Fit for a King

The markets of Pune are packed with mangoes. While Hapus or Alphonso usually emerges as the favourite variety for foodies, the jury is out on the best way to eat the fruit. Despite its sweet taste, mango needn’t be restricted to dessert or an after-meal treat. Here are a few recipes to try out:

Mango Jalapeno Cheese Lifafa

Ingredients
Cottage cheese – 200 gm
Processed cheese – 100 gm
Jalapeno peppers – 20 gm
Ripe mango – 50 gm
Chilli flakes – 2 gm
Oregano dry – 1 gm
Salt to taste
Black pepper crushed – 5 gm
Fresh coriander – 20 gm
Whole wheat chapattis – 3

Method
* Grate the cottage cheese and the processed cheese with a fine grater in a dry bowl
* De-seed the Jalapeno slices and roughly chop them, place them on a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out the juice, add then to the mix
* Add the rest of the ingredients apart from the mango and mix well
* Check for seasoning, cut the ripe mango into small cubes and fold then in the mixture gently, be careful not to mash them.
* Take one chapatti and place some of this mixture in the centre
* Fold the sides of the chapatti like and envelope and paste the side with
flour slurry
* Deep fry the parcels in medium hot oil until the chapatti casing is crisp
* Cut the parcel diagonally and serve with green chutney and schezwan sauce.
Garnish with grated processed cheese

By Maharaj Jodharam Choudhary, corporate chef, Khandani Rajdhani, Pune

Eggless Whole Wheat Mango Pie

Ingredients

For Pie Crust
Whole wheat flour – 300 gm
Cold unsalted butter – 150 gm
Ice water – 4 tb
Apple cider vinegar – 1tb
Salt half tsp

For Pie Filling
Cubed mangoes – 600 gm
Brown sugar – 2 tb
Cornstarch – 1tb
Salt – 1/8 tsp

Method

For Pie Crust

* In a mixing bowl combine flour, salt and butter. Using finger tips, mix butter into flour until it looks like bread crumb
* Add vinegar and ice cold water and mix it. Combine the dough together. Do not knead it
* Cover the dough with a cling wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes

For the Pie filling
* In a saucepan, take mangoes. Add salt and cook for 10 minutes on medium flame
* When water evaporates, add brown sugar and cook for another two minutes
* Transfer the prepared filling in a bowl and refrigerate for 45 min. After 45 minutes add cornstarch and mix well
* In the meanwhile, preheat oven at 180 °C
* Divide the dough into two parts. Using a rolling pin roll out one part into a 12 inches circle with 1/8 inch thickness
* Gently lift the rolled dough and transfer it to pie mould. Here, an 8-inch pie tinhas been used
* Using fingers, press the dough down so that it lines the sides and bottom of the mould
* Scrap the extra dough using a knife. Fill it will prepared mango filling
* Take the other portion of the dough. Roll it and use it to cover the mango filling by making pattern of your choice
* Now bake it in preheated oven at 180°C for 50 minutes
* When baked, take the pie out.
De-mould is after 10 minutes and cool it at room temperature and serve

Recipe is by Sonia Gupta, Pune-based baking trainer and  food blogger of AnyBodyCanBake.Com

Salted caramel and Mango Pound Cake

Ingredients

For salted caramel
Castor sugar – 250 gm
Butter (unsalted) – 50 gm
Cooking cream – 50 gm
Salt – 4 gm

For pound cake
Butter – 250 gm
Castor sugar – 250 gm
Eggs – 5
Vanilla essence as required
Fresh mango puree – 150 gm
Chopped mango – 80 gm
Refined flour – 250 gm
Baking powder – 6 gm

Method

For Salted Caramel
First heat 250 gm of sugar in a thick-bottomed pan. Keep stirring the sugar in the pan on medium heat. Once the sugar has melted and reaches a colour resembling honey, remove the pan off the flame and add 50 gm of cream and 50 gm of butter to this mixture. Keep stirring till all ingredients are mixed properly. Add a pinch of salt to the mixture once it cools down.

For Pound Cake
Cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Add eggs into the butter mixture one by one, mixing slowly. Once all the eggs are added and the mixture is light, add vanilla essence, fresh mango puree, chopped mango, refined flour and baking powder. Refrigerate the mixture for at least six hours before you bake it.

To Bake
Line a baking dish with foil and pour the pound cake mixture into it, filling not more than 3/4th of the mould. Put two spoons full of salted caramel on to the top of the cake mixture and give it a marble effect using a small kitchen knife. Bake the cake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for at least 30 to 45 minutes. Serve once cooled.

By Chef Naveen Handa, Executive Chef, JW Marriott, Chandigarh

Mango Ice Cream

Ingredients
Pulp of three mangoes
Coconuts – 6

Method
* Extract the mango pulp and freeze.
* Break open two of the coconuts and make tiny slivers of the coconut. Mix these in the blender with some water plus the coconut water to make the coconut paste.
* Sieve this coconut paste in a muslin cloth and get the coconut milk separated from the fibre. Put this coconut milk aside.
* Break open two more coconuts and using the same milk that we have removed, make coconut paste. Sieve these to remove the milk and put aside.
* Break open the last two coconuts and add the previous milk to make a very thick coconut crème mixture, and sieve this in a muslin cloth.
* Add the frozen mango pulp to this mixture and mix in the blender. Freeze this mixture overnight.
* Next day, defrost and mix this in blender again.
* Transfer to a container and seal with wheat dough or use an airtight container.
* Freeze for five to six hours.
* The idea is to create more crème in the ice-cream by mixing it in a blender a few times, every time we freeze, defrost , blend and refreeze, there are more air pockets being created inside the ice-cream.

Recipe by Moonstar Kaur Doad, Parshada, Sector 18, Chandigarh