Mango Bread-n-Butter Pudding

Although one day late , here I am as promised with the recipe for Mango Bread and Butter Pudding.The Mango flavour is just a twist on the classic Bread and Butter Pud which is a favourite in the UK. It's quick to prepare and delicious to taste. I made mine with Brioche rather than ordinary bread because I had some leftover Brioche, but ordinary white bread is fine too. Butter both sides of the bread slice if using plain bread. For Brioche you do not need to butter it as it already has a  lot of butter in it. As a variety Croissants can be used too .


Ingredients:
8 slices of Brioche/ or plain white bread
2 cups whole milk
3 eggs
handful of raisins
1 cup and a little more mango pulp (use canned or fresh) .If using fresh just blend the pulp to a smooth consistency  before using
2/3 tspns sugar (more if using plain bread)
2 tspns vanilla essense
Ground nutmeg to sprinkle on top (optional)


Method:
Preheat oven to 175deg C
Mix well together the milk ,eggs, sugar, vanilla, and mango pulp
Grease a baking dish and lay out the first layer of brioche slices. Sprinkle the raisins over the brioche.
Now lay out the second layer of brioche, and make sure all the raisins are covered under this layer, so they don't burn when you bake the pudding.
Pour the custard mixture over  the top now making sure to cover all the bread slices thoroughly.
Press down gently so the lower layer also soaks up the custard.
Bake for 25 to 30 mins or until the pudding is golden and puffed up.
Serve with fresh mango slices, warm custard, or  cream

ENJOY!!

P.S. For those of you who haven't yet read the round-up of Mango Moods just scroll down to the next post.

Mango Bread and Butter Pudding and Round-Up : Mango Moods

OK People ! Thanks a ton for being ever so patient while I was roudning -up all the gorgeous and lip-smacking  that were sent by you all to make Mango Moods a super duper success. We have 28 entries from 17 blogs and they are all just mind-blowing. So without much further delay here's presenting the Grand Mosaic of Mango Moods

I have lined up all the recipes below . Follow the pics row by row from left to right and you will find the corresponding recipe in the list below. My contribution to the event is at the very end of this post. Hope you like it. Thanks once again for your very enthusiastic response. Enjoy the Round up.

1.Eggless Mango Custard by Pavithra of Binge On Veg

2.Mango Mousse by Jayashree of Spice and Curry

3.Mango and Banana Bake from Guyana by Bala of  A Life Journey Together

4.Mango Puree Coconut Cream Panacotta by Lakshmi of Palate Desires

5.Mango Swiss Roll also by Lakshmi of Palate Desires

6.Paneer Burrito again by Lakshmi of Palate Desires

7.Coconut and Mango Agar Agar by Lakshmi again !! Yes from Palate Desires!!

8.Mango Chutney from Nayna of Simply. Food

9.Mango Bread by Rachana of Sizzle N Spice

10.Mambhazha Kuzhambu by Nithu of Nithu's Kitchen

11.Nuts and Fruits Dessert another yummy creation by Nithu from Nithu's Kitchen

12.Mango Dessert : A third delicious recipe by ...yes  Nithu again from her kitchen

13.Ripe Mango Chutney : The fourth fantastic dish by Nithu.... Looks like all the mangoes in the market are going to Nithu's Kitchen

14.And to top all that we have a Spicy Fruit Salad yet again from Nithu's Kitchen

15.A beautiful Mango Trifle by Cooking Foodie  from 365 Days of Eating

16.A spicy hot entry from Pranis Kitchen is her Kadu Mango Pickle

 

17.A very exotic Prawn with Mango Curry comes from Sudha of Malaysian Delicacies

18.Beat the heat with Lalaine's cool Chamango

19.Priya of Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes very proudly sends Aam ki Launji  

20.Sisters Harini and  Jaya of Tamalapaku have teamed up to send not one but three great
recipes : First one is Bisipinakaya (Rasa Gaya)

21.Next from them  is Mango Palak Carrot Chapati

 

22.Priya  from Priya's Easy and Tasty Recipes sends her Mango and Chocolate Chips Bread


23.The delectable Mango Muffins are from Neeta of Chatak Matak

24.And the third tasty dish from Harini and Jaya is Raw Mango Rice

25.Ayeesha sends her fabulous Mango and Cardammom Gateau from Taste of Pearl City


26.Divya of Divya's Kitchen has made a beautiful looking Mango Sesame Curry

27.The Mango Sesame Chutney is another creation again from Divya


28.Priya from Priya's Easy and Tasty Recipes has sent us Multi-grain Mango Scones which look and sound just absolutely gorgeous.

