MANGO GINGER BASIL SORBET…YES, IT’S THE PERFECT SCOOP!!

“Don’t limit my taste. There’s some jazz that I like and there’s some opera. I’ve been listening to what was essentially country music, but it crossed over to rock.”

Rick Moranis

Caught sight of a fabulous, lip-smacking, refreshing mango sorbet teasing me at different times…enticing, delectable, torturous at times. Got tortured by Cynthia @ Tastes Like Home, by Nic @ Cherrapeno (yellow for Bri), then by Mike @ Mike’s Table, where he had a chilling good frozen event.

For some very strange reason I never attempted a mango sorbet the entire mango season. And then, when the mangoes decided to say goodbye, panic set in & silly me decided that was the last mango thing on my list of things to definitely do. Turned out to be a very expensive sorbet, because I paid for the mangoes through my nose. In retrospect, it was worth every penny… I’m glad I made this fantastic sorbet.

Pure sorbet pleasure from David Lebovitz‘s book The Perfect Scoop. I don’t own the book, but borrowed the recipe from Nic’s blog, & adapted it a bit to add a burst of flavour. Was just far out & I can’t wait for next summer to get here quick…a whole year & a really long wait! Then again, time seems to be flying, & the pages of the calendar are disappearing as I stare at months whiz by. Summer shall be back again…stone-fruits & all. Until then, I shall begin to explore pip fruits!! They’re here already, apples & pears, heralding the beginning of fall. And life goes on…


Mango Ginger Basil Sorbet
Adapted from Nic @ Cherrapeno (who adapted it from The Perfect Scoop)
(I doubled her recipe)

Ingredients:
Mangoes – 5 large, ripe(4lbs)
Ginger – 2″ piece ; finely minced (I microplaned it)
Basil – 12-14 fresh leaves; chopped fine
Sugar – 1 1/3 cup
Water – 1 1/3 cup
Fresh lime juice – 8 tsps / of 2-3 limes, plus more to taste if required
Vodka – 1 tbsp
Pinch of salt Method:

  • Peel the mangoes and cut the juicy flesh from the stones. Cut the flesh into chunks and put them in a blender, along with the sugar, water, lime juice, vodka and the pinch of salt. Squeeze any remaining juice out of the mango and add it to the blender.
  • Puree the mixture until smooth. Pass through a strainer.
  • Add the ginger & chopped basil.
  • Taste the mixture and add more lime juice, as required.
  • Put the sorbet into a freezer-proof container and pop into the freezer. Whisk to break down crystals every hour…(or if you are a lucky ice-cream maker owner, let the maker do the work!!). Leave to set overnight.
  • Scoop out & serve with cut mangoes & fresh basil if you like.

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MY BLOG TURNED 1…MARKING MY MILESTONE WITH STONE-FRUIT!

“Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time.”
Jean Paul Richter

I’M GLAD TO BE 1 !!

It’s been a while; I’ve finally crawled in & turned 1….after everyone & their cousin’s blogs have done it. Been waiting for long enough to reach the BIG 1. From being the new kid on the block in August last year, to being part of this GREAT community, it’s been an enjoyable & eye-opening journey. I’ve made fantastic friends, filled my days & nights with blog addiction & blog panic, met beautiful people, crossed virtual borders, peeped into kitchens, indulged in cuisines unheard of in my kitchen, won a couple of blog events, raised a happy tummy family…enjoyed FOOD, FUN & FRIENDS like never before.
Marking my milestone…
…with a Stone-fruit Crumble!
Thought I would celebrate my milestone with a yummy stone-fruit crumble… in these little ceramic pots that I fell in love with the minute I saw them. I bought them instead of ramekins which I had actually gone to buy!I used a combination of mangoes & peaches for the fruit filling… with some ginger & cinnamon to add adventure to the taste. We loved how it turned out. The kids had theirs with vanilla ice-cream, & we sang for my blog with a dollop of unsweetened cream!
The crumble was good enough to eat on it’s own. I added pistachio nuts to it this time, instead of almonds. The burst of colour from within was a visual treat!

Today was also special for another reason. Delightfully, my dear friend Amy’s son’s birthday also falls today.

Happy Birthday Gianluca…have a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL day!

MANGO-PEACH CRUMBLE with PISTACHIOS
adapted from the earlier recipe of a Peach-Plum Crisp posted here
Ingredients:
Crumble:
Brown sugar – 1/2cup
Cinnamon powder – 1 tsp
Ginger powder – 1 tsp
Flour – 1/4 cup
Rolled oats – 1/2 cup
Pistachio nuts – 1/2 cup; chopped
Melted butter – 4 tbsps

Fruit filling:

Mangoes – 3-4 / firm; chopped
Peaches – 5-6 / pitted & chopped
Fresh ginger – 1 small piece / minced
Cinnamon – 1 tsp
Brown sugar – 1/2 cup
Cornflour – 2 tbsps
Method :
  • For the crumble, mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add melted butter & mix well.
  • For the fruit filling, put everything in a bowl & mix well.
  • Divide between 8 ramekins with the fruit filling. Top evenly with crumble.
  • Bake at 180 degrees C for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream, mascarpone, or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Off to Ben’s @ What’s Cookin US this goes for his I Love Baking’ event, a baking event for baking loving people. It’s fun…coz there are no rules; something BAKED is the only criteria! Ben loves anything & everything mango, so this has to be on his event!!

