Amrakhand

All nice things have to come to an end and so does another edition of BM. At least for me.

I wont be participating in the coming week and life is going to be very hectic for sometime now. A bed and homemade food has never looked more attractive for me. I have no idea what I am going to pack for the new apartment, but I have already packed the rice and the rice cooker along with my MIL’s trusted pickle.

See ya all in the next edition! Meanwhile, enjoy this cool treat – so perfect to beat the heat outside.

Ingredients:

• Mango puree                 :               1 cup
• Thick yogurt                 :               1 cup
• Sugar                                :                1/3 cup, or more depending on the sweetness of mangoes
• Cardamom powder    :                to sprinkle on top

Method:

1. I leave the yogurt in the South Indian coffee filter overnight, to drain off the excess water,you can do this by hanging the yogurt in a muslin cloth for 2-3 hours.
2. Mix the yogurt with mango puree and add the required amount of sugar. You need to adjust the quantity of sugar depending on the sweetness of mangoes and your personal preference.
3. Chill for at least two hours before serving.
4. Serve with puris, chapatis or have them as such. You can make chapati rolls with shrikhand/amrakhand filling.  

Linked to :

• Blogging Marathon 16, under Pick One Cook All theme : Mangoes
• Mango Mania
• Let’s Cook : With Fruits
• Bon Vivant : Fruit Recipes

Mango Rice

Mango is frequently appearing in the dishes for sometime now, at my place. I have had Panha, Mango sherbet, Mango chutney, Aamras, Kulfi and what not! In addition to my mangakkari, my MIL brought me two big bottle full of mango pickle. That will hardly survive for three months at my place, given that I have pickle with everything!

My cousin suggested I try this Mango rice, since its a little bit different from the usual mango dishes. I made this immediately since any idea to shorten the cooking process in summer is welcome. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Cooked rice                     :         2 cups

To Grind:

• Mango                                :          1/2 of a medium sized one, peeled
• Coconut                             :         1/4 cup
• Ginger                                :         1″
• Curry leaves                    :        1 sprig
• Coriander leaves           :         a handful
• Hing                                    :        two pinches
• Jeera                                  :         1/2 tsp
• Green Chilies                 :          4-5, per taste

Tempering

• Oil                                      :            1 tsp
• Mustard seeds              :            1 tsp
• Urad dal                          :            1/2 tsp
• Peanuts                           :            a handful
• Chana dal                       :             1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves                 :              1 sprig
• Red chilies                     :             1-2

Method:

1. Peel the mango, halve it and grind it into a coarse state with the other ingredients. It should NOT be a paste and should resemble the mixture in the below picture. Running in the mixie for 2-3 short pulses is enough.
2. Heat oil in a kadai. Add the mustard seeds and red chilies. Once the mustard seeds crack, add the rest of the ingredients. When everything is brown, add the ground mango mix and cook for a minute. Take off the heat and add the cooked rice and serve hot with papaddam.

Linked to :

• Blogging Marathon 16, under Pick One Cook All theme : Mangoes
• Mango Mania
• Let’s Cook : With Fruits
• Bon Vivant : Fruit Recipes

 

Mango Kulfi

I don’t know which is overwhelming – moving in into a new apartment or moving out of your current apartment. Moving out is more difficult, I feel. Especially if you have nice neighbors like I have.

I am going to miss Mittu a lot. Even my kiddo screaming ‘No, no, no….you are drinking too much! Stop right there!’ to her, because she drank 1/2 ml more from his share of Coke.

I don’t know what to expect in the new house, but I clearly know what I am going to miss. I am going to miss everything about our current home.

I am getting worked up when I look at the amount of work that need to be done. Packing, shifting and then unpacking. Electrical work, plumbing work, carpentry work. The list is endless.

I guess I should have a slice of this kulfi, to cool down a bit. Cool, sweet and mango-ey, you can’t help but forget about everything else.

