Eggless Mango Mousse

Mangoes are in season & in plenty . Could not stop myself from making mango mousse at home before they vanishes out of the market. A simple & easy to prepare dessert made of lovely ripe mangoes and fresh cream. This one is eggless but I have used gelatin in it. You can omit gelatin if you want. I had one packet at home so I thought of using it to set the mousse.  I often make mousse without gelatin as well and keep the mousse in refrigerator for some extra minutes to set, so you can avoid using it.

You can serve this no fuss dessert with minimum ingredients in parties at home with friends and family by preparing it a day before and serve chilled.


Ingredients: (Yield: 3-4 servings)

Ripe Mangoes : 2 large sized chopped
Heavy cream: 1 packet (I used Amul whipping cream of 200 ml)
Powdered Sugar: 1/3 cup (you can increase or decrease quantity as per your taste)
Gelatin: 1 tsp

Method:

In a small bowl take warm water and dissolve the gelatin.

Make a nice puree of the chopped mangoes in a grinder.

In a clean chilled steel bowl take out the cream, add sugar and whisk until it becomes fluffy and reaches soft peaks. Keep aside.  I used the electric beater. You can do it with the balloon whisk also. Keep aside some amount of whipped cream for garnishing.

Now fold this cream into the mango puree, add the gelatin and combine all with the beater in low speed till everything is incorporated.

Now transfer the mousse to glasses/dessert bowls, cover with foil and keep in refrigerator to set for at least half an hour. Before serving , garnish the mousse with whipped cream that was kept aside in the beginning on it and optionally a few mint leaves. Enjoy this chilled dessert.

 

Rava Surmai Fry

One more surmai fry recipe that has become a favourite of us which I made last sunday. An easy peasy & wonderful dish to serve best as starter to your guests too. 


Ingredients:

Surmai Fish: 4pcs
Plain flour: 2 tbsp
Ginger Garlic paste: 1 tbsp.
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Freshly grounded cumin: 1 tsp
Garam Masala: 1 tsp
salt to taste
Black pepper powder: 1 tsp
lemon juice: 2-3 tsp

&
Oil for deep frying
Rava: as required to coat the fish
water as required to prepare the batter

Method:

Clean and wash the fish and keep aside.

Prepare a batter by mixing the flour and rest of the above mentioned ingredients except the oil & rava in a large mixing bowl with sufficient quantity of water. While preparing the batter keep it in mind that the batter should neither be too thick nor too runny. Should be thick enough to coat the fish properly. Marinate the fishes in this batter for about 10-15mins..

Heat enough oil in a heavy bottomed pan/kadhai.

Take the rava in a dish. Coat the marinated fishes with the rava properly.

Deep fry them one by one on both sides till they are golden brown in low to medium heat. Keep them on a tissue paper.

Enjoy this hot crisp fried surmai soft inside as a starter with your choice of sauce/dip or with your regular rice/dal meal.

.

Mutton in a tomato gravy

Mutton curry goes so well with Indian bread (roti/ naan ) or even with a hot bowl of steamed rice. Though eating mutton is not a regular affair at home keeping health concerns in mind and also because of the long preparation and cooking time I am reluctant to cook mutton very often. And whenever I do , I cook it in pressure cooker only to save my time. This sunday I cooked the mutton in tomato gravy with lot of garlic. It came out awesome with the perfect colour and taste. We had it with our garlic naan. Oh what a lip-smacking meal it was !! This is again a pressure cooker version only.

Do check this recipe and try in your kitchen.

Ingredients:

Mutton: 1/2 kg
Onion: 3 large sized
Garlic: 10-12 pods (keep aside few as whole)
Ginger: 1 medium sized
Green chillies: 1 -2 or more depending on your taste bud
Tomato: 2 nice red large sized
Bay leaves: 2
Cinnamon/cardamom/cloves : 3-4 of each
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp
Freshly grounded cumin : 1 &1/2 tsp
Meat Masala: 2 tsp
Garam Masala powder: 1tsp
Salt to taste
Mustard Oil: 3 tbsp.
Chopped coriander leaves for garnishing
Water as required

Procedure:

Clean & Wash the mutton . Heat one pan/kadhai and dry roast the mutton till all the water evaporates and the mutton becomes dry and take a brownish colour. Keep aside.

