Mango Ice cream

Mango ice-cream is a delectable dessert and the best part is, it is easy to make.  The sweet and scented aroma of this king of fruits gives this ice-cream a creamy texture.  When mangoes are not in the season, you may use ready made mango pulp available in the market but I must acknowledge that the flavor and aroma of fresh mangoes imparts this dessert a luscious and heavenly taste.

 

Ingredients:

3 Alphonso mangoes or any other sweet mangoes, ½ can of condensed milk, 2 cups of whipping cream

Method:

Peel off mangoes and take out the pulp.  Put it in a blender and puree it.

Take out the condensed milk in a big bowl.

Add mango pulp to the condensed milk and mix it very well.

Beat the whipping cream with an electric beater.  Creamier the better will work here.

Add half of this cream into the mix and save other half in the refrigerator.

If your mangoes were a bit tart, you may add a teaspoon of powdered sugar.  It just depends on how sweet is your tooth.

Freeze it for 3-4 hours.  Take it out of the freezer and mix it well with a tablespoon.  Now add the other half of the whipped cream to this semi frozen mix.  Blend it well and freeze it overnight.

If you have extra mango, chop it into small bits.  Top these pieces on the ice cream while serving.

Berrry and Lemon Smoothies

Last week the temperatures were above normal.  Every time I opened the outside door it seemed you have opened an oven door. In that kind of heat wave, you just feel like having smoothies and ice-creams, especially when it does not involve any slogging over a gas stove.  That made me come up with berry and lemon smoothies, no cook mango ice-cream and rocky road chocolate ice-cream.  I want to share my easy recipes.  Let us start with berry and lemon smoothies today.

Berries are loaded with fibre which helps you feel full and in a hot weather one can get away by eating less.  Berries are full of anti oxidants.  All berries contain vitamin C which is needed for our immune system.  In a nutshell berries feed our every cell with pure life giving nutrients; they fight bacteria and maintain healthy balance.  The best part is berries can be eaten fresh or frozen and their nutritional value stays intact.  They can be easily preserved so their availability is always handy in the house.

Lemon smoothie is very refreshing and it just needs lemonade powder along with other smoothie ingredients.

 

Berry Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberries, raspberries, blueberries (frozen or fresh) or any other berries of your preference, ½ banana (especially if it is two day old or little soft kind),  2 cups plain non fat yogurt, ½ cup cold water or crushed ice.

Method:

Blend all the ingredients in a blender and mix until well blended.

Banana gives it a creamy texture but if you want to omit banana you may add vanilla ice cream to make it creamier.  Of course that will add the calories count but taste would be heavenly.

Pour into a glass and enjoy.

Lemon Smoothie

Ingredients:

2 cups low fat yogurt, ½ cup crushed ice or chilled water, 3 tablespoon lemonade powder

Method:

In a blender combine all the ingredients and blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Serve in a tall glass and garnish with lemon wedges if you desire.

Easy Lemon Pie

Light lemony and semi sweet pie is very easy to make.  It just requires three major ingredients condensed milk, lemon juice and whipped cream and you can make this fabulous dessert which is hard to resist for anybody.  In a nutshell this pie is blend, pour and freeze.  It is so easy and delectable that you will keep this recipe handy for last minute dessert.  

Ingredients:

12 to 14 Marie light biscuits(or any other semi sweet cookies), 1 ½ tbsp olive oil or canola oil, 1 can condensed milk, ¼ cup fresh lemon juice,  8 oz of whipping cream.

Method:

Break biscuits with your hand and then powder them in a mixer.

Take out this powder in a bowl, add oil and mix well with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula... 

Scrape this mixture on a pie plate and press with your fingers.

Bake it for 10 minutes in a preheated oven in 180 degree C (300 degree F).

Remove from the oven and let it cool off completely for an hour or so.

Squeeze lemon juice in a small bowl.

Empty can of condensed milk in a big bowl.

Pour lemon juice on the condensed milk and let it stay for 2 -3 minutes.

Use wire whisk to mix the both.  It will turn creamy.

Now put the whipping cream on the condensed milk mixture and gently mix the both with a wooden spatula.

Spoon this creamy lemon condensed milk mixture into the already baked pie crust.

Freeze for 5 to 6 hours.

Garnish with thin lemon slices (optional) before serving.

