The White Ramekins

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Mango & Pistachio Frozen Yogurt

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Mango & Pistachio Frozen Yogurt

I just can’t imagine summers without mangoes, a quintessential summer fruit. So how could this place be left without a single mention of this wonderful sweet, juicy, fleshy and vibrantly saffron colored fruit, which is considered the king of all fruits. And the King has to be paid reverence.

Mango & Pistachio Frozen Yogurt 2

During the season, you’ll find mangoes all over the markets. And that is the time, when they are at best of their age, like all seasonal fruits. You could do wonders with this yummiest fruit on earth or you could enjoy them plain in desserts after a meal, which is a perfect summery and light dessert.

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Whip them into a cold milk shake or smoothie and you have a wonderful filling breakfast option. Blend them with some low fat yogurt and you are ready with a glass of Mango Lassi, a cool and refreshing Indian summer drink. Chop them into bite sized pieces, a dash of lime juice and some more seasonal fruits, and you are ready with a yet another refreshing summer salad bowl. Turn them into luscious creamy desserts such as cheesecakes, panna cotta, cream cakes and you are all set to rock your dinner party. So, like I said, opportunities are endless with this wonderful fruit. You just have to explore them and I am sure Mangoes wouldn’t fail you ever.

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This time, I made this very simple frozen yogurt with mangoes with some chopped pistachios blended in. Lots of mango pulp, some hung yogurt and a couple spoonful of honey. What a yummy, light and refreshing dessert. Even perfect for breakfast. See, that’s the good thing about mangoes. It’s a no-brainer flavor packed dessert, you all must give a shot!

Mango & Pistachio Frozen Yogurt 1

Ingredients

650 gm ripe mango pulp
250 gm hung yogurt {or Greek yogurt}
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup white sugar {adjust sugar depending upon sweetness of the mangoes}
1/2 cup chopped pistachio nuts

Instructions

  1. In a blender, blend all the ingredients into a smooth puree, except pistachios.
  2. Chill the mango and yogurt puree in refrigerator.
  3. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker, as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Mix in chopped nuts and serve with some freshly cut mango cubes. Otherwise, store in freezer.
  4. If making, without an ice cream maker, freeze the mixture without folding the nuts initially in freezer for 5-6 hours, with blending the mixture in a blender every 2 hours, so as to break the ice crystals. And fold the nuts after final blending of mixture.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel

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Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel 1

A recent visit to the health foods aisle of a grocery store brought my attention to this earthy and wholesome millet (Ragi). I have been reading about the bakers trying out alternate flours for baking sweet treats, tarts and quiches,  truly for health reasons.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel

Ragi and other finger millet are not new to me. It’s just that I hadn’t tried them in my baking. Even today, my mother cooks healthy and comforting pearl millet (bajra) and lentil soup during cold and dull winter days, and that is just awesome.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel 2

So, I took home a small pack of this beautiful wholesome flour in a hope to cook some storm in the kitchen. Sadly, when I couldn’t think of much of a recipe, I thought of baking brownies.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel 4

I replaced the butter with olive oil in brownies, because I had planned to serve them with a nice drizzle of salted butter caramel. And I didn’t want to kill the goodness of this super food by loading it with too much butter. I have baked brownies with olive oil before and trust me they come out really nice, moist and light. If you want, you can completely skip out caramel sauce and the brownies will still be very good.

Millet Brownies With Salted Butter Caramel 3

You can bake them in mini tart pans, like I did. Hassle free single serving mini brownies…I just love petite dessert simply because of them being non-fussy. But if you wish to be more conventional, feel free to bake them in a square pan.

Millet Brownies, recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

100 ml olive oil
170 gm dark chocolate
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup millet flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup strong coffee

Instructions

  1. In a bowl, melt chocolate, cocoa powder and oil over a double boiler or in microwave.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together millet flour, corn flour, salt, baking powder and keep aside.
  3. In another bowl, beat sugar and eggs for about 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
  4. Beat in vanilla extract and coffee, followed by chocolate mixture.
  5. Add the flour mixture and stir to combine well.
  6. Pour the batter into buttered square pan or into 8 2″ tart pans.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes (tart pans)/35 minutes (square pan) in a 180 degree Celsius preheated oven.
  8. Let cool in pan completely.

Salted Butter Caramel, recipe adapted from Two Pea And Their Pod

Ingredients

50 gm salted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup low fat cream

Instructions

  1. In a non reactive saucepan, heat the sugar on a medium high heat. Keep whisking until it starts to melt.
  2. Stop whisking once it has melted completely and let it cook until it reaches dark amber color. You can swirl the pan to move sugar around but do not whisk.
  3. Once it has reached the dark amber color, add the butter and let it melt completely.
  4. Take the pan off the heat and add cream and whisk vigorously and carefully (it will splatter at this stage) to make it a smooth and creamy sauce.
  5. Let cool in pan for 10-15 minutes and then store in sterilized glass jar. It can be stored in fridge for about 2 weeks.

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta With Mango Coulis

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I just get thrilled about having a dessert which has got some fruits in it. Fruits give a whole new life to a dessert, by their mere freshness. And if it has to be the King of all the fruits, it just leaves you wanting more of it. Yes I am talking about Mangoes, the gorgeous golden and super sweet flesh of mangoes added to a dessert.

Summer is upon us now in it’s full swing. You could see them everywhere, with carts loaded with them and hawkers selling them by the roadside. And I had been looking out for a dessert recipe which calls for Mangoes, because I didn’t want to miss out on this special seasonal fruit, which lasts here for around four months only.

And then I came across this wonderful Panna Cotta recipe by David Lebovitz.  God…why I hadn’t stumbled upon this earlier??? Panna Cotta is basically set cream, which gets it’s body from gelatin. And I tell you that the texture of it is so luscious and smooth that resisting something like this is almost next to impossible.

David’s recipe calls for double cream. But I took the liberty on adapting it minimally by cutting down the calories by substituting half of the double cream by low fat cream and the rest half by hung yogurt {to lessen the whey}. And the result was still so creamy. I have saved the original recipe for some future special moment.

I paired my Panna Cotta with Mango coulis, which I had frozen in the serving glasses for two hours, so that the weight of Panna Cotta doesn’t make it sag into the fruit puree below it. This is the kind of dessert which you can prepare for a dinner party well in advance, stock them up in refrigerator, and I am sure your life becomes all sorted out.

Recipe adapted minimally from David Lebovitz

Ingredients

Panna Cotta:

250 ml low fat cream {i used 25 % fat}
250 ml hung curd {hung for 24 hours in refrigerator}
50 gm cane sugar
1 vanilla bean pod or 2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp gelatin powder
3 tbsp cold water

Mango Coulis:
flesh of 3 ripened mangoes
sugar adjusted to the sweetness of mangoes
1/2 cup water

Instructions

  1. For the coulis, Blend the mangoes and water in a liquidizer. You may skip the sugar, if mangoes are enough sweet.
  2. Divide the fruit among for glasses/ramekins equally and freeze them up for 2 hours.
  3. Mix cream, yogurt and sugar well in a saucepan.
  4. Scrape the seeds from vanilla bean and add to the cream mixture.
  5. Heat the cream mixture till the sugar gets dissolved, taking care not to boil the cream.
  6. In a separate bowl, sprinkle the gelatin powder over cold water and let it stand it for 5-10 minutes.
  7. Pour the warm cream mixture over gelatin and mix. Let it cool for some time.
  8. Pour the Panna Cotta mixture over the frozen fruits and let them stand in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  9. When serving, top them up with fresh mango cubes/nuts/mint leaves and enjoy them chilled.