Mango Mania - Mango & Banana Gluten, Grain free low fat, stove top Munchkins(Sweet Paniyaram)

A pretty long name for such a small dish, eh? Every one has a favorite gadget in their kitchen which they love and use it often. For me Aebleskiver Pan or Danish Cake Pan or the Payiram Pan with which ever name you know is one such gadget and use it quite often in making a variety of dishes. Bitten by the mango bug and trying out various dishes using mango, I wouldn't do justice to my favorite kitchen gadget if I didn't try anything using it. So came up with this easy, delicious and high protein snack. My elder one's friend who had come to play with him thought that these cuties looked like the munchkins and preferred to call them the same. Now getting on to the recipe



Preparation Time - 10 Minutes

Cooking Time - 15 Minutes

Serves - Makes approximately 10





Ingredients



Mung & Urad batter - 1 Cup (See note below)

Grated coconut - 2 Tbsp

Mango pieces - 2 Tbsp

Banana (1/3 banana) - Mashed with a thick spoon into a nice puree

Cardamom powder - pinch

Grated Coconut - 2 Tbsp

Powdered Palm Sugar or Powdered Xylitol or Powdered Jaggery - 2 Heaped Tbsp (Jaggery tastes the best and next comes palm sugar and third comes xylitol in terms of the authentic taste)

Clarified butter - 1 Tbsp or more to your preference



Method



1) Add the grated coconut, mango pieces, cardamom powder, powdered sweetener of your choice, mashed banana to the ground bean batter and combine thoroughly.

2) Heat the Appam pan on medium heat and pour a drop of ghee in each one of the hole.

3) Once the pan is hot enough pour the batter, cover and cook little crispy on one side.

4) Now turn the appam and cook the other side. You can add little bