Tag: gluten free

Eggless Baked Cheesecake with a Mango Lime Sauce … desserts for summer

“The only way cheese is dessert is when it’s followed by the word cake.”
Michele Gorman

Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce must be the easiest dessert to make. Minimum fuss, barely four ingredients, one bowl dump and quick hand whisk, can’t ask for much more in a dessert for summer. I make this often, and am constantly amazed at how versatile I can get with it. Even if summer has slipped by, please make the basic cheesecake and dress it up with anything you like – a salted butter caramel sauce, a berry reduction, a dark chocolate ganache, a homemade preserve, maybe grated chocolate and toasted nuts.

I made a series of mango based desserts this summer. Have been busy with work, some travel, loads of house work etc. Did I mention the guinea pig? Now there are TWO just because they are social animals so a pair seemed right. Then there is Coco who now eats ALL vegetables with renewed interest trying to beat the guinea pigs at their game!

In any case, that I procrastinate is quite obvious else this would have been on the blog a while ago. I made this a short while ago, and recently shared the image on Facebook and Instagram. With so many requests for the recipe, I thought I had better share it before summer sneaks by us, while a few of you can still make it.

So here you are. A quick, eggless delicious cheesecake that is a western take on an old Indian classic, ‘bhapa doi’. Make the Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce a day ahead, chill well, and then enjoy the compliments that come your way. Looks like a lot of work, but all this actually needs is half an hour in total. The mango sauce compliments it beautifully, and makes it look pretty too if you ‘dress it up’ a little. I had fun cutting out shapes with a sharp cookie cutter! I’ve baked this several times before. With summer stone fruit, a Mishti Doi Cheesecake for  a festive feel, a Salted Butter Caramel Cheesecake, and a Dark Chocolate Orange Cheesecake too.

So grab your bowl and whisk and get baking!

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Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce

Quick, eggless delicious, the Eggless Cheesecake with Mango Lime Sauce is the Western take on an old Indian classic, ‘bhapa doi’. Make it a day ahead, chill well, and then enjoy the compliments that come your way. Looks like a lot of work, but all this actually needs is half an hour in total. The Mango sauce compliments it beautifully, and makes it look pretty too.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • Eggless Lime Cheesecake
  • 1 tin sweet condensed milk {approx 400g}
  • 400 g yogurt
  • 2 tsp milk powder
  • Zest of 1 lime
  • Mango Lime Sauce
  • 150 ml mango juice fresh/tinned
  • Zest of 1 lime
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tsp cornflour dissolved in 1tbsp of cold juice
  • 1/2 tsp sugar

Instructions

Eggless Lime Cheesecake

  • Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 6″ dessert ring with a double layer of foil to come up around the edges so the mixture doesn’t leak. You can also use a loose bottomed tin but make sure you wrap it with foil too.
  • In a large bowl whisk together all ingredients for cheesecake until smooth.
  • Turn into prepared tin and bake for 15 minutes. Leave to cool in tin, then cover and place to chill in fridge overnight.
  • Meanwhile, prepare the sauce for topping.

Mango Lime Sauce

  • Place the mango juice a in a heavy bottom pan with lime zest and sugar, and cook over medium high heat until halved in quantity. {If you like a slight hint of chili, you can add half a slit deseeded green chili for 2-3 minutes, and then discard it}
  • Once the juice has reduced, add the lime juice and corn flour stirring until it thickens to desired consistency. The sauce will thicken a bit more on cooling.
  • Cool sauce, and then chill overnight with the cheesecake. {The sauce can be made in advance}
  • Top with cutouts from mango slices, fresh basil leaves, flowers if in bloom. Chill until ready to serve!

