Spicy Tomato-Mango Salsa.

Something I find really hard to come across is a good bowl of Salsa. Or a good Mexican restaurant for that matter, here at Madras. Ketchup and loads of water and chopped onion does not a salsa make. Really, truly, that's up there on my list of food sacrilege.

I think I should add at this point that watered-down yogurt should in no way be named sour cream, but there is a limit to the number of things one can crib about!

So fold up your sleeves, and make yourself a hugeass batch of spicy tomato salsa. And before you do that, hunt for the last few mangoes of the season... they don't have to be super sweet, like mangoes that go into dessert have to. A little tang and juice heightens the salsa to bowl-licking glory.

It was just what I needed on one of those Ramadan late-nights, when I couldn't face another Unidentifiable Deep-Fried Object.

This salsa was light, spicy, and punchy all at the same time. And I know posh tortilla chips cost a bomb (any where from 200 bucks upward for a packet), so settle for some pretty decent Senor Pepito's Jalapeno flavoured tortilla chips.

Or go down the healthier, cheaper route: a chapati cut into triangles (like the spokes of a chakra), sprinkled with some cumin and paprika and cheddar cheese and baked at 180 for 5 minutes. Delicious.

For such a simple recipe, that is uncooked and eaten fresh, you have to-have to-have to pick up organic, fresh, seasonal produce. Or bookmark this recipe until you can lay your hands on some.

I clearly doubled the recipe.

The paprika and jalapenos, you can pick up at Nilgris and slightly upmarket groceries. As for the onion/garlic powders, I suggest you give Spice Route a try.

Spicy Tomato-Mango Salsa:

2 big whole jalapeno peppers (I used tinned, seeds and all)

6 cloves garlic, peeled

2 large fresh tomatoes, chopped and deseeded

28 ounces can tomato (my substitute works better!)*

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped (I used regular)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves

1 medium mango, chopped

juice of one lime

Taco seasoning:

2 tbsp cumin, toasted

1/2 tsp paprika

3 dried red chillies

Red chilli powder, sea salt and pepper, to taste
garlic and onion powder to taste (I skipped it for this recipe)

*Instead of the canned tomatoes, I blanched around 900g of fresh tomatoes in boiling water for 15 seconds, took it out and shocked it in a bowl of ice water, peeled them, drained them completely of the water, halved and deseeded them.

Method:

In a mixie, pulse the jalapenos and garlic until they are minced into fine little bits.

To make the taco seasoning:

Powder the toasted cumin, chilli flakes, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper to a coarse texture. Store in an airtight container and use as desired.

Add in all of the other ingredients except for the mangoes.

Pulse in short pauses, and keep checking to see if they've reached your desired consistency. Some like it chunky, some not so much.

Don't let it get any more watery than you see in the photo above! It tends
to dilute over time!

Taste the salsa, adjust the seasoning according to your palate.

Stir in half of the chopped mango. Don't add it all, as it tends to macerate over time and I like a few pieces to have a bite to them and add it at the last minute.

Pour the salsa into an airtight container and refrigerate for 2 hours minimum, so all of the flavours sink in.

While serving, the remaining mangoes and some more fresh mango pieces.

Source: adapted for the Indian kitchen from Annie's Eats

Oh. I made every component of the taco you see below. I cite unavailability and horrendously expensive "exotic" ingredients as reasons. 

The refried beans, the sour cream, salsa, shrimp and even the corn tortillas (without masa harina!). One of the most from-scratch and satisfying meals of all time. If only I had followed it up with churros or a can of Dulce de Leche.

Mmm. Dulce de Leche. Challenge accepted!

Gryffindor-y Plum-and-Mango Parfait/Potterhead grows up.

A day without dessert is not a day worth living. A day without running on the treadmill? Yay. A day without taking a bath? Allowed if you don't step out of your room. A day without meals? Totally doable. A day without dessert? Not worth living.

