then it used to pass away in a flash like an interesting 3 hour movie. With bags and pichkaris loaded, hair tied in some stupid fashion, the whole gang/toli of around 15 kids would head on. Ringing bells of each and every house in the colony, we were then adorably invited by all uncles and aunties to come over and fetch some sweets. Ornamenting them with some gulal on their face, we collected so many blessings, but the kids in that house, if any, could not rescue themselves from our color-water-terror. Throwing balloons on the back with full force, and watching that 'aah' expression, it always was so much fun. And then running on the roads to catch the only non-colored fellow left was the biggest thrill. Those days were and will always be the best throughout my life; recreating my soul and refreshing it every time I think about. 

This time on Holi, I was away from the family, away from those colors, but one thing could still connect me to that time: Sweets. Though there was no party, not many dishes to rock the table, but at least some sugar on the palate and some on the plate. I've never been this emotional while writing a post, so I guess it's better that I jump on to the recipe directly rather than flooding the blog and food table with my tears.

TANGO WITH MANGO

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: Nil

Serves: 2 

Ingredients:

1. One Ripe Mango or 1 cup Mango Puree and a few mango cubes

2. Whipped Cream: 1/4 cup

3. Vanilla Ice-cream: 1 cup

4. Sugar: 2 tbs or as per taste

Method:

1. Peel off the mango and de-seed it. 
2. Saving some tiny cubes for garnish, use the rest to form a smooth puree with a blender/juicer.
3. Add the sugar to the paste and swirl it once again to give a quick mix.
4. Keep this aside.
5. Now take chilled whipping cream and whip it till soft peaks are formed. Add 1 tsp sugar, 2 tbs mango puree and again beat for a minute.
6. Now take the ice-cream block and slice it out.
7. Layer one slice on the plate, followed by the mango puree, hen one more ice-cream slice and then the mango cream. Drizzle some cubes on the top and slurrrrrrp.

 

Suggestions:

1. The mango should be fully ripe and sweet.
2. In place of fresh mango, mango puree can also be used.
3. I also added a little gelatin (1 tbs) in the cream and puree to make it slightly mousse-like, but that needs to be set 4-6 hours prior to use.
4. If whipping cream is not available, you can use fresh cream but do not expect any peaks then. Whip it slightly with sugar and mango puree to get that creamy feel. 
5. Serve immediately and be quick in assembling. Rather keep everything ready by your side in different plates and keep shaping.

 The recipe goes to:
Cooking Made Easy With Mango  at my space,

My event: Cakes, Cookies and Desserts,  Holi Hai and Beat the Heat at My Cook Book,   

 Just 4 Fun by Sobha, Walk Through Memory Lane by Gayatri hosted by Roshan,
  Summer Spunk at Tomato Blues, Summer Splash by Kalyani hosted by Sangee,
Spotlight- Colorful Holi  initiated by Indrani and hosted by Chandrani,

I'm The Star by  Veg Food and Me,  ABC Series: Fruit Fiesta by Ramya,

Comfort Food by Daily Cuppa,  Color n Sweet - Holi Fest by Preeti,

Midweek Fiesta at Food Corner

Luscious Mango Shrikhand/ Yogurt

Nairobi, as fresh as the sparkling dew, as beautiful as the blossoming flowers, and as amicable as the grazing giraffes; a perfect holiday destination pertaining to its luscious green grasslands and mystical forests. Summer is shining its glory, and sun-rays are penetrating enough to burn and tan your skin. While going out on a Sunday after-noon to the Masai Market for some tribal shopping, I saw a young lady with a small kiddo resting on the road-corner, selling some mangoes. The little one was dancing around her mom, hiding in the surrounding bushes, and playing with the twigs and leaves. And then suddenly I realized that she was the tiny doll my hubby was telling about the last night. The two-some, mommy and daughter, sit in the scorching summers, selling fruits, especially mangoes to earn their daily breads. The first thought that flashed a smile on my face was the fact that they were not begging, but earning to survive. I adore such people who decide to work rather than to beg on the road-sides, and I respect such mothers who take this plunge of raising their kids just on their own without a wrinkle of worry on their forehead. I bought some mangoes from this lady, and I can't measure the  sweetness these mangoes carried, not just in terms of taste, but the warmth with which they were passed on with. My recipe for today has all that sweetness stirred in to the core, and for sure this is one of the best Shrikhands I've had till date. :)

LUSCIOUS MANGO SHRIKHAND/ YOGURT

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: None

Serves: 4

Fun Facts:

- Even inedible parts of the mango have interesting uses. The bark, leaves, skin and
  pit have been used as folk remedies for centuries.

- Mangoes are bursting with protective nutrients. The vitamin content depends upon the
  variety and maturity of the fruit. When the mango is immature the amount of vitamin
  C is higher, as it ripens the amount of beta carotene (vitamin A) increases.

- Mangoes are distantly related to a few plants that you'd probably never guess: the
  cashew and pistachio.