Dhungaar-e-Keema or Smoked Lamb Mince #comfortfood #Indiancuisine

“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”
Ruth Reichl

Dhungaar-e-Keema  or Smoked Indian Lamb Mince is a quintessential recipe from the Indian subcontinent, one that is as simple as it is flavourful. The recipe is quite basic, the underlining key words characteristically ‘andaaz‘ and ‘bhuno‘, terms very familiar to how we cook in this region. Andaaz referring to eyeballing ingredients, and bhuno, ‘the quintessential stirring and roasting’ that gives Indian cuisine its essential character. Be it kebabs, kormas, bhuna gosht or then keema like this, the spice mixes are generally region specific. This Dhungaar-e-Keema or Smoked Lamb Mince is minimally adapted from an old one from @ My Tamarind Kitchen, a blog written by Scotland based Sumayya.It’s an old familiar recipe, one that has roots across this region, North India and Pakistan. It’s strange how similar the culinary vocabulary and cooking methods are. My mother and her friends, who I owe a lot of my initial recipe repertoire to, always had the same two favourite words, ‘andaaz’ and ‘bhuno’. The  story was the same with my aunts who I used to pursue relentlessly in an attempt hone my abysmal cooking skills. These words were firmly rooted in the North Indian cooking lingo of the past, a reflection of how recipes have evolved down the ages. We’re down to measures now – teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, grams, ounces in cookbooks, yet ‘andaaz ‘or eyeballing in Indian cooking still rules the kitchen!For recipes other than baking I still pretty much eyeball what goes in, merrily tasting and tossing as I stir. Andaaz is my way to go too. No better way to cook I’d say, though maybe not the ideal ‘cookbook’ for newcomers on the scene, or for people alien to a particular cuisine. The good thing is that I am an obsessive ‘picture taker’ for steps of cooking, and especially when cooking with spices as they keep me fascinated. As a result of that, I usually know how the recipe has progressed and what went it.

This time was of course no different even though I followed Sumayyas recipe pretty much. The steps were familiar since most of our curries follow the same pattern. The only thing different about her recipe was that no powdered spices were included, something that I found quite interesting. I don’t think I’ve cooked often with only a smattering of whole spices and not even a single teaspoon of coriander powder or turmeric.

I did add a few whole spices of my own though. Star anise for one. A new found love for a spice I barely cared for. Shooting for our Masala Dabba series I fell in love with it because of the way it looked. So I included it in a sangria, then in a panna cotta. Then one trip into the heart of South India to Karaikudi,and I was sold on it. It’s quite an integral part of Chettinad cuisine, often thrown in in wild abandon, the aromas filling the air the minute star anise hits hot oil.

Also in went bay leaves, a gift from the garden of my mother’s friend who lives in the UK, but grew up here in India. She carried a bag for us, for me especially, since she knows how fond we are of her recipes, a lot of them inspired from Pakistan. She influenced a lot of my recipe and cooking processes when I had just got married, gingerly stepping into the kitchen for the first time. The rest of course is history …  the recipe follows!

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Cooking | Dhungaar-e-Keema or Smoked Lamb Mince

Dhungaar-e-Keema or Smoked Indian Lamb Mince is a quintessential recipe from the Indian subcontinent, one that is as simple as it is flavourful. The recipe is quite basic, the underlining key words characteristically ‘andaaz‘ and ‘bhuno‘, terms very familiar to how we cook in this region. Andaaz referring to eyeballing ingredients, and bhuno, the quintessential 'stirring and roasting’ that gives Indian cuisine its essential character.
Course Main Course
Cuisine Indian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

Keema

  • 500 g lamb mince
  • 1 cup homemade full fat yoghurt whisked smooth
  • 3 medium tomatoes finely chopped
  • 2 medium onions finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ginger paste
  • 1 tsp garlic paste

Whole garam masala

  • 1 cinnamon stick {dalchini}
  • 3-4 cloves {long}
  • 3-4 small green cardamom {elaichi}
  • 1 tbsp fennel seeds {saunf}
  • 1 tsp whole cumin seeds {zeera}
  • 1 tbsp whole coriander seeds {dhania}
  • 2 star anise
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2-3 green chilies
  • 1 big bunch fresh coriander chopped
  • 1 lime
  • 3 tbsp Ghee/ clarified butter or oil
  • 1 piece of coal

