Mango shake in a snifter

This mango shake has a background to it. The mango tree in our backyard bore a little more than 2 dozen mangoes. These mangoes were nothing like we tasted before. The organic vegetables and fruits crap you get the in the market was no where near to these hand-picked right from the tree mangoes. They had an almost intoxicating fragrance. The whole house was filled with their flirting fragrance. However, there was an issue-while mom and I enjoyed them the others were joining us later in the month (dad, Tanu and Anant). We decided to preserve the mango pulp, so they could taste this wonderful food product grown in an environment free from artificial agrochemicals.

How I make mango shake:
When making any shake make sure to get the proportion right. In case you have more milk it would be too runny and the flavor of milk would be dominant. I've used frozen fruit since it gives more texture to the shake. Using ice cubes makes it watery. You could use a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

What you need (for 2 glasses):
Frozen fresh mango pulp, 3/4 cup
Milk, 1 cup
Sugar to taste

Choco-banana-walnut cake with a Coffee butter icing

It was a weekend I was looking forward to-visiting Mumbai. Home cooked food is the best gift you can give someone. Decided to bake some Choco-banana-walnut cake with a Coffee butter icing. Tried it for the first time and somehow all the elements create a wonderful marriage of flavors. I used the same batter to make cupcakes for my sister. It is worth the effort since I witnessed the whole box being polished off in less than 2 hours and not by a crowd. I usually don't look for words of appreciation when i cook but mostly expressions, they tell all. What says more than a clean box full of chocolate cake, licked piece by piece through fingers until every last bite is finished. This recipe sufficed all criteria.


What you need for the cake:

(Additional info: 1 cup equals to 250 gm/250 ml)

3⁄4 cup unsalted butter

1 and 3⁄4 cups white granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 and 1⁄4 cups mashed bananas

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

3⁄4 cup cocoa

1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3⁄4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sour milk (put 1 tbsp. of vinegar in 3/4 measuring cup, fill with skim milk)

3/4 cup, Chopped walnuts 

What you need for the frosting:

Soft Unsalted butter 100 gm

Double cream (I used Amul fresh cream), 200 ml

Dark chocolate, 250 gm chopped roughly 

Instant Nescafe (or any other brand) coffee powder, 3 tbsp (It depends on how strong you prefer the coffee flavor)

Directions for the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 180 deg cel.
Cream unsalted butter with sugar and eggs. Add one egg at a time.
Mix in mashed banana and vanilla.
Mix flour with remaining dry ingredients.
Add flour mixture to unsalted butter, sugar and eggs mixture in 3 parts, alternately with sour milk.
Begin and end with flour. Sour milk tends to curdle so make sure you make this quick. 

Fold in the chopped walnuts in the end. 

Spread in 2 greased 8" cake tins or 1 greased 22' cake tin. You could even use the same batter for making cupcakes, the same way I did.
Bake in oven about 40 minutes.
When cool, frost generously with chocolate and coffee butter frosting.

Directions for the frosting:

In a heavy bottomed pan, add cream, chopped chocolate and coffee powder. Heat on a very low flame stirring at all times for 3-4 minutes.You don't want the chocolate burning it has the worst flavor. 

To be on a safer side you could do the same on a double boiler as well.

Once the chocolate has melted partially you could turn off the gas and let it melt completely in the residual heat. 

At this point add the butter and stir until its incorporated completely. If you feel some elements are still not incorporated put it back on a low flame and stir for 1-2 minutes until everything melts. Keep it to chill in the refrigerator until you get a frosting like consistency. 

Mushroom, cheese and basil Quiche

Quiche sounds extremely fancy and bourgeoisie, don't get frightened by the name. In India Aloo Patties smeared with Dalda is a common snack. So quiche is a french version of that. Actually if truth be told, the idea of patties which is nothing but pastry,has its origin from Europe. Enough of the rant on food and globalization, here is the recipe. 

What you need:

For the pastry:

180 gm plain flour, plus extra for dusting

90 gm chilled salted amul butter, cut into cubes

3-4 tbsp cold water

For the filling:

4 eggs

250 ml fresh amul cream

10-12 button mushrooms, sliced finely

1/2 yellow bell pepper, sliced finely

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced finely

1/2 green bell pepper, sliced finely

1 small onion, chopped

Chopped fresh basil

7-8 cloves of garlic, crushed

Paneer/cottage cheese, 150 gm, cut into small cubes 

Chilli flakes

Freshly ground black pepper

Dried oregano

Processed cheese, 125 gm approx.

Salt to taste

1. First make the pastry: tip the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add  butter and rub in gently with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add 3 tablespoons cold water until the pastry comes together in a ball. Don't knead a lot. 

2 .Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and use it to line two 20cm (8in) loose-bottomed flan tin. Ideally, use a fluted tin. Trim the overhanging pastry. 

3. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220˚C. Prick the pastry case all over with a fork, to prevent air bubbles forming during baking. Line the base and sides with baking parchment/white paper and weigh it down with baking beans (i used some ground nuts and rajma). Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and bake the empty case for a further 10 minutes, or until the base is lightly browned. Keep the pastry aside to cool. 

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 180˚C. Saute onions, bell peppers, mushrooms in butter and garlic paste on a high flame. Keep it aside. 

