Mango custard (stovetop recipe)

Seeing so much sunshine in my blog, I thought to celebrate this joyous occassion with sunshiny yellow Mango Custard, which I made last weekend. Yes, every time I get some awards from fellow bloggers, I cheer up like I am getting my first award. Every time it feels the same, getting so much love and affection from fellow bloggers is something every blogger will cherish. Isn't it? Thanks again dear Kamalika and Deepti for your love.

What is Custard ?

Custard is a recipe that is based on heating, blending and slowly cooking a varying amount of egg yolks, milk and sugar. In the UK, custard is a sweet sauce that is medium - thick in consistency, which is poured onto your favourite dessert, however in other parts of the world, custard can be very thick. Custard has got to be the most popular dessert sauce in the UK. It is usually offered as an accompaniment to most pies and a number of hot puddings. Most people in the UK would not dream of having a portion of apple, rhubarb or cherry pie without a huge serving of warm custard to go with it.
Traditionally, custard is made by using a double boiler, however it can just as easily be prepared in a saucepan, although care must be taken to cook the custard over a very low heat so that it does not curdle. The most important thing to remember when making custard is to beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a separate mixing bowl and then pour the warm milk or cream over the egg yolk mixture into the mixing bowl rather than adding the egg yolks to the saucepan. This is so that the eggs do not cook and scramble. Once the eggs and sugar have been blended into the milk, the mixture can then be returned to the saucepan and the custard is cooked very slowly until it thickens to a creamy consistency.
For a very rich custard, which is unfortunately loaded with calories and fat, recipes will call for double cream to be used. On the other hand, for a lower fat version, you can substitute the double cream for single cream, milk or a mixture of the two.
Mango Custard is a classic dessert..just perfect for summer..I am a huge mango lover..if I don't get good mangoes, I keep few tins of mango pulp in my pantry...
This time I made custard with Alphanso mango pulp and basic recipe of making custard..just came out perfect.

Ingredients :

Milk : 600 Ml.
Egg yolks : 3
Brown Sugar : about 4 tblsp.
Vanilla essence : 1 tsp. (optional)
Mango Pulp : 1 cup
Cornflour : 2-3 tsp.
Slivered almonds & pistachios : 1/3 cup
Cubed fruit pieces : 1/3 cup

Method :

• Pour the milk into a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to boil. When it just starts to boil, remove from heat and set it to cool slightly.
• In a seperate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until smooth and sugar is dissolved without any lumps.
• Keeping the milk pan off the heat, mix egg mixture into the milk with a wire whisk adding little by little. Add mango pulp and vanilla essence, too same way with wire whisk. There should not be any lump.
• Take the pan again on stove and cook over a low heat stirring continuously until milk thickens a bit. 
• Remove from heat and set aside to cool in room temperature. Transfer it to a serving bowl. Then chill in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours. This way Custard will set and thicken little more.
• Before serving, decorate with fruit pieces, slivered almonds and pistachios.

Check out my Caramel Custard recipe, made in Pressure cooker

Lapsi or broken wheat(dalia) halwa and 2 awards

Lapsi is a sweet halwa or porridge made from dalia or broken wheat or bulgar wheat or cracked wheat, known by diffent names in different region. This is very similar to semolina or suji halwa and very easy to make. Lapsi is nutritious as it is unrefined wheat, therefore high in fibre and manganese. It is a famous sweet dish of Indian state of Rajasthan. It is also very nutritous for infants who has just started eating soild. I make this for my toddlers and they love it.

Ingredients :

Dalia or broken wheat : 1 cup
Milk : 1 cup
Sugar : 1/2 cup
Solid Palm jaggery : 1/2 cup (shredded)
Cashew nuts : 1/2 cup(chopped)
rainsins : 1/4 cup (Chopped)
Cardamom or elaichi powder : 2 tsp.
Ghee : 2-3 tblsp.

Method :

• Heat the ghee in a pan,add broken wheat or dalia. Fry stirring coninuously till it's golden in colour.
• Add enough warm water to cook. Lower the flame or allow to cook. Otherwise, I cook in the pressure cooker. It cooks fast.
• When broekn wheat is done, add milk, sugar and jaggery, Stir continuously, otherwise it tends to stick to the pan. Add as per your taste. Finally add chopped cashew nuts and raisins. Mix and remove from flame.
• Lastly, after removing from heat, add cardamom powder. Serve in room temperature or cold.
• Decorate with rainsins, almonds or any kinds of nuts or dessicated coconut.

