Mango milk shake - a simple summer cooler

It is that time of the year again. Holidays!!! The kid is at home, feeling hungry at all hours. Not only does she feel hungry and thirsty for 'specific' things - as in, I am thirsty for Coke, I am hungry for noodles........but she also wants variety in her food. Gone are the days when I could mash up pretty much any combination of edible stuff and coax her into eating it.
This mango milk shake with splashes of colour from mango and tutti fruity is visually appealing, not to mention easy to make.

What you need:
Mango - 1, peeled, and chopped (Finely chop and set aside about 4-5 tbsp of mango)
Millk - 2 cups, chilled
Sugar - 2 tsp (adjust depending on sweetness of mango)
Tutti fruity - a few spoonfuls

Puree the mango and sugar in a blender. Add the chilled milk and blend again until frothy. Pour into a glass. Top with some chopped mango and tutti fruity. Serve chilled.

Seven cup cake - An easy Diwali sweet

 Seven cup cake is one of the sweets that my mother whips up with ease whenever there are guests or even when there aren't. Despite the name, this sweet is neither a cake nor a cup cake. It is in fact, more like a burfi - a very soft and addictive one at that. 

I have always been am scared to try my hand at making Indian sweets - in this case, because, turning out a perfect barfi that will hold its shape, and be not too soft(that will make it a halwa) or too hard (that will ensure that the dentist has a very happy Diwali) requires knowing the precise moment at which the heat is to be switched off.
With this recipe, chances of going wrong are very less(note that I didn't say nil) because it doesn't involve complicated steps like letting the sugar syrup reach a certain consistency or  hours and hours of stirring to get a glossy sheen. On the face of it, the recipe is pretty simple - you mix all the ingredients together, and stir them. The only catch is that you need to know when to take it off the stove. It is all very easy to say when the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan......but without practice, you won't know when the sides are just boiling and bubbling and when they start to sort of curl in to indicate that you can switch off the heat.
This is the first sweet that I have made for this Diwali and I can't help but gloat over the fact that I was able to slice it neatly into pieces and it just melts in the mouth.

What you need:
Besan/Gram flour - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups

Take all the ingredients in a large, thick bottomed kadai. Mix well.

Cook on medium heat. I have pictorially tried to show you the various stages that the mixture will pass through.

When the mixture starts thickening and leaving the sides of the pan, pour on to a greased plate.

When warm, score with a sharp knife into square or diamond shapes.

Once cool, cut into pieces and store in an airtight container.

Sweet Beginnings - Paal payasam - Milk 'n rice pudding

The blog has been silent for a while now.....and this time, it is not without reason. I have moved from one city to another and have been busy setting up our new home and getting accustomed to a new language and new surroundings.
The first festival that we celebrate in this home is Vishu - the first day of the Malayalam month Medam. Wiki has more information on how Vishu is celebrated. I have talked about the Vishu of my childhood in this post.
No celebration of an Indian festival is complete without a sweet dish. Vishu is no exception. Traditionally, payasam is made and offered to God. Vishnu being the presiding deity of this festival, I decided to make his favourite - paal payasam.

What you need:
Payasam rice - a handful (This is a special kind of broken matta rice that is available in Kerala or in Kerala stores. In the absence of this, you can use raw rice)
Milk - 1 litre
Sugar - 1 cup, heaped (adjust to taste)

Wash rice well. Add milk to it and cook in a pressure cooker until one whistle and then reduce the flame to low and cook for another 10 minutes. Switch off heat and let the steam settle down.
Open the lid carefully....stir well and add sugar. On low heat, let the payasam cook further until it starts thickening and develops a pinkish colour. This will take a good 30 to 45 minutes. Make sure that the heat is low and that you stir once in a while.
Usually, cardamom powder,nuts, or raisins are not added to paal payasam as it is said to deter from the taste. I have stuck to that rule and kept the payasam simple.

Mango ice cream

I am busy tapping away at the keyboard when the phone rings. I glance distractedly at the caller id, pick the phone up and tell my mother that I am busy and will call her back.
Why? What are you doing?, says she.
Well, I am trying to use up all this milk that I have in the fridge and am 'google-ing' recipes for ice cream.
Why do you need google for that? It is so easy to make ice cream.
How's that?
Well, just boil some milk....add some maida and sugar to it. If you want, you can also add essence. Freeze it. Beat it twice in the mixie. That's it.
No amma.....that doesn't sound interesting in the least bit.
Look at all these recipes that google has given me - there's one that uses condensed milk, one that uses evaporated milk.....one that uses cool whip(never mind that I can't get it here), others that use eggs, heavy cream, whipped cream - you name it and these recipes have it.
Your recipe doesn't use any of these - it sounds so ummmmm....boring!!!
But it has always worked for me, she counters.
We move on to talking about other things and then after saying goodbye, I go back to google.
After a couple of hours, I pick up the phone and dial a number. When she picks the phone up, all I say is....how much maida did you say I should use?

What you need:
Milk - 1 litre + 1/2 cup
Ripe mangoes - 2, peeled and chopped into pieces
Sugar - Start with 1/2 a cup and then taste and adjust according to sweetness of mangoes
Maida/all purpose flour - 2 tbsp

Puree the mangoes in a blender along with the sugar. I used 2 alphonso mangoes and got 1.5 cups of thick puree.
Add the 1/2 cup of milk to the maida and stir well to make a thick paste without any lumps. If needed, add some more milk so that you get a smooth paste.
Boil milk in a large, thick bottomed pan. When it starts boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer, stirring every now and then, until it is reduced to
half the quantity. This takes roughly 25 minutes.
Add the maida paste, stirring well so that no lumps are formed. Stir in the mango puree and let it cook for 2-3 minutes. While it is getting cooked, you
have to keep stirring the mixture so that it doesn't get burnt.
Let it cool. Blend well in the mixie and then pour it into a freezer safe bowl and freeze for a few hours.
Remove from the fridge and beat it well in the mixie.
Repeat this freezing, blending and then freezing again process two or three times. This will ensure that your ice cream turns out nice and creamy.

What I think:
Not being a big fan of ice creams, I have never thought beyond the occasional scoop that comes prepackaged in plastic boxes. A surplus of milk at home is what led to this experiment.
As opposed to store bought ice cream, you can actually taste and smell the mangoes that went into the making of this one. Blending the mixture thrice has made it quite creamy.

This goes to Bong Mom who is hosting Of Chalks and chopsticks, an event started by Aqua