Instructions

  • Heat some ghee/clarified butter in a heavy bottom and add the khara masala/whole spices and saute until fragrant. Throw in the chopped onions and stir fry until light golden brown on the edges. Add the ginger garlic and saute for a further 2-3 minutes, until the raw smell has disappeared.
  • Now add all the chopped tomatoes and roast well until almost dry, then add the mince. Stir in well to mix, then roast over high heat until the meat is no longer pink. Season with salt.
  • Then add the yogurt, stirring constantly to roast/bhuno until the yogurt has been absorbed and is no longer white. Cover the wok/pan with a tight fitting lid, reduce heat to lowest, allowing the mince to slow cook in it's own juices.
  • Check once in a while to make sure it isn't catching the bottom, giving it a quick stir. A heavy bottom good quality pan really works well here. cook until the liquid has evaporated and the colour is nice and reddish brown. As Sumayya says, 'bhuno-ing the keema is key!'
  • Add loads of fresh chopped coriander and green chilies. Cover and allow to dam for a about 5 minutes, then turn off heat and let it stand. I f you wish to smoke the mince, please see instructions below.
  • Smoking the Keema: Light up a piece of coal over the gas fire. Make a tiny bowl with an aluminium foil. Place the hot burning coal in it and quickly drizzle a few drops of melted ghee/clarified butter over it. The coal will begin smoking immediately. Tightly shut the lid and leave for about 15-30 minutes.

Overnight Thandai Oats with Peaches & Plums…. summer is for breakfast like this

“Fussing over food was important. It gave a shape to the day: breakfast, lunch, dinner; beginning, middle, end.”
Robert Hellenga, Philosophy Made Simple

Overnight Thandai Oats with Peaches & Plums, a no brainer at best. A recipe that took far too long to come, one that is the easiest and has a nice gentle touch. The home made Thandai Nut Mix adds a delightful touch, tying in well with the almond milk, sabja/basil seeeds and melon seeds. Of course, feel free to use chia seeds as they are super foods too, though imported. I use basil because they are locally available and swell up so beautifully. My sweet friend Madhuli @ My Food Court makes sure my supply of basil seeds is never ending.Peaches and almonds make for great pairing. What’s not to love about a breakfast that offers everything in a bowl? Oats, nuts and seasonal fruit? The nut factor comes in from this Thandai mix. Thandai, or sardai, is a cold drink prepared with a mixture of almonds, fennel seeds, magaztari seeds, rose petals, pepper, vetiver seeds, cardamom, saffron, milk and sugar. It’s a traditional cooler from the Indian subcontinent, one that is very popular around Holi, the festival of colour. The recipe for my Thandai Nut Mix is here on the KitchenAid India blog. There are hundreds of versions of the mix online, some more complex than others, yet most customisable to taste. Feel free to use your own, or a store bought variety, else add almond meal or chopped walnuts. If nuts are not your thing, maybe just skip them but do try this once. It’s quite gentle on the palette and ties in well with the stone fruit.Talking about stone fruit, this is the best time of the year to enjoy them to the maximum. I use them as much as I can these days. In bakes like crumbles, or trifles {as above}, just simply much through them, or then like this lemonade below. Elevate your simple everyday lemonade or nimbu paani to a Peach and Cherry Lemonade. Allow peach slices, pitted cherries and fresh mint leaves to sit in the lemonade for about an hour in the fridge. You’ll be delighted with the change in colour and gentle flavour.

