Mango Clafouti

Mango Clafouti (Pics by June Carvalho)

I'M  still making the most of this year's abundance of juicy, ripe mangoes. This Mango Clafouti, a delectable, baked dessert needs nothing but the fruit and a fairly thick pancake type batter comprising milk, flour, sugar, eggs and butter. It can be eaten warm, but is best served chilled. Although ripe, red cherries are the preferred fruit in a clafouti, it can be improvised enough to substitute them with lovely, luscious mangoes which are more commonly found in our region than the elusive fresh cherries. 

What you need:

500 gm ripe mango

3 eggs

4-5 tbsps granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

85 gm melted butter

1 cup milk

2 tbsps Amul fresh cream

90 gm flour

Peel and dice the mango and spread it evenly in a square, glass baking dish that has been greased with a pat of butter. Whisk the eggs and sugar. Add vanilla essence, the melted butter, milk and cream. Whisk a little more till blended. Tip the flour in, a little at a time, and whisk gently, till all of it is moistened. Pour the batter evenly over the mango layer, sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar on the surface and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 40 to 45 minutes till golden on top. Cool and transfer to fridge to chill before serving. Serves 4 to 6.

Crab Curry

HERE'S the recipe for crab curry that I had promised to post some months ago in my blogpost Crabby Tales.(See under Label: Crab)

It turns out really good, is not too spicy, yet delicious because of the aromatic masala combined with the salty smells and flavours of the sea that the crab brings with it. It is best served with rice - red boiled rice or white rice.

Crab Curry (Pic by June Carvalho)

What you need:
6 blue crabs (or 1 kg)
8 Kashmiri chillies
2 tbsps coriander seeds
10 peppercorns
1" piece of cinnamon
3 cloves
1 cardamom
1/2 a coconut, grated
1" ginger
2 tomatoes
5 cloves garlic
2 onions , chopped
2 green chillis, slit lengthwise
2 sprigs curry leaves
2-3 tbsps oil
Salt to taste
Water as required
Cut all the rinsed and cleaned crabs down the centre into two.
Broil the red chillis, coriander and the dry spices lightly till fragrant. Separately roast the grated coconut till light brown. Grind all this together, adding a little water, along with the tomatoes, ginger and garlic till you obtain a fine paste.
Heat the oil and fry the curry leaves, onions and chillis. Now add the ground paste and fry well till the oil separates. Add water to make a medium thick gravy. Add salt to taste.
Bring the masala to a boil and drop the crab into it. Boil a little more till the crab is cooked. Serve over rice.

Food for Thought

There were many reasons that Ella liked cooking. Creating a delicious meal out of ordinary ingredients was not only gratifying and fulfilling but also strangely sensual. But more than that, she enjoyed cooking because it was something she was really good at. Besides, it quieted her mind. The kitchen was the one place in her life where she could avoid the outside world altogether and stop the flow of time within herself. For some people sex might have the same effect, she imagined, but that always required two, whereas to cook, all one needed was time, care and a bag of groceries.


People who cooked on TV programs made it sound as if cooking was about inspiration, originality and creativity. Their favourite word was "experimenting". Ella disagreed. Why not leave experimenting to scientists and quirkiness to artists! Cooking was about learning the basics, following the instructions and being respectful of the wisdom of ages. All you had to do was use time-honoured traditions, not experiment with them. Cooking skills came from customs and conventions, and although it was clear that the modern age belittled such things, there was nothing wrong in being traditional in the kitchen.

From The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak.

Hi-fibre Banana Cake

Banana Cake with Flax Seed (Pics by June Carvalho)

TODAY I made the usual banana cake, but with a slight variation to the original recipe posted on my blog. (See Banana Cake recipe under Labels: Cakes) I substituted a cup of the refined flour with wholewheat flour to increase the fibre content in the cake...

As an afterthought, I sprinkled a tablespoon of flax seeds on the top before baking...it lent a lightly nutty and crunchy bite to the cake. Incorporating a little more of the flax seed into the cake batter itself may be a good idea. Might try it the next time around. Didn't feel very guilty to sink my teeth into a slice. Do try it out!

Nugge Soppu Saaru

Nugge Soppu & Saaru with Ragi Mudde (Pic by June Carvalho)

THESE days I've been taking some impromptu lessons in wholesome, rustic and rural cooking with dishes such as this Nugge Soppu Saaru,  from Ratna, my house-help.

This saaru, or curry if it can be called that, is of a creamy soup-like consistency and is made from the leaves of the drumstick tree. Educating me further, she says they also call this curry a bassaaru, which essentially means that it's a gravy made from the water strained after boiling the drumstick leaves along with a little tur dal. Apparently, the tur can be substituted with any other dal. A freshly ground wet masala is added for flavour, texture and consistency to the saaru which needs to be consumed instantly, because it is never boiled again after the addition of the masala.