EXPLOSIVE MANGO-NECTARINE SALAD TO BEAT-THE-HEAT

“In summer, the song sings itself.”
William Carlos Williams

Fusion of flavours…tantalizing the taste-buds!

I beat the heat with this explosive fruit salad. The flavours were refreshingly FRESH, & the dressing complimented the fruit beautifully. Inspired by entries for Beat the Heat that I saw at Ann @ Redacted Recipes, Nic @ Cherrapeno, & Elle’s @ Elle’s New England Kitchen, I set on a no cook trail this morning. Turned to Epicurious found this great sounding ‘no cook’ affair, with great reviews to match…& put this wonderful salad together.

The zing of lime, the freshness of mint…

Believe it or not, it did BEAT THE HEAT!

The temperature is down many, many notches, it’s been raining non-stop since the morning, & the dragon flies have been dancing all day!! YAY!! So this wonderful, wonderful salad is off to Grace @ The Southern Grace for her event, & just in the nick of time!Here’s my adaptation of the recipe I found at Epicurious.com
MANGO- NECTARINE SALAD

Ingredients:
White fruit vinegar – 3 teaspoons ( I don’t own balsamic, even though I wish I did!)
Fresh lemon juice – 3 teaspoons
Brown sugar – 1 teaspoon
Sea salt – 1 teaspoon
Freshly ground black pepper – 1/4 teaspoon
Fresh ginger – 1 inch piece; minced fine
Extra-virgin olive oil – 4 tablespoons
Mango – 4-5; firm-ripe peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Nectarines – 3-4 / stoned & sliced
Fresh mint leaves – a handful

Method:
  • Whisk together vinegar, lime juice, sugar, salt, and pepper until sugar is dissolved, then add oil, whisking until emulsified.
  • Add remaining ingredients and toss until coated. Garnish with fresh mint!
  • BEAT THE HEAT!!

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  • Reuters UK

GINGERBREAD MEN TO PASS ON THE ARTE Y PICO AWARD!

“Cooking is a language through which a society expresses itself”
Jean Soler
Wholewheat Cinnamon Ginger Cookies…
Made these 2 days ago with Amy @ Familia Bencomo in mind…HUGS to you Amy for the wonderful Arte y Pico award. These gingerbread men are very special because this is a recipe that I worked on a while ago for a teacher in the kids’ school who was HUGE on wholewheat healthy stuff & wanted some yummy cookies. The cookies are crisp, great tasting & cut-out beautifully. My favourite choice for gingerbread men & teddy bear cut-out cookies because these hold shape very well & the colour is just right…WARM & HAPPY!! They make great hanging tree ornaments too!

And more hugs!!

I have posted them before for a Think Spice Ginger blog event many moons ago. They have wonderful flavours emanating outta them…cinnamon & ginger!
Ingredients:
Whole-wheat flour – 2 cups
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt – 1 pinch
Ginger powder – 3 heaped tsps
Cinnamon Powder – 1 tsp
Butter – 1/2 cup/ cold
Powdered sugar – 3/4 cup
Egg – 1 beaten
Milk – 3-4 tbsps as required
Method:
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease 4 cookie sheets.
  • Sift the flour + baking powder + ginger powder + salt + cinnamon powder 3 times.
  • Add the flour mix to the cold butter, & make a breadcrumb like mix.
  • Mix in the sugar with a spoon.
  • Add the beaten egg; mix well. Now add enough milk to make a firm dough.
  • Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness & cut with desired cookie cutters.
  • Bake for 12-15 minutes till they smell done and the edges start turning golden-brown.
  • Cool on cookie racks.
  • Makes 3-4 dozen big cookies which keep well in an air-tight container for 2-3 weeks in a cool place.

Time for me to pass this phenomenal award on now…

The rules for the Arte y Pico Award are:
1. You pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
I’ve picked 5 blogs as best as I could (tough choice) that I felt are wholly worthy of this wonderful award. These are all blogs with a heart. They talk, they share & also bring the vast blogging community together…a meeting ground, a melting pot! They have contributed hugely & wholeheartedly to bloggers worldwide & have opened our world to new vistas. Put your hands together for…

Thank you all for bringing cheer & adding meaning to the blogging world!

A TALE OF DIRT PIES & SPICY COOKIES!

