Tag Archives: Starter

Recipe: Mango Salsa

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After the function, we had some extra mangoes. These were not the Alphonso mangoes which are super sweet, and so I was not very keen on making a milkshake out of them. We tried eating them, but since they were not very sweet, nobody was really interested in that. So instead of wasting them, I thought I’ll quickly whip up a salsa with the mangoes. The mangoes were sweet enough for the salsa, and the combination of the different vegetables was superb! Even S and BB, whom I thought would say spicy, loved it!

Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

  • 2 mangoes, chopped into small bite-sized pieces
  • 2 onions, chopped finely into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped finely into bite-sized pieces
  • 2 green chillies, sliced finely
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 1 tsp cumin seed powder
  • 2 tsp lime/lemon juice
  • Salt to taste
  • Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

  • Chop the mangoes, onions and red bell pepper into bite sized pieces and keep in a large bowl
  • Add the ginger and chopped chillies as well as the cumin seed powder, lemon juice and toss well
  • Add salt to taste, toss well and garnish with coriander leaves
  • Chill for a few hours if you want for a better infusion of taste

Recipe: Hummus and Tahini

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I’ve made Hummus years and years back when I was on a food experimentation drive. The past few weeks, in a bid to increase good protein, I was thinking of making hummus again, but somehow this did not happen. Then the other day, I read about someone who was raving about Tesco’s caramelized onion hummus and I was intrigued. This made me want to try making hummus again, and also try it with caramelized onion. As luck would be, I also had some dry chickpeas or garbazano beans which were going to go bad soon and so this recipe of hummus soon saw the light of the day.

When I made Hummus earlier, I didn’t add Tahini paste to it, thinking I won’t get it here in Singapore. Then when I went online and found how to make it, I realised it was very simple and so this time, I made it as authentic as I could….

Hummus and Tahini

Ingredients:

Tahini 2For the Tahini Paste 

  • 2 tbsps white sesame seeds
  • 3-4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

Hummus 2For the Hummus

  • 2 cups dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked in a pressure cooker until soft
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 3-4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tbsps tahini
  • 2 tbsps lemon juice
  • salt to taste

Method:

For the Tahini

  • Soak the sesame seeds in a bowl of water and drain it.
  • In a dry pan, dry roast it till it starts to crackle. This should take not more than 5-6 minutes. Do not let it brown too much and burn.
  • Take it off the gas and let it cool completely.
  • In a small mixer/blender, blend the sesame seeds to a powder, then add the olive oil and blend till it becomes a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Hummus 2For the Hummus

  • In another pan, add 1 tsp oil (I used a canola olive blend) and when it warms, add the chopped garlic and stir, letting it brown and caramalize.
  • When it browns, remove and keep aside. In the same pan, with the remaining oil, add in the chopped onions and let them brown and caramalize. Once it has browned, remove and keep aside.
  • In another mixer blender, add the chickpeas, caramalized onions and garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and tahini and blend well.
  • You can blend it smooth like I did or keep it slightly coarse. You can also keep some onions aside to use as a topping.
  • Check for salt and serve. You can also add some red chilli powder to use as a topping when serving.

I usually eat this plain, or add in my red chilli chutney and eat….

Hummus 4

 

Recipe: Mango Milkshake

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Summer, to me, is mango season! In Mumbai, right from around end April, you see, hear and smell the king of fruits – the Alphonso Mango. While I am not a big mango lover, everyone else in my family is and my childhood summer memories are filled with this fruit.

My paternal grandmother was a huge fan of the alphonso mango or hapus as it is called in Marathi (the state language of Mumbai, where I grew up). My paternal grandparents moved to Bangalore when I was quite young, initially to help out my uncle (my dad’s brother) who had moved there for work. Then, after he married, they stayed on, because they loved the gentler pace of life that Bangalore had then as well as the cooler climate. But my ammama (my grandma) missed some parts of Mumbai, a city she came as a young bride and had stayed for more than 30 years before moving to Bangalore.

So every summer, during our holidays, we’d make our annual trip to Bangalore. Along with clothes and other assorted items, we’d take a huge ass carton of the best alphonso mangoes we could get. We even had our own mango seller, who, every summer would bring us a nicely packed carton of mangoes, all chosen to ripen at exactly the right time, which would be just after we reach ed Bangalore. And once we reached our home there, my grandma would gorge on this delicacy.

Mangoes are heaty, and so the rule in my home was to drink a glass of milk after each mango session. Some mangoes used to be made into pulp to be drank with milk, especially if the mangoes were ripening and would go bad. Last week at the baby naming ceremony we were given a couple of mangoes and so I decided to make them into milkshakes for BB & GG for them to drink as their after school drink. The mangoes we got were not top quality ones (not alphonso), hence not as sweet and so I had to use sugar, but if you have sweet mangoes, please omit sugar completely. This is perfect for summer, especially if you refrigerate it before serving.

Mango Milkshake

Ingredients:

  • 2 mangoes, peeled and chopped
  • Sugar, as required
  • 5-6 pieces of cashewnuts
  • A pinch of saffron
  • 2.5 cups skim milk

Method:

  • In a small bowl, heat up a couple of tablespoons of milk till warm and add the cashewnuts and saffron to it and keep aside for 10 minutes.
  • In a blender or mixer, add the chopped mangoes, sugar (if using), milk and the cashewnut-saffron mixture and blend until it forms a smooth paste. Add the skim milk to help it form the paste.
  • Add the rest of the milk and chill in the fridge for a while before serving.
  • Enjoy delicious, chilled mango milkshake!