Tag Archives: Mango

Salad Colombo

Since there were a couple of different mangoes in the house, I felt like using some in a salad. I was also curious about trying out tea in a salad dressing so concocted this – Salad Colombo. Why Salad Colombo? Because I used locally produced ingredients from different parts of the country brought together in Colombo. So, why not Salad Colombo? 🙂

Salad Colombo

I am taking this crunchy, tangy, bitter-sweet salad over to Angie’s FF#122, co-hosted this week by Aruna@Aharam and Mollie@The Frugal Hausfrau and for the first time, the party at Throwback Thursday #44, hosted by Quinn@Dad What’s 4 Dinner, Mollie@The Frugal Hausfrau, Carlee@Cooking with Carlee, Meaghan@4 Sons ‘R’ Us and Alli@Tornadough Alli.

I have been listening to Coldplay the whole day so decided to feature a song I liked.

Hope you enjoy the salad and the featured song for this week.

Salad Colombo

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Lettuce leaves
  • Mango – ½ (large) or 1 (small)
  • Pomegranate – 2 tbsp

Pomegranate and lime infused Orange pekoe tea dressing:

  • Lime/ orange juice – 1 tbsp
  • Pomegranate juice – 1 tsp
  • Tea –  1 – 2 tsp
  • Salt and pepper, to taste (optional)

Method

  1. Clean and chop up the lettuce leaves and arrange on a plate or bowl.
  2. Add sliced mango and pomegranate to the plate.
  3. Prepare the salad dressing by preparing a strong black tea and transferring about 2 tsp to a little bowl.
  4. Add the freshly processed pomegranate juice to the tea. Let it sit for a few minutes before adding the lime juice. (I prefer lime to orange juice for the dressing)
  5. If you wish, add salt and pepper, to taste. I didn’t add any in my version preferring the tanginess of the lime to be enough but my mother preferred adding a pinch of salt and pepper.
  6. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve immediately.IMG_0234

 

Mango Saffron Cake

I wanted to bake a special cake today to celebrate the birthday of a close friend undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and glaucoma. As there was a ripe mango in the fridge, I decided on a mango cake. Thinking of the spice that I could mix with mango in a cake, I decided to try saffron as I had recently tried out kesari in my muffin loaf and had also enjoyed the Cornish saffron bread that I had baked a couple of months back. Therefore, while both my exotic muffin loaf and this mango saffron cake look outwardly similar, the taste is different.
DSC01231 Of course, on this special day, I wish to feature a very special singer – K.S.Chitra whose birthday coincidentally happens to be today as well. One of my favourite singers, Chitra has won six Indian national awards during her 35 years of playback singing as well as was awarded the Padma Shri in 2005. She has had extensive training in Carnatic music.

As I had already shared her first award-winning movie song in the post featuring music composer Ilayarajaa, I will share a beautiful song clip from her devotional song album, Krishnapriya (2005).

The second clip is a lullaby she sang for the Craft (Center for research in assisted reproduction and fetal therapy) hospital and research center. The center shares this song for downloading from their website with the message, “For our emotionally stressed women and men we hereby give a small gift- A Lullaby of hope that will go straight to your hearts- soothe you and transcend you virtually to the wonderful world of parenthood.” Chitra lost her eight-year old daughter in 2011 and resumed her singing with this track.

The last song clip is her award-winning movie song from Cheran’s movie Autograph (2004) featuring actress Sneha and the Comaganin Raaga Priya orchestra. The music was composed by Bharadwaj and performed by the special blind orchestra while the lyrics was written by P.Vijay (who also won an award that year) and sung by Chitra. The clip I chose to share here has roughly translated subtitles (courtesy of YouTube user Antony Rajabala).

