Mango Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Passionate About Baking

FRANKLY SPEAKING…THESE FRANKIES ARE DARNED GOOD

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing; it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”

Voltaire

Frankies served with a Sweet & Sour Mango Chutney…really experience your senses!!

The thoughts of what to make for lunch ring in the head every morning the minute I wake up. Inspiration on a daily basis is hard to come by…but this morning Meeta @ What’s For Lunch Honey came to my rescue. Have been fascinated by her post on frankies served with a mango chutney ever since I saw it served on her blog. Thoughts turned into opportunity when spicy Zlamushka @ Zlamushka’s Spicy Kitchen mailed the other day announcing WFLH was the blog in focus for this month’s Tried & Tasted.

I have bookmarked the lemon squares & the apricot pistachio ice-cream, amongst many others off Meeta’s inspiring blog. But with mangoes in every hue & colour flooding the markets, what better time to indulge & appreciate a great recipe…a finger licking good mango chutney served with these yummy paneer/cottage-cheese frankies.

Bombay Street Food at it’s best…

You must hop over to Meeta’s & read up her interesting post on Bombay street food, which these frankies form an integral part of. DH gave these a big thumbs up, & said the chutney reminded him of the one his grand mom used to make. The flavours throughout both were beautiful. THANK YOU Meeta for the wonderful post, & for bringing alive fond memories of days gone by. The recipe for the chutney & paneer / cottage cheese frankies is HERE .

Sweet, Mildly Spicy & Sour Mango Chutney…finger-licking good!

I made the chutney with a combination of 2 green mangoes & 1 ripe mango (made 1/2 the recipe), but if you don’t get green mangoes, don’t fret. The original at Meeta’s has been made just with ripe mangoes. Play around with the spices as you like…this is a great chutney to have on hand.

I made half the amount of the recipe & got 2 jars. Kept tasting it while making it…very addictive…maybe ate up half a jar doing just that. I increased the chili flakes & figured that the black pepper gave it a great flavour & an interesting dimension. Do try & make the chutney a day in advance so that it chills in the fridge overnight. YUM!!

Thank you Meeta for the wonderful experience, & Zlamushka for the opportunity to express it!

If it’s bookmarked it HAS to head to Ruth @ Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments for her ‘Bookmarked Event‘. There you go Ruth…another opportunity to cherish & treasure great recipes!

FRANKLY SPEAKING…THESE FRANKIES ARE DARNED GOOD

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing; it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”

Voltaire

Frankies served with a Sweet & Sour Mango Chutney…really experience your senses!!

Bombay Street Food at it’s best…

Sweet, Mildly Spicy & Sour Mango Chutney…finger-licking good!

Thank you Meeta for the wonderful experience, & Zlamushka for the opportunity to express it!

If it’s bookmarked it HAS to head to Ruth @ Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments for her ‘Bookmarked Event‘. There you go Ruth…another opportunity to cherish & treasure great recipes!

QUENCHING THIRST WITH A MANGO COOLER…CELEBRATING SUMMER!

“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. “

Russel Baker

Cooler anyone? Make mine mango…

With summer here, a cooler is just the perfect way to chill out. And with mangoes in every avatar flooding markets, how cool would a mango cooler be. In North India, this is a traditional thirst quencher, considered a good way to beat the heat & was made throughout homes across the North. Just the right thing to gulp down when you walk in from searing temperatures hitting 40 degrees C & upwards, & for many, the only way to escape a heatstroke. Aam panna, as it is called locally, served up a healthy mix of sugar & salts to balance the electrolytes that the body lost in the the HOT Indian summer.

My favourite way to serve this thirst quencher is in a tall steel glass

Aam Panna is an Indian drink renowned for its heat resistant properties. It is made from Green Mangoes and it is used as a tasty and healthy beverage to fight against the intense Indian summer heat. Apart from being tasty this drink also looks good due to its refreshing light green color. Green Mango is a rich source of pectin, which gradually diminishes after the formation of the stone. Unripe mango is sour in taste because of the presence of oxalic, citric and malic acids. Aam panna which is prepared using raw mangoes, sugar and an assortment of spices is an effective remedy for heat exhaustion and heat stroke. It also quenches thirst and prevents the excessive loss of sodium chloride and iron during summer due to excessive sweating.

The kids like their cooler in tall stem glasses topped with mint….

Raaga @ Singing Chef posted her mother’s recipe of a mango cooler ‘kairi panha‘. In North India we call it ‘aam panna‘. It is almost similar & in the past I have always made it differently. I usually wash the mangoes well, cook them under pressure with skins on for 5-7 minutes. Once cool, squeeze the pulp out & then continue the same way with the blending etc. Thought I’d give it a shot in Raaga’s Mom’s style as it looked decidedly different. The cooler came out very nice…fresh & exciting; tasted just like I make the other way. The son loved it & frequently asks me to make it.