“You become about as exciting as your food blender. The kids come in look you in the eye, and ask if anybody’s home.”
Erma Bombeck
Spicy Cookies
Sometimes I think I’m running my personal blog patrol event & the frequency seems to be increasing with all the yummies doing the rounds! Made these ‘healthy’ cookies the other day. I don’t think they can get more healthier than this & stay edible, specially with kids. While browsing Sunita’s blog I stopped at these. She was inspired by traditional gingersnaps & these looked ever so pretty & sounded simple too. I had all the ingredients on hand & couldn’t wait to get started. They made 15 perfect cookies…warm, deep flavours emanating from them.
These are healthy, healthy cookies & good for a change from butter! More of a dunk in the coffee sorta cookie! The kids liked them, & the boy had a picture idea…to hold it against the sky; eventually we settled for somewhere in between!
And therein begins the tale of dirt pies. The kids have their friends over from Kiev these days & the girls wanted to bake! I wasn’t up to the kitchen getting messed up big time, so they agreed to make a jello pudding! Once it was set, I suggested cookie crumbs on top for a mud pie. They had a blast with spicy cookie crumbs (never mind the crumbs ALL over the kitchen floor) & topped the pudding with gummy worms popping out & an Easter egg each! Dirt Pies ready, I said I’d take pictures if they liked. They clicked with the idea, begging me to put them on my blog so they could become world famous! Never imagined blogs could be so powerful & in demand!! Of course the girls pleaded with me in the same breadth not to put the boys on the blog coz they didn’t want to share the limelight. Hmmm…me the ever fair creature dragged the boys with their puddings for a picture, but couldn’t stop them from gobbling their pies!! Boys will be boys!!

The recipe as adapted from Sunita’s World
Ingredients:

Wholewheat flour – 1 cup
Cinnamon powder – 1 tsp
Ginger powder – 3/4 tsp
Baking soda – 1/4 tsp
A pinch of salt
Brown sugar – 4 tbsp
Oil – 3 tbsp
Egg – 1
Vanilla essence – 1/2 tsp
Vanilla Sugar to roll the balls of cookie dough in (can use granulated sugar too)

Method:

  • Whisk together the egg, oil, sugar, and vanilla.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, soda,salt, cinnamon and ginger.
  • Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and tip in the egg mixture.
  • Gently fold in, with a spatula until everything just comes together…do not over mix.
  • Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
  • Pre heat the oven at 180 deg C, grease a baking tray.
  • Divide the mixture into 15 equal portions and shape each into a ball.
  • Roll each ball in the sugar and place them on the prepared baking tray, a little apart from each other.
  • Gently flatten the balls for 12-15 minutes or till the tops are firm and feel dry…(there will be visible cracks on the top).
    Cool in the tray for a few minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool completely before storing in air tight containers.

In the daughter’s words…Oooooooooooooooh crackle-tops!

Mid-Summer’s Day Drink…A Ginger-Lime-Mint Cooler for MBP

” Remember: “I” before “E,” except in Budweiser.”
Author Unknown
Ginger Lime Mint Cooler
And then the blogs come alive again…with the buzz of something new, something being missed. Events are popping up each day, one more enticing than the other. The addiction is maddening & the pace of calendar days flying by sometimes terrifying! Then comes the MBP…a special event. Foodies across blogosphere will always bookmark & save something they’ve got tempted by for the next one on the things-to-do (& SOON) list.

I’ve been eyeing this lovely Ginger-mint-lime cooler @ 28 Cooks for ages waiting for warmer days to come. Come they have…& I hit my patch of mint pronto! Lovely drink…refreshing, full of flavour…evocative of long lazy hot summers that come & go each passing year. Couldn’t have asked for a cooler cooler!! Thank you Fiber… we LOVED this drink; even the kids did!!
It’s the Monthly Blog Patrol or MBP which affords us a platform to get there…novel & most welcome. This month’s event is hosted by Sig @ Live to Eat & she chooses Mixed Drinks. As she says…”A blog event that encourages trying a recipe from a fellow blogger, is a small nudge in the rear to go hunting through our bookmarks and other blogs to find that special recipe we have been meaning to try. Monthly Blog Patrol aka MBP used to be a popular event in the blogosphere, which has been taking a break for a few months now. The idea is to do a monthly patrolling of our favorite blogs and cook something from them based on the theme of the month. MBP is the brainchild of the dynamic blogger Coffee of The Spice Cafe.” Thank you Coffee for an event well thought of, & Sig for being the guest-host for March. Great choice…Mixed Drinks! Ingredients:
Sugar – 1 cup
Water – 2 cups
Rock salt – 1/2 tsp
Lime Juice – of 6-8 limes
Ginger – 1″ piece / grated
Fresh mint leaves
Method:
  • Put the water + sugar + grated ginger into a pan & simmer for 20-30 minutes.
  • Allow to cool completely, strain into a jug & add the lime juice & salt to taste. This is now a concentrate.
  • Adjust for taste. Chill. Pour into glasses with crushed ice & top with soda or water. I didn’t have soda on hand, so I used water. Garnish with slices of lime & mint leaves.
  • Sit back, take a long deep sip & RELAX!!
  • Note: Amy @ Familia Bencomo says it tastes great with sparkling water too….she’s got a point!!

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.”
Sam Keen

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