 

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Overnight Thandai Oats with peaches and plums

What can be better than waking up to a chilled healthy and delicious breakfast on a warm summer morning. These Overnight Thandai Oats with peaches and plums are the best thing to wake up to. A no cook, beautifully balanced breakfast for a great start to the day! Oats + nuts + seeds + fruit herbs all share space in a make ahead jar. Use any seasonal fruit you like. Berries, mango, kiwi, pineapple, sapota etc.
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 8 hours 5 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

Overnight Thandai Oats

  • 8 tbsp breakfast oats
  • 2 tbsp Thandai Mix
  • 2 tbsp melon seeds
  • 2 tsp basil/sabja seeds
  • 2 tsp brown sugar {optional}
  • 200 ml milk

Topping

  • 2 peaches,large sliced
  • 2 plums diced
  • 2 tbsp melon seeds
  • Few sprigs fresh mint
  • Few sprigs fresh mint

Instructions

  • Overnight Thandai Oats
  • Divide the oats, Thandai mix, melon seeds, basil/sabja seeds and brown sugar between 2 lidded glass jars. Top with just enough milk to soak the mix.
  • Stir gently, cover and leave to stand in the fridge overnight.
  • Topping
  • Next morning top with sliced fresh peaces and plums, scatter over with melon seeds and fresh mint

Of Caramel Custard, Mother’s Day and Sunday Stills. The Yin and Yang of life!


“For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson

A post about Caramel Custard, Mother’s Day and Sunday Stills! Also of high key photography. The recent trip down into the heart of South India opened up a new dimension to how I wanted to style and shoot food. Karaikudi meant loads more prop shopping, tons of enamelware included. Strange how it started off a domino effect. My downright dark and moody side opened up to a new love, a new light I have never chased so passionately! Love for light food props, then love for white frames, and eventually a fascination with high key photography. Light tones, pastels, loads of whites, brighter hues, sometimes edging on overexposed. The technical sense still abysmal though! I am still experimenting, still trying to build a level of patience…That was a drastic change from what I have always enjoyed shooting, dark, moody frames. Moody is still my first love, shadows, darkness, deep blacks, blocking light, all reflective of my personality, and definitely of my favourite colour, black!

Caught between yin and yang, swinging between two extremes, my sweet friend Simi asked if I wanted to join her and Dolphia for Sunday Stills. Sunday Stills meant experimenting with testing new levels of photography. That basically meant different experiments with light and techniques, new ways to push our comfort levels. While she is a workhorse, with loads of planning and in-depth research, something that reflects in her stunning styling and images, I am quite the opposite.Often impatient, no time for research, technically pretty incompetent {read pathetic}, yet we share two things. Love for food styling and photography, and food props. We are the queens of procrastination too. Oh yes, and we share a single day between birthdays, Scorpions to the core we are!

So here we go this Sunday. With my #SundayStills, thanks to this hugely inspiring lady, I share with you a little of what I’ve been shooting lately {I have to admit I am also shooting low key, dark images on the side}. Also here for you a recipe for a Caramel Custard that I did for Kitchen Aid. I did another version soon after, the Caramel Flan. Hopefully someday that recipe too will see light of day! While I have baked the custard, you can always steam it the old fashioned way like my Mum used to do. 10-15 minutes in the pressure cooker, placed on a trivet submerged in water, lid on, no cap.

Have a great Sunday, and of course, Happy Mother’s Day!

And before I forget, grateful thanks to Manidipa for the include in her post this morning – 20 Top Female Food Bloggers of India: Mother’s Day Special

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Caramel Custard

My version of the quintessential ‘Caramel Custard’ that showed up on our frugal dessert table quite often when we were young. This one is slightly more luxurious than the wobbly one we had as kids from the armed forces. It's baked, not steamed, though if you are making one large pudding, steaming it in the pressure cooker is a breeze. Quick too!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 4 hours
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Caramel

  • 150 g Castor sugar
  • 20 ml Water

Custard

  • 2 eggs
  • 100 g sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, scraped
  • 200m ml milk
  • 250 ml low fat cream

Instructions

For the Caramel

  • Keep 4 X 8oz ramekins ready and place sugar and water in a heavy bottom saucepan, and stir over medium heat until sugar melts.
  • Increase heat to high, and allow to bubble away without stirring, until it reaches a deep amber colour. {This is the crucial part because the caramel can burn. Also please take extreme caution as caramel is very hot}.
  • Take off heat immediately, and pour into ramekins, turning gently to coat bottoms. Allow to stand for 5 minutes, while you make the custard.

