It tastes like summer

CHENNAI: Sweet mangoes, juicy melons, cool coconuts, soothing tender coconuts, luscious ice apples and lip-smacking jackfruit — these summer staples offer a refreshing respite. Vaishali Vijaykumar finds four home chefs, who toss these seasonal specials to create a twist in their kitchen tales

watermelon Molagootal by Vidya Gogul 

Ingredients
Watermelon rind: Half, peeled well with a tinge of pink flesh, to be made into a paste, Toor dal: 1 cup, soaked for two hours or more, Grated coconut: 1/2 cup, Jeera: 2 tsp , Long dried chillies:  4, Asafoetida: a pinch, Mustard: 1 tsp, Urad dal: 1 tsp, Curry leaves, Salt to taste, Coconut oil for tadka

Method 

• In a pan half-filled with water, boil the watermelon rind.
• When the water begins to steam, stir in the ground paste and let the mixture boil. Keep tasting and add water accordingly.
• Add salt as per preference.
• When the whole mix is cooked well and a fork passes through the rind as it would in any other vegetable, your recipe is done.
• Transfer into a serving bowl and garnish with the tadka.
• Serve with hot rice and ghee.

Ice apple kurma by Vidya Gogul

Ingredients
Ice apple: 5, peeled, Cashews: 15, fried in ghee, Green chillies: split: 2, First coconut milk of one coconut, Onions: 2, thinly sliced , Cardamom: 2, Cloves: 1, Bay leaf: 1, Fennel powder: 1/2 tsp, Star anise: 1, Salt to taste

Method

• Heat ghee in a pan and add the whole spices.
• Add the onions and fry till they are translucent.
• Add the green chillies and the powders. Cook till they are evenly coated.
• Add the coconut milk and the ice apples, fully or cut them in half.
• Let it cook on a very low flame for five minutes.
• Serve with idiyappam or white rice. 

Jackfruit Basundi  by Saraswathy Viswanathan  

Ingredients 
Milk: 1 to 1 1/2 litre, Sugar: 1/2 tsp, Jackfruit puree: 1 cup, coarsely blended, 
Cardamom powder: 1/2 tsp

Method 

• Combine milk and sugar in a deep non-stick pan.
• Once the milk starts boiling, add the jackfruit puree. Cook the milk in medium flame till it thickens.
• Mix well and cook on a medium flame for 25 minutes, while stirring occasionally and scraping the sides of the pan.
• Add cardamom powder and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
• Remove the pan from heat and allow the jackfruit basundi to cool.
• Garnish it with finely chopped jackfruit and serve chilled.

Tender coconut red chilli palada by Saraswathy Viswanathan

Ingredients 
Kashmiri red chillies: 40 g, de-seeded and slit, Cardamom: 10, Butter: 2 tbsp, 
Palada: 100 g, Sugar: 200 g, Tender coconut pulp: 200 g, Tender coconut water: 
2 cups, Tender coconut pulp: 1 tbsp, chopped 

Method

• Boil Kashmiri red chillies in two cups of water adding two cardamom pods.
• Cook for five minutes. Drain the water and wash the cooked Kashmiri red chillies well.
• Again cook them in two cups of water with two cardamom pods.
• After five minutes, wash the Kashmiri red chillies. 
• Do the above process five times to remove the pungent smell of red chillies. 
• Now grind the Kashmiri red chillies to a coarse paste and keep aside.
• Coarse-grind the tender coconut pulp with 200 g of sugar coarsely and keep aside.
• In a pan, heat 2 tbsp of butter and add ground Kashmiri red chilli paste and cook in medium flame for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, cook the palada in tender coconut water till it becomes soft.
• Add the cooked palada and ground tender coconut pulp paste to the cooked Kashmiri red chilli paste and mix well.
• Cook till butter separates from the Kashmiri red chilli dessert.
• Remove from fire and refrigerate for some time.
• Garnish it with chopped tender coconut pulp and serve chilled.

Jackfruit Jamun by Saraswathy Viswanathan 

Ingredients 
Jack fruit jam (chakka varati): 100 g, Milk powder: ½ cup, Maida: 1/2 cup, Coconut milk: ½ cup, Ghee: 2 tbsp, Cardamom powder: ¼ tsp, Chopped jackfruit for garnishing, Baking soda: a pinch, Oil or ghee to fry, Sugar: 1/2 cup, Water: 1/5 cups, Rose essence: 1/2 tsp, Lime juice: 1 tbsp

Method 
For making sugar syrup:

• In a wide bowl, mix one and a half cups of water with half cup of sugar and allow to boil on a medium flame. The consistency of the sugar syrup should be little sticky. It will take around 8 to 10 minutes to get this consistency.
• Then add half teaspoon of rose essence, mix well and remove from flame. Add lemon juice to stop the crystallisation process.
• Cover and keep aside. For making coconut milk powder for gulab jamun:
• In a large bowl, mix maida, milk powder, chakka varatti, cardamom powder, baking soda and ghee, and crumble well.
• Slowly, add coconut milk little by little and knead well to a smooth, little sticky and soft dough.
• Make small balls greasing ghee on your palms. There should be no cracks on the balls or else there are chances for jamuns to break while frying.
• Heat the ghee or oil on low flame and when it is moderately hot, fry the jack fruit jamuns.
• Fry the balls on low flame, stirring in between till it turns golden brown colour.
• Drop the hot jamun into the hot sugar syrup and cover the lid and rest for 2 hours.
• The jack fruit jamun will double in size. They are then ready to serve. 
• Garnish it with chopped jackfruit pieces (Note: Adjust the quantity of coconut milk according to the consistency of your dough)