Recipe Source : Manjula’s Kitchen

Ingredients:

• Milk                                                              :   4 cups
• Bread piece                                               :    1 big, crust removed
• Corn flour/Corn starch                       :     1 tsp
• Sugar                                                            :     1/4 cup
• Cardamom                                                 :       1/4 tsp
• Mango puree                                             :       3/4 cup

Method:

1. Remove the crust and chop the bread. Blend it with 1/4 cup milk and cornflour to get a thick paste.
2. Boil the remaining milk in a thick, wide pan. Keep stirring to prevent sticking to the sides and bottom. Let the milk boil and reduce to 2 1/2 cups. It will take about 15 minutes.
3. Add the bread paste and lower the heat. Cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Add sugar and cook for another 5 minutes. Take off the heat, add cardamom and let it cool.
5. Once its cooled completely, add the mango puree and mix. Pour it into kulfi molds or a shallow pan, if you don’t have one.
6. Freeze overnight or for about 6-8 hours. At the time of serving, you can keep the bowl in a pan of hot water so that the kulfi is released from the bowl.
7. Slice, garnish and serve.

Linked to :

• Blogging Marathon 16, under Pick One Cook All theme : Mangoes
• Mango Mania
• Let’s Cook : With Fruits
• Bon Vivant : Fruit Recipes

Mango Chutney

Don’t laugh at me, but the first time I heard about mango chutney was about 4 years back. I have never heard about them, seen them or had them before that. I totally forgot about them till I made them for the Bengali Thali. That’s when I got hooked.

I love the sweet, sour taste with a hint of chilies hidden inside.

And so, two weeks back, I started making them again. With some minor changes this time. This too was tasty.

Ingredients:

• Raw Mango             :    1 medium, chopped fine
• Sugar                         :     1/3 cup, or as per taste
• Chili powder          :     1 -2 tsp, per taste
• Water                       :      1 cup

Method:

1. Wash, peel and chop the mango into small pieces. I got around 1 cup of chopped mangoes.
2. In a saucepan, add these mangoes with water and cook until done. Keep an eye on it, so that it doesn’t burn and add a little more water if it dries up.
3. Once it is cooked, add the sugar and chili powder. Cook , stirring and mashing with a ladle in between, until you get a thick consistency. I prefer it to be a bit chunky, so mine was like a chunky jam consistency.
4. Check the taste and add more sugar or chili powder per your taste. Store in a clean jar. Refrigerate.
5. Serve with anything, everything or eat it as such.

Linked to :

• Blogging Marathon 16, under Pick One Cook All theme : Mangoes
• Mango Mania
• Let’s Cook : With Fruits
• Bon Vivant : Fruit Recipes

Aamras

The Blogging Marathon has brought in so many new aspects into my life. Not to mention exposure to a different cuisines, it has also brought in wonderful things like great friends, super women, food photography techniques, ‘gyan’ (knowledge) sharing and of course, great recipes.

Why, because of BM, I even learnt that water retention in our body is more in the morning than in the evening! Kudos to the BM girls, you really rock!

I would never  have known about Aamras, if not for blogging. Here in South, Mangoes cost a bomb and we usually have it as such and never bother to ‘make something’ out of it. We make pickles with raw mangoes. Ripe mangoes are used in an occasional pachadi or morkuzhambu – else we just cut them into cubes and have it as such.

Times are changing and the cost factor is not deterring many from buying fruits now. Anyway during this time, mangoes are (comparatively) cheaper.

So for this BM, I made Aamras and I totally LOVED it. Who can resist mango in a cup, that too chilled? Check it out for yourself.

Ingredients:

• Ripe Mango                                    :         2 big
• Sugar                                                 :         1/3 cup,  vary this depending on the sweetness of mangoes.
• Milk                                                   :         1/2 cup (optional)
• Cardamom Powder                     :         1/4 tsp (optional)

Method:

1. Wash and keep the mangoes immersed in water for 2 hours.
2. Peel and dice the flesh. Blend it with sugar, milk and cardamom (if using).
3. The mangoes were slightly tart for me, so I had to add some more sugar.  I didn’t add milk & cardamom.
4. Chill it for two hours at least and serve with puri/chapati or eat it as such.
5. The traditional method involves squeezing the flesh out with your hands, but the mango seed just burst out for me, so I made this in the mixie.

