Mango Revisited !!

I had to do it and i was suppose to do this much earlier...i had planned last friday to do a marathon of 10 recipes using mangoes with atleat one recipe every day in order to make up for my absence over the past one month and a half.As usual i got caught up with things and then didn't feel upto it. Nevertheless i will begin afresh and try to stick to my plans over the coming week.It wouldn't be easy though;but i know with a little bit of motivation from here and there i'll be able to sail through.Its my first of the ten entries of the marathon and the second one in the mango series.At this point all i can do is admire fellow bloggers who diligently do one food marathon after other and none of their recipes look like they've been made in a hurry.All I can say is that they inspire me .

I had a lot of recipies in my mind but i wanted to begin with the one which had a few ingredients and was considerably easy to make.i wanted to do a mango pudding initially but later i decided that a mango flan was a better option ;much easier to make as well.

Now,lets talk a little about flan first.Quite similar to creme caramel/caramel custard,Flan  is a popular dessert in Latin America,with preparation changing a little as you move around the entire region.Traditionally cooked over Bain Marie or the Double Boiler,flans can be easily cooked in a water bath in the oven.They can also be cooked inside a pressure cooker(i have added instructions for this at the end).There are numerous recipes over the internet for flan,some of which really have great pictures and have good feedbacks from users but i just cannot attempt at something too complicated for a dish that has a history of failures.I have heard stories about flans that have gone runny or have remained undercooked or tasted too eggy.But trust me,this one given to me by a friend,which i tweaked to incorporate mangoes didn't dissapoint me so i am holding on to this one.Here it is:

Easy Mango Flan

Ingredients:(4 servings)

1/4 cup white sugar


1 teaspoon lemon juice


2/3 cup mango puree(strained to remove any fibre if present)




300 ml reduced milk(begin with apx. 440 ml of milk-almost two glasses and keep reducing over medium heat till it has reduced to almost a glass and a quarter.It should still be a little warm while mixing but not hot.)Alternatively you can use a can of packaged condensed milk(Nestle/Amul)in which case you can completely omit the white sugar from the recipe.



2 teaspoons cornstarch


4 tblspn of any dark colored sugar(i used demarara).


2 large eggs at room temperature

Method:

• Place  ramekins in a  baking pan.Place the demerara sugar with a tablespoon of water and lemon juice in a medium saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat, until the sugar melts and turns the color of honey.Distribute the caramel among the ramekins.Sprinkle 1 tablespoon diced mango in each ramekin(optional).Set aside.
• Preheat oven to 350° F/180°C.
• Using an electric mixer, beat mango puree with eggs and sugar on low speed to combine. Dissolve the cornstarch in a tablespoon or two of warm milk and add it to the egg mixture.Increase speed to medium high, and mix until incorporated. Add evaporated milk(luke warm) continuing the whisking on medium high for 2-3 minutes.
• Ladle custard over caramel in the ramekins, filling them upto almost the rim. Place filled ramekins in a baking dish and pour enough hot water in it to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover baking dish tightly with foil and place in the oven. Bake until flan is set, about 45 minutes (when you tap the edge of a ramekin the flan should still wobble a little in the center)or you can do the toothpick test.
• Carefully remove baking dish from oven, remove foil, and let ramekins cool slightly. Let them chill in the refrigerator for least two hours before serving(better still let it chill overnight).Just before serving place the ramekins in a hot water bath for a minute or two in order to melt the caramel well.Run a thin knife around the inside edge of the ramekin to loosen flan, and then invert it onto the plate.  Add slices of mango and a sprig of mint for garnish.

# For cooking in a pressure cooker,first ensure that the dish in which the flan is to be set fits well inside the cooker and has a lid that closes well.Fill up the presure cooker with water that reaches almost halfway to the rim of the container.Cook at high heat till you begin to hear a faint whistle,reduce heat to medium high and cook for 15 to 20 mts.Turn off the heat and let the pressure in cooker release on its own.Remaining procedures are all same as above.Also make sure you fill up the dish leaving some room for expansion or else the flan will be bulged in places and will come out uneven.

Good Bye break time!!

i know..i know..I didn't really mean to take a break that long but then such are holidays..they have a longer lasting affect on you than you can perceive them to.My life itself is a whirlpool of things and activities,add to it children having summer vacations and moving an entire household to another address and i see a perfect excuse to get away from the chaos of my own life.