Ingredients:

1. Fully Ripe Mango: 1 ( Big and sweet)

2. Hung Curd/ Yogurt: 2 small cups

3. Sugar: 4 tbs or as per taste (also depends on the amount of sugar contained in the mango by itself)

4. Milk: 1/4 cup

Method:

1. Peel out the mango skin and cube the flesh, excluding the inner seed. In simple words, take the mango flesh and cut it in small cubes/pieces. Save some finely cut cubes separately for garnish.
2. Push the remaining cubed mango into a blender/juicer with the milk and sugar, and then pulse it till you get a smooth mango pulp/paste. 
3. Now add the hung curd or yogurt to it and give a strong stir so as to blend them well. 
4. For ease, you can use a blender for this too, but I prefer using a spoon to do that, because blending hard and fast can sometimes cause the curd to leave butter if it is too chilled.
5. Ornament the Mango Shrikhand/Yogurt with the saved mango delights/cubes.

Tips:

1. Always prefer fully ripe mangoes for preparing this which are sweet in taste.
2. If you are using home-made curd, please make sure that it is fresh and not sour. 
3. Hang the curd in a muslin cloth for 1 hour prior to use, for getting the perfect creamy texture.
4. Adjust the sugar addition as per your taste and based on the glucose the mango already carries.

The recipe takes off to my event, Cakes, Cookies and Desserts,

Just 4 Fun  by Sobha, Show Me Your Hits by Spicy Treats

Let’s Cook ~ Sweet Somethings by Radhika, Vardhini’s Sweet Luv,
Kalyani’s Serve with love, Sumee’s Bon Vivant,
Kid's Delight hosted by Edible Entertainment,
  Dish For Loved Ones by Srav's, Holi Hai at My Cook Book
Simple and in Season on Fabulicious Food

An Apple Cheese Affair ( Apple Paneer Mishrimava)

Africa and Cooking have at least something in common; they both bewilder you. Africa stuns you with its unrivaled beauty and then sometimes shocks you with the on-road high-crime-rate, and no less is Cooking which can win you medals unexpectedly and then pull you down sometime without any socks-on. But as it is said, there's no fun without adventures and there's no success without blunders, so Africa and Cooking, don't worry, I still love you both. :)

Now you must have estimated that something definitely must have went wrong in my kitchen that I was thought-provoked to write all this, right? Well, yeah, it did.

I think you all know by now that I have a sweet tooth along with my hubby and little angel, and know it or not, Ras Malai is my favorite sweet. So, here I was, ready with everything required to make it, along with the focused mind last weekend. I had curdled milk, the Cottage Cheese/ Paneer was hanging up in the sieve ready to be used, the 'Ras' was ready after I had reduced the milk to half, but but but, where was Sugar???

Oh Gosh! This was possibly one of the biggest blunders I made that while going for a sweet, the sweet sugar was not enough...hufffff.... and then I urgently called my hubby who was in the office and it was 8 in the evening so almost all stores were closed. My doll was sleeping so I had no option to run out and bring it, and wow, my hubby could not find it too while returning on Saturday eve, so now I am all set with my darling paneer, 'Ras' with the flavors added, but not much sugar. I had only that much of sugar which could either help me in steaming the paneer balls or preparing the 'Ras', so options were way too limited. I went a little mad at first because I could take my mind off Ras Malai and then knew that can't make it too, so the Cerebrum started calculating for the best available options, and no wonder it helped me finding a new recipe. Now this version was surely healthier than the previous one because I would be using less sugar, and then I would be adding apples to it.  It reminds me of the saying, 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away' but my poor husband just can't keep himself away from me even after having a dozen of apples...hehe..now that's the side-effect/disadvantage of getting married to a doctor, you see. ;)

Without much ado, here comes the recipe:

AN APPLE CHEESE AFFAIR (APPLE PANEER MISHRIMAVA)

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Health Meter:

• One apple has 5 grams of fiber. They’re also fat, sodium and cholesterol free. 
• Don’t peel your apple! Two-thirds of the fiber and many of the antioxidants are found in the apple peel.

Did you know?

• Apples are a member of the rose family, along with pears, peaches, plums and cherries.
• Fresh apples float because 25% of their volume is air (thank goodness, or none of us would have ever experienced bobbing for apples!).

Ingredients:

1. Red Apple: 1 (peeled and grated)

2. Milk: 1 litre

3. Cottage Cheese/ Paneer: 1 cup (approximately prepared from 1 litre of milk)

4. Saffron strands: a few

5. MTR Badam Drink Mix: 3 tbs (optional)

6. Cardamom powder/ Elaichi: a pinch

7. Slivered almonds

8. Sugar: 6 tbs or as per taste 

Method:

1. Prepare fresh cottage cheese/ paneer at home by curdling milk with curd/lemon juice. This will be very soft so will give a better texture to the dessert.
2. Wash the paneer well before hanging to let out any tangy extract from lemon juice or curd.
3. Hang it in a muslin cloth or keep in a sieve for an hour to let the excess water run out. 
4. On the other hand, keep milk for boiling in a thick bottomed pan. Simmer it and keep stirring till it reduces to half.
5. Add MTR Badam Drink mix, saffron strands and cardamom powder and sugar to it.
6. Take the grated apple and add half a cup of milk to it. Boil/ Microwave this separately to make sure the whole milk does not get curdled because some apples are sour and can cause curdling. 
7. If the milk does not curdle on boiling/microwaving, add this to the flavored milk followed by the fresh crushed paneer and take a boil. 
8. If you see the milk curdling on adding apple, keep this separate.
9. Add paneer to the flavored milk then and take a boil/ microwave for 3 minutes. At last add the boiled/microwaved apples when the milk cools down. This will avoid curdling of the flavored milk.
10. Let it cool and then refrigerate for 2-4 hrs or overnight.
11. Garnish with almonds, saffron strands and enjoy the apply-cheesy flavor.