Ok, with this sweet note, I want to complete one long pending work...i.e., my new blogbuddy, Sayantani of A Homemaker's Diary, has passed me 2 awards about 1 month back, one of them "Kreative blog Award", which I received earlier from other blogpals, another one is "beautiful blogger award", but It was a sheer pleasure and a great achievement to get from you, Sayantani, as you are one of the talented and creative blogger with a warm personality in the blogosphere. I am delighted to get to know you, dear.Thanks a lot for sharing with me, Dear Sayantani....

Now, I want to pass these awards to these 7 wonderful bloggers :

Deepti of Panchamrutham

Priya of Priya's Easy n Tasty recipes
Parita of Parita's World 
Indira of Krishnakolee'r Kitchen 
Sudeshna of Cook Like A Bong 
Pari of Foodelicious 
Shanthi of Shanthi Krishnakumar's Cookbook

Sandesh - half traditionally with readymade Paneer and with the help of kitchen gadgets

This is my first post of 2010. Let's start with a sweet note....Being a bengali, I have quite a sweet tooth, which Bengalis are famous for. But I love more the dry sweets(i.e., bengali sandesh, North Indian peda or besan laddoo etc.) than the sugar syrup immersed sweets(like, Gulab jamuns). For the new year celebration, I made this famous bengali sweet, Sandesh at home, which was on my wish list for long time. After seeing Soma's awesomely beautiful post on Sandesh, I was really tempted to make it at home, as we don't get here at market/sweet shop and I totally miss all the Bengal sweets here outside India.

Sandesh is one of the most favorite sweets in Bengal. It is milk based sweets with very few ingredients and surprisingly very easy to make (I realized it after making). It is made from curdled milk or Channa as we call it, another name is Panner/cottage cheese. Freshly made channa/ paneer is sweetened by adding sugar in it, and some flavours like, rose assence, cardamom powder and Saffron are also added for special touch.

Here is how I made it :

In the title, I wrote half traditionally, because it is made from fresh channa/cottage cheese and the chaana is then knead to make lump-free by hand to make Sandesh soft. I had very less time when I made them, so to make it faster, I used readymade paneer cubes, available in market and I kneaded them in Mixer to save time.

Ingredients : (Will make 20-24 medium size sandesh)

Paneer cubes : 500 gms.

Sugar : 3/4 cup or as needed
Black Cardamom powder : 2 tsp.
Rose essence : 1 and 1/2 tsp.
Saffron : 1 tsp.(crushed between fingers)
Cardamom seeds : few (for decoration)
Saffron : few strands (for decoration)

Method :

• As I had frozen paneer cubes, I defrosted them first and then knead them a little by hand.
  
• To make the process little faster, I put them in a mixer and added little milk. It softens quite fast that way, but this way channa/paneer liquidises a bit because of added milk.
  
• After it softens and becomes lump-free, add sugar little by little. Mix it in the mixer, taste it and if needed add some more. When sugar just dissolves in channa, take out from mixer. 
• Now, this step is the most critical and important part of making sandesh. So be cautious. Heat a non-stick flat pan, spread the channa-sugar mixture on the pan evenly. Change the heat to medium. Stir constantly with a spatula so that it does not stick to the pan, scraping off the sides of the pan. Cook on medium heat for the first 5-6 minutes. You will see slowly the texture is changing to thicker consistency, then lower the heat.  Cook on low flame, stirring continuously, you will see the colour is also changing to darker shade. Add cardamom powder, rose essence and crushed saffrons into it. Mix well.
  
• When you see the channa is no longer sticking to the pan and you can gather the whole thing and make  a ball, then it's time to turn off the heat (for test, take a little channa in your palm, make a small ball rolling between your palms. If you can make it, then it's done). If you heat longer than this, the channa will be hard and lumpy and the sandesh will turn hard. This process should take 15-20 minutes and is called "paak". (I heated a little more, my channa became little crumbly as you can see in the pic. I could give it a shape and it was soft, but the channa was little crumbly..so be cautious about it)

• Spread on a plate for 5 minutes to cool down a bit. DO NOT let it cool much, then you won't be able to give it a shape. Take little portion and make it into round or oblong, any shape you want.
• For decoration : Take 1-2 tsp. milk on a bowl, drop the saffron strands into it. take one or two saffron strands on hand and press on top of each sandesh. Seperate cardmom seeds, take one or two cardamom and press on top of each Sandesh. You can decorate any way you want, can decorate with fruit pieces, too like, with small cherry or pineapple pieces. Can decorate with pistachio or almonds pieces.

Sandesh can be kept fresh for at least 7-10 days in refrigerator. It tastes also good when slightly cool. But keep in an airtight container, otherwise it can become hard.

Sending my first post of the year to Arundhuti for her
first event, "Served with Love", as this Sandesh is my Husband's and my Daughter's favorite Sweet.

