Fruit Custard

            

Hello Fellas........Summers have arrived in almost every part of India which brings summer vacations too. As the kids are home they always ask for some sweet treats, isn't it?  As a mother how many times a day we can give chocolates, brownies or other sweet things to our kids, that always remains a challenge!

We always want to feed healthy to our family. If we can fulfill our family's craving and that too in a healthy manner then nothing can make us more contented. In order to gratify the dessert craving of your kids, make them a healthy Mixed Fruit Custard. 

Usually, the custard is a cooked mixture of milk/cream and egg yolk; its consistency can vary from thin pouring sauce to thick pastry cream. The cooking option also varies. But, the method I have used here is very easy and crowd-pleasing too. Moreover, it's eggless. This recipe of Custard will not only satisfy the dessert craving but it is loaded with the nutrients of milk, fruits, and dry fruits. You can add or subtract any fruit as per your or your family's liking.

Mixed Fruit Custard is a very old school recipe. We have grown up eating this Custard along with other desserts made by our mom during the summer vacation or any other occasion. The Custard is usually made by mixing the fruits with the custard sauce along with some dry fruits. This is sometimes known as Fruit Salad with Custard.

Few things to keep in mind while making this custard is that:

• Reduce the milk to half or make use of whole milk (if available). This enhances the richness of the custard.
• Add fruits once the custard is completely cooled down otherwise the custard will not get thickened.
• Strain the custard through a strainer to get a silky smooth texture  

So, without any further ado let's indulge ourselves in this scrumptious dessert:

Mini Cheesecakes (Cheesecakes with Strawberry)

             

Cheesecakes.......We all love Cheesecakes, isn’t it? We always enjoy the soft, creamy and melt in mouth texture of the Cheesecakes. But at the same time they add lot of calories to our body; this is the reason why many of us can't enjoy or even have a guilt factor back in our mind which restricts us from enjoying these beauties. 

So, I decided to cheat these Cheesecakes by removing "Cheese" from it. Yes, you heard it right: "A Cheesecake Without Cream Cheese". It not only helps you to get rid of that "guilt" but it does full justice to the taste of an original Cheesecake.

I have already shared the recipe of Skinny Mango Cheesecake. You can check out the recipe here (click here).

Try out this recipe and come back to thank me later on. I know you'll love this recipe. So, without wasting anymore time let's begin with the recipe.

Veg Manchurian

We both love Chinese food but we all know that Chinese cuisine varies according to the geographical regions. India has its own variety of Chinese cuisine known as Indo-Chinese. I have already posted a recipe from this cuisine: Chilli Chicken. You can have a look.

Few days back my Sister-In-Law came to our place with her cute kids. The kiddos asked me to make something from my blog (they consider my blog as their menu card :)) 
The younger one requested me to make Chilli Chicken but the elder one wouldn't like Chicken that much so I thought of making Veg Manchurian for her and Chilli Chicken for the younger. That way both were happy :)

Veg Manchurian is a very popular Indo-Chinese dish and a complete party pleaser. It can be served as an appetizer or as main course with fried rice. The veg balls or fritters are made up of chopped vegetables and then dipped in the sauce. It can be made in two ways: with or without gravy. We like the later one which is also known as Dry Veg Manchurian. (If you want the gravy version add vegetable broth to the sauce)

For the sauce I haven't used Ajinomoto as it has adverse effects on health so you can enjoy yummy Veg Manchurian without giving any second thought. So, here's the recipe:

Mango Ice Cream

Yes, you might be thinking that I have gone crazy. The season of Mangoes and Ice-creams has not been arrived yet or I must say we are just a few weeks away to indulge ourselves in the sweetness of mangoes and the rich, creamy goodness of Ice-creams.

To be very frank I am a die hard fan of Ice-creams and can enjoy it even in the subzero temperatures and when its Mango flavored I can't resist myself to have a scoop of it. Moreover who doesn't love mangoes after all it's the King of all fruits.

Recently, I found a can of mango puree in a departmental store and as usual I couldn't stop myself from buying it without a second thought. I was walking through the aisles and thinking what to do with this puree. Suddenly I turned and saw an aisle of ice-creams. Yippee!!! I got it. I decided to treat my family and of course myself with Mango Ice-cream.

Whenever we think of making ice-cream at home two thoughts comes in our mind successively:

• Will it be smooth, creamy, rich and soft like store bought?
• Is it possible to make ice-cream without an Ice-cream maker?

Well, the answer to all your questions is "Yes, Of course!" . It's just a pleasure when your ice-cream scooper glides through the ice-cream without encountering any ice crystals and yet you get a nice and perfect scoop. Moreover it requires very few ingredients and no cooking or churning. Just mix all the ingredients together and set it in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours. 

So let's dig into the divine flavors of Mango Ice-cream:

Raspberry Pannacotta......A perfect dessert for your Valentine

Love is in the air as Valentine's Day is here. We all know this day is celebrated as the day of love and romance all over the world. Being a foodie the best way to celebrate this special day is making something special for the love of my life. So, I decided to make one of my all time favorite desserts - "Raspberry Pannacotta".

Pannacotta is an Italian dessert which means cooked cream. Traditionally it is made from milk, cream, sugar and gelatin. It is generally served chilled and topped with chocolate, caramel sauce or fruits of your choice. You can enjoy this dessert as it is just spoon up and indulge yourself in it's silky smooth texture.