Suggestions:

1. While reducing the milk to half, be careful that it does not stick to the bottom.
2. Instead of boiling on a gas stove, you could actually prepare the whole thing in a microwave, but be sure to use a really big bowl to avoid any kind of spilling while boiling.
3. It's always better to use the sweet red apples or the Fuji ones. The sour ones will spoil the taste.
4. If the flavored milk curdles even after all your efforts (chances are less than 1 %), don't panic; it's nothing else but cottage cheese/paneer which can still be used creatively.
5. You can variate the texture by addition of milk. If you want it slightly runny, add more milk and if you want it thick and granular, add more of paneer.

The recipe flies off to:
My event: Cooking Made Easy With Cheese/Paneer
My event: Cakes, Cookies and Desserts 

Lets Cook for Christmas- Red and Green by Nayna
Christmas Delicacy  by Erivum Puliyumm
Jingle All The Way  by Edible Entertainment
Sweet Heat by Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops

Sabudana Khichdi

 

Phew!! I'm back on blogging again after a long while; I had been really busy visiting family and then traveling in the last 5 months, and the show is still on. I reached back Bangalore after a month of Diwali break at my in-laws place and the trip was so much full of fun and zeal. After returning, I just could not unpack my bags before my sweetheart again planned for a new trip and this post comes as my first one from this very beautiful land, perhaps nature's best selected habitat, called Africa. The luscious green farms, giraffes grazing on the roadsides, peacocks craving for your attention every morning, shivering breeze almost taking your breath off out of joy, and my tiny miny pie wandering in the whole campus making friends with pussies and laughing loud at them....awwww, what could be really more beautiful than this! :)

Now this post was actually supposed to be posted in October during the Navratri fasting, but better late than never, and who knows a good recipe could sometimes make you fall in love with fasts and you could just be inspired to do it in greed of this; well, I surely never did so coz I would grab some from my mom's plate who was religiously doing it for a fast! ;)

SABUDANA (SAGO/ TAPIOCA) KHICHDI

Preparation Time: 10 minutes (apart from soaking)

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Fun Fact:

Tapioca is a starch extracted from the root of plant species Manihot esculenta. This species, native to the Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and most of the West Indies, is now cultivated worldwide and has many names, including cassava, bitter-cassava, manioc, mandioca, aipim, macaxeira, manioca, boba, tapioca plant, yuca ˈjuːka) (not to be confused with yucca). In India, the term 'Tapioca' is used to represent the root of the plant (Cassava), rather than the starch. In Vietnam, it is called bột năng. In Indonesia, it is called singkong. In the Philippines, it is called sago.

Tapioca is a staple food in some regions and is used worldwide as a thickening agent, mainly in foods. Tapioca is gluten-free, and almost completely protein-free. In Britain, the word tapioca often refers to a milk pudding thickened with arrowroot,^{[citation needed]} while in Asia the sap of the sago palm is often part of its preparation

Ingredients:

1. Sabudana/ Sago/ Tapioca pearls: 1 cup

2. Water

3. Tomatoes - 2 (finely chopped)

4. Green Chilly: 1(sliced)

5. Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

6. Rock salt/ Sendha Namak: As per taste

7. Ghee/ Oil: 3 tbsp

8. Coriander leaves

Method:

1. Soak the sabudana/sago in warm water for 40-45 minutes. Though it entirely depends on the type of sabudana you have, because some stay hard even after soaking for an hour and some loose their shape and overdo in even 30 minutes, so be prepared for the way you have been handling it.
2. Take ghee/oil in a pan and heat it. Add cumin seeds/ jeera to it followed by green chilly and tomatoes.
3. Let it cook for 2 minutes till the ghee/oil separates.
4. Now add sabudana (after draining the excess water) to it and then add salt.
5. Stir well and cook for 5 minutes. 
6. The sabudana being too starchy will surely love to stick to the bottom, so keep stirring to avoid the same, though some would still manage to do so even after all your hard labour. 
7. Check if the sabudana is cooked by taking a small portion in a spoon and pressing it between your fingers ( but don't just get burnt in hurry!). If you still find it hard (the lazy ones as I said who don't go soft even after sleeping in water for so long), add a little water to it and cover for 2 minutes. Again check for the right consistency, else repeat the last step till you get it right. 
8. Garnish with coriander leaves.
9. Now waiting for what, just go and grab it! :))

Submitting this recipe to:

Healthy Cooking Challenge