Kitchen wisdom to avoid unpleasant episodes

In the Age of Enlightenment, James Boswell defined cooking as a distinctive mark of humanity. Humans, he argued, are “the cooking animals.” While most living creatures eat, only human beings cook.

Most of us have or had mothers and grandmother who not only cooked but turned a simple casserole into a gourmet dish.  Those grandmothers and mothers lived in different times where food was not wasted and if a small cooking problem occurred, they had the wisdom to turn that into a boon.

These same pearls of wisdom were passed on from mother to daughter and thus from one generation to the next.  Here are some of those helpful cooking secrets we need everyday to make life easier.

     MILK

When milk is burnt a little, add a pinch of salt and it will take away the scorching taste of burnt milk.

Dough kneaded with milk makes tastier and softer chapattis or puris.

To have an instant sour cream, add 2 tsp of lemon juice to the cream and keep for 5 minutes and your sour cream will be ready.

While whipping cream for cake decoration, if it is turning into butter, immediately add 2 tbsp of milk cream and continue to beat.

EGGS

To test the freshness of an egg dissolve 1 tbsp salt in 2 cups of water and put the egg in it.  If the egg is fresh, it will lie flat at the bottom.  If slightly old, it will lie with the broad end raised a little.  If it is bad, it will float.

Do not wash eggs before storing as they have a protective film which counteracts evaporation through the porous egg shells.

Don’t buy dirty eggs because shells are porous and dirt is quickly absorbed by the whites and yolks.

Do not beat eggs in a plastic bowl as some chemical in the plastic deters volume development.

To shell hard boiled eggs easily and neatly add some coarse salt to water in which they are hard boiled.

VEGETABLES

Add 1 tsp of white vinegar to beetroot and red cabbage to retain their red color.

Cook white vegetables like cauliflower or cabbage uncovered with a tsp of lemon juice to retain their whiteness.

Garlic peels easily if the cloves are separated from the bulb and kept in a bottle in the fridge for 24 hours before use.

Peel onions and save tears by soaking them in water for about an hour before chopping them.

To remove the odor of onions from your hands, pour a little table salt or vinegar or lemon juice on your hands and rub them well together.

Peeling off potatoes results in brown fingers.  Rub your hands with slices of lemon to clean them.

Grease potatoes first with a little butter before baking and when cooked they will be brown and crispy.

Put some peeled potatoes in your curry if you feel it is too salty.  Give one or two gentle boils and the extra salt will be absorbed by these potatoes.

To hasten the ripening of tomatoes from your garden, wrap them in a brown paper bag and keep them in a dark, dry place for 3-4 days and you will get your red tomatoes.

To improve the color and flavor of the green vegetables, such as peas or spinach, add ½ tsp of sugar while cooking.  It restores their natural sweetness.  Add salt only when about to be cooked

CAKE

To find out if your cake batter is well beaten, drop a little in water.  If it floats the batter is ready.

For testing if the cake is done, incase a toothpick is not handy use uncooked spaghetti.

When a cake gets stuck to the base of the baking pan, easy way out is to set the pan on a cloth wrung out in hot water.  The cake can then be easily removed from the pan.

Put a cup of granulated sugar in a glass bowl and add a few drops of food coloring.  Mix well until the coloring is evenly distributed.  Let it dry.  Store in a  bottle with a sprinkle top. This is perfect for cake decoration.

When a cake or pie recipe requires lemon or orange zest and the skin is too fresh or soft to grate, put the fruit into the freezer for 10 minutes or so and it will be firm and easy to grate.

If a recipe requires self rising flour and you don’t have it, you can make your own by adding 1 tbsp baking powder to 1 cup of regular flour.

For removing bundt cake from the pan grease the pan and sprinkle it with sugar instead of flour, the cake will easily slide out.

Tomato Basil Soup in a jiffy

The tomato is a highly nutritious food that contains large amounts of vitamins, minerals and antioxidant phytochemicals.  Eating tomato soup can be beneficial for several health conditions. Tomatoes are a rich source of lycopene.  Lycopene can lower the risk of certain cancers, especially prostate, stomach and lung.

If you want to take care of your bones, tomato soup can help. Tomatoes have vitamin K and calcium and if you make your soup with milk, you add even more calcium to your diet. Calcium and vitamin K help strengthen your bones and teeth. Tomatoes also contain vitamin A, which is important in maintaining healthy vision and skin.  Tomato soup is rich in potassium and vitamin B. These two nutrients help lower blood pressure.  

