Beat the Heat Series ~ Summer Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

Fresh cooling foods with minimum time spent in the kitchen, preferably fresh fruit and vegetables are my choice for this scorching summer. I made this salad on the spur of the moment, throwing in all the stuff i had in the vegetable tray and excited about finally getting myself a bottle of balsamic vinegar. It was light and so refreshing, the flavours and textures of the different fruit and vegetables giving the salad so many layers… it was a chilled treat.

Summer Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Dressing (serves 2)

Dressing

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

whisk all of the above together till the sugar dissolves and set aside

8 sections of sweet lime, peeled and seeds removed

1/2 cup chopped green apple

1 large red tomato chopped

1 cup cucumber, peeled and chopped

10-12 yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup beetroot, boiled, skinned and chopped

8-10 strawberries, quartered

6-8 basil leaves, torn to small bits

10-12 mint leaves torn to small bits

Take all of the above in a large bowl and toss together. Chill in the refrigerator for atleast 20-30 minutes. Before serving, pour the dressing on top and toss it all up. Serve chilled.

Beat the Heat Series ~ Strawberry Lassi

Its all Valli’s fault…there she posted a status on fb asking what everyone’s favourite lassi (yogurt drink) was….and i replied with an choice between Rooh Afza and strawberries… i just couldnt concentrate on my work after that cos i kept thinking of the boxes of frozen strawberries i had in the freezer…. around 3 p.m, unable to take it anymore and taking solace in the fact that i needed this somehow to think clearly on a hot summer afternoon, i was slurping on a glass of thick delicious strawberry lassi to die for…. make it and see how addicted you can get….

Valli’s having a summer fest with cold treats for the season…sending off this lassi there~

Strawberry Lassi (serves 2)

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries, hulled, washed and chopped roughly

1 cup ice cubes

1 cup plain yogurt ( i used home made 3% fat, but anything will do)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

2-3 tablespoons sugar (optional, i didnt use it, depending on how tart the strawberries are)

take all of the ingredients in a blender jar and whizz for 1 minute in short bursts till everything is well blended and you get a thick frothy lassi. check for sugar and adjust bu adding if needed. if too thick, add 1/4 cup of cold water. Pour into glasses and serve immediately.

Eggless Banana Strawberry Icecream

A few days ago, i had to take Amma to finish some random errands, bank, pension, etc which was going to eat up the whole day. Since i live in the new part of town, and we had to drive almost 35kms to get all of this done, we also planned to drop in and visit anyone she  needed to visit and who is on that route to minimise travelling again.

We drove through the older part of Hyderabad, where I grew up and went to school and college, the house I grew up in….congested, crazy and ‘gone to the dogs’ with chaos….. the memories that came flooding back….. i saw my old school….. the place i used to go for tuitions, the market we went to pick up fruit and vegetables…..some of the old houses, still there, jostling for space with the swanky new Barista and Dominos pizza place….

Hitech City, where i live, has its own character…. gargantuan buildings of glass and steel, new buildings choc a block with the old ones which were part of the colonies that used to be considered the outskirts of what was then the city limits…. we have more organised traffic, better laid out colonies and yet, sometimes i feel i don’t live in Hyderabad…. i’ve written about this before too….

As we ticked off one task after another and were driving back home, we passed by this whole street full of fruit….i couldn’t resist stopping to pick some up…. 5 small boxes of strawberries, chickoos, oranges….each one chosen with care. i now don’t haggle with roadside vendors cos i pay much much more in the stores i usually buy from….

Amma like me, cannot resist vegetable and fruit buying and was happy with the purchases, yet said we’d picked two highly perishables…the strawberries and chickoos…and so the next day, she set up shop to wash, hull and chop the strawberries to be frozen so i could have some breathing space while i decided how i wanted to use them….

The chickoos didn’t last long and were the first to go…. the strawberries, went into one of my favourite Baskin Robbins flavour… strawberry banana icecream which i have made many times before, but its never made it to the blog because it doesn’t last to be photographed……..this too was the last two scoops!!