Home Made Bengali Sweet : Malpoa

Bengalis call their desserts course as mishti. It was many years ago that every household made its own sweet dishes. The principles of economy and the skilled required for the popular preparations led to families specializing in confectionery – making, where expertise was handed down from father to son. The community, known as Moiras, has developed sweet-making into a fine art and specialities like rosogulla and sandesh are made. The sweet shops of Bengal known as "Mistannan Bhandar" (Sweet House). But, to one’s belief, Bengali sweets are not only Sandesh,  Rosogulla or Misti Doi. There are even lots more varieties to Bengali Desserts, which might not be available, commercially in the market, nor in the sweet shops, but typically home made, like different "Pithas"(which are basically rice-wheat-coconut based sweets, some are stuffed , some not, some are stuffed and dipped in thickened milk and so on), Rasbara( made from pasted Urad dal, whipped till frothy, then fried in round balls and finally soaked in syrup), Narkel Naru(coconut laddoo) and Malpoa to name some of them..

 
I'll share this home made delicacy with you today, which is made during festival time,too. I always make this on my husband's birthday, as he just loves this. Being a bengali, he has less sweet tooth than me, he'll prefer this over any cake. So I made them on last weekend for his birthday. 

Malpoa : It is made with all purpose flour(maida) and semolina/suji, made into a thick batter. The batter is then drop into hot oil in a form a small round pancakes which are deep fried and then dipped into hot sugar syrup. You can add also crushed fruits in the batter, like banana, mango or pineapple for different taste. But my family just love the natural flavour of fennel seeds and coconut. This is the basic recipe of malpoa.



Ingredients :  

Flour - 1 cup

Sooji (Semolina) - 1/4 cup

Fennel (Mouri/Saunf) seeds- 1/2 tsp

Milk - 1 and 1/4 cups ( as needed)

Coconut - 2 tbsp, grated or finely chopped

Oil - 2 cups (for deep frying)

For Syrup:

Sugar - 2 cups

Water - 2 cups

Green Cardamom - 3(crushed)

Method : 

• In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients except oil. Using your hands, make a smooth batter free of lumps. use milk as needed to make a semi-thick batter,little thicker than pakora batter.
  

• Meantime, in a wide pan, prepare sugar syrup, adding cups sugar in 2 cups of water and let come to boil. Add crushed green cardamoms and Simmer for 8-10 minutes. Note : remember syrup thickens when cooled so do not boil to a thick consistency.
• Heat the oil to smoking in a wide pan/kadhai. Turn the flame down to medium. Using a ladle, pour in a full measure of the batter in a form of small circle of 3" diameter into the oil.  
• Fry for approximately 3-4 minutes until deep brown on medium heat, so the batter can cook through. Flip over and fry other side to deep brown.

• Remove and add directly to the hot sugar syrup, boil them for 3-4 minutes in syrup and then take them out. Meantime, fry another batch of malpoas and dip in sugar syrup. 
• Tips : If your syrup dries a bit during process, add some more water and sugar if required. But don't let syrup thicken much.
  

• Serve in room temperature. you can store the rest in refrigerator and can keep them for 7-10 days but before eating, warm them up a little. 

I would like to share this festive sweet with Sudeshna who is

hosting an event " Durga puja Food Festival" @ her place Cook Like A Bong....
And to EC of Simple Indian Food for her Festive treat Event
And to Shanthi Krishnakumar's event Dusshera, Dhanteras and Deepavali

In another note : Recently, Some of my blogger friends has passed me a loads of awards to me, which I couldn't acknowledge before for lack of time. My heartfelt thanks to Pinky of Esho-bosho-aahare showered me with so many awards that I just totally drenched with excitement and enthusiasm, Thanks dear for your support and love....

 

I am supposed to share these awards with 7 bloggers and I would love to share my awards with these lovely ladies of blogger world..........But I love you all

Home Cooked Oriya Food, Kitchen Flavour, Tulip, Babli, Sowmya, Nithya and Renu

Lissie of Salt and Spice has shared her awards with me.....My heartfelt thanks to Lissie

 

 

I would Like to share these awards with Shanthi, Chitra, Pallavi, Aysha, Ann, Meera and Radhika

Bengali Aam Kheer (Mango in thickened milk)

Aam kheer or Mango payesh is a pure bengali delicacy served on hot summer afternoons. In Indian cuisine, Payesh/kheer or payasam is normally made with rice cooked in thickened milk. But in Bengali cuisine, kheer is also prepared with seasoneal fruits, like Mango or Orange(check orange kheer in Sandeepa's Blog). It is very easy to make and a delightful frozen dessert for Summer. It can be made from fresh mango in season or canned mango pulp available throughout the year.