And now for my entry to the event. This must be the quickest pud I have ever made. And surprise surprise it turned out great. But recipe will be posted tomorrow. Promise!!  So keep watching this space.

If I have missed any entries do let me know as I am quite a scatter-brain about things like this and absolutely unorganised. 


Leaving you all for now. Will be back tomorrow.

Golden Honey-n-Oat Bars

Stepping out of the house and working definitely has it's benefits. I mean we all know the most obvious ones like earning your own money, being independent , developing yourself as an individual in the outside world etc etc. But the one thing I am most enjoying is getting to know my colleagues at work. I am learning so much everyday from each person that I work with, not only about work but so many other things as well. So I was thrilled to know that my colleague /friend A loves to bake. 'A' always gets the most delicious baked goodies for us to enjoy. Sometimes it's a freshly baked seeded bread , sometimes  a cheesecake or then the most delicious cherry cake I have ever had. Last week it was these Honey and Oat Bars that she made for us and to top it she even had copies of the recipe for us to take home and try out. So Sweet!!

Now you know me. Whenever I fancy a recipe I just have to make it at once even if that means tweaking the original recipe a bit because I do not have all the necessary ingredients at home. So I made these bars at home over the weekend. They turned out good, although the ones 'A' made were a lot better. The original recipe calls for soft brown sugar, I did not have any at hand so I used ordinary white sugar, instead of self-raising flour I used all purpose plain flour with a tspn of baking powder sifted along with it, and thirdly I did not have margarine, so I replaced that with butter. RESULT: Great tasting bars , just not as nicely chewy as her's. Mine turned out a bit biscuity. But nevertheless half of them have already been polished off. My son came home complaining as to why I had given him only one bar in his lunch box, and hubby had 3 of them for dessert after dinner. So it's safe to assume that the Honey-n-Oat Bars are a hit.

I have for you here the absolute original recipe . I would urge you to stick to the brown sugar even though I did not. This recipe makes about 20 bars
So here goes:


Ingredients :
3 cups rolled oats
1.5 cups self-raising flour
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup soft brown sugar
2 tblspns honey
1 cup margarine


Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients well together
In a pan melt the butter and add the honey to it
Mix the margarine and honey mixture well with the dry ingredients
Press the mixture into a greased baking tray and bake at 170deg C / 325deg F for 25 mins or till golden brown
Cut into bars while still warm and leave to cool in tin.


These are great with a cup of tea, or with a glass of milk for kids after coming back from school. They are also an interesting  travel snack or a  a lunch box treat

Coconut Strawberry Cupcakes

A  very BIG  HELLO to all of you after almost  a million years. Yes that's what it feels like to me today. Last post I put up was in October last year and after that I have kind of gone into a winter sleep where blogging is concerned. But that's only where blogging is concerned. A lots happened since then. The first break happened because my parents were here to visit us and ofcourse with them here obviously blogging was the last thing I could find time to do. They had a great stay and we did the touristy trips with them all over UK.


After they left I got a job. YES A JOB!!!! Isn't that great?  I now work in a Primary School as a Learning Support Assistant and I am happy with  my job. That's the second reason why I am not actively blogging. I am ofcourse cooking and entertaining but I now cook mostly in the evenings and my food pics taken in the evening are horrible. I have to also admit that many a times the food is eaten and polished off before I can photograph it. So no blog posts!


Then in Dec I went on my annual trip to India for 5 weeks. I spent the most fabulous 5 weeks there eating everything that I had missed in the last one and half year. It was  simply great being back in Pune and riding my Honda Activa and driving the Santro.  We had a blast and my son loved it. In his words "Aai INDIA ROCKS". What else did I need to hear.