All through the summer, i am planning to crib less about the heat, and make use of all the fruit that surrounds us… melons, mangoes, chickoos and oranges… am going to try my hand at sorbets and icecreams and frozen yogurt…..

Strawberry and Banana Icecream (eggless)

200 ml fresh cream (i used 25% fat)

1 cup milk (i used 3%)

1 large banana / 1 cup banana, peeled and sliced

1 cup hulled and chopped strawberries

2/3 cup granulated sugar (adjust according to sweet quotient)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch of salt

½ teaspoon strawberry essence (optional)

1 tablespoon vodka (optional, helps set the ice cream better)

In a microwave safe bowl, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar over the sliced banana and add the lemon juice and cook on high for 2 mins. Add the strawberries, mix and cook for 1 min. Remove and cool.

In the blender jar of a mixie, add all the ingredients including the cooked fruit and whizz for 1 minute or till everything becomes like a really thick milkshake.

Pour it in a plastic jar with a wide mouth and tight fitting lid and set in the freezer. Check 4-5 times after every hour and whisk with a fork or an immersion blender to remove icicles. After the last time of whisking, leave to set about 1-2 hrs before serving. Since there are no artificial stabilizers in this ice cream, icicles tend to form if stored for longer periods of time.

Serve plain or with strawberry sauce (recipe below)

strawberry sauce:

1/2 cup chopped strawberries

2-3 tablespoons sugar

2-3 tablespoons water

Mix everything together in a heavy bottom pan, bring to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes till it becomes thick. Cool and serve with icecream. Keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Eggless Wholewheat Banana Choco Chunk Bread

Yeah that title’s quite a mouthful and well worth it too.

Like most others, we end up with a couple of bananas outliving their firm and blemishless skin. Earlier they would land up in the trash can, who wants to deal with the overripe smell of blackened shrivelling bananas in the house. But ever since i realised i could freeze them discreetly and use them straight from the  freezer, i have baked with them happily. This banana loaf too was one such. The original recipe won me over with the lovely brown colour of the loaf, and although it didn’t call for choco chips, i just added them. I know chocolate and banana is a classic combo, but lets just say i’ve arrived rather late at the party!!

I am not very adventurous yet when it comes to baking and i would rather follow a recipe than end up with time and energy (of the appliances too) wasted. This recipe called for eggs, i substituted that with 4 tablespoons of plain homemade yogurt. So you could choose whichever version you want. The slivered almonds were an addition i made in vain. I had them on hand and need to use them before they turn rancid, but K painstakingly picked them out of the cake before he ate it!

The original recipe is adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s “A Homemade Life” and calls for browned butter, in my case that would just be melted ghee that i had at home. The second time i made this (oh yeah its now a favourite and i have made it several times) i just used vegetable oil and trust me, there’s hardly any difference that you will notice.

Its a day late, but you started the trend and now how can i not reciprocate? dear dear friend, name sake and sharer of too many kumbh ka mela type of similarities, Happy Happy birthday and wishing you the best that life has to offer always! and also to my friends S and R who together complete a decade together, with one great creation of A and another very special one to complete your lives….Happy Anniversary and Many more wonderful years together…

the cake tin is courtesy a gift thoughtfully given and carried all the way from the US by P, my friend from school. when she found i was writing this blog, she wrote to me and said she wanted to bring me something that i could use for my cooking / baking. i chose a baking set. her hubby works for this company and she refused to allow me to pay for it. this is my small way of saying thanks….i’ve had it for many months now and am excited each time i use it… thanks babe!!