Tender coconut popsicles by Sundari Vijay

Ingredients:
Tender coconut flesh: 1 cup, Fresh cream: 1 cup, Milk: 1/2 cup , Condensed milk: 1/2 cup, Sugar: 1/2 cup, Vanilla essence: 1 tsp 

Method:

• Remove the flesh from tender coconut and clean it.
• Add the flesh in a mixer jar and grind it to a paste.
• Now add rest of the ingredients and grind in the same jar for a minute.
• Transfer the ground mix to kulfi or popsicle moulds and pop the sticks.
• Freeze them at least for eight hours or overnight. While removing, dip the moulds in tap water and pull gently
• Enjoy this delicious dessert for lunch on a sunny day.

Eggless watermelon rind cake by Saraswathy Viswanathan

Ingredients:
Watermelon rind puree: 1 cup, Watermelon red flesh puree: 1 cup, Freshly grated coconut: 1 cup, Salt: 1/4 tsp, Roasted rava/semolina: 1 cup, Grated jaggery/brown sugar: 1 cup,Cardamon powder: 2 tsp, Chopped cashew nuts: 10, Chopped almonds: 10, Chopped raisins: 10, Baking powder: 1/2 tsp          

Method:

• Cut the watermelon into pieces, remove the red flesh and keep it aside.
• We only need the white part from the rind. Peel the green skin from the rind and finely chop or grate the white part and make one cup puree by blending it.
• Remove the seeds from the watermelon and extract one cup of puree from it.
• Add the roasted semolina to the watermelon rind. Then add watermelon red flesh puree.
• Add grated coconut and jaggery.
• Add all the other ingredients except baking powder and mix well.
• Keep this aside for 30 minutes. Then, add baking powder and mix again.
• Grease a baking pan by coating it with butter and dust the pan with maida.
• Pour the cake batter in the baking pan.
• Preheat the oven at 1800 C for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Place the pan into the oven and bake for 40 minutes or till done. To check if the cake is done, insert a toothpick in the centre of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, your cake is done.
• Yummy eggless watermelon rind cake is ready to serve. Decorate the cake with fresh watermelon cubes.

Mango lemon bars by Monika Manchanda

Ingredients
For the crust: Flour: 1.5 cups Salt: a pinch, Icing sugar: 1/4 cup, Butter at room temperature: 1/2 cup, For the filling: Sugar: 1 cup, Flour: 2 tbsp, Eggs: 4, Mango puree: 1.5 cups, Lemon juice: 1/3 cup, Lemon zest: 1 tbsp, Vanilla extract: 1 tsp

Method

• In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat the butter on medium heat constantly swirling till it turns brown.
• Cool this butter till it becomes solid again. About 30 minutes in the freezer will do the trick.
• Cut the butter in about 8-10 squares. Rub the butter using your fingers in the flour plus sugar-salt mixture till it resembles bread crumbs. Alternatively, you can also make this using a food processor.
• Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Then add butter and pulse until it is completely incorporated.
• Transfer the mixture in a greased pan layered with a parchment paper and press firmly to form an even layer. Bake for about 15 minutes at 1800 C. We need the edges set and slightly browned.
• While the crust is baking, put together the filling together by whisking sugar and flour and then beat in the eggs, followed by the mango puree and lemon juice.
• Mix everything till just incorporated.
• Pour this over the hot baked base, reduce the temperature to 1600 degrees C and return pan to oven. Bake for 22-24 minutes, until the filling, is set.
• Cool completely before slicing (leaving it in the fridge for an hour helps) and use a damp knife to get clean slices.
• Serve chilled.

Ice apple panna cotta by Sundari Vijay

Ingredients
Ice apple/ Nungu: 4, Fresh cream: 1 cup, Milk: 1/2 cup, Sugar: 3/4 cup, Gelatin: 1.5 tbsp, Water: 2 tbsp, Vanilla essence: 1 tsp, Dried rose petals and pistachio for garnishing.

Method:

• Clean the ice apple and remove the skin. Grind it coarsely in a mixer.
• In a small bowl, mix water and gelatin and let it sit for a few minutes.
• In a saucepan, add cream, milk and sugar and mix well till the sugar dissolves completely.
• Bring this mixture to a gentle boil and turn off the heat. Add gelatin mixture and mix well.
• Now, add ground ice apple and vanilla essence. Mix well and transfer into glasses.
• Refrigerate for two-three hours. Garnish with rose petals and crushed pistachios.
• Enjoy this simple and classic French dessert with the taste of our local ice apple.

Mango sriracha hummus by Monika Manchanda

Ingredients
Mango chopped: 1 cup, Chickpeas boiled/canned: 1.5 cup, Sriracha sauce: 2 tbsp, Sesame seeds: 2 tbsp, Paprika powder: 1 tsp, Olive oil: 2 tbsp, Lemon juice: 2 tsp, Salt to taste

Method

• Grind all the ingredients together in a blender till smooth.
• Use a few cubes of ice to make the hummus creamier.
• Serve with nachos, lavassh or on toasted bread.