What i love about these breaks is being sorrounded by all the people i love ,visiting places that remind me of old times and eating the best food i can ever get;one that my mom cooks for us.I sometimes find it very relaxing  in just being embraced by all the sounds and smells that i relate with a happily regular life...the chatter of  people,clanging of pots and pans,the smell of the rain,the shrill cries of children playing all around and demolishing the entire household in doing so,the list is endless.No matter how exhausting these family gatherings can be,needless to say ;they are therapeutic for my soul.

Everytime i go to visit my parents i have to keep reminding myself to not laze around for more than a weekend  so i could spend the rest of the time catching up with friends and family in a more relaxed and a planned way and have a little more fun than i usually get.I almost expected this as i always do; the moment  i got into the grove of good things like sleeping late into the night;waking up only at noon to the wonderful aromas wafting up from the kitchen downstairs and making its way up into my room,eating till i actually burped,taking leisurely walks besides huge palm trees and freshly cut grass underneath our feet,chatting up late into the night with endless mugs of coffee pouring in,wondeful music and some more food;i was already a victim to my senses,and the feeling of euphoria slowely engulfed me in and transported me to another world where i simply could get more and more lazy and this actually is a huge understatement;-).


Obviously,there went all my "having fun"plans down into the drain.It didn't even occur to me  when that single weekend transcended itself over into the entire week and the week later.When there were left just the last couple of days;i came back to my senses(and thankfully i did!!) and did whatever i could do save my butt from being kicked by a lot of people and that includes my children(whome i had promised to take places).

Given all the lazying around i did,its obvious for anybody to think , that i didnt cook at all,but guess what..i did.I mean i still found some time to cook,because this is something i'd do even if i'm sleepwalking.What i cannot really do right now(and its a candid confession)is find the right things to say,i'm so out of sync,its getting difficult for me to write sense when it fails to make any sense to me.Surely i shouldnt be doing this very often(i refer to my absence here..wht else you thought!!).I took some pictures too,but i must say that some of them haven't really come out as well as i had expected them to.Nevertheless i intend to share them with you all.

Now,with mangoes having arrived in a big way,it would be rude and mean if we talk about anything else or try my hand on anything that doesn't include them simply because i'll end up feeling like you do when you have to sit out when all you want is to dance,when you've to do with just a  kiss  when you'd rather make love(i hope you get what i mean!!)because i am simply partial towards it so much so that my children call themselves"the mango of my eye".Only someone who loves mangoes just as much or more can understand my feelings when i say it...and i for sure know a few such people.

It's a recipe we all in our house loved as children and still do,only we didn't had a name for it.Recently a friend told me it was called "galka" and so here it is;the recipe.

Raw Mango Galka

Ingredients:

• Raw Mangoes,roughly a kilo

• Panchforan for tempering(includes nigella/kalaunji,fenugreek/methi seeds,Cumin seeds/zeera,anise/saunf,mustard seeds/Rai(optional))-half tspn each
• Garlic cloves(keep them whole)-5 or 6
• Whole dried red chillies(break and remove seeds)
• A few cloves and star anise(optional again)
• A tblspn of oil(any oil works but mustard oil works the best)
• dried ginger powder-1 tspn
• dried cumin powder-1 tspn
• paprika/chilli powder-1/2 tspn
• Grated jaggery-1 cup
• granulated sugar-1/2 cup
• salt to taste

Soak the raw mangoes in salted water for half an hr to remove the acid from the tip.Wash them well under tap water.Peel the skin off and prick the surface well using a fork.Keep it dipped in water till you prepare the tempering.

Heat the oil in the pan,add the panchforan/tempering and when it sizzles add the whole chillies ,cloves and star anise and then add the garlic and saute till it turns golden .Add the raw mangoes to the pan and stir well.add salt,cumin powder,ginger powder and a cup of hot water.let the water boil first before reducing the heat to minimum.cover and let the mangoes cook untill they feel soft to touch(it took me appx 20 mts for small sized whole mangoes).

Add the jaggery and the sugar and let the whole thing cook till they dissolve to form a syrupy base.Adjust the consistency to your liking by adding some boiling water if required.Cook on a low/medium heat untill the mangoes darken in colour and are perfectly cooked through.



Turn off the heat and let the galka stand in the same pot untill it cools down to the room temperature.It should be transferred to an airtight jar,kept in the refrigerator and it will last for about a week.If kept outside at room temperature it should be consumed within a couple of days.It goes well with paranthas/chapatis/ or toast.It can be eaten on its own as well...Yummy!! My mouth waters...  :-)