Linked to :

• Blogging Marathon 16, under Pick One Cook All theme : Mangoes
• Mango Mania
• Let’s Cook : With Fruits
• Bon Vivant : Fruit Recipes

Mangakkari

Swimming classes are part of summer vacation activities. I have pushed kiddo into the cool waters of the swimming pool near by. My job is to boost his morale and do a bit of dry coaching from the sides.

Mittu joined the summer swimming course and my son liked by the idea. But the next day, when we went to the place of action, the excitement turned into absolute  fear. Clinging onto me, he refused to change his dress and started howling. It took 10 minutes of patient persuasion for his swimming master to peel him away from me and get him into the water.

His list of complaints include that the water is very cold (it isn’t!). ‘Everyone is splashing at me’ and ‘I don’t want to learn swimming’. His instructor told him to splash them back. That thought was consoling for him, but he still complaints that he cannot splash people who are under the water. He seems to fume at the unfairness of it.

The only time he smiled with abandon was when Mittu started screaming and crying saying she wants to go home. There was a look of satisfaction in his face then.

Ah..well, we have ten more  classes left. I don’t know whether kiddo will start swimming or not, but I will start getting grey hairs.

My way of cooling down the body is not swimming, but to have curd rice. They go perfectly with this easy ready to eat mango pickle.

Ingredients:

• Raw mango        :      1 medium
• Chili powder     :       1 -2 tsp (or per taste)
• Salt
• Oil                         :       1 tsp
• Mustard seeds :       1 tsp
• Curry leaves     :       1 sprig

Method:

1. Peel and chop the mango into small pieces as in the picture. I had a little above 1 cup chopped pieces.
2. In a big bowl, add the mango pieces, required amount of salt and the chilli powder. Let it sit for 30 minutes or more.
3. In a kadai, heat oil and add the curry leaves and mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add it to the marinated mango. Store in a glass or china bottle (bharani) in the fridge.
4. You can serve it right away, but they taste better the next day. Serve with curd rice.

Linked to :

• Blogging Marathon 16, under Pick One Cook All theme : Mangoes
• Mango Mania
• Let’s Cook : With Fruits
• Bon Vivant : Fruit Recipes

Beach style Chundal

Summer means a lot of things. Heat. Vacation. Sweat. No cooking.

But the most important is, of course, the visit to the beach – and the simple pleasures associated with it.

Picking up shells was a favorite pass time of the past. I don’t do it anymore, because you end up picking more plastic spoons and bottle caps than the actual shells. Half immersed in the sand, they look exactly like those elusive shells.

I sometimes wonder what we are leaving behind for our children!

But then I look at the chundalwala and his cart full of colorful interesting assortments, my mind comes back to its peaceful state. The cart will have raw mangoes wedges, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, whole chillies and what not! The vegetables are chopped very finely and kept in different vessels. You will have a peanuts boiled with salt in a huge heap in a very big flat basin.

He makes it even more interesting by picking a teaspoon of each and the peanuts, and mixing it all in a vessel reserved exclusively for mixing.

And  in the finale act, comes the paper cone. There is something totally satisfactory about munching your chundal from that paper cone, made of old news papers. May be it takes me back to the childhood days when life was simple and happy, without the worries of a grown up.

So let me start off the Blogging Marathon 16 with something that cannot be called as a ‘recipe’. Its a mix and match of a bunch of things, topped with memories and served with love….. in a paper cone – of course.

Ingredients:

• Boiled peanuts                :            1 cup
• Chopped Raw mango   :            1 -2 tbsp
• Chopped tomato            :            1 tbsp
• Chopped cucumber      :             1 tbsp
• Chopped Onions            :             1 tbsp
• Lemon juice                     :             a dash
• Salt & Chili powder mix  :        Mix 1 tsp of each in a small bowl and take the req amount from there. You can add 1/2 tsp of chat masala too, if you wish

Method:

1. In a separate bowl, mix everything together, except salt and lemon juice. Shake them well and mix thoroughly.
2. Add lemon juice, salt & chili powder mix. Taste and season according to your preference. Serve in a paper cone.
3. For the mango wedges, cut them as shown in the picture and eat them with the salt – chilli powder – chat masala mix. Its yummy! You can have mango wedges, cucumber slices and pineapple slices too this way.

