Thai-style Mango with Sweet Sticky Rice

I've always loved this dessert...Mangoes are my absolute favourite and this combination with rice makes it more fulfilling.

1 cup uncooked sticky rice (or sushi rice*)

200gm (or 1 can) coconut milk

1/2 cup brown sugar**

1 mango (a sweet or juicy variety is the best combo)

Toasted sesame seeds

* The pre-cooked sushi rice has added vinegar used only for making sushi. Use plain rice for this recipe.
** (I used jagery, but white sugar can also be used - all these sugars have variations in taste and sweetness so add accordingly)

To cook the rice:

Wash the rice and soak for about 4 hours. Drain the water and steam-cook it. I used a saucepan filled with water, put a splatter screen on it, flipped a bowl of rice on top of the screen and let it steam for about 30 minutes. (Flip it once in between to ensure even cooking.)

For the sauce:

Heat the coconut milk in the microwave. It should be hot enough to dissolve the sugar. Pour this on the cooked rice and mix well. 

Peel and slice the mango and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Serve the rice warm.

Chewy Oat Cookies with Candied Fruits

I had some candied ginger and cherries from my last holiday that I thought would go well with oat cookies. They made for a nice breakfast.

1 egg (slightly beaten)
1/2 cup of candied cherries and ginger
1/4th cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4th cup butter
3/4th cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup or honey
2/3rd cup flour
2 cups (250gm) porridge oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp boiling water

Melt the butter in the microwave and the sugar and syrup. Mix well. Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients, and add the egg at the end.

Arrange spoonful of the batter on a baking tray and bake at 180 deg C for about 20 minutes. (For a crispier cookie, bake at 160 deg C for about 25-30 min.)

Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 12
to 15 cookies. Store in an air-tight container once cool.

Baby Potatoes with Mustard Salad

This is a quick and easy recipe for a starter or salad...when you want some variety for your guests but don't to spend the whole day in the kitchen. It can be made in advance and kept in the fridge.

You'll need:
500gms baby potatoes
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp mustard (I like the grainy variety)
Salt/pepper to taste
2 tbsp thick yogurt (optional)
Juice of 1/2 lemon (optional)
Small bunch of chives or coriander (optional)

Wash the potatoes, cut them in half, and boil them in salted water till they are cooked (but not mushy). Remove from water and let it cool. Pat dry (if required) before adding the mustard and other seasonings.

Oats Dosa with Onion Chutney

I don't like porridge oats at all. Many have tried to coax me to eat it, and I've tried, but it doesn't happen. Not wanting to miss out on the goodness of it all, I keep trying ways to make it edible for me. Cookies are one way. The other is this very simple dosa (crepe).

You'll need:
3/4th cup porridge oats
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
salt to taste
About 2 cups of Water

Oil to cook

This makes the basic batter that should be easy enough to spread on the pan.

For topping, finely chop and mix into a separate bowl the following:
2-3 green chillies
1 onion (or spring onion with leaves)
some corriander
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 inch ginger

Heat a flat pan on medium to high heat. Spread the batter with a ladle, and add some of the topping. With a spoon, pour some oil on the circumference. Keep an eye on the heat - turn it lower if the pan gets too hot. On medium heat, this doesn't need to be flipped over. Each should take about 3 minutes to cook.

Onion Chutney
Grind together:
1 onion
4-5 red chillies
1 tsp tamarind paste
2 inch fresh coconut (optional)
1/2 tsp salt 
Keep aside.

In a small wok, heat
2 tbsp oil

Once hot, add
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp Black gram (urad dal)

Once they start to sizzle, add the onion paste and cook for 2 minutes.

Serve with warm dosas.

Freeze!

I get lazy most evenings especially in the summer and end up ordering food from outside. But I've recently tried to fight the urge and have started to freeze as many items as I can to make it easier to prepare dinner.

When I get some time and patience I prepare the item to be frozen so I don't need to do it all at once. It has helped reduce our eating out on weekdays (weekends I like to take a break from the kitchen).

I prefer to divide it in 2-3 boxes or zip-lock bags by portion size usually needed for one meal so that I don't need to thaw the whole box when I only want some of it.