The soppu (leaves) and the dal with a little seasoning serve as an accompaniment to the saaru and ragi mudde which is a dumpling made of powdered ragi or finger millet, the staple cereal of the rural folk of southern Karnataka. You eat it by pinching off a portion of the mudde with a little of the soppu, both of which are together dipped into the saaru. Made from powdered ragi, the soft ragi mudde hardly needs any mastication...it is simply swallowed like baby food, a reason why some people I know don't quite enjoy eating it. However, one can add a handful of cooked rice to the mudde (as in pic) to give it a slightly grainy texture. I like it either way. 

A simple, healthy, delicious and complete meal in itself would be the perfect way to describe it. Teamed up with the ragi mudde it's excellent for everyone's health, and especially that of diabetics! Drumstick leaves are a rich and natural source of iron, multivitamins and fibre and contain medicinal properties.

Above all, I felt this was an ideal recipe for sustainable food. Very robust, nutritious, environment-friendly and inexpensive, employing only local ingredients, considering that the drumstick tree is always found growing in the backyards of houses in rural areas and even in the fast disappearing sprawling compounds of urban homes which are now giving way to apartments. You can source it from most sellers of greens too. The bunch I picked up was from my friendly neighbourhood supermarket, where I saw it for the first time.

Not just the leaves, but a porial is made from the flowers too, apart from the drumstick itself which renders a sambar, avial or a meat curry even more flavourful.

I loved this dish not just for all of the above, but also for the very homely, rural and rustic feel that it brought to my dining table. Earthy food for earthy people! 

What you need:
3 packed cups of drumstick leaves removed from the stalks; 50 gm tur dal; 3 cups water; 1/4 tsp salt

For the masala:

3 green chillis; 10-12 peppercorns; 1/4 tsp cumin; 4 flakes of garlic; 1 tbsp grated coconut; 1 tbsp toasted peanuts, skinned; 2 sprigs green coriander; Small ball of tamarind 

For seasoning:

1 tbsp oil; 1 tsp mustard seeds; 1 big onion chopped fine; 2 sprigs curry leaves; 1 green chilli chopped fine; 2 tbsp grated coconut

What  you do:

Boil the leaves and the dal with three cups of water and a quarter teaspoon of salt in a pressure cooker for just two minutes, (because the dal should be just cooked and remain intact). Let the pressure drop naturally before you open the cooker. Drain the leaves and dal completely of the water and reserve the water to make the saaru.

For the masala, lightly broil the green chillis and grind them together with the other ingredients, adding a little water, to a fine paste. Mix this masala into the reserved water to make the saaru. Adjust salt.

For the seasoning, heat a tablespoon of oil and splutter the mustard seeds. Add the curry leaves and onion and fry till transparent. Add a spoonful of this seasoning to the saaru. To the rest of the seasoning add the chopped green chilli, fry a little more and then add all of the seasoning to the leaves and dal mixture. Lastly mix in the coconut.

Serve with ragi mudde.

Spinach Soup

Spinach Soup (Pic by June Carvalho)

WE'RE enjoying some real pleasant weather in Bangalore now after unbearably sultry weeks. A shower this evening and a consequent dip in temperature provided welcome respite...and I felt like a hot soup - comfort food for a cold day. And so, with a bunch of fresh spinach (palak) I set out to make this quick and simple spinach soup. The kids love it too...it's a good way to make them ingest some greens and get their dose of Vitamin A and iron. 

What you need for 2 servings:

1 bunch spinach

1 small onion, chopped fine

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

A dash of pepper powder

2 tbsps Amul butter

Salt to taste

2 tbsps of fresh cream (optional)

Wash and boil spinach in a cup of water till it's just limp. Do not over-boil. Cool and puree, along with the water, in a blender. Heat the butter in a saucepan and fry the onion and garlic till soft. Add the spinach puree and salt to taste. Bring to a quick boil. Sprinkle pepper. Remove from heat. Ladle into individual bowls and garnish with the cream, one tablespoon for each bowl. Serve hot.

PS: Drop croutons into the soup if you have them handy. I toasted two slices of wholewheat bread, broke them into bits and dunked two to three bits at a time into the soup and slurped it all up!   

   

Mango Milkshake

Mango Milkshake

IT'S been a bountiful harvest of sweet, golden mangoes this year, with our markets being flooded with dozens of varieties of them! And they're not even costing the earth as in the last couple of years. 


Corner House, Bangalore's iconic house of ice-creams, which has since branched to different parts of the city, is making the most of the mango season by serving up this seasonal 'king of fruit' in a myriad ways - diced and topped with vanilla ice-cream scoops, dollops of cream, mango ice-cream as well as whipping up mango milkshakes. 


A milkshake with any seasonal fruit is a lovely drink to serve kids returning hungry and tired from school. Delicious, filling and most satisfying. 

What you do:

Slice the cheeks off a nice, fleshy, ripe mango. Scoop out the flesh and whizz in a blender with two cups of chilled milk and a tablespoon of sugar. Add more sugar if you like it sweeter and a little more milk if the consistency is too thick. Serve in a tall glass and watch it being gulped down without a murmur of protest. Serves 1.