Brown Butter Banana Bread
the recipe below is my version of the one posted on Amateur Gourmet

Ingredients:

6 Tbs (3 oz.) melted ghee or refined vegetable oil
2 cups Whole wheat atta/ flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon candied ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 Tblsp plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (from about 3 large ripe bananas)
1/4 cup well-stirred buttermilk

¼ cup slivered almonds

½ cup of dark chocolate chopped into small chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brown Butter: If you are using browned butter, put butter in a skillet or a small pot and melt it on a relatively low heat. Swirl that pot or pan around as it goes and it’ll foam up and it’ll start browning. When the butter turns a lovely shade of brown, take it off the heat immediately and let cool.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan (9 X 5 inches) with cooking spray or butter.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, the sugar, the baking soda, the salt, the ginger and the cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, beat the yogurt with a fork; then add the mashed banana, the buttermilk, the cooled brown butter, and vanilla and stir to mix well.

Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir gently with a rubber spatula until it’s just combined (don’t overmix).

Scrape it into the baking pan and smooth the top with the spatula and bake about 50 mins to 1 hr. Testing till a skewer comes out clean

…and bake it in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until a tester comes out pretty clean. (Mine took more than an hour, actually, and still wasn’t fully clean when tested, but I stopped so the ends didn’t dry out.)

Cool the loaf in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes then tip out on to the rack and, as Molly says, “let it cool completely before slicing–unless you absolutely can’t help yourself, in which case, dig in.”

Salad Days….Pomelo Salad

Amma’s stay with me has almost come to an end. She will return to base on sunday. for once i am not jealous, because the call of the grand daughter is much stronger than mine! Rachel, someday i hope you will fully acknowledge that your Daadi is cuckoo for you dearie…. all she can talk of is you and of you….and that’s something that amuses and (ok i will admit) tires me too sometimes! i guess the joy of having a grandchild is something only a grandparent knows and i hope it is vice versa. i grew up not having or knowing my grandparents. the only memory i have, is of my paternal grand mother and distant and cantankerous are the words which described her the best….

anyways… i digress… what has any of this got to do with a salad? when amma came here 10 days ago, she brought with her a large citrus fruit called pomelo. it is the largest citrus fruits available. She didn’t quite know how we’d use it but brought it in her baggage anyways. the really thick and fleshy rind was peeled away to reveal a soft pink coloured flesh. it was quite tart and had a slight bitterness as an aftertaste and i wondered if i could make marmalade out of it. One of the easiest ways i find to use sweet limes/ oranges etc which are too tart to be eaten as fruit, is to add them to a salad and that’s what i did with a few sections of the pomelo. i still have half of the fruit sitting in the fridge. For now, i leave you with this refreshingly crunchy salad.

Pomelo Salad (serves 3)

All the vegetables I used were chilled before chopping

2/3 cup cubed red and yellow capsicum

2/3 cup peeled, deseeded and diced cucumber

2/3 cup halved cherry tomatoes (use any other tomato on hand)

1/2 cup pomelo segments, seperated

for the dressing

2 Tblsp extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbslp fresh lemon / lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

2-3 Tblsp finely chopped coriander

Method

In a large bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Add all the vegetables for the salad and toss well till the chunks are well coated. Serve immediately.

Jamming around……….Star Anise Jams with Peaches and Plums

so this is part three of the posts on jams that have made their way into my kitchen……….all within a span of a few weeks…but have taken me a long time to post…..

Aunty E who you all read about here was operated upon for at cataract and I went to see her…she is doing well and recovering and the doctor was delighted that she cooperated so well…..she lives quite far from where I do, and so it was quite a trek…but so worth it!!

On my way back home, I picked up some peaches and cherries…I had no idea what I would do with them….because most fruit is eaten as it is at my place, and very little is done with the fruit….we demolished the whole box of cherries in a couple of days and k didn’t quite know how to handle the peaches……amma used to poach them in a sugar syrup mildly spiced with cinnamon and cloves and I pondered over that….but we as kids had it with fresh cream or custard…..now that is an indulgence I cannot afford……also, it was obvious that the peaches made a long and arduous journey to actually get to me, so while some of them were seriously in need of some life support, a few others were still a bit unripe….and so I decided to make an easy jam / preserve of the peaches……..