The recipe as adapted from Raagas‘…
Ingredients:

Raw Mango – 1 cup, peeled and diced ( about 2 mangoes)
Roasted Cumin Powder – 1 tbsp
Rock Salt – 2 tsp powdered
Sugar – 2-4 tbsp

Red chili flakes – 1/8tsp

Mint leaves – a handful

Method:

Place all the ingredients, except mint leaves, in a microwave safe bowl with a little water and microwave on high for 3 minutes (till soft).
Allow to cool, add the mint leaves & run in the blender. Dilute this concentrate with chilled water, pour into tall glasses over ice-cubes, top with mint & celebrate summer! Can be made 2-3 days in advance. refrigerate until use.

Meeta @ Whats For Lunch Honey has Monthly Mingle #23 on now, which is celebrating Mango mania with all things mango for the entire month. So I thought I’d share this with the nice lady…

Fresh mint finds place in a almost everything I make…

…& also with Dee @ Ammalu’s Kitchen who is running Herb Mania. Her choice of herb for the month is one of my favourites…MINT. I just can’t seem to get enough of this refreshing herb, & it seems to wiggle into most of what I make, as a garnish at the least, if nothing else. There you go Dee.

First it’s mango mania & then herb mania, am feeling like quite a foodie maniac after this post…

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MANGOLICIOUS MORNINGS with FRUITY BEGINNINGS!!

“Marriages are all happy; its having breakfast together that causes all the trouble.”

Irish Proverb Mango Fruit Salad with Apricots, Melon, Cherries & basil

It’s the month of May, & MANGO, the king of fruits, rules the roost here in India. As far as the eye can see, it’s mangoes all the way. In the midst of this, Arundati @Escapades is hosting this month’s Weekend Breakfast Blogging (WBB) #22; it’s has been aptly christened ‘May Mango Madness’. As she dramatically states, “Melting moments of May have turned up the heat a notch higher…WBB, the event started by the lovely doctor at Saffron trail, stops by at Escapades this month.”

With mangoes going for less than a dollar a kilo here, it is complete madness. To add to it, the Escapades lady has been on my case to send her an entry & soon. SMSing, googling, calling…I am now stressed enough to post this immediately! Oh, the pressures of modern day existence & blogging are enough to give me sleepless nights; throw in the IPL cricket matches day after day & you lose track of time!! That’s my life, but since my conscience has now got the better of me, here we go…

I am not a very elaborate breakfast sorta person. With 3 main meals in a day, breakfast is always light & quick. Once in a while, DH rues the fact that I don’t make pancakes. I had some bookmarked from Nandita’s blog @ Saffron Trail; never quite got there. I had wild thoughts pass through my head…mango nightmares; would a frozen cheesecake sound too bizarre for breakfast? Could I pass off the ‘Mango Fool‘ the daughter made for dessert on Mother’s day? Maybe I could sneak in an ice-cream & no one would say a word…hmmmm! Arundati’s persistence got the better of me & googling led me to yummies like Mango, blueberry, and ginger fruit salad, Fresh fruit platter with ginger-mango sauce, Mango parfait! Thoroughly inspired & thankful for the shove to widen my horizons, I made this fruit salad with a ginger-lime-basil dressing.

What a great beginning to the day this was…a treat for the eyes too!

These days North India is seeing an abundance of the ‘Safeda’ mango, which is juicy & absolutely delicious. Alphonsos, Safedas, Banganpalli, Neelam, Dusheri, Totapuri, Langra can be seen across local markets during the mango season. These are all local varieties & one variety eases the other out of the market as days go by.

That’s the sons’ bowlful…he had it with just mangoes & cherries, basil & dressing!

When we were young, we would visit family friends in Benares, a holy town on the banks of the river Ganges, almost every summer. Summer being prime mango season, every meal would begin or end with mango in some form. Breakfast was usually mango pureed with a small amount of milk or cream, served chilled in porridge bowls…absolutely delicious. Lunch & dinner would be wrapped up with each of us being given individual platters, knives & mangoes (which were chilled in huge tubs of ice water), & we would devour them with great excitement….with no one particularly concerned at the juices dripping or the royal mess we created.

Mangoliciously good memories!!

The onset of summer also means the appearance of fruits from the hills from the state of Jammu & Kashmir, a state often referred to as ‘Paradise on Earth’. Peaches, apricots, cherries are mesmerising our taste buds too these days, & found place next to the mangoes in our bowlfuls for breakfast! Melons too jostled for space in the bowl; I used the melon baller for them.