Linked to:

• Blogging Marathon 16, under Pick One Cook All theme – Mango
• Mango Mania
• Let’s Cook : With Fruits
• Bon Vivant : Fruit Recipes
• Susan’s MLLA, hosted by Priya this month

Bengali Thali

I was standing there, watching the waves dance. Hubby and kiddo were playing hide and seek with the waves. Teasing the water to come and touch their feet.

At the horizon, the anchored ships had switched the lights on, they were now twinkling like little stars far far away.

I decided to let the waves kiss my feet. I wanted to feel the salty, chilling water wash away all my worries. I looked down to watch them come and bury my feet in the sand.

Only I couldn’t. My paunch was coming in between.

Not one to take a hint easily, I stretched a bit further to see the waves bury my feet. I could still not see my feet, only my paunch was visible.

OK, I get the message. Time for some serious measures to watch my weight. No more fatty food.

While I ponder over the point, you guys enjoy this great thali, dishes prepared from the state of Bengal. Just like dieting sounds alien to me, Bengali cuisine is also foreign for me. So thanks a ton, Vaishali, for your insight into Bengali food and for helping me design the menu. Without your help, I would have been totally lost!

Like Kerala Sadya, Bengali food too has some rules when it comes to the food. I read about Bengali Cuisine here, written by Sandeepa of Bong Mom’s Cookbook.

Rice is the main cereal there, just like in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The first course has bitter gourd or neem leaves (something bitter) in it, this is supposed to have cleansing properties.

It is followed by rice and dal, with a fried bhaja or any other seasonal vegetable as a side dish. Fish and meat courses follow, but for vegetarian meals, paneer is a common substitute.

Then comes the chutney round. I tried getting pineapples, but I was out of luck that day. Went in for a raw mango chutney, and boy! it tasted so good.

The last round is yogurt and then some sweet. I made misti doi. I cooked the milk in the pressure cooker and I don’t know what I did wrong, the texture didn’t come out right. The taste was yum, but the texture didn’t come close to even my usual thick yogurt. Just bad luck, I guess.

The menu:

• Vegetarian Dishes/ Curries
  • Ucche Bhaja : Bittergourd cooked and fried in oil
  • Begun Bhaja : Deep fried eggplant
  • Aloo Poshto : Potato in Poppy seeds (I was not able to grind the seeds properly!)
  • Cholar Dal : Dal made with chana dal, made on festivals and special occasions.
  • Chanar Dalna : Paneer and green peas curry
• Rice
• Sides
  • Raw Mango Chutney (I couldn’t get pineapple that day!)
  • Aam pora Shorbot : Drink made from roasted raw mango
  • Misti Doi : Sweetened yogurt
• Sweet
  • Rasgolla : Paneer balls, cooked in sugar syrup

Ingredients for Eggplant fry:

• Eggplant , big variety              : 1
• Turmeric powder                     :  1/2 tsp
• Salt
• Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Wash and pat the brinjal dry. Cut into 1/2″ thick round slices.
2. Apply salt and turmeric powder.
3. Heat oil in a pan. Deep fry brinjal until crisp and brown on both sides.
4. Drain on a paper towel and serve hot.
5. I have cut mine too thin. It should be a little more thick.

Except for the rasgolla and the dal, I am making everything for the first time. I hope I have done it right. This is a first time Bengali thali for me and I really loved the food. Who thought eggplants would be so tasty when fried with salt and a pinch of turmeric?!

Linked to:

• Blogging Marathon #15, under Thali theme
• Indian Thali Mela

Mango Salad

A quick and easy, sweet and spicy salad. Assemble the few ingredients and you are good to go!

Ingredients:

Ripe Mango             : 1
Cucumber                : 1/2
Onion                         : 1
Green Chilies          : 1-2, per taste
Coriander Leaves : 1-2 tsp
Lemon Juice           : 1-2 tsp
Chaat Masala           : 1/4 tsp
Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Peel and dice the mango, cucumber, onion and chilies.
2. Mix in the lemon juice, chaat masala, salt, pepper and coriander leaves. Check the seasonings, adjust according to taste and serve immediately.

Note:

         Linked to Salad Spread, Mango Recipes