Baked Rice Pudding With Mangoes

Baked Rice Pudding With Mangoes. In the sweltering heat, with constant power cuts and water supply woes, mangoes are probably the only things that bring a smile on the face of every person living in India. We will gloat over the amazing bargain we got at the local market no end! Can eat the fruit every single day in all possible ways. Gift them when we visit folks and buy fewer mangoes when we expect guests who are sure to bring us some (more) mangoes. Furiously stock up on mango pickles, mango preserves, dried mangoes, mango leather, mango-everything and then mourn the end of the season!

Being such a delicious fruit and a good looking one at that, mangoes have to feature in at least one or two summer posts of every self-respecting food blogger. Gosh, I have a lot of catching up to do here, as I barely have anything mango here. But that thankfully can easily be remedied!  

Let me start with this satisfying, homey, Mango Rice Pudding. It is similar to kheer but the creaminess comes with the eggs and in just 15 -17 minutes.  You may want to try this if anything custard based immediately goes on your must-try list. And do check the whole grain version given below. You could make it with left-over aromatic rice if you have some or with brown rice and lots of dried fruit and nuts as in the original recipe. 

Rice Pudding With Mangoes - Based on Brown Rice Pudding recipe from the KAF Whole Grain Baking Book.

Ingredients

Whole milk ( 3.5% fat)  - 2 cups / 480 ml

Soft, unsalted butter - 15 grams

Eggs - 2 large / 100 grams

Sugar - 130 grams

Cooked rice, cooled - 2 cups ( I used basmati)

Vanilla - 2 teaspoons 

Fresh mangoes for the topping

Method : Lightly butter a 9'' round tin. 

Pre-heat oven to 160 C / 325 F.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar till well combined. Set aside.

 Heat the milk in a heavy saucepan pan on medium heat, till you see bubbles forming around the edges. Stir to prevent a skin from forming. The milk will be hot, but not boiling. Stir in the butter.

Whisking constantly, very slowly, ladle the hot milk into the eggs,  adding just a little of the hot milk at a time. Do not rush this process or the mixture may curdle.

Stir in the rice and the vanilla. 

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 15-17 minutes or till the pudding is set around the edges.  The rest of the surface will look jiggly. The time may vary, be careful here. Err on the side of under baking as over baking will cause the pudding to curdle. 

Remove from the oven, let cool completely. Stir, spoon into glasses and chill. Enjoy the creamy pudding topped with fresh mangoes and sliced pistachios if you like. 

Please note : Do not use low fat or skimmed milk as you will not be happy with the results.

Variation : The original recipe uses 1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons maple syrup, 1 cup of dried fruit ( apricots, cherries, raisins and cranberries), 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. If you  try this, you may want to increase the sugar by a couple of tablespoons. 

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Cinnamon Cornmeal Biscotti

Biscotti, the twice baked Italian cookies, are made with fat and without. For me, ones with less fat are the everyday kind and the more luxurious, considerably higher fat ones would make a lovely make ahead weekend indulgence. Biscotti with no added fat are loud, noisy and crunchy, great for dipping in wine I gather. The addition of butter or oil, makes them a little tender, less loud but still crunchy, crispy depending on the recipe.

After trying out a few recipes, realization dawns that I like biscotti with fat in them. These tender crisp kind are what I like to dunk in my tea/coffee when I feel like eating something light, but don't exactly know what. The kind of healthier cookies I like in my cookie jar for the kids to dip in their glass of milk. The bonus - these are really easy compared to the regular cookies, more substantial and keep well for days. You could  bake them at leisure and rest assured you have something not-too-sweet or fat loaded to nibble on over the next few days.

Looking for a new biscotti  recipe, I baked David Lebovitz's cornmeal biscotti . The gritty cornmeal in the biscotti , gives them a slightly different texture. Since the butter doesn't need to be creamed, you could get away making a really small batch easily. Made a couple of batches of these, one with cinnamon and some with citrus zest. Biscotti with cinnamon and butter taste great when really fresh, you must try these if cinnamon is your spice. Baked a batch with oil in place of the butter. Since using butter or oil did not make a great deal of difference, I think I shall stick to using oil.

I have made small batches (a fourth of the below recipe) just to play around. Have sneaked in a tiny bit of baking powder as well.