These days we can easily find gelatin in our local grocery stores unlike earlier; people would use egg-whites instead. So, if you are not in favor of using gelatin you can always replace gelatin with egg whites but in that case you need to bake it. Having gelatin in your pantry makes your life easy and you can make really gorgeous looking desserts instantly.

I used Raspberry but you can always use fruit of your choice or replace it with chocolate the options are endless! So let's begin with the recipe:

Palmiers.......Cute Little Hearts Cookies

Palmiers is a French Pastry which is also known as Elephant Ears or Angel Wings because of its shape. It is extremely light, flaky, caramely and buttery. Each time I bake Palmiers, I just fell amazed that how effortless and painless its recipe is. It's a perfect snack to munch on when you want something to eat during those odd hours of the day. 

These cookies are made up of puff pastry which is a dough wrapped around butter so the butter gets completely enclosed within the dough which is then rolled and folded over to double the number of layers and then the whole process is repeated. The number of times you repeat this process the more flaky your pastry will become. But making puff pastry at home is a very time consuming process and needs a lot of elbow greasing. Thanks to the frozen puff pastry sheets available at the supermarkets these days.

Making Palmiers at home becomes super easy if we have frozen puff pastry sheets in our freezer. You just need to thaw them, roll them, sprinkle granulated sugar and bake them. Ta-dah you're done! I know it's very difficult to resist until they cool down. I myself can't stay away from them for long. 

So let's get started:

Skinny Mango Cheesecake.........A Cheesecake Without Cheese

By now you all know that I have a ginormous sweet tooth. My dinner is not complete unless I have a bowl of anything sweet. But whenever I eat anything sweet I always get a guilt feeling that how much calories its been adding up! This feeling turns me upside down and muddle up the state of bliss.

There was a time when we would gobble up everything without even giving a second thought. That was the time we never thought how would we look like in our profile pic. Well, time changes so do our thoughts. 

I'm a huge fans of Cheesecakes, aren't you? But we all know that cheesecake adds a lot of calories in your waistline.......Sigh :(. So, I decided to cheat these "Caloricious Cheesecakes" without any "Cheese" content in it. Yes, you heard it right: "A Cheesecake Without Cream Cheese". It not only helps you to get rid of that "guilt" but it does full justice to the taste of an original Cheesecake. Isn't that great!

This recipe is very easy and requires very few ingredients. It is also a party pleaser which can be prepared in advance. So let's dig into this recipe of making my version of "Skinny Mango Cheesecakes":

Nankhatai....Cardamom Flavored Eggless Cookies

Holiday Season is here.......I just love this time of the year when you can see decorations everywhere. Everything is in the festive mood. Everything becomes bright colored and sparkling. You can see decorations and fairy lights all around. Even if you don't celebrate this festive season its very hard not to get enticed from these lights and decorations.

A light breeze of cold air, foggy mornings, warmth of the woolen clothes, fragrance of hot coffee are the things which we can enjoy at this time of the year. 

Baking is my way of celebrating festive season. The aroma of freshly baked cookies and cakes embarks holidays. This time I was very eager to bake a very basic cardamom flavored cookie which is also known as "Nankhatai" in India.

These cookies are very simple to make and require very few ingredients which we always have at our home. So, whenever you crave for some homemade cookies try them out. I can assure once you make and store it you can't keep yourself away from these goodies.

Here's the recipe:

Garlic Naan......Garlic Flavored Yeast Free Indian Flat Bread

Naan.......A flat Indian Bread which doesn't need much introduction. It is appreciated all over the world. A meal in an Indian restaurant is incomplete without having "Naan" in it. A Naan is an oval-shaped, soft, pillow-like bread which is brushed with butter and pairs well with every Veg and Non-Veg curries . 

Traditionally, Naans are prepared in Tandoor (Clay Oven) on extremely high temperature. Since I don't have that kind of oven I make it in my conventional oven. It can also be made on a stove-top or skillet. There are many variations of Naan. You can flavor it with whatever herb you want and stuff it with your choice of vegetable or meat.  

I always thought making Naan at home is impossible. The texture and taste we get in the restaurant is impossible to replicate. But then one fine day I made "Paneer Makhani" and was thinking it would taste great with "Garlic Naan". It was then I experimented with the recipe of Naan and was quite amazed with the result. 

So let's dig deep into the recipe:

Eggless Mango Mousse....No Cook No Bake Mango Mousse

Mango Mousse.......Yes, I know this is not the season of Mangoes but last week when I went out for grocery I saw a can of mango puree which caught my attention. Immediately, chain of "Dessert-full" thoughts ran through my mind because when it comes to Dessert my imaginations get wings and they fly randomly. I have a sweet tooth so does every Bengali and I love to try desserts from every cuisine.

These days fruits and vegetables don't have any season constraints. We can get all our favorite fruits and vegetables all year round but mangoes. We can get them in puree form tough and enjoy its taste throughout the year.

Mango is considered as the king of all fruits and it deserves too. It is also known as national fruit of India where summers are incomplete without them. 

There are endless recipes made from mangoes starting from pickles to sweets. The recipe I am going to share today is Eggless Mango Mousse. It's hassle free and requires very few ingredients.  A Mousse may be sweet or savory. Dessert Mousses are typically made from whipped egg whites or whipped cream and flavored with chocolate or fruit puree. I used Mangoes but you can use any fruit of your choice.