Hope you enjoyed today’s music by one of my favourite singers and the lovely cake!
DSC01233

Mango Saffron Cake

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • All-purpose flour – 1 cup
  • Roasted semolina – ½ cup
  • Baking powder – 1 tsp
  • Baking soda – ½ tsp
  • Salt, pinch
  • Vegetable oil margarine – 100g
  • Sugar – 6 tbsp (can add more, as per your taste)
  • Milk (non-fat or vegan substitute) – ½ cup
  • Saffron threads – ¼ tsp
  • Vanilla essence – ½ tsp
  • Mango – 1, chopped
  • Cashew nuts and raisins, to sprinkle

Method:

  1. Heat the milk with the saffron. Once bubbles start to form, remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool.
  2. Sift the flour together with baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the roasted semolina to the dry ingredients bowl and keep aside.
  3. Chop up the mango and add the vanilla essence to the chopped mangoes in a separate bowl. Let the fruits soak in the essence.
  4. Whisk the margarine and sugar together until creamy.
  5. Stir in the saffron milk and continue whisking.
  6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bowl, continuously stirring.
  7. Fold in the chopped mangoes and transfer to lightly greased baking pan.
  8. Sprinkle chopped cashew nuts and raisins.
  9. Bake the cake at 170⁰C for around 30 mins. The time will vary depending on the oven.
  10. Let the cake cool off before slicing and serving with a hot cup of Sri Lankan tea. Enjoy!

Mango Mocktail

Today’s drink has been sent in by Trevor Martil. Apologies for the lack of a photo of the drink. I am sharing this at the Virtual Vegan Linky Potluck.

Today’s music features two relatively new composers who are making a niche for themselves in south Indian cinema. The music for the first song clip has been composed by G.V Prakash Kumar, the nephew of A.R.Rahman. Having sung his first song in one of his uncle’s movies, G.V Prakash Kumar started his movie soundtrack composing career at the age of 16. This is a lovely song from his first movie that was released – Veyil (translation: hot sun, 2006) with playback singers Jassie Gift, Kailash Kher, Tippu and Prasanna.

The next song is from Balakrishnan’s debut movie Rummy (2014) with music composed by D.Imman who started his music career in 2002. The playback singers are Prasanna and Vandana Srinivasan, a psychologist and an alumna of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Hope you enjoy the music and the drink!

Mango Mocktail

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons mango delight cordial
  • 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 cup chilled plain soda
  • Crushed mint leaves
  • Finely chopped apple
  • Crushed ice

Method:

  1. Blend the first four ingredients together.
  2. Add crushed mint leaves, chopped apple pieces, crushed ice and serve.

Recipe source: Trevor Martil.

Mango Chutney

During a recent visit of my father to Jaffna, he brought back some mangoes from my mother’s childhood home. My mother said that the particular mango tree had been planted by her father. As the mangoes were half-ripe, cooking mangoes, my mother decided to make some chutney out of them. This is a simple, quick to prepare chutney. I have shared earlier a mango chutney recipe that my mother makes when she wants to store the chutney for a few days. I am sharing this instant mango chutney recipe with the Fiesta Friday group as well.

DSC01208Continuing with the theme of featuring south Indian singers whose voice I have enjoyed and appreciated along with the recipes this month and next, today’s featured musician is another of my mother’s favourite singers – renowned south Indian singer K.J.Yesudas. A classical trained musician, he began his movie playback singing career in the early 1960s. Yesudas is said to have sung and recorded over 50,000 songs over his five decade career in most Indian languages as well as foreign languages such as Arabic and Russian. I do not know how he managed the volume because it roughly translates to about 1000 songs a year. He was awarded the Padma Shri (1975) and the Padma Bhushan (2002) by the Indian government.

While selecting Yesudas song clips to share here, I decided to share first an excerpt from one of his older classical concert clips as he is foremost a classical Carnatic musician and I like his Carnatic music repertoire better than his songs for movies.

The second song is from the 1968 Malayalam movie Bharymar Sookshikkuka. This clip is a live performance of K.J. Yesudas with Chitra and Sujatha.

Wrapping up today’s music selection, the last clip is from a very famous popular Tamil song of Yesudas from the 1992 movie Mannan.

Hope you enjoyed the voice of K.J. Yesudas and do try out this chutney!
chutney

Mango Chutney

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Mango – ½ cup, half-ripe
  • Onion – ¼ cup, chopped
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
  • Sugar – 1 tbsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Clean and chop up the half-ripe mango. Rub in a little salt and allow it to marinate while you do the next step.
  2. Heat a tbsp oil in a pan. Temper the chopped onion and crushed chillies for a couple of minutes.
  3. Add the chopped and salted mango to the pan together with a tablespoon of sugar. Mix well and let it cook for a couple of minutes.
  4. Remove from heat and transfer the pan contents to a food processor and grind it.
  5. This simple mango chutney is nice on a sandwich.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan

Mango Pudding

When you have some ripe mangoes at hand and you don’t feel like eating them just sliced as you usually do, then you could try out this quick to make, dessert for one.