Ingredients:

• All purpose  flour -  210 grams / 1 1/2 cups

• Cornmeal, preferably stone-ground - 70 grams / 1/2 cup
• Sugar- 200 grams / 1 cup ( I have powdered after weighing)
• Baking soda- 1 teaspoon
• Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon (I have added this)
• Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
• Eggs- 2 large / 98 grams
• Butter (salted or unsalted), melted - 55 grams / 4 tablespoons (weigh and melt) OR 60 ml / 1/4 cup oil
• Ground Cinnamon - 1 heaping teaspoon 
• Vanilla - 1 teaspoon 

       OR

• zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• Walnuts (or almonds) toasted and coarsely chopped - 1 cup (100g)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC.) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, cinnamon, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the beaten eggs. Add the butter, then mix until the dough is wet and crumbly. Add the nuts and stir to get them mixed well into the dough. The dough will feel dry but will come together. Its not as wet as the usual biscotti dough, the dough with oil felt a bit dry, but worked just fine.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead a few times until smooth. Divide the dough in two, and roll each portion into a 13-inch (33cm) long or according to the size of your batch and baking tray (these spread, so leave at least around 2'' space all around the log to be safe) , then transfer them to the baking sheet. Leave ample space between the two logs as the dough will spread a bit during baking.

5. Bake the logs for 20 minutes, or until they feel firm but springs back when you press the top. Remove them from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes. You could, at this point, leave the baked log covered and come back to it even the next day ! Reduce the heat of the oven to 150 degree / 300 F.  (250ºF /120ºC in the original recipe)

6. Using a sharp bread knife, slice the longs crosswise into individual cookies, each about 1/3-inch (1cm.) Place the biscotti on the baking sheet, standing them up on their back (imagine slicing the log and separating the slices) and bake for 20-25 minutes. The cookies will feel soft when hot, will crisp as they cool. Vary the baking time to your preference, baking longer dries them out further, making them crunchier.

Let cookies cool completely, then store in an airtight container. The biscotti will keep for at least two weeks.

Tender-crunchy, I liked these as a change from the normal textured biscotti. Do make yourself a small batch of these with cinnamon and butter. If eating immediately, brush the warm baked slices with a tiny bit of butter and cinnamon as the baker's treat. Storing biscotti brushed with butter is not a great idea, the butter kind of solidifies later. Just happen to know.

No Knead, Easy & Quick Pizza - It Can't Get Easier!

Its no secret that I love Peter Reinhart's Napoletana Pizza Crust, but I still keep looking out for and trying out new recipes. A good dependable recipe and a good pizza for all the times you need one. Peter Reinhart's recipe when you have the luxury of planning well ahead, flexibility to make pizza anytime over the next 3 days.  How about one when you need pizza in a real hurry without any prior planning?

Ever since I have discovered how easy it is to make pizza from scratch at home, ordering pizza in is something I can't digest. Good money spent on not-so-good stuff.  If I had my way and some cheese at home, I will have good pizza ready in, say, an hour and a half, sauce, dough and all? My kids wanted to order pizza one day and yours truly all but kicked my legs and cried, imploring not to do so. The trade off - my 11-year-old budding foodie would get to make the dough. The young food enthusiast these days has been contemplating gastronomy as one of his future choice of academic options! Food love, one trait he has inherited from me!

The deal I suppose was good enough for him to be content with eating dal-roti-subzi for the moment. The next day saw us all set to make pizza, the sauce ready to go on it, the elusive cheese reassuringly sitting in the fridge. A pizza from this no-knead flatbread was the plan. Sure made my son happy as he made it successfully!

Tough for a kid or a beginner to fail when the dough is as simple as gathering all ingredients in a bowl and beating 20 strokes with a wooden spoon. The sticky dough goes directly on your pizza pan,  prepare the toppings while it rises .The sauce can preferably be made before you make the dough as it also needs to cool. Rest the dough for 30-40 minutes and bake. No fuss, no knead, quick and easy!

The reliability of old tried and tested recipes always tempt me to play around, this time the playing around restricted to simply dividing the dough into 3 parts and baking it with sauce and toppings in a very hot oven. Really simple but also works really well! 

I tried this with a potato, onion, garlic and EVOO topping too which was OK-ish, but the classic tomato sauce and cheese will always be a favorite!

Watch me make this pizza. Also check my video about yeast below. 

The recipe below makes 3 8-9'' pizzas, depending on the thickness of the crust.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 210 grams/ 1.5 cups approximately

Salt - 3/4 teaspoon

Garlic powder - 1/4 teaspoon (optional)

Instant yeast - 1 teaspoon (Use 1 1/8 teaspoon if using active dried yeast)

Olive oil - 1 1 /2 tablespoons

Lukewarm water - 3/4 cup / 180 ml

More extra virgin olive oil for greasing the pans
Homemade Pizza Sauce
Toppings of your choice.

Procedure : Generously grease 3 9'' round or square pans or two large sheet pans with extra virgin olive oil. Enough oil (say about a teaspoon per pan ) will give your pizza a golden and crisp crust, easy release too. Keep aside.