But now I have been back since one month and things have fallen back into a routine with school and office and other activities and I am definitely back on the blogosphere.


A week back I baked these little cakes from a recipe from one of my most used books and that is The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking by Tarla Dalal.  Now in the book these cakes are called Madeleines, but I prefer to call them just "little cakes" as traditionally a Madeleine is a  shell shaped cake eaten at tea time and which is baked in special shell shaped moulds, so for me these are just small cakes or cup cakes which have a delicious coating of strawberry jam and dessicated coconut. These cakes come out beautifully each and every time and no matter how many I make they are never enough.


Note: These cakes need to be ideally baked in individual cup cake moulds, but I do not have those and baked them in a muffin tray which worked just fine


I have followed the recipe from the book word to word, and here it is for you.


Ingredients:

• 115 gms sugar
• 115 gms butter
• 2 medium eggs
• 115 gms self-raising flour
• 1/2 tspn lemon or vanilla essence (I used vanilla)
• 1/2 tea cup milk approx
• red jam (I used strawberry jam)
• dessicated coconut

Method:

• Sieve the flour
• Cream the butter and sugar very well  until light and creamy
• Beat the eggs well
• Add a little of the egg mixture to the butter and sugar and beat well. Gradually go on adding eggs beating well  all the time. If the mixture curdles, add a little flour ,mix well and then continue adding the eggs.
• Add the sieved flour and enough milk till the batter has a dropping consistency.
• Add the essence.
• Grease and dust your muffin tray or the cake moulds and fill upto 3/4 with the cake mixture.
• Bake at 400 deg F for around 20 mins.
• Cool the cakes
• Warm the jam and brush the cakes  with the melted jam.
• Roll the cakes in dessicated  coconut.

The cakes are now ready to eat. Try these they are simple to make and taste awesome

Fritatta

Fritatta is something I have always been fascinated with but never cooked. For that matter until a few days back I had not even tasted a fritatta. But somehow it just always managed to catch my attention from pictures in food magazines and food blogs and of course food shows on TV. On one of my shopping trips I even bought a oven proof pan particularly with the intention of making a fritatta. I just loved the idea of eating a big fat omellete filled with all kinds of delicious veggies, cheeses and mushrooms.

Well last week I was at the surgery (that's what a doctor's dispensary is called in UK) to see my GP . ( Reason for which was I had a nasty fall 2 weeks back and have been making quite a few trips to the doctor's for treatment on my leg which I hurt very badly.) So while I was sitting in the waiting area for my name to appear on the electronic display I was browsing through a magazine and once again my attention was drawn to a very yummy pic of fritatta. I memorised the ingredients and the method of cooking and decided there and then that I would make a fritatta before the end of the week and I did.

What's the verdict? Well all three of us loved it. Infact each of us could have done with one more helping but there wasn't any left. It was delicious , very filling and very easy and quick to make. Despite having bought a pan specially for that purpose I ended up using a oven proof Pyrex glass dish because as it turns out the pan is not big enough to cook a fritatta for three people. So what do i do with that pan now? Ohh I am sure I will find some use for it.

The ingredients for a Fritatta for 4 people are:

6 eggs

6/7 chestnut mushrooms (or any other)

1/2 a bellpepper (any colour of your choice)

approx 7 tblpns of grated cheddar

1 cup of finely chopped spinach,

8 to 10 leaves of fresh basil (chop these just before adding to the eggs)

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 200 deg C

In a bowl break the eggs and add all the other ingredients to it. From the cheese add only half of it and keep the rest for spreading on top. Season well with salt and pepper

Grease a oven proof glass dish and pour the mixture into it. Place in hot oven. It takes about 20 minutes to cook . After 20 minutes (or when the fritatta has begun to set) open the oven door, partially slide out the dish and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

Return the dish to the oven and cook further until the cheese melts and turns slightly golden.

Let it cool slightly before cutting it into triangular wedges. This dish can be eaten at breakfast, lunch or supper. It can even be carried on a picnic.

Try it ! You will love it!

Nankatai (Earthquake cookies ??)