5. In a separate bowl whisk eggs and cream together. Add chopped basil, freshly ground pepper, chilli flakes, oregano, salt to the eggs and cream mixture. 

6. Its time to assemble now. Get the pastry, start with putting the veggies first. Arrange some cottage cheese cubes on top of the saute'ed veggies. Sprinkle shredded cheese and pour the eggs and cream mixture on top of this. Make sure you don't spill and divide the mixture in two equal portions. Bake in a preheated oven of 180 deg cel for 25-30 minutes. 

Mango and pistachio cheesecake

Seasonal fruits should always be utilised to make fruit based desserts. Never use artificial colour. This is a quick recipe and packed with natural flavors. I have tried to attempt this with easy to buy ingredients- yogurt, cottage cheese, milk etc.

What you need

For the base:
Digestive biscuits, 12-15
Salted butter, 1/2 cup, melted

For the cheesecake filling:
2 cups, grated cottage cheese/paneer
1 1/2 cup hung curd
2 1/2 cup mango puree (I used fresh mangoes)
1 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup condensed milk
1 cup powdered sugar
1 heaped tbsp cornflour
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp gelatin
A handful of chopped pistachios
1 roughly chopped mango

1. Grind digestive biscuits and melted butter into a sand like mixture. Put this mixture in a pie dish and line the dish with this mixture. Refrigerate until you get done with the cheesecake filling.

2. Heat milk, condensed milk in a heavy bottomed pan. In a small bowl mix cornflour with 2-3 tbsp cold milk to make a smooth mixture. add this drop by drop to the simmering milk. Stir at all times on a low flame. Once this milk mixture starts to thicken (spoon coating consistency), keep it aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, mix Grated cottage cheese, hung curd, mango puree, vanilla essence, the milk mixture and powdered sugar. If mangoes are too sweet you can reduce the amount of sugar or increase accordingly. Transfer the contents to a mixer and mix until you get a smooth mixture. Don't fret, you will get a smooth mixture.

4.In a different bowl, mix the gelatin with piping hot water until the gelatin is incorporated completely. Keep it aside to cool. Add the gelatin mixture to the cheesecake filling you made earlier. Add chopped pistachios and mangoes, mix well. Transfer the contents to the biscuit base you made earlier. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours and let it set. Serve chilled.

Good old fashioned Kadhai Paneer

Unfortunately, I get to cook full fledged only when I'm back home. There is no facility in the hostel. Sometimes I get lucky in landing myself in a kitchen at a friend or relatives place. Anyway, I'm home when I can cook freely. This recipe of "kadhai paneer" is a favourite at our house. The same recipe could be used for chicken as well. I'll do another post on that. Don't get intimidated by the length of the recipe, most of it are tips to help. It is a 3 step recipe. I've tried to reduce the calorie intake with the use of olive oil in this recipe but couldn't resist adding butter somewhere. I don't believe in cooking healthy, any food cooked at home is healthy.

What you need:
500 gm paneer or cottage cheese, cut into cubes
6 medium sized fully ripened tomatoes, blended to a puree
1/2 cup store bought tomato puree
4 tsp garlic paste, preferably freshly ground
4 tsp ginger paste, preferably freshly ground
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 medium sized onions, cut and separated into wedges
2 tsp ginger juliennes
3 whole dried red chillies
3 heaped tsp coriander seeds (saboot dhania)
1-2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
2 tbsp butter
3-4 tbsp refined oil or olive oil (I used olive oil)
4-5 tsp garam masala
1 tsp roopak kashmiri masala (optional)
1 green chilli, chopped finely
1 cup milk
1 tsp sugar
Chopped coriander leaves
salt to taste

1. Dry roast whole red chillies and coriander seeds on a heavy iron griddle or what we call in India a 'Tawa". Keep on tossing with a spoon because the coriander seeds tend to brown very quickly. Once browned, grind this mixture in a grinder until you get a coarse masala powder. Keep it aside.

2. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the butter and saute the bell peppers and diced onions with a pinch of salt at a high flame. It's essential to maintain the crunchiness of these vegetables, hence do not saute for a long time. 2-3 minutes at the maximum. Take these out in a bowl and keep them aside.

3. In the same pan, heat some oil and add the cumin to it. Add ginger-garlic paste and green chillies and saute for 1 minute. Now add both home-made and store-bought tomato puree to the pan. The reason i use store bought tomato puree is solely for the colour. it gives a rich red colour to the gravy.

4. Add coriander and red chilli powder that you made in the first step, salt and kashmiri masala to this mixture. Its important to taste at all times. Don't add the entire coriander and red chilli powder at once, add some in the start and then maybe some in the end. The mixture will start bubbling so put a lid on and leave it to simmer on a medium flame for 20-25 minutes. Stir it every 5 minutes. Simmer it until the oil starts separating from the sides. Add the sugar and Pour in the milk. Let the mixture simmer till the milk is incorporated. You can add more milk if you want more gravy.

5. Once you pour in the milk. the flavours tend to mellow down.It is important to maintain the balance since the cottage cheese or paneer will also soak in some spices. Therefore, taste and add more spices if you wish to. Finish off by mixing in the garam masala.

6. Add  Paneer or cottage cheese, sauteed bell peppers and onions to the tomato mixture. Garnish with julienne of ginger and chopped fresh coriander leaves.

Note: You can also add fresh cream to give it a more rich flavor.