It's OK if it's just yogurt with granulated white sugar (dahi-cheeni/thayir-chakkarai) sprinkled on top. Or a tiny square of Lindt's Dark Chocolate with Almonds and Oranges. There has to be something sweet, preferably with chocolate or peanut butter in it.

And it's more than OK if it's mint chocolate-chip ice-cream with extra dark chocolate chips and hot fudge sauce. Actually, it's the ultimate.

But, sometimes, you have to restrict yourself. You're in charge of making dessert for people who are diabetic, on a diet, and the like. Simple dessert, with healthy fruit, can be a delight... just make sure you use the freshest of ingredients and local produce.

As much as I wanted to make Butterbeer cupcakes in celebration of Harry Potter 7, Part II, I didn't have the ingredients for or the inspiration to, after a hard day at work. So I decided to make something with Gryffindor-y colours, something that is breakfast, dessert and healthy, all at the same time. Damn. I am growing up.

Here's my take on a Plum and Mango parfait.

I've tried to keep it as light and healthy as possible, but feel free to jazz it with greek yogurt or whipped cream and the aforementioned dark chocolate chips. It's all good.

Gryffindor-y Parfait/Plum-and-mango parfait:

1 ripe mango, chopped into bite-size pieces

For the plum sauce:
6-7 ripe plums, stoned and halved
juice of half a lemon, lemon peel
a cinnamon stick
2 star anise
some nutmeg, grated
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup water

Yogurt or Greek Yogurt or Whipped cream

Granola, 1 batch =>preferably with plenty of figs, almonds, walnuts and the like.

Method:

For the plum sauce:

In a medium-sized saucepan, bring together the ingredients for the plum reduction and place on medium heat. Cook all of it together until the plums gets completely softened.

Add more water to keep from burning, if necessary. Add more sugar if your plums are tart.

Take it off the heat. Remove the cinnamon stick, lemon peel and star anise.

For the parfaits:

In a couple of glass bowls (so you can see the layering), place the chopped mangoes in the bottom. Add some of yogurt.

Add the plum sauce.

Add some more yogurt.

Sprinkle with a handful of granola.

You can change the order, add more layers, whatever makes you happy. Just remember to serve it immediately.

This made for an unusually yummy breakfast. I don't know if it was the healthy fruit-and-nut-and-oats-and-honey thing or the tabloid supplement of Deccan Chronicle or the Harry Potter connection (and I must add I was going to watch the movie that day, as well). I was happy.

Vegan Mango Coconut ice-cream/An Indian Summer.

It's that time of the year. OK. That sounds gross, thanks to all of the traumatizing 'time of the month' adverts.

But it is a sad time of the year, altogether. It's when I have to say goodbye to mangoes.

I used to think that it was supremely unfair that mangoes were available only three months a year. I love the damned fruit, I really do. Even more than I like bananas and pineapple. At long last, however, I realize that there is a God above, who wants me to be able to fit into my clothes, and somehow eating a whole mango a day doesn't leave much room for that.

So I'm frantically making as many mango recipes as I can. Sweet, savoury, decadent, fresh. Making and eating it all. You know what I really enjoy though? The mango seed, with little bits of flesh on it. I can feast on it for an hour, not unlike a hungry crow. The heart wants what the heart wants.

And since we're on a health kick (albeit a manipulated version of healthy), I thought I'd make a Vegan Mango ice-cream/sorbet thing that I can eat without thinking "oooh-yum-oh-no-sigh-mmm" and similar. You can make this with Indian pantry ingredients and a Braun hand-blender/mixie. No ice cream maker, no nothing.

Vegan Mango ice-cream:

Ingredients:

2-3 ripe mangoes, cut into chunks
100 ml coconut cream/milk
juice of 2 lemons
5 cardamom pods, crushed
Honey/Stevia/Sugar, if necessary.

Method:

I used a mix of Alphonso and gorgeous, gorgeous Himayat mangoes!

Puree the mangoes to a pulp.

Add in the coconut milk.

I used a mix of coconut cream and a lighter milk.

Add in the crushed cardamom, lemon juice and honey and blitz with the processor once more.