I was asked a couple of days back by my son's teacher if I would like to come to school to celebrate Diwali Day. They were celebrating it a little after Diwali as the school had it's half term break exactly during the Diwali break. I was asked whether I would be interested in doing some cooking so that the children could have a taste of some Indian food. I was definitely interested and it really got me thinking as to what I could make. It had to be something that children found attractive , didn't take too much time to cook and had an Indian touch to it. Making Diwali snacks was totally out of question as we all know that most of the snacks that we prepare for Diwali are very very time consuming and also require concentration.

So I asked Google for advice and I also did some blog hopping but finally the idea came completely on it's own accord . " Nankatai": The delicious Indian cookie. I knew it was a great idea as it is quick to make does not require too many ingredients and as the school has a oven baking was no problem. I had also seen it being made on UKTV Food by a very talented Indian Celebrity chef and I thought if he can make such a simple dish on national television I could definitely present it in my son's school. But before I finalised it I had to take a trial at home . The quantity of each ingredient had to be determined and how many cookies would I make in one batch. And so I did. I followed a recipe from here with a few changes here and there of my own.

Ingredients:
1 cup maida (plain flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter)
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 tsps chopped almonds

1 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 tsp saffron soak in 1 tbsp hot water

Method:
Seive flour and baking powder together. Mix ghee and sugar till creamy. Add the flour mixture,the saffron and cardomom . Knead well and make into small balls. Flatten and place on lined tray. Dip a fingertip in water and dab on the centre of each ball of dough. Bake in oven till cooked for about 20-25 mins at 375 deg.

Now what actually happened is that after I made these ,tasted them and passed a satisfactory verdict on them I spoke to a friend about them . She was of the opinion that although Nankatai was a great recipe to make as such , all said and done it was a biscuit; a biscuit that tasted very similar to Scottish Shortbread which most children in UK have eaten thousands of times. So would it not be better to do something else a bit more Indian.

She suggested Instant Dhokla and I came up with the idea of Amrakhand. And these are to the 2 dishes that finally made it to the school Diwali celebrations. I hung 1 kilo of Greek Style yoghurt overnight . In the morning I mixed in sugar and cardammom in it. After putting it in a plastic container it was ready to carry to the school. Along with I took along a can of Alphonso mango pulp so that the children could mix the pulp and the yoghurt themselves and make their own Amrakhand

I also took a pack of Gits Dhokla mix and my idli stand to the school. Within minutes of arriving at the cooking area I had the first batch of idli shaped Dhoklas ready . I offered the children the choice of topping their Dhoklas with fresh coriander and coconut and a tempering of mustard but most of them were happy just munching on the plain Dhoklas. A few even asked for seconds and I was so thrilled.

The Amrakhand idea was also a complete hit. The kids loved mixing mango with yogurt and polished off all the Amrakhand from their little cups before asking for seconds and also thirds. You can imagine how nice it felt . The teachers were also very happy with the way things went and they too got a sampling of the Dhokla which they loved.

So in the process of deciding what to cook at school I discovered how easy it was to cook Nankatais. Why do I call them Earthquake cookies? Well in the evening when my husband saw them and the huge cracks on them he asked me if there had been an earthquake after I made them. Ha ha ha!!!

Simply Delicous Eggless Semolina Cake

I have for a long time now been on the lookout for a good recipe for eggless cake and there are a quite a few on the net. Some advise the use of extra baking soda and some instruct you to use sparkling soda water. I even went looking for those egg replacement substitutes in my food store but could not get my hands on any. So I tried my hand at one recipe which had a substantial amount of soda-bi-carb in it. What happened was initially the cake rose beautifully but a few minutes after I had removed iy from the oven it fell flat. So flat that it got a stodgy texture and was simply impossible to eat. Even my 6 year old son who normally eats anything sweet quite happily refused to accept this one. So I gave up on it for some time.

Some days back though when I was planning the menu for a tea time get together for my friends I recollected this awesome eggless semolina cake that my aaji (granny) used to make in a non-stick pan when I was a child. At that time the concept that my aaji could make any kind of cake was itself very amusing to me . I mean I come from a middle class marathi family where cake baking was done only by a few moms in those days so something like that done being done by a grand mom was simply unheard of.