Make a paste of onions, garlic, ginger, green chillies in a mixer. Keep aside.
Cut tomatoes and make a puree out of it in a mixer.

Heat oil in a clean kadhai/pan. Add the Bay leaves, Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and allow to splutter.

Now add the onion/garlic/ginger/green chilli paste, fry them till turn into golden brown. Add the tomato puree and mix everything well.
Add all the dry masala (except the garam masala) & salt as mentioned above and keep frying till the tomato is cooked.

Time to add the mutton. Mix everything well and stir for few seconds in medium to low flame. Add the whole garlic pods that was kept aside in the beginning.

Cover with a lid keeping the flame in low. Keep checking in between. After repeating this for few minutes say 4-5 minutes, add hot water , give it a nice stir and cover with lid in low-medium-low flame. Slow cook the mutton for about say 15-17 minutes or so. Keep in mind to stir in between.
Once the gravy starts thickening put the gas off.

Transfer the mutton with the gravy to the pressure cooker (add water if required) and put on gas stove and pressure cook upto 5-6 whistles. This will again depend on the mutton quality and softness you want of the meat. Mine one took 7 whistles to get the softness we like. Let the pressure releases on its own.

Now transfer the mutton gravy to the same kadhai/pan, add garam masala and bring it to boil. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves , transfer to a serving bowl. Serve with hot rice/naan/roti.

 

Garlic Naan

Making garlic naan at home was a long pending task. As on weekends we prefer to take lunch & dinner sitting together at home so the food has to be an elaborate affair. Rest of the days I always have to eat lunch all alone and most of the times its a one pot meal for me. This sunday morning we planned to have mutton and sea fish. Then I thought of naan which is a deadly combination with mutton curry. So there was no waiting , we got home the fish and mutton and I got into it asking PB to look after the girl's studies for a day. As they both sat and started the maths chapters I started my preparations for lunch. Though making naan is a time taking process but this hard work pays off well once you get a satisfying result. We three loved our sunday meal. My little girl was happy having naan at home.

You may have seen a lot of different processes on how to make naan at home. I choose this one and it worked for me.


Ingredients:

Flour/Maida: 2 & 1/2 cups , extra for dusting
Active yeast: 1/2 tbsp.
Sugar: 1/2 tbps
Salt: 1 tsp
Curd: 1 tbsp.
Milk: few tbsp. (4-5)
Warm water: 1/2 cup
Finely chopped garlic: 10 pods
Butter: as required to smear over the naans
some chopped fresh coriander leaves

Procedure:

In a small bowl take the warm water and add the yeast, sugar, salt and mix it well with a spoon till it dissolves. Keep aside for the first proofing.

Take a large bowl, add the flour, curd and the proofed yeast. Add spoon by spoon the milk and keep mixing. Check for the consistency of the dough because if you pour the milk altogether the dough might turn into a running consistency. After adding all the ingredients you will see a sticky dough which is what we require.

 Now dust some flour on your kitchen work space and knead the dough there till it becomes smooth by kneading it for about 5-7 minutes. In case you find the dough still sticky, you can always add flour.

Transfer the dough to a bowl and cover it with a wet kitchen towel and keep in a warm place for about an hour for the second proofing. I kept it near by gas stove only as I was cooking the mutton by that time. You can keep the dough inside your oven keeping the light on. After an hour you will see the dough doubles up.

Now take it out and give  two three punches on it and start kneading for another 5 minutes or so. Divide the dough into equal sized medium balls. Roll them with  the rolling pin to your desired shape. I have rolled it to oblong shapes.

 

 

Heat the tawa in medium flame.
As shown in the picture, sprinkle some of the chopped garlic on one side of the naan and press them with your fingers.

Turn over the naan on its back and smear few drop of water on that side.

Place the naan with the side with water on the tawa. It will get stick to the tawa because of the water.

Now flip the tawa and cook it in the flame as shown in the picture, keeping an eye on the naan not to get burnt by flipping and lifting the tawa. At this stage in case if your naan doesnt get stick to your tawa while flipping, do not panic. With the help of a tong/flat steel spatula , cook the naan directly on flame.

Once your naan is cooked and it gets the brown spots on it, transfer the naan to a dish and apply some butter on both sides and sprinkle some chopped fresh coriander leaves. Repeat the same process for the rest of the balls.