I’d read a column/ book by Karen Anand book some time ago where she advises that cut fruit sprinkled with sugar and left overnight in the fridge gave better flavour to the jam / preserve…..since I had a lot on my hands the day I skinned and chopped the peaches, this suited me just fine…..only I left it in the fridge for two days amidst bouts of panic that they would perish!! I added 1 cup of chopped plums to the 4 cups of peaches and made this entirely in the microwave….though it took longer than the time it was supposed to take, it was totally fuss free and the only aberration was that some of the syrup fell onto the plate inside the microwave oven, which had to be washed clean…….the jam is pretty awesome……even if i say so myself!! With the small chunks of fruit still intact….the colour is glorious and I am so happy to be eating a non commercial variety of jam…… btw, k and I aren’t really hot on jam…so I have no idea what I am going to do with a bottle full of this stuff…..maybe try some as a dessert topping or in baking etc……

this is my entry to sunitha’s Think spice event which turns one….no guessing that Star Anise is my absolutely favourite spice!!

Jamming around…..Plum Jam

Jam for me is a trip down memory lane……my mother’s annual plum jam was a much awaited event….she’d spend a total of three days each year…sourcing the best plums, washing and drying them, sorting, slicing and finally cooking them to the ribbon stage….. bottling it up and then presenting a bottle to anyone who evinced interest….

at least that’s how I think it started…..because for as long as I remember, there was always a pretty long recipients list…….I am not a very jam friendly person…..and as a totally confused kid, thought it was way better to eat store bought jam…..I couldn’t understand why amma couldn’t make hers as smooth or sweet as what kissan made…..neither could I understand why she insisted on keeping some of it pulpy…..I remember mostly reacting to amma’s jam with a “yuck”…….funny….. because now I can give an arm and a leg for it……life has a way of reminding you how silly you were…..but mostly I am grateful for it!! I still am not big on jams…..I prefer it with pancakes, on desserts or simply mixed into some yogurt to satiate the sweet tooth…..

This was a labour of love that my mother indulged in once a year…..and regardless of how much people praised her and the result, and asked her to go commercial, she would say that all she wanted to do was make her signature plum jam once a year for her kids and she was satisfied…..for the last few years, due to various reasons the jam wasn’t being made, and tho I am not huge on jams and preserves, I was missing amma’s jam….so this year I decided to make some of it for myself….and between several panic stricken phone calls and extreme “I am missing you mommy”, I managed to make the jam….

Plums come from the prune family and infact dried plums are prunes…they are high in antioxidants and their sweet juicy flesh is used traditionally to make jams, juices, wine making and brandy……to read more on this, go here…..

I realized that jam making is a game of patience….firstly was the quest to buy jam worthy plums….. after searching in a couple of places….(my mother always went to the wholesale fruit market….. I took the easier / closer way out) I went to the neighborhood fruit shop and asked the “chacha” there to get me 5 kgs of jam worthy fruit…..why did I want 5 kgs? I don’t know…my mother always made it with that much…..plus we ate into it anyways………i told him why I wanted it and specified that I wanted ones that are firm and even in colour…..

the plums arrived a couple of days later and I washed them in a plastic bucket, with salt in three changes of water….laid them out to “air dry” on a thick towel on the kitchen counter for about 3-4 hours……all this while, k and I ate about 1-1½ kgs of it…..plums are sweet and tart at the same time….and the juicy insides do not allow you to stop at a few…..most of them have a whitish waxy coat and after they were dry I wiped them with a clean soft cloth…..they can be stored without refrigeration for a couple of days, but ensure they are a little under ripe if you plan to do this….

next comes the slicing of the fruit, removal and collection of the seeds and the cooking……….and however strongly you feel about hastening the cooking process, do resist it…..i didn’t have a vessel large enough for all the fruit to fit in the microwave, and it wouldn’t be authentic amma style….so I stuck to her stove top method…..4 hours of cooking on a low flame, and I am rewarded with the most beautiful dark ruby wine like coloured jam……..