Now to come back to the cake , I remember I loved it and always ended up eating quite a lot of it. So I called my mom in Pune and asked her about it. She said that the recipe was in some old marathi cookbook and she would look it up for me. And so she did .

It's my habit now to try out a certain dish in a small quantity first before cooking it in a larger quantity for entertaining. That's what I did with this one as well and the end result was so good that this recipe has gone into my lists of personal favourites forever. Thanks to you Aaji!!
The only hitch here is that the cake is made with semolina and not flour so it has a grainier texture than an ordinary cake. But believe me it tastes awesome. So do try it out.

Recipe:
1.5 cups semolina,
1 cup milk,
1 cup plain natural yogurt,
1/2 cup butter,
1.5 cups sugar,
1 tspn baking soda,
1 tspn vanilla essence or almond essence (almond essence is lovely),
3 to 4 tblspns of sliced almonds for sprinkling on top (optional),
a pinch of salt

Method:
1. Mix the sugar and yogurt thoroughly so that the sugar completely dissolves,
2. Then add all the other ingredients to the yogurt. Now let this batter stand for an hour. Keep it covered . This enables the semolina to soften completely before baking.
3. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 200deg C and grease and line a baking tray with baking paper.
4. After one hour pour the batter into the prepared tray and sprinkle the sliced almonds all over the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until it is golden in colour and a cocktail stick inserted comes out clean . Wait for it to cool before slicing it. If it does not easily come off the tray do not force it out but slice it in the tray itself and remove the slices carefully with a broad knife or a fish slice.

It's a great after school snack or even a lunch box treat for kids. Store it in the fridge after a day and warm it in the microwave for a few seconds every time you serve it. Tastes even better after a day or two.

By the way I did not make this for my last tea party as I was not feeling too well ,but it's a must make next time I have my friends over.

Golden Orange Cake (Delights of Blogging)

Every now and then while surfing the blogosphere a recipe comes up that catches my fancy to such an extent that I cannot wait to try it out. I am very very impatient to try it out and feel good only after I have made it , tasted it and passed my verdict on it. In my rush to create the new dish I sometimes also oversee the fact that I do not have one or two of the ingredients mentioned in the original recipe. I convince myself that I can substitute something with something else that is available at home at that time. Well what happens is that sometimes my substitutes work and sometimes they are a real flop. But thankfully this time my efforts were rewarded beautifully.

The recipe that caught my fancy this time was Orange Cake from Meeta's What for Lunch Honey. As usual Meeta's photograph of her cake was so enticing that I could practically taste the cake in my mouth just by looking at the pic and secondly the recipe was so simple that even a clumsy baker like me could not have gone wrong . Now the only hitch was I did not have any pudding powder that was in the recipe. Ideally I should have waited for my next trip to the stores and bought some. But no!! I wanted to make that cake on that day itself. So I substituted that pudding powder with cornflour. Thankfully nothing went wrong and I baked the most delicious ,aromatic and soft fluffy cake ever. I also reduced the amount of baking powder.

Meeta's cake has a beautiful orange glaze over it . I kept mine plain as hubby loves plain cakes. But I am going to try the glaze the next time I make it. Her pics are too tempting.

Ingredients:
250g all-purpose flour ,
2.5 teaspoons baking powder,
40g cornflour,
340g sugar,
3 eggs,
80g oft butter - cut in pieces,
2 teaspoons orange zest ,
250ml orange juice

1.Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees C.

2.Prepare a cake tin by greasing and lining it with baking paper. I used a square one as that's the one I had.
3.Sift flour, baking powder and the pudding powder into a large mixing bowl.

4.Add the eggs, sugar, butter, orange zest and juice to the dry ingredients and whisk into a smooth thick mixture. I did it by hand but do it with a electric cake mixer if you have one.
5.Pour the cake mixture into the cake form, even out with a rubber spatula and bake approx. 40 to 45 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick or knife is inserted in the middle of the cake and it comes out clean.
6.Take out of the oven and allow to cool a little in the mold itself. Run a knife along the sides of the cake and tip out . Peel off the baking paper.

By now I was dying to taste it and cut my self a large slice to gobble down. Hmmm!! I was in heaven.

Thanks Meeta for this fab recipe .