Bring to boil, hoping that the lemon won't curdle the coconut milk. It won't. When thick, take it off the heat.

Pour into a freezer-safe container.

Freeze until it is rock solid.

You can scrape the ice cream with a fork and make granita.

Or beat the frozen ice-cream once more and freeze. Repeat the whole process two more times.

Serve with mint, crushed Nice biscuits (yum!) or chopped pecans, and some more cut mango bits. I don't have a fancy photo of the end product, but trust me?

Farewell,  my sometimes-yellow, sometimes-orange/green/red, mostly glorious-golden-skinned friend. See you soon. And not just because I have a few kilos of pulverized mango pulp in the freezer.

Chocolate cake with mango mousse and espresso jelly.

I adore entremet cakes (Breaking news). Layers and layers of goodness, fancy-ness and happiness in between layers and layers of cake. Cakes that take a good part of a day to bake and assemble. Maybe more. Cakes that invite oohs-and-aahs or several comments on Facebook. However, when they flop, they flop with a vengeance.

The following cake, for instance, DID not look like this in the first attempt. Oh, no. Baking has its fair share of failures. Scroll down and check out Exhibit A if you don't believe me.

And also, when I said that banana breads and smoothies were blank templates to build on, I made a huge flaw. I left chocolate cake out of the list.

Chocolate cake is essentially like toast. The number of things you can do to it and with is overwhelming. You can use it to make a cake for kids (and adults who don't give a toss about trans-fats) with loads of Oreos and cream cheese or go all uber-sophisticated by making a Strawberry Sachertorte.

So when a friend's (one of those kinds who alternatively threaten and plead you for fancy food) birthday rolled around, I thought I'd go down the posher route and conjure up something, the likes of which you can't find at any average pastry shop.

I envisioned layers of chocolate cake sandwiched with mousse of some sort and drenched in ganache. And since it was June, aka the month of Mangoes, here at Madras, I had the flavour of the mousse. Searching aimlessly for recipes, I came across one for a triple-layer mousse-trifle-y thing and fell for it in a heartbeat.

And then disaster struck. It is hard to make anything at Madras, sometimes, I swear to God. First, you have to deal with the lack of ingredients and Cuisinart appliances. Next, the power cuts! Just when the mousse was all done and ready to be jellified in the refrigerator, the lights (along with all things electrical) went off dramatically. Terrified that it'll make a sloppy mess in the recesses of a refrigerator rapidly losing its cool, I shoved it into the freezer and went to sleep. Four hours later, I had a frozen block of cake/mousse/jello... and this friend does not even like ice-cream.

While thawing, the mousse layers instead of being creamy, became icicle-y and watery at the same time. The coffee flavour in the cake wasn't enough. It was one unmitigated disaster after another. The birthday girl gamely said it was yummy, though... I pity her taste buds.




DO NOT FREEZE CAKE. Do NOT freeze cake.

 
The idea, however, was too good for me to accept defeat. I reworked the proportions, cooking and setting techniques and tried again. And am I glad.

The resultant was a rich coffee-chocolate layer of cake with a creamy mango mousse, all of it topped off with an espresso jelly. Oh, yes. Thank you, Desserts for Breakfast. You've introduced something special to my life... and now I can continue to let people think I come up with all these awesome ideas with my unilaterally medical brain. Yes. Victory is (eventually) mine.


Chocolate cake with Mango Mousse and Espresso Jelly:

For the chocolate cake:

1/2 a batch of Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake

For the coffee syrup:

60 grams  granulated sugar
120 ml black coffee


For the mango mousse:

5 tspn gelatin powder
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 kg mango puree
200 grams sugar
460 ml whipping cream

For the espresso jelly:

2 cups milk
Instant espresso/coffee powder-as much as you want
5 tbsp sugar
Agar-agar, as per packet instructions (OR) Gelatin powder-4 tsps + 1/4 cup cold water

Method:

For the cake:

Layer the bottom of your serving tray/cups with cooled pieces of cake.

Pour the prepared coffee syrup liberally over the entire cake.