 

the whole time, i went up and down the roller coaster, of emotions, panic and happiness at the end product ( I told you I love melodrama)……amma is delighted that I chose to attempt this one…and tho in the future I won’t be making such large quantities……i just hope I will continue to make jam….it was like meditation for me this one!!

this is my second entry to WYF: colour in food, mine is ruby red…what’s yours??

this is also off to Roma’s Long live the shelf event

Jamming Around – Quick Mango Jam

This was intended to be the last part of a three part jam making story….but a bad case of the flu and an even worse case of laziness meant that i have to post this today to make it to MBP – Fruit Fare, hosted by Aparna of the very Diverse Kitchen…..MBP is the ideation of coffee, the hostess of the Spice Cafe

this is also my entry to WYF: Colour in food hosted by Easy Crafts of Simple Indian Food

I made this jam many weeks ago when mangoes were still available, but i reckon it can be made with any other fruit as well……the whole process is so quick that all those stories about cooking the jam for hours and hours whilst stirring continuously will seem like folklore…..

I made this from nandita’s recipe for instant Mango jam….and followed the recipe to the T but doubled the quantity, makes for a lovely dessert topping as well….the colors arent as intense as her jam pics, but that’s possibly because i used benishan (banaganapalli) mangoes………..since this has no preservative of any kind, it will need to be refrigerated and consumed within 3-4 days

WBB#22 – May Mango Madness – the Roundup is finally here!

The good doctor quizzed me on my interest in hosting WBB for may sometime in April….nothing in the chat transcript told her how much at sea I was and that I was terrified….then we both forgot about it…..or so I thought….april came and went and at the beginning of may, came april’s round up……mid afternoon bolt from the blue sms from my namesake asked me where my announcement was…..have you ever broken into a cold sweat?? I did….i know you must be thinking I am crazy….but food blogging did this to me….convinced that I was better off making anonymous comments on blogs and wondering why the hell I agreed to this……I posted the announcement…..choosing (unimaginatively because they were assaulting my senses at that time) Mangoes…..and waited with bated breath!!

In the meanwhile I went about harassing all my blogger friends, via email and chat….and made quite a job of it!! the last four weeks have been hectic…for anyone who’s been reading my blog…..K’s part of the family has been here and we were travelling…. Not to mention that the laptop decided to go kaput and then the broadband at home went on vacation….when everything settled into a not so dramatic mode……I didn’t have the time in life to do anything about the roundup…..and I have tried today to remedy it!!

breakfast being the first to go at the sacrificial altar of time…..that too with mangoes to be incorporated into it…..most of the people I know, including yours truly do nothing more than gobble them up as they are….thats the thing with mangoes…they seduce you with their flesh and leave you so impatient that you just want to grab them………

i was delighted with the entries for mango madness…..raw and ripe, they tickled the palette and made for some interesting breakfast treats……here they are….many many thanks to all those who sent in their creations……please let me know if any entry sent hasn’t been posted here…….cheers!! and what a delightful madness it has been!!

So here it is…….i’ve tried to categorise as best as i could……….

Sowmya of Creative Saga, discovers alphonsos with a vengeance……after being pretty neutral about the fruit for years…..she whips up this tangy mango delight…..now mango pulp, orange juice and whipped cream….that’s what i call an explosive start to the day!!!

Suman of Heaven’s garden sends in Mango lassi…..our desi smoothie that’s both a thirst quencher and perfect as a filling breakfast drink

another take on Mango Lassi that sings lullabies….this is from Indira of Mahanandi

Pooja of My Creative Ideas makes this breakfast in a glass…mango thick shake with mango and bananas with milk…..she was rankled for a choice….but I think she couldn’t have chosen a more fitting entry!!

Rupa of Random Musings, dear friend and endurer of much nagging thinks that food blogging is not her cup of tea…..yet I wish to tell her that we all thought the same before taking the plunge….for starters, she takes the food detour from her personal blogging just to serve us this fruit yoghurt….