Willard Mangoes

Willard Mangoes

Mango pudding

Time taken: 10 mins

Serves 1

Mango puddingIngredients:

  • Mango – ½ cup, ground
  • Sugar – 2 tbsp
  • Vanilla essence – ¼ tsp
  • Orange juice – 1 tbsp (optional)
  • Yellow colour – drop or two
  • Corn flour – 3 tbsp
  • Raisins – ½ tsp
  • Cashewnuts – ½ tsp, crushed
  • Vegetable oil margarine – 1 tsp

Method

  1. Blend the mango without water.
  2. In a saucepan, heat the ground mango with 2 tbsp sugar, ¼ tsp vanilla essence and 1 tbsp of water, stirring continuously for a minute or two. If you like a little citrus flavour to your pudding, add a tbsp of orange juice.
  3. Add the corn flour, stirring in a tbsp at a time. Continue stirring for 3-4 mins. If making for more than one person, consider using corn starch dissolved in water instead of corn flour.
  4. Add the raisins and crushed cashewnuts and stir for a min.
  5. Add the margarine and mix well. Remove the saucepan from stove and transfer the pudding to a mold.
  6. Serve plain or with some ice-cream on the side.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Mango Juice

Accompanying the mango kesari is one of my favourite fruit juices – mango juice.

Mangoes have high levels of vitamin C and A and a generous amount of antioxidant compounds, iron and calcium but it would be wise to consume mangoes in moderation as they are also recommended for those seeking to gain weight.

While I usually like a simple juice by blending the fruit with water, I did like my mother’s version recently.

Mango juiceIngredients (for 1 cup):

  • Mango – ½ cup, chopped
  • Orange juice – 1 tbsp
  • Mint – 2 or 3 leaves
  • Sugar – 1 tsp

Method:

Simply blend all the ingredients together with water and then sit back and enjoy a delicious drink.

Mango Kesari

Today’s lovely recipe is my mother’s recipe for mango kesari/ halwa. Great with a cup of tea or coffee.

Mango Kesari

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 4

Mango KesariIngredients:

  • Mango – ½ cup, chopped
  • Orange juice – 1 tbsp
  • Mint – 2 or 3 leaves
  • Sugar – 1 tsp (for juice) + 1 tbsp
  • Salt – a little
  • Semolina – ¼ cup
  • Vegetable oil margarine – 1 tsp
  • Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
  • Yellow food colouring – ½ tsp (optional)
  • Nuts (your choice) – optional

Method:

  1. Make 1 cup of mango juice by blending the chopped mango, orange juice, mint leaves, 1 tsp of sugar and pinch of salt with water.
  2. Heat the juice in a saucepan with a tbsp of sugar for about 2 mins. Add the vanilla and semolina. Continue stirring until it thickens.
  3. Add 1 tsp of margarine and the optional yellow food colour and nuts. Mix well before transferring to a tray or mold so that it can set.
  4. Serve warm with tea or after a meal.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Mango chutney

Today, I thought of sharing two of my mother’s chutney recipes.

Raw mangoes

Mango chutney

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 4Mango chutney

Ingredients:

  • Mango – 1, unripe
  • Onion – ¼, chopped
  • Malu miris/ capsicum – 1, chopped
  • Mustard – 1 tsp
  • Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
  • Sugar – 1 tbsp
  • Vinegar – 1 tsp (optional – best to add, if you want to keep chutney for some days)
  • Turmeric – ½ tsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Low fat oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Wash the mango, de-seed and chop up the mango with the skin into 1 inch slices.
  2. Marinate the chopped up mango pieces with salt and turmeric. Keep aside.
  3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the mustard and fennel seeds. As they start to splutter, add the chopped onion and malu miris.
  4. After a few minutes of frying or once the onions become pinkish, add the marinated pieces of mango and mix well.
  5. Cover and cook on low heat for 5 mins.
  6. Remove cover and stir.
  7. Add 1 tsp of crushed chillies to the pan. Mix well and cover and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
  8. Remove cover again and this time, add 1 tbsp of sugar and the optional 1 tsp vinegar.
  9. Mix well and cover and cook for a few more minutes.
  10. Remove from heat and mix well before transferring to the serving bowl.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.