For the Caramel Custard

  • Preheat the oven to 180C
  • Heat milk, cream and shell of vanilla bean in a pan over low heat until slight bubbles form on the edges. Take off heat.
  • Place the eggs, scraped vanilla and sugar in bowl of stand mixer. Whisk on speed 2 for 2 minutes until sugar is almost dissolved.
  • Reduce speed to lowest, put the splatter screen, and gently pour in the vanilla infused milk, whisking continuously for 30 seconds.
  • Strain the custard into a jug/saucepan, and then pour into the prepared ramekins.
  • Place ramekins in a 9′ X 9″ square pan. Gently pour in water into the tray to come up half around the ramekins. – –
  • Bake for about 45 minutes until the custard begins to set, a bit wobbly in the middle.
  • Allow to cool, then chill covered for a few hours, preferably overnight.
  • To serve, run a butter knife gently around the tip to loosen it, place a platter over the ramekin, turn over swiftly, and then shake to release. Top with toasted walnuts if desired.

Savoury Granola – gluten free, healthy, addictive

“Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.”
Confucius

Savoury Granola … I’m not really sure why it took me so long to get going. Granola is something I’ve been making forever, actually until the folk at home get a little tired of it, then I stop. It happens on and off. Although I might bake a load of sweet stuff, in reality my heart and taste buds are ‘savoury’. Given half a chance, savoury is what I like to bake, like this Wholewheat Oat Soda Bread. This was the best!!

As you can see, say S A V O U R Y and my eyes light up. It’s strange but coffee, maybe bitter chocolate are the only 2 sweet things that entice me toward a dessert. I’m quite the happy savoury camper otherwise, anything not too spice laden works for me. So when Saffola Masala Oats launched their two new variants, Italian and Chinese, as panel members of Fit Foodie, we flew down to Mumbai for a blind tasting of the new variant. Turned out to be a very pleasant surprise!It’s an exciting new change from the other popular Indian inspired flavours in the market, and interestingly, they’ve managed to pull off a change in texture too. I would encourage you to try a bowl, or rather dive into a bowl or two. At the blind tasting, all you could hear in a matter of minutes was ‘scrape, scrape, scrape’ as we got to the end of the delicious bowls! Once you’re hooked onto the same, I am certain your next step could be this exciting and fun savoury granola. Granola is always simple and fun to make at home. Savoury granola turned out to be a winner; even simpler, and even more fun. Gorgeous colour too! The oats are already spiced and in handy little pouches. Snip off the tops, turn into a bowl, toss with a spoon, stir in the wet mix. Pop into the oven! Quite the hardest thing is waiting for the granola to cool down to get to the crunchy nibble! Gave me enough time to play around with the camera ….Later, I made a quick bhel puri like mix too. YUMM! Quite an ideal, healthy and delicious snack.

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Savoury Granola

Savoury granola is delicious, addictive, crisp & crunchy good! Good for breakfast, as a snack, over salads etc. This quick healthy bake is also great as a part of a trail mix, or an Indian bhel puri fusion mix. Toss it up with chopped tomatoes, peppers and onions, some fresh herbs, maybe throw in some sweet corn and enjoy!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 1 500g jar

Ingredients

  • 5 packets Saffola Masala Oats, Italian 40g X 5=200g
  • 1 cup toasted sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup melon seeds {magaz}
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 egg ewhite lightly whisked
  • 1 tsp worcestershire sauce

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 180C.
  • Place oats and seeds in a large bowl. Stir to mix.
  • Place olive oil, egg white and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl, and whisk lightly with a fork to mix.
  • Pour wet mix into bowl of dry mix, and stir well to coat dry ingredients. Break any large clumps, leaving the smaller ones if you like.
  • Turn onto a rimmed heavy baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes, stir well, then for another 15 minutes until golden and crisp.
  • Cool completely, and then store in an airtight jar in a cool place.