Luxuriating in a walnut wood bowl that my mother got from Srinagar when we visited the ‘Paradise‘ decades ago…

Now for the recipe…very simple & full of flavour.
Ingredients for the dressing
Water – 1/3 cup
Sugar – 1/3 cup
Zest & juice of 2-3 limes
Grated fresh ginger – 1-2″ piece

Method:

Boil the zest + water + sugar + ginger & simmer it for 3-5 minutes.
Take it off the heat. Add the lime juice & let it rest for 20-30 minutes for the flavours to marry!!
Strain & chill until ready to use.
Chop up 3-4 mangoes, deseed & quarter 10-15 apricots, pip the cherries (I didn’t) & ‘ball’ the melon (I did).
Chop up a handful of fresh basil fine. Gently toss everything together in a big bowl, drizzle the dressing over the fruit & toss again gently. Chill well & serve in individual bowls with a sprig of basil each. Top with chopped crystallized ginger if you like.

There you go Arundati…this is for you @ Escapades!! Thanks for pushing (read stalking) me to stretch my limits. A sweet thought on the side, this bowl makes for delicious dessert too, served with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream. We tried that too (obviously!!!).

Delicious, both to begin, & end the day!! Howzzat for a ‘bowlful of mangolicious options’?

CREAMY HOME-MADE MANGO ICE-CREAM…ON A CALCIUM HIGH!

“Condensed milk is wonderful. I don’t see how they can get a cow to sit down on those little cans.”

Fred Allen

On a calcium high…Goodness that’s fruity & cool!

This creamy, delicious mango ice-cream’s en route for something I support whole-heartedly & have always believed in…Beautiful Bones: An Osteoporosis Food Event, hosted by one of my favourite bloggers Susan @ Food Blogga.

Susan is funny, her posts are evocative, beautifully presented, & come with a fair share of humour, meaning… & much more. Thanks to her, ‘Dermadoc‘ is gaining notoriety as an avid foodie critic too!! Ha Ha…sorry Susan, was hilarious when he dropped by my place a while ago, & then I saw him at Nicismes’ recently too!

I have made this ice-cream twice already to celebrate mango mania in the merry month of May.

Once here…

…&, on popular demand, here again!

It has been my endeavour to ensure both my kids have always been ‘high on calcium’. Thankfully, it’s become a habit after all these years; the 2 glasses of milk & 2 bowls of home-made yogurt daily are inbuilt into their everyday routine ! I sometimes have to refuse the 3rd bowl of yogurt…such is the love of yogurt! These are simple life-style changes that can be incorporated in everyday meals as an investment in the future! They have now come to love grilled cottage-cheese, the panna cotta (yogurt one too), cottage-cheese cheese cake, fresh broccoli, oranges…all wonderful sources of calcium. I too have 3 glasses (yes 3!!) of milk a day (not a tea person), in addition to yogurt etc. Personally, for me, a glass of chilled milk is a great way to fix hunger pangs…glug it down!!

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) osteoporosis is “a disease in which bones become fragile and more likely to break.” May is National Osteoporosis Awareness Month. It is never too early or too late to start your prevention program. Osteoporosis is largely preventable for most people. Prevention of this disease is very important because, while there are treatments for osteoporosis, there is currently no cure.

Four Steps to Prevent Osteoporosis

By about age 20, the average woman has acquired 98 percent of her skeletal mass. Building strong bones during childhood and adolescence can be the best defense against developing osteoporosis later. A healthy lifestyle can be critically important for keeping bones strong. No one step alone is enough to prevent osteoporosis but all four may.

A balanced diet rich in calcium and vitamin D;
Weight-bearing exercise;
A healthy lifestyle with no smoking or excessive alcohol intake;
Bone density testing and medication when appropriate.

An easy and economical way to boost the calcium content of many meals is to add nonfat powdered dry milk to puddings, homemade cookies, breads or muffins, soups, gravy, casseroles and even a glass of milk. A single tablespoon of nonfat powdered dry milk adds 52 mg of calcium, and 2 to 4 tablespoons can be added to most recipes.
You may add:
3 tablespoons to each cup of milk in puddings, cocoa or custard
4 tablespoons to each cup of hot cereal before cooking
2 tablespoons sifted into each cup of flour in cakes, cookies or breads

Enough said… so now onto the ice-cream…the inspiration for which came first from Arundati’s @ Escapades where she had posted an eggless Star Anise Ice-cream using condensed milk. That stuck in my mind! I was also inspired by the Floral Mango Ice-cream that Mike @ Mike’s Table had posted…the colours & combination were explosive, but for the eggs. I am quite a non-eggy person, so I put my own ideas & measures together & made this. Lovely & creamy ice-cream…& maybe would do even better in an ice-cream machine (whinge, whinge)…I used my arm!!