Shoba of Nangil Girl’s Adventures sends in this mango banana smoothie for breakfast……might I add that I loved the glass??

Madhuram of Eggless Cooking blends in two unusual flavours of raspberries and mango to make this breakfast Raspberry Mango smoothie

Jyothsna of Curry Bazar makes this beautiful aamras, with rotis, puris, plain or as a fitting end to a meal, aamras is always a recipe for surefire praise!!

Foodyguru Srimathi of Few Minute Wonders sent in this Mango trifle pudding as her entry……now you are talking breakfast!! I love the idea of indulgence in the morning…..!!

Jan of Food with a pinch of Love sent in this elaichi aamras fruit custard taking fusion to another level…..

Sandeepa of BongMom’s Cookbook recalls how she enjoyed the hot indian summers and dishes up this interesting mix of yoghurt, poha and mango called Chire Doi aam

Meera of Enjoy Indian Food makes this Mango Shikran, she says it was never served at breakfast, but fruit and milk cannot hurt anyone…..and I absolutely agree!!

Jyothsna’s Curry Bazar brings to the breakfast table, amarkhand – mango shrikhand….served with hot puris this makes for a traditionally fabulous breakfast……psst…you can also forget the puris and dig straight into the amarkhand if you like!!

Radhika of Tickling palates sends in a tall glass of Mango Jal jeera, perfect way to beat the heat

Isha of Isha’s Kitchen sends in a blend of two popular flavours in her strawberry mango salad, the addition of cumin and red chilli powder only serves to enhance the flavours of the fruit I am sure!!

This feisty talented baker, wears many hats with much elan…..and she too did get the bugging she didn’t deserve….what can I do…I was plagued with thoughts that no one would send me any entries and I had to turn to (quite literally) to the friends I made off the blogosphere…..deeba of passionate about baking sent in this fruitilicious Mango Fruit Salad to begin the day and get me firmly off her back!!

My other namesake Arundathi of My Food Blog has this interesting breakfast of eggs and Mango Salsa between a tortilla

Asha of Foodie’s Hope baked this lovely Mango –coconut pound cake and serves it up with some great mango sauce!!

Jayashree’s experiments with food whipped up this awesome breakfast on the go, she sends in an eggless microwave bread

Kalai of Samaithu Paarkalam sent in these fabulous Mango Scones…….i’m hurrying over for breakfast lady!!

Mansi of Fun and Food bakes this delectable Mango cake with streusel topping

Shibani or Anyone can cook tells us a familiar Mommy tale of getting her little one to eat…..and comes up with a lovely Mango oats breakfast bars this am sure is a winner with the fussiest of eaters

Uma of the essence of Andhra, sends in this mango pancake…..the unique addition of mango juice to make the batter, and chilli and cumin, gives it a nicely different edge.

Kevin of closet cooking sends in these awesome mango banana pancakes which uses coconut milk and cardamom to make it flavourful.

Priya of Live to cook makes some mango potato griddle cake, otherwise called adai…..she uses an unusual combination of raw mango and potato for this and immediatelty alerted my “must try” list!!

Crepes turned out to be very popular …..Possibly because they pair rather well with mangoes….we had four servings of them…….

Mike of Mike’s table sends in these delectable mango nutella crepes…they’re what sinfully fabulous breakfasts are made of, he promises that the flavours and textures will make you crave for more

Sukanya of Hot and Sweet Bowl serves us these fabulous looking Mango Crepes, sinfully flavourful with chopped mango pieces and whipped cream!! Makes me want to crash this breakfast table!!