One of those evenings when you come home tired from work and do not have enough energy to cook something elaborate, this tomato basil soup is your answer.  This can be prepared in a jiffy.  I prepared this during a commercial break in my favorite serial on the television.

Ingredients:

4 medium tomatoes, 1/8 tsp baking soda, 2 cups water, ½ cup milk, ½ cup tomato sauce, 6 basil leaves, salt and black pepper to taste

Method:

Puree tomatoes with water and 4 basil leaves in a food processor. Cook them on a medium flame..  Discard the foam with a tablespoon which sets on the top.

Add tomato sauce or ketchup and cook on slow fire for a couple of minutes.

Add baking soda .Baking soda prevents curdling.

Add milk but do not boil it. Just make it only warm.

Season it with salt and pepper.                         

Serve hot.  Garnish with basil leaf in each cup.

This makes two cups of soup.

Enjoy with your favorite crackers or toasted bread.

Vegetarian Lasagna with Indian tarka

Lasagna is a complete meal with all the food groups covered in one dish. There are a variety of ways to cook lasagna. It can be vegetarian with all vegetables and cheese.  Then, any type of meat such as beef, turkey, or chicken can be used in the dish. Lasagna can be made with Italian spices like basil, oregano etc to make the dish taste Italian.  No matter what type of lasagna you enjoy, you can always make your own variation in the sauce which is an important ingredient in the making of lasagna.

Originally, in Italy, the word "lasagna" did not refer to a food (in fact, today, the food is still spelled "lasagne" as the plural form). The word "lasagna" referred to the pot in which the food was cooked. It is thought that the word "lasagna" for the pot is derived from the Greek word for "chamber pot.

The earliest lasagna recipes known are dated from the thirteenth century. At that time, tomatoes were not known to Europeans.  Tomatoes did not arrive in Europe until after Columbus reached America in 1492.  This means that they couldn't have used them in the recipes.

 However, depending on the recipe, different cheeses like ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan are used today.

Boiling noodles used to be a requirement for making lasagna. No-boil noodles now exist. These are great as they soften in the oven, but it is absolutely necessary to make sure that there is a great quantity of sauce so the noodles get wet and cook while they are in the oven.  If any part of the noodle is not covered with the sauce, that part will turn hard. 

I had my niece over so we prepared the vegetable lasagna from the scratch.   We tried to give this famous Italian dish an Indian tarka by adding some Indian spices.  Of course homemade paneer(farmer’s cheese) or chena used in this lasagna is very Indian touch or tarka.   Everyone liked and had second helpings.  The easy part is one can prepare the paneer stuffing and marinara sauce a day in advance so that on the day of the lunch or dinner you have to just put things together and bake the lasagna.

Ingredients for making paneer:

Whole milk 2 liters, lemon juice ¼ cup, cheese cloth

Method:

Boil milk in a heavy bottom pan over medium flame.  As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir.  The milk will curdle.  Turn off the flame and let it cool off a little.  Take a cheese cloth or any muslin cloth.  Place it on a strainer and strain the curdled milk. Now collect the opposite links of the cheese cloth, tie them and hang on the water tap in the kitchen sink.  Before hanging them let this bundle run under fresh water for a few seconds so that lemon flavor does not stay in the cheese.  Let all the water drain.  It will take about two hours or so for all the water to drain and even then squeeze the cheeses cloth between your two palms so that all the excess water drains out.  Take out of the cheese cloth in a plate and mash it with your fingers.

Ingredients for making cheese stuffing:

Onions 1 large and one medium, green chilly(or green pepper) 1 or 2, cooking oil 1 tbsp, cumin seeds ½ tsp,  coriander powder 1 tsp, salt to taste,  mashed paneer(cheese)

Method:

Peel and chop onions and green chilly (green pepper) in small pieces.

Heat oil in a pan; add cumin seeds, chopped onions and green chilly or pepper. Saute it for a couple of minutes or till onion turn light pink.  Add salt and coriander powder to it and mix well.  Now add mashed paneer, stir it and turn off the flame.

 

Ingredients for tomato sauce:

Most people use spaghetti sauce for the lasagna but I use marinara sauce. 