Serve hot with any veg/non-veg gravy and enjoy.

 

Chicken Tangri

 This recipe of drumstick was actually a trial in my kitchen a week back or so after I saw this posted by a fellow member of an online foodie group Reem . I saw her mentioning so clearly step by step the whole procedure with all ingredients and that made me confident that  I am gonna do it exactly the same way she cooked it. But as obvious when I planned to cook the other day I was unable to recollect all the ingredients she has mentioned. Did not have much time in hand to search it again so I decided to make it with whatever ingredients available at home that I could remember which she might have used. It did turn out very well that I could not stop myself from sharing this here.  Loved the taste , the colour.



Ingredients:

Chicken drumstick : 4 pieces
Curd: 4-5 tbsp.
Garlic & ginger paste: 2 tbsp.
Red chilli powder: 1 & 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Cumin powder roasted n grounded: 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Juice of one lime
Red food colour: as much required to get that red colour (optional)
Coriander leaves to garnish
Chopped garlic: 5-6 cloves
Chopped green chillies: 1-2
Curry leaves: few
Any vegetable oil: 2 tbsp.

Procedure:

Wash the drumsticks properly and keep aside.

Prepare the marinade by adding curd in a bowl. Add ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin, salt, lime juice and few drops of oil. Mix everything well. Now add the food colour. You can avoid this if you do not like to include this.

 Now add the drumsticks in the marinade and flip over so that marinade coats the sticks from all the sides.

 Now in another bowl arrange the drumsticks one by one alternately and pour the remaining marinade on the pieces.

Cover the bowl and keep in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

Now heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add  the garlic, curry leaves, chopped chillies and fry for a few seconds. Now add the drumsticks one by one. Pour the remaining marinade on them.

Now cover with lid and let it cook in low to medium flame. After 3-4 minutes turn over the drumsticks and cover again and let it cook.

Check whether they are cooked or not by poking a fork on each of the drumsticks. Once they are cooked check the gravy , if you want it dry then let the gravy evaporates or else put the flame off .

Enjoy this juicy tasty drumsticks with rice/roti or as a starter. Garnish with coriander leaves.

 

Fish cooked with bamboo shoot

I call this dish my 'Soul food' . Have seen this being prepared in our ancestral village since childhood. Fermenting bamboo shoot and pickling them are something I started taking up of late. When you have nothing special for lunch or dinner just add the fermented shoots to your dal while you temper or make a chutney with some mustard oil, salt  & a hint of bhut jolokia/ghost chilli & your boring meal will turn into an interesting and satisfying meal. So we had this fish curry yesterday as my bamboos seemed to be perfectly fermented. We loved it, though PB said he would have liked it more if it was a bit more sour. Point noted and I instantly added some some thekera water to my bamboos.



Ingredients:

Fish: 4 pieces (I used pabho/pabda/butterfish... You can use any other river fish)
Fermented bamboo shoot: 5-6 tbsp.
Onion: 1 small sized finely chopped
Garlic: 4-5 cloves chopped
Ghost chilli: 1/2 of one (you can replace with any green/red chilli)
Panch Phuron: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Mustard oil: About 2 tsp for the curry and as required for frying the fish
Coriander Leave for garnishing
Water as required

Method:

Heat enough oil in a kadhai and fry the fishes till golden brown on both sides. Keep aside.

Heat 2tsp oil in another pan/kadhai . Add onion , garlic. Fry till light brown. Add salt and turmeric . fry for a second or two and add the bamboo shoot & chilli. Mix everything well. As I was using fermented bamboo so it already had water and I allowed it to cook as it is for 2-3 minutes covering with a lid. If you are using fresh bamboo add little bit of water and cover with the lid and cook till your bamboo is cooked well. Add enough water to make the curry. Bring it to boil. Add the fried fish pieces , cover it again and cook on low to medium flame for another 5 mins or so covering with the lid and keep on checking in between and also flip over the fishes.

Transfer to a serving bowl , garnish with some fresh coriander and serve hot with rice.

Note: Please do note that I have used fermented bamboo shoot where I have added chillies , salt& thekera -a souring agent (Garcinia Mangostana of Garcinia indica Family) while preparing it. We can always use lime juice instead of it.  So if you are using fresh bamboo shoot do not forget to add lime juice into this dish towards the end adjusting according to your taste bud.