For the coffee syrup:

Stir the sugar into the prepared hot coffee until all of it dissolves. Let it cool down to room temperature, and use as necessary.

For the mango mousse:

Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a small bowl. Keep aside.

Heat the mango puree over very low heat. Add in the sugar and stir until it dissolves. DO NOT let it boil.

Take it off the heat. Add in the gelatin and stir until well incorporated. Do not heat after you've added in the gelatin. Let the mango mix cool down to room temperature.

Fold in the whipped cream into the cooled mousse. Pour this mix over the coffee-soaked cake.

Keep it in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours until the mousse has completely set.

For the espresso jelly:

Combine gelatin and cold water in a small bowl and keep aside.

In a saucepan, heat together the milk, sugar and coffee until the sugar dissolves. Take it off the heat. Stir in the gelatin or agar-agar. Let it cool down to room temperature.

Pour the jelly over the set-mango mousse.



Don't judge, but I ate the missing bits. Quality control, flavour combination
study and similar. You understand, right?


Refrigerate the whole thing for an hour or so. Take out when fully set.

Cut out little portions and serve with grated chocolate on top.

Eat, full of regret, that it didn't turn out this well the first time. Eat some more to ease away the pain.

You know I'm kidding, right (sort of)? I've almost never spoken as a qualified medical practitioner in this blog, so you can't sue me. 

Cherry-mango-Smoothie-Banana "Brake"/Banana Bread with cherries and mangoes.

I've professed my love for banana bread earlier. The way I view Banana Bread (or smoothies, for that matter) is how an artist might look at her blank canvas. The possibilities. The varied, various possibilities.

I've put dates and nuts in banana bread before. I've also been known to put espresso and chocolate chips in the batter. Coconut and raisins? Done and done.

However, as an ode to summer, I needed something fruity and fuss-free. Something like a smoothie. In a bread. Fusion conFusion and all that.

Cherries and fresh mango in banana bread!`Ooooh, yes.

I have a recipe for banana bread and banana muffins that I love. However, Smitten Kitchen's recipes are something I trust wholeheartedly, so I thought I'd give this a try. I made this late at night, cut myself a slice for breakfast and ran for work. Got through work knowing that I'd come back to air-conditioning and a loaf of banana-bread-minus-one-slice. That happened. Not.

My brother even had the audacity to tell me that I should've skipped the mango as it made the bread a teeny bit "soggy" after a while. It didn't have a "bite" to it, he said, in a snooty voice. A food blog in the family and everybody turns into frou-frou self-professed food connoisseurs. Not that I didn't cut him down to size by asking in front of company why he had to go eat it all then.

Skip the mango if you're not a fan, but I liked the random bits of soggy-sweetness in the bread. Maybe mango puree in the batter, subbing out some of the bananas would have been a better option. To-do list it goes on to, then!

Until then. Follow the recipe verbatim and have a delicious, delicious slice of banana brake (bread+cake. Lameness). Use organic bananas, fresh cherries and sweet, non-carbide-ripened mangoes. You'll keep wondering if you made it.

Cherry-mango Banana-Smoothie Bread:

Ingredients:

4 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar.
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoona vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup cherries, pitted and halved.
1/2 cup mangoes, cut into tiny dice.
Method:

Preheat an oven to 200 degrees celcius or 350 degrees Farenheit.

Mush the bananas and the melted butter in a big mixing bowl.

With a wooden spoon or a whisk, beat in the sugar, egg, vanilla and spices.

Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the batter. Mix it in.

Fold in the flour until combined, DO NOT OVERMIX.

Fold in the fruit.

Pour it out onto a greased loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out relatively dry. Don't overcook, it'll be too dry.

Brown, caramelly baked goodness!

Cool for 10 minutes. Flip it out onto a wire rack and let it cool.

Slice and eat hot-hot. It'll be OK at room temperature for the rest of the day, probably 3 days when wrapped in plastic and kept in the fridge, and longer when wrapped in foil and frozen.

Not that I ever got to find out, if you've read my rambling post.