Olive oil 1 ½ tbsp,  big onion 1 chopped,  garlic cloves 2 chopped,  dry basil leaves ½ tsp, oregano ¼ tsp, sugar 1 tsp, salt to taste, fresh tomatoes 6 medium size chopped, tomato ketchup ¼ cup, ¼ tsp cumin seeds, ¼ tsp coriander powder

Method:

In pan heat oil, add cumin seeds.  When they stop spluttering, add oregano, chopped garlic and onion and sauté it for 4 minutes on medium flame.  When onion turn light brown, turn off the flame.  Let it cool off.

Put this mixture in the food processor along with chopped tomatoes and puree it.

Put this mix in the same pan and cook till a boil.  Add salt, sugar, ketchup, coriander powder and basil leaves.  Let the sauce simmer for 10 -12 minutes.  You may add more sugar depending on your taste.  Turn off the heat.

 Ingredients for Lasagna:

 No boil Lasagna noodles 6 pieces, white cheddar cheese grated 1 cup, 9”X 5” loaf pan

 

Method for putting Lasagna together:

In the baking dish spread some sauce and arrange one lasagna noodle on it. Spread more sauce on the noodle, then a layer of cooked paneer (cheese) on it and sprinkle some cheddar cheese.  Now take another lasagna noodle and repeat the same process of sauce, paneer (cheese) and cheddar cheese in that order.  Keep repeating till you reach the top of the baking pan.  Pour some more sauce on the top layer and sprinkle cheddar cheese generously.

Pre heat oven to 375 degree F (210 degree C).  Bake for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Some people prefer mozzarella and Parmesan cheese in lasagna but I prefer cheddar.  So it is purely your choice.  There is nothing wrong or right about it.  You may garnish it with black olives before serving.

Jaggery Sandesh

The moment one thinks about Bengal, the first thought goes towards the heavenly tasting Mishti or sweets, like Rasgulla or Sandesh and many more such delicacies prepared with chena or paneer.  Today, we are going to talk about Sandesh which is prepared with jaggery or gur especially made with date palm.  The date palm jaggery has a very distinct flavor which is available in West Bengal only in winters.

The jaggery collectors put hollow pipes on the trunk of the date palm trees and they hang earthen pots connected with these pipes.   Overnight the sap gets collected in earthen pots.  Next day this sap is boiled to turn into a caramel colored jaggery.

I did not have date palm jaggery at home but had normal sugarcane jaggery so I decided to experiment with that to prepare the sandesh.  Whether it is date palm jaggery or sugarcane jaggery, one thing is for sure that jaggery sandesh need minimum cooking and that is one of the reasons they turn out to be very soft melt in mouth kind of sweet.

 

  

Ingredients:

Full cream or whole milk 2 liter, lemon juice 4 tsp, grated jaggery 5 tbsp, cherries 5 cut into small pieces

Method:

Boil milk in a heavy pan over medium flame.  As the milk comes to a boil, add the lemon juice gradually and stir.  The milk will curdle.  Turn off the flame and let it cool off a little.  Take cheesecloth or any muslin cloth.  Place it on a strainer and strain the curdled milk. Now collect the opposite links of the cheese cloth, tie them and hang on the water tap in the kitchen sink.  Before hanging them let this bundle run under fresh water for a few seconds so that lemon flavor does not stay in the cheese.

Let all the water drain from the cheese cloth.  It takes almost an hour.  After that you may squeeze the bundle between your hands so that excess water drains out.

Take the chena out of the cloth and knead it for good 15 to 20 minutes so that there are no lumps in the chena.

Take a heavy duty non stick pan.  Put 1 ½ tbsp of water and grated jaggery in it on slow flame. Stir it well so that jaggery is evenly melted.  Now reduce the flame to the lowest and add the kneaded chena to the jaggery and mix very well.  Turn off the flame but keep stirring the chena and jaggery mix for another 5 minutes or so.  Taste the sweetness of the mix.  Jaggery sandesh is little less sweet but if you have a very sweet tooth, you may add a tsp of powdered sugar to the mix.

Transfer the mix to a plate. Take a bowl of water, wet you palms a little and take a tsp of cooked chena and jaggery mix on your palm and form a round shape of it.  Repeat the same process with the rest of the chena mix and keep placing these balls on a different plate.

Put this plate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.  Take the plate out.  On each ball make a gentle dent with your thumb and garnish it with a piece of cherry.