Ingredients:

Fresh cream – 500ml
Condensed milk – 1 can (14oz)
Mangoes – 2-3 / pureed
Pistachio nuts – a handful / optional

Method:

Beat the cream & condensed milk well. Add the mango puree & roughly chopped nuts & whisk again.
Put into a plastic bowl with a tight fitting lid & put into the freezer.
Whisk the ice-cream every hour to break the crystals that form from the edge inwards, at least 5-6 times (whinge-whinge), & then leave to set for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Top with slivered pistachios & sprigs of mint! It’s absolutely delicious.

DH commented…”Better than Ben & Jerry’s”!! YAY!

MANGO YOGURT PANNA COTTA…A TANGO WITH MANGO!

“…a big part of cooking is choosing the ingredients.

And a big part of serving is doing it with pride”

Ruth Reichl

Mango Yogurt Panna Cotta…light & delicious

With the mango season finally upon us, it’s difficult to stay away from this sensuous fruit. It is enticing, it is mesmerising, & it is bursting with juicy sweetness. The season will last the next 3-4 months & I intend to use this luscious fruit as much as I can! I guess you will see quite a few mango posts, some healthy & others not entirely so, popping outta my blog this summer (it’s already 42 degrees C here; small mercies that mangoes don’t melt!!!)

Looks & tastes good…both in the bowl & upside down!

This is one such fruity adventure to herald the beginning of the mango season here, & is a healthy dessert…a satisfying fresh panna cotta; almost harbouring on the creamier edge of a flavoured yogurt but more indulgent! This post is specially for Chris @ Mele Cotte who is running the Cooking to Combat Cancer event for the second year.

She has bravely combatted cancer, won the battle & this event is her small way to continue to promote cancer awareness. Her call is to “utilize recipes which include ingredients that help the body fight cancer. In short? Healthy recipes“…

…this one’s for you Chris!

There are strong indications that fruit and vegetable consumption does reduce cancer risk. The nutrients that have been determined most responsible for reducing cancer risk are vitamin A, vitamin C, and fiber. Mango is one such fruit that has all 3!
Did You Know?

Mangoes are an excellent source of vitamins C and A, both important antioxidant nutrients. Vitamin C promotes healthy immune function and collagen formation. Vitamin A is important for vision and bone growth.
Mangoes are a good source of dietary fiber. Diets low in fat and high in fiber-containing grain products, fruits, and vegetables are associated with a reduced risk of some types of cancer.
Mangoes contain over 20 different vitamins and minerals.

Yogurt is listed as a very good source of calcium, phosphorous, riboflavin-vitamin B2 and iodine, but some of the most interesting health information about yogurt comes from a different context – its potential inclusion of live bacteria. Mangoes have been cultivated in India for about 5,000 years, and were originally small, fibrous fruits, somewhat like plums, with a taste like turpentine. The mango (Mangifera indica) is a tropical Asian tree of the cashew family. They are now grown extensively throughout the tropics, and are sometimes known as ‘the peach of the tropics.’ The spice amchoor is made from dried, ground unripe mangoes.More fresh mangos are eaten every day than any other fruit in the world.The ‘Paisley‘ design motif is a design from India based on the mango. (The paisley is my favourite motif).

Ingredients:

Thick Yogurt – 2 cups (I hang mine for 24 hours in the fridge to get rid of the whey)
Low fat cream – 1 cup
Gelatin – 3 tsp
Mango pulp – of 2 mangoes
Castor sugar if required
Fruit slivers, pistachio nuts, mint leaves, chocolate curls etc to garnish

Method:

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cup of cream & allow to stand for 10-15 minutes / till it softens. Whisk well & strain into a big bowl.

Add the thick yogurt + mango puree to the bowl & whisk well. Adjust for sugar. Add some castor sugar if required.

Divide into 6-8 very lightly greased ramekins and refrigerate until firm, at least 3-4 hours.
To unmould, dip ramekins in very hot water for a few seconds and invert onto plates.You might need to nudge the sides out with a butter knife first; otherwise garnish & serve in the bowl!

Since this is a yogurt based panna cotta, it doesn’t set as firmly as the full cream version…but is delicious nonetheless!

Serve with a drizzle of light cream, sliced fruit & pistachio nuts…or in bowls topped with chocolate curls, mango slivers, mint leaves, pistachio nuts etc.

A Light & Charming Dessert…with the goodness of mangoes!

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Tag: Mango

FRANKLY SPEAKING…THESE FRANKIES ARE DARNED GOOD

FRANKLY SPEAKING…THESE FRANKIES ARE DARNED GOOD

QUENCHING THIRST WITH A MANGO COOLER…CELEBRATING SUMMER!

MANGOLICIOUS MORNINGS with FRUITY BEGINNINGS!!

CREAMY HOME-MADE MANGO ICE-CREAM…ON A CALCIUM HIGH!

MANGO YOGURT PANNA COTTA…A TANGO WITH MANGO!

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