I also keep nuts like walnuts and almonds in the freezer because they stay crisp and don't get rancid. Same with spices that are not used frequently.

1. Pesto - When I make pesto at home, I usually make enough to be used twice. So half of it goes in the freezer for a quick meal some other day.

2. Spinach - This is best frozen on the day it is bought to avoid loss of nutrients. Boil water in a saucepan, and blanche the cleaned leaves for about 30 seconds, then remove on a sieve and immediately put under running cold water (or in a bowl of ice water). This will stop the cooking process and the spinach will not turn blackish. Chop it up or blend it in and put it in the freezer once cooled.

3. Avocado - Once the avocado ripens, scoop it out, mash it up, and add the juice of 1 lemon, or 1 tbsp vinegar for each avocado. It won't blacken.

4. Yoghurt - I wanted to make frozen yoghurt, so I let regular yoghurt sit on a fine sieve (or cheesecloth) for about 30 minutes to let the whey drain out. Then box and freeze.

5. Banana Ice cream - I had made this ice cream earlier, but added some chocolate in the mix as well.

6. Green Beans - I just washed, de-stringed, and froze the beans, but you could even blanche it as with the spinach and store.

7. Kidney Beans - Soak the kidney beans (1 cup) overnight. The bowl should be big enough as the beans with get bigger in size, and the water should be triple the quantity of the beans. Drain the water the next day. In a pressure cooker, cook the beans on medium for 10-12 minutes with half a cup of water. Add a teaspoon of salt if you are sure you'll need the beans only for savoury items.

8. Strawberries - Wash and remove the stems of the berries. freeze whole. Use it to make milkshakes, frozen yoghurt, or just have them whole once thawed.

Frozen Strawberry Yoghurt

This summer, there will be no store-bought ice-cream (ok, maybe just a few).

You'll need:
8-10 strawberries (cleaned and de-stalked)
2 cups yoghurt (put in a cheesecloth or fine sieve and let the whey drain out for 30 min)
3 tbsp Honey
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)

Blend all, and freeze. Repeat 2-3 times.
Add more honey or sugar as per taste.

Red Velvet Cake with Fondant Icing

It was husband's birthday in March; he's a big Superman fan and his name starts with an S too, so this was the obvious choice of icing.

For the cake:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• Pinch salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (1/2 cup milk with 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar - set aside  for 5 min to curdle)
• red food colour according to instructions (1tbsp if using liquid colour, a few dabs with a toothpick if using gel)
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp baking soda

In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Keep aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar till creamy. Add the vanilla and the eggs, and whisk some more.

In the buttermilk, add the food colouring and mix well.

Alternate adding the flour mix and the buttermilk into the creamy batter in 3 stages starting and ending with the flour (flour-buttermilk-flour-buttermilk-flour). Whisk lightly, incorporating all ingredients.

In a separate bowl, add the baking soda to the vinegar - it should fizz. Add this immediately to the cake batter, and mix well. Put the batter in a 9 inch lined/greased cake tin and put in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C. Try to minimise the time between the fizzing and shoving in the oven so that the soda doesn't fizzle out.
Bake for 35-40 min. Cool on a wire rack, then remove from cake tin and put it in the fridge.

For the icing:
Fondant icing sugar
Food colouring
1/2 cup ice water
1/2 cup cornflour

If using different colours as icing, divide the sugar into as many parts.
Sift the sugar (it is usually rock hard so I need to put it in a blender to reduce the lumps, then sift). Start by adding a few drops of water and knead well. Adding too much water will make it runny and it won't roll out. It should become pliable like pastry dough. Add the food colour of your choice.

The rolling is the difficult part. Sprinkle some cornflour on the counter, and coat your rolling pin and hands with some too. This will prevent the dough from sticking.start rolling carefully but don't roll it too thin else it'll break when you roll it over the cake: But too think and the cake topping will be too hard and sugary. Should be approximately 2-3 mm thick.

If cutting a design, use a sharp knife and lots of cornflour to pry the design out without breaking it. You could try rolling it out on baking paper if it helps.

Dab some water to make the fondant stick to fondant. Even if you have some tears or holes, just use a piece of same coloured fondant and some water to patch it up.