Priya of Priya’s Kitchen – Spices in Life brings alive this mango madness with her mango crepes

JZ of Tasty Treats sends in her version of this popular breakfast item, crepes…..she serves up some lovely mango crepes

Nandita of Saffron trail, the brain behind Weekend Breakfast Blogging, makes this too easy to believe instant microwave mango jam, that just cuts the process but not the taste or flavour

Alka’s Sindhi Rasoi dishes out the indian answer to the mother of all jams, Mango Murba takes me …back to my childhood when all kinds of jams were made to preserve and use the surplus of fruit we had…..murba was one of the star attractions….

Lisa of Lisa’s Kitchen has a way with words……..how else can you explain this “Tangy chunks of mango in a thick, creamy mango juice broth surrounding soft and chewy grains of barley, topped with the mild tartness of fresh blackberries — even the most reluctant of porridge eaters will be back for a second bowl of this naturally sweet and colourful breakfast delight” she had me scurrying over to find this beautiful Mango barley porridge with blackberries…….and rarely do I call porridge beautiful!!

Aparna and her Diverse Kitchen took a leaf off none other than Nigella Lawson’s show and made up this Mango Parfait with home made granola….this dear Aparna, deserves to be on a show by itself!! Talk about a goddess dishing out balanced breakfasts!!

Revathi of Here it is sends in this innovative dish she calls Mango Something…..using bell peppers and ripe mangoes….it can be had on its own, or as an accompaniment to roti…..

Sumi… of Sumi’s kitchen is one of those who innovated with a breakfast item to suit the theme…and she came up with a poha upuma with shredded mango

Raji of Talimpu sends in this Raw Mango Upma using rice flour……the picture looks good enough to eat!

Vani of Mysoorean sends in two entries with her Mango Salad and Mango poha both the dishes have a burst of flavours and use raw mango

Srivalli of cooking 4 all seasons dishes up some quick and flavourful rice sevai with raw mango….. she could’nt decide between ripe or raw mangoes and this dish doesn’t disappoint

Roma of Roma’s Space sends us Matris, a fave north indian snack / breakfast using raw mango that was straight from her neighbor’s garden!!

Rupa of Simply Aroma sent in this tantalizing Instant Mango Pickle, a perfect accompaniment for any meal and whats more is totally fuss free!!

she also sent in this yummy chutney

Easy Crafts of Simple Indian Food sent in Maankaai thokku that’s a versatile side dish for idlis, dosas, chapattis and rice too!!

The Jugalbandits from where else….Jugalbandi send in this mango and coconut chutney that accompanied their crazy upma!!

Sia of Monsoon Spice sent in another mango chutney she calls Spicy Mango chutney…she tells a lovely story of a childhood spent in bliss and mangoes contributed in a large dose to this!!

Sireesha of mom’s recipes sends in this mango coconut chutney perfect to accompany dosas, chapattis or even steamed rice with ghee

My namesake of the Singing Chef sent me not one, not two….hold your breath, three terrific entries to boost my confidence of hosting mango madness…..i think she is a true foodie….thanks girl…..check out her Chickpeas Sundal, Kairi Panha and Mango Muffins…..

raaga is also the hostess of this month’s edition of WBB with Express breakfasts being the theme, the deadline is the 30^th of june

And Lastly, my own entry…… raw mango and coconut chutney.……

Thanks again Nandita, for sending WBB over to Escapades…….thank you all who sent in your entries (please let me know if i have missed any) and am so sorry for the long delay in posting the roundup!!

cheers!!

on an impromptu break….. and reminder for WBB

this is just one of those things that happen when you least expect it!! my in laws are here and we had planned a week’s trip, first to the temple town of Tirumala, the richest pilgrimage place in the world (and a nightmare where crowds are concerned!!)…..and a few days in chennai to meet with family…..but as luck would have it…my laptop has konked off and will take till i get back on home ground to be fixed….with all the visiting we’ve been doing, there’s hardly any time to do anything else anyways….so am on a blogging break till 28th and hopefully will get back after that…in the meanwhile, please keep sending me your entries to WBB….i am recieving the entries, but may not be able to get back immediately…will do so once i am back….but let the madness for mangoes not stop!!

Ciao!!