Mango Cheesecake

The only thing I like about summer is mangoes. I am sure many would agree with me.  I have been waiting for quite sometime to lay my hands on Banganapalli mangoes (Mangoes from Banganapalli in Andhra Pradesh) to make mango cheesecake. 

Mango cheesecake is a dessert made with a biscuit base and rich flavored cream cheese topping. I got the recipe for this lovely dessert from Edible Garden but I have made a few changes to the way it is usually made. Usually graham crackers are used as the base for cheese cake. This can be substituted by digestive biscuits or anyother sweet biscuit. I have used marie biscuits for my recipe. I also substituted cream cheese with Strained Yogurt (Click on the link for the recipe) to make it a low fat dessert.

Mango Cheesecake

Ingredients

Mango Puree               -  1.5 cups

Strained Yogurt          - 125 grams
Cream                           - 85 grams (i used low fat cream)

Sugar                            - 3-4 tbspns

Gelatin                         - 1/2 tbspn

Digestive Biscuits      - 8-10

Unsalted butter          - 3 tbspns

 

Method

Crush the biscuits in a food processor. Rub melted butter into the biscuits till it is moist and crumbly. Grease a tray with butter and press the biscuit mixture onto the base of the tray. 

Beat the strained yogurt and sugar well. Add the cream and mix well. Make a puree of the mangoes. Add gelatin to warm water and stir till it dissolves. Add this to the mango puree.  Fold in the strained yogurt to the mango puree mixture. Pour this over the biscuit base and refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Spoon the mango coulis on top of the cheesecake and serve cold!

Note 

I added a third layer of mango glaze/mango coulis on top of the mango puree mixture. The mango coulis gave a nice tangy taste to the cheesecake. I got the recipe for the mango glaze from Divine Taste.

Mango Coulis 

Ingredients

Mango            -  1/2 cup (chopped/quartered)

Sugar              -  2 tbspns

Water             -  2 tbspns              

Lime juice     -  1 tbspn

Method 

Add the mangoes, sugar,water and the lime juice to a pan and cook it on low flame for approx 5-7 minutes till the mangoes start losing shape. Blend this mixture and its ready to serve/use.

Greek Yogurt/Strained Yogurt

Strained yogurt is the base for several great dishes. It is known under several names in different countries i.e. it is greek yogurt in greece; labni in the middle wast, laban in iraq; Mâst Chekide in Iran..and the list goes on. In some countries like greece its made with sheep's milk and with cow's milk in the others.
It is used to make dips, frozen yogurt, shreekhand among other items. Since i intend on covering some of these recipes in the coming days i thought i should cover this in the basic recipe series.
Strained yogurt is very easy to make. Yogurt is strained using a cloth to remove the whey thus giving the resulting strained yogurt a nice thick creamy texture.
The only hitch with making strained yogurt is that it takes a lot of milk to make about a cup of strained yogurt as opposed to regular unstrained yogurt.

Strained Yogurt

Ingredients

Milk      - 4 cups

Yogurt  - 3 tsps 

Method

Heat the milk till its luke warm. Mix the yogurt with the milk. Keep it overnight to set (about 8 hours). However, if you are staying in a hot place like i do (Chennai), you should be able to get it done sooner especially during summer (about 4 hours).
Take a large colander and line it with a muslin cloth or a clean cloth. Pour the homemade yogurt on the cloth and tie up the cloth. Place the colander on a vessel so that the whey can drip into the vessel. Refrigerate this for 3-4 hours (i kept it overnight) to allow all the whey to drip. The resultant mixture is the strained yogurt/greek yogurt which is thick and has a rich creamy flavour.

Poondu Curry (Garlic flavored curry)

This has been the longest break I've taken since i started blogging. But it is a break that i totally enjoyed as I was a part of an online community to learn food photography in 30 days. While I was exclusively an "auto mode" shooter earlier, the exercise has made me look into the various technical aspects of photography as well as food styling. I wouldn't say that i am an expert now, but i am most certainly on the path to improving my photography. 
My recipe for the day is "Poondu Curry" aka Garlic flavoured curry. It is one of the dishes that i learnt from my mother in law (who is a fantastic cook). Getting married to a tamilian has had its benefits, i have learnt a bit about the gastronomy of the region (Tamil Nadu). There is a huge variety of vegetarian gravies/curries to choose from. 
As an aside, all those who are interested in learning south indian recipes, please check out chandra padmanabhan's book, "Simply South". The book has varied vegetarian recipes from the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. While i have not tried all the dishes, i think it is a book worth owning. 

Poondu curry  is usually served it with rice, but my husband and i like it best with pooris. So here goes the recipe for garlic flavored curry:

Garlic flavored Curry (Serves 2)

Ingredients

Onion                           - 1 medium sized

Garlic                           - 4-5 pods (medium sized)

Tomato                        - 1 big

Sambar powder          - 1.5 tsp**

Turmeric powder       - 1/2 tsp

Curry Leaves               - 4-5

Asafoetida powder     -  a pinch

Tamarind                     - a small piece* (dime sized)

Milk                               - 1/4 cup

Method

Make a puree of the tomato and keep it aside. Extract 2 tsps of tamarind water from the tamarind and keep it aside.
Peel the garlic pods and boil it in 1/4 cup of milk for about 2-3 mins. Once this mixture has cooled, blend it along with the onion till it is a fine paste. 

Pour about 2-3 tbspns of oil in a pan. When hot add mustard seeds, once it pops add curry leaves and a pinch of asofetida powder. Now add the ground onion mixture and saute the mixture till the raw smell is gone. Now add the tomato puree, sambhar powder, salt and turmeric powder. Saute for about 2 minutes and then add a tbspn of tamarind water. Boil for a bit and Serve hot with pooris!!

You can check out the following sites for the recipe of poori:

Padhus Kitchen

Manjula's Kitchen

Rak's Kitchen 

Tips!
(*) Tamarind water that is added to the curry can be increased/decreased according to sourness of the tomatoes 
(**)If you do not have sambhar powder, use about 1-1.5 tsps of chilli powder and 2 tsps of coriander powder instead.

Ari Unda (Rice Laddus)

Sweets are an integral part of Indian culture. Festivals, weddings and other auspicious occasions are incomplete without sweets.
Thanks to my Indian roots I have a strong sweet tooth. As far as I know, my sister is the only other person who is worse than i am in this regard. The other day when I was home alone, I had a sugar craving that needed instant gratification. So i decided to make ari unda a.k.a rice laddus, which used to be one of the tea time snacks I used to have as a kid. Though I love the taste of ari unda, I am not sure if its taste will suit every palate.

Ari Unda, a sweet with its origins in Kerala, is made from rice, jaggery and coconut. Here goes the recipe for

Ari Unda/Rice Laddus (makes 20 laddus)

Ingredients

Parboiled Rice/Kerala Matta Rice         - 2 cups
Powdered Jaggery                              - 1 cup
Grated coconut                                  - 1 cup

Method

Wash the rice multiple times till the water comes out clear. Drain the water and dry roast the rice till it pops up and is golden brown in colour. Cool the rice and then powder it in a mixer till it is fine. Now add the jaggery and coconut to the mixer and grind for a minute or so till the rice powder, jaggery and coconut have blended well.

Divide the mixture into small portions and shape them in the form of laddus/balls. 

Ari Unda/Rice Laddus should be ideally consumed in a day or so since it uses fresh coconut and also because it gets dry over time. Alternately, you can roast and grind the rice and store it in air tight containers and make the rice laddus in small quantities as and when required.