Desserts

Mango Mint Parfait

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Mango Mint Parfait

If you like mango, mint, whipped cream and easy desserts, you will love this Mango Mint Parfait. It is perfect for hot summer days that call for a chilled seasonal dessert. Oh, summers make me so lethargic. I can barely get my butt out of bed in the mornings to workout (I have been playing hooky more often than I would like to admit). It is a good thing that it has been so busy or I would just be warming my butt on the couch in frontof a fan all day watching Grey’s Anatomy and reading some adventure fiction. We have been hosting guests for the last two weeks and our house is booked for this week and the next week and the week after! I am loving this. I never knew I enjoyed being a host so much. I can cook more, bake more and experiment more in general. Surely, I will suffer from empty nest syndrome once the guest deluge is passed. Any tips Mommy?? Also, there are 120 summer festivals going on in Toronto that we need to keep track of along-with the weather. Our calendars are full of events and you would have seen many […]

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Desserts, Indian Inspired

Mango Ginger Popsicles

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Mango, Ginger Popsicles I have highly sensitive teeth. I could never bite into anything that is sub-zero degrees even when my permanent teeth had newly popped and were probably at their strongest! As a kid, when we got to treat ourselves to kulfis i.e. the Indian street food ice-cream on a stick I’d slowly suck on it while half of it melted in streams down my hands, and invariably the last few bites would drop to the floor. All these years later, my teeth have obviously not become less sensitive; it’s a miracle they are still there after all the sugar attack they endure. As an adult, I stick to ice-creams in bowls (boring? Trying having sensitive teeth!) Watching others bite into popsicles gives me goosebumps! But its #popsicle week and I had to participate, because we want to constantly be part of something, even if it is a virtual summer party exploding with happy, colorful ice-pops. Last summer when I started using Instagram seriously i.e. started using the explore feature and following a bunch of bloggers is when I first heard of popsicle week. We were homeless and moving between Airbnbs and I didn’t have much kitchen equipment or molds. A feeble attempt in the sweltering Kingston heat of 2016, in an AC-less Airbnb yielded some pretty rubbish maple walnut popsicles. So, I stuck with store bought ice-creams. This year, I was determined to make it. I had an idea jotted down weeks in advance – a boozy iced tea popsicle like a long island. But that did not work for me. It was like eating ice and the teeth do not enjoy eating ice. A quick brainstorming session later with my better half who suggested I stick fruit pieces on a stick or something to that effect, we decided to go with mango. Every summer I am remined of eating pureed chilled mango with a hint of cardamom served with puris. Then I kick myself for not eating more mangoes when I was in India, because really the quality and variety here is quite terrible. Can’t stick a piece of not-so-great mango on a stick and call it happy popsicle week, so I added some ginger, coconut milk and honey. Whizzed it and froze it. Simple and quite tasty that is if you like the mango-ginger combination. If you don’t, you should just eat a slice of mango or head to Wit and Vinegar and browse through 100s of popsicle ideas! Mango, Ginger Popsicles Ingredients – makes 6 – 8 skinny popsicles Flesh from 3 ripe medium mangoes ¼ cup of coconut cream / coconut milk 1 ½ - 2 tbsps freshly grated ginger (depending on taste – start with 1 tbsp) ½ tsp cardamom powder 2 – 4 tbsp honey (depending on how sweet the mangoes are) For Garnish ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 2tbsp coconut oil 1tbsp candied ginger 1 tsp granulated sugar coconut flakes To make the popsicles Put all ingredients in a blender and blend till smooth. Taste and adjust spice and honey. Pour into molds. Stick the sticks in. Freeze overnight. Melt the chocolate chips with the coconut oil in a heatproof bowl in the microwave in 30 second intervals. Stir well between intervals. Once smooth, set aside to cool slightly. While the chocolate cools, chop up the candied ginger very finely and mix with the sugar. You could also give the two a whiz in a spice grinder. Set aside in a small bowl. Put coconut flakes in another small bowl. Remove popsicles from their molds. Working with one at a time, dip into the melted chocolate, immediately sprinkle with some coconut flakes and some ginger-sugar mixture. Set on a plate. Repeat with all and eat immediately or keep in freezer.

Mango ginger popsicles for mango lovers! These are refined sugar free, dairy free and so so easy to make! I have highly sensitive teeth. I could never bite into anything that is sub-zero degrees even when my permanent teeth had newly popped and were probably at their strongest! As a kid, when we got to treat ourselves to kulfis i.e. the Indian street food ice-cream on a stick I’d slowly suck on it while half of it melted in streams down my hands, and invariably the last few bites would drop to the floor. All these years later, my teeth have obviously not become less sensitive; it’s a miracle they are still there after all the sugar attack they endure. As an adult, I stick to ice-creams in bowls (boring? Trying having sensitive teeth!) Watching others bite into popsicles gives me goosebumps! But its #popsicleweek and I had to participate, because we want to constantly be part of something, even if it is a virtual summer party exploding with happy, colorful ice-pops. Last summer when I started using Instagram seriously i.e. started using the explore feature and following a bunch of bloggers is when I first heard of popsicle week. […]

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Cakes, Desserts

Cardamom Pound Cake with Mango Cream (Pound Cakes – Part 2)

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We are eating mangoes and berries for breakfast almost everyday! That’s supposed to be healthy right? So I should not feel guilty about eating a piece of cake with the bowl of fruits. Good. I wanted to use one of the pound cakes from the previous post and create a flavor that makes me nostalgic. Now this was experimentation territory and things could go wrong. And they did. But hey, this is all about challenging myself! I felt like baking a cardamom cake with mangoes. Why? Because in India summers meant long hot holidays, playing scruffy games on the streets, some boring and lots of fun visits to relatives and eating lots of mangoes. Ripe Alphonso mangoes are pulped by hand, chilled and served with some cardamom sprinkled on top. This was a real treat that one got only a couple of times during the short summer months. We really did look forward to it. Ahhh nostalgia… I wanted to recreate those flavours. The cake is lightly spiced with fragrant cardamom. This is potent stuff that can overpower everything, so I used only a touch for that beautiful aroma. And served it with mango cream reminiscent of the mango pulp […]

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