Ingredients :
Skim Milk : 1 liter
Mango Pulp : 1/2 can or fresh mango : 1(made into pulp)
Sugar : 3-4 tblsp.(as per taste, as canned mango pulp is already sweet)
Pistachio(chopped) : a handful
Saffron stand : a few(optional)
Rose water : 1 tsp.

Method :

• If using fresh mango, take out the pulps and cut into pieces, then make a puree in a blender.
• In a heavy-bottomed pan, pour the milk and bring it to boil. Then simmer the stove and let it boil until it reduces to half.
  
• Take the pan out of the heat, add the mango pulp and half of the chopped pistachio and rose water. Mix well and add sugar according to your taste.
• If adding sugar, put the pan again on the heat but in low flame. Keep stirring. Allow it on heat for about 5 minutes. Remove the pan and garnish with rest of the pistachios and saffron stands.
• Cool it in room temperature and keep it in the refrigerator for about 4-5 hours before serving. Serve cold or can be served in room temperature.
  

Sending this yummy cool dessert to
DLC Food Festival: 'Global Ganesha' at Dido lives cooks
And to Shanthi Krishnakumar's event "State special"




Also reposting my older post Rawa Laddoo for this above mentioned festival and sending it to Dido.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to everyone , which is 23rd August this year is celebrated to worship Lord Ganesha on his birthday. This festival lasts for 10 days. Ganesha, the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati, is widely worshipped as the supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. While celebrated all over India, it is most elaborate in Maharashtra, Goa (Biggest festival for Konkani people all over the world), Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Rava/Rawa/Semolina Laddoo for Indian Cooking Challenge

I love learning authentic dishes from all regions of India. And blogging made it so much possible. This is the reason I joined blogging, so that I can share authentic recipes from my part of India and can learn other authentic regional recipes from my fellow bloggers. Over that, one great blogger, Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons masterminded an event, Indian Cooking Challenge, where we can serve this purpose very easily and effectively. I loved the idea and joined immidiately in this event. The event has started from the mid of this month, so as a trial we are learning RAWA LADDOO(a round sweet made with semolina, raisins and nuts) this month, which I never made at home. Before that, I thought it must be very hard to make at home, but after we got this authentic recipe from Srivalli, it was so much easy. Everyone in my family loved it and it is a delicious, nutritious and enjoyable sweet. It is loaded with the goodness of Rawa/semolina and nuts. It's a good snack for kids, too.




Recipe and ingredients are as provided by Srivalli (makes 10 laddoos of normal size)
Ingredients :
Rawa/ Semolina/Suji - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Ghee - 25 gms/3 tbsp.

Milk - 25 ml/1/2 cup

Cardamom powder - a pinch

Cashew nuts, pistachios and almonds - 1/2 cup

Raisins - 10 nos(chopped)
Dates - 4 (chopped)

Grated fresh coconut - 25 gms/1/2 cup

Method :

• Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a kadai/wok. Once the ghee is hot enough, simmer the flame and roast all the nuts, dates and raisins. Once the raisins balloon up, remove. Then roast the grated coconut. Remove once done. Keep all these aside.
• Add the remaining ghee and roast the Rawa till its well roasted and aroma starts coming out.
• In a bowl, take all the roasted Rava, Nuts, Coconut and add the Cardamom powder. Then add the sugar. Mix well. Then slowly add the warm milk into the bowl. Check if you are able to gather as balls. When you find that milk added is enough to get you laddos, transfer it back to the kadai .
  

Note: In other way, as I did, Take all the roasted ingredients in a wok, in low flame, keep stirring continuously for about 5-7 minutes. Then slowly add the warm milk into the bowl. Check if you are able to gather as balls.

• Cook in sim for 2 mins. Mix well and then cover it and let it rest for 2 mins. Then immediately make balls or laddoo.

Tips :

• While roasting the Rava, make sure you have the flames in sim, else there is a chance of the rava getting over roasted.
• Its enough to add only the required amount of milk to get you form balls. Depending on the rava and the sugar at times we may not use all the 25 gms
• Since we add milk, its best to consume within 5 days of making them. If you store them in fridge, you can have them for a week.
• Tips from me : While rolling the laddoos, take little cold milk on a flat plate, dip both of your hands in there, then roll the laddos, you won't feel the hotness of rawa. Take a little lump, press between your right hand. Then take a drop of ghee on your left palm, roll the lump of rawa with both hands as shown in the bottom pics. This way, you will get a perfect round laddoo. For every laddoo, repeat the whole prodcess.