Sift together the flour, salt and garlic powder. Keep aside. Take the water, oil and yeast in a medium sized bowl, tip in the flour mixture. (If using active dried yeast, mix it with lukewarm water, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, allow to stand till frothy, 5-10 minutes, add the oil and the rest of the ingredients) With a wooden spoon, stir to bring it all together, then beat 20 strokes. The dough will be sticky. Divide it into three equal portions, you must eyeball correctly or weigh for uniformity in baking time and thickness of the crust of each pizza. Dump each portion on one pan. With greased hands, push the dough on the pan to make a 9'' round (about 5 mm aprox). (or smaller ones for a thicker pizza. I like mine with a thin crust). Try to keep the thickness uniform throughout (one of mine got a bit thicker in the middle). Keep in a warm place (cover if possible, taking care that the lid does not touch the crust or the area immediately around it) for about 25-30 minutes (may be 40-45 minutes when its not hot) or till the dough is puffy, not necessarily double.

Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees C (or higher if you can set in your oven) in the meantime. Spread the sauce and the vegetables on it and bake for 13-15 minutes (couple of minutes longer for a thicker crust) or till golden brown around the edges (watch carefully towards the end as you don't want it to burn or turn into a cracker) Remove from the oven carefully, top with more sauce and cheese, bake another 2 minutes till or the cheese melts. Remove, allow the cheese to set for a minute, slice and serve immediately.

Not a bad crust for a super easy, tasty and quick pizza, what do you think? Way better than the one you will get in 30 minutes! So next time you need pizza on a whim, you may not really want to reach out for the phone...head to the kitchen instead!

The pizza is yeast-spotted!

Soulfull's Adai, Raagi Dosa Mix And Raagi Flakes - A Product Review

 “One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast.” - Robert A Heinlein

Nothing can really make me skip a meal, specially breakfast, my post-walk ravenous tummy doubly ensures that! The South Indian breakfast staple dosa appears at least twice a week on the table. I, umm..OK..let me blurt it out again, I mostly buy my dosa batter...now please don't look at me like that!!  I have a very strange problem with my batter fermenting properly and I am too lazy to make my own batter in my mixer. I have not had great experiences with instant dosa mixes earlier, so when Soulfull sent me their dosa mixes and raagi flakes for a product review, I was looking forward to see how these would turn out. They currently have launched Instant rawa dosa mix, adai mix and raagi dosa which they claim is low fat and sodium as well.

Here is what Soulfull says

 Adai is traditionally made with a mix of lentils, rice, spices and red chillies which gives the dosa its characteristic reddish color. The lentils are soaked, ground with the spices. If you enjoy your dosas spicy, this protein rich dosa makes a great change from the regular ones. The mix took a little more water than the proportions mentioned on the pack, but it was quite tasty with a very predominant flavor of hing. The batter was easier to spread and made thinner crispier dosas hours after it was mixed. The kids enjoyed their evening snack with spoonfuls of onion-coconut chutney. Hubby doesn't relish adai, but for the kids and me,  Soulfull's gluten free ready mix of adai surely makes it to my grocery list!

 

Though considered to be good for infants and diabetics due to its rich fiber and nutrition content Raagi /finger millet / nachini, is a relatively less used grain. My daughter who at first frowned at the dark colored dosa, took a reluctant bite and then happily ate it with her chutney. A winner here! The peppery rawa dosa mix though was not a hit with us, so I may not buy it again.

The raagi flakes come in six flavors, chocolate, cocoa-lite, banana, strawberry and Tiramisu (interesting!). They little perfectly shaped flakes are crisp and claim to be 97% raagi. The flakes are just about sweet, which is a refreshing change from sweet cereals, perfect for the health conscious and diabetic people. The original flakes are not sweet, so will go well for savory snack ideas as well. Cocoa lite and banana have very mild cocoa and banana flavors. I like eating these flakes as a snack with fresh fruit and chilled milk..but my kids (being kids) did not take a liking to it...a more chocolaty version for them perhaps?

Summing up, even for the dosa made from scratch lovers, the dosa mixes are surely good and handy for those busy mornings or lazy brunch on a weekend. The flakes may appeal in some flavors to the adult palate rather than that of kids. Whole wheat flakes in good flavors perhaps? Yes, I think that would be great!

 Soulfull products are currently available at Brown Tree, Spar outlets, Food Hall and Natures Basket outlets in Bangalore. The products will shortly be available at  Total Mall, Food World & Nilgiris. Soulfull plans to also launch health mixes, muesli  and energy bars. Thanks Soulfull and look forward to more healthy and promising products from you!