Foodtalk | Antidote ‘Cold pressed organic juice & activated vegan mylk’ … fueled by passion

“The only antidote to the magic of images is the magic of words.”
Camille Paglia

Antidote! To think of it in the mildest terms, an antidote is a remedy that relieves. Well if you’ve had the good fortune to experience this Antidote, then you’ll know the remedy is good, delicious and refreshing! I was fortunate to get a taste of the Antidote line of cold pressed juices while at The Lodi for our food styling workshop last month. I have to say that I was very impressed with the juices on all counts. Great well balanced ‘real’ taste, fresh, refreshing and so much variety.

I am a huge fan of cold pressed juices, and this market segment seems to be exploding. A virtual flood of cold pressed juices has hit the market of late, much to the delight of thirsty customers. Count me among them since I am eternally charmed by the concept. The concept of ‘all the goodness in a bottle‘ does tempt as days get very busy sometimes and one tends to neglect oneself. Also, if there are kids around, it feels good to offer them organic, clean, pesticide free ‘healthy’ juices. And if the juices are delicious to the last drop too, then you’re in business! Antidote seems to have nailed just that!

Since Antidote do solely juices and mylks {nut milks}, they’ve gone all the way and explored about every ingredient good for you. Then they’ve bottled them in these deep amber bottles which are quaint and almost like old fashioned medicine bottles. The whole look IMHO connects well to brand identity; for me, just looking at the bottle was food for thought! Yes actually, the drinks are bottled in dark amber glass bottles so that the live enzymes stay intact unaffected by heat or sunlight. I thought that was very cool, and seemed to make a lot of sense.

No preservatives, no added sugars and only organic produce make them one of the popular choices in the NCR these days. The cost might be high, but then organic produce does come with a hefty price tag. That doesn’t deter the brand from its ever growing loyalty base. With delivery points at Lodi Road, Malcha Marg and Chanakya Puri, and home delivery in Gurgaon, they have seen a steady increase in customers. Antidote also has a retail outlet at Select City Walk, Saket.

Antidote offers a bespoke service, customised for individual needs as required, working in tandem with their in-house nutritionists. They offer several different plans – The Cleanse & Juice Programs. For eg the ‘Go Liquid Until Dinner’ Cleanse is one that caught mye glad eye! From a 1 day trial to an advanced 10 day programme, the choices are varied. The same for juice programmes with options like Exhale, Skinny Down, Horse Power, the names are as innovative as what’s in the juice. I haven’t tried any of their nut mylks but some of my favourites juices include

The Flusher with apple, carrot, celery, ginger & green coffee extract, the flavours individually enticing your taste buds,
The Alkalizer with Apple, Courgette, Parsley & Peppermint,
The Polisher with pineapple, pear, arugula, green tea, peppermint, cinnamon, ginger & ashwagandha extract, and
The Conditioner with almond milk, vanilla water & coconut sugar

You can even do a juice a day! I can’t wait to try one of their plans after which maybe I can tell you if it worked it’s magic on me or not, but I can definitely sing praises of the quality, the product packaging, the label information, the  seamless delivery and of course the fresh delicious taste. Even the wheat grass cold pressed juice was good to the last drop {I’m saying that because I’ve recently had some really unpalatable versions from elsewhere}.

While the jury will always be out as to whether cold pressed juices vs fruit eaten whole is the right way to go, I am no expert or nutritionist. I just know that I find cold pressed juices a good refreshing option, especially to packaged juices with added sugars and lost enzymes. Additionally, the nut mylks might be a boon for those who are lactose intolerant, and also to vegans. That Conditioner juice with almond, vanilla water and coconut sugar definitely had my mind believe the bottle had coffee hidden in there somewhere. For a coffee lover like me, that good!Ph: + 91 9717412218 8 am to 8 pm
Email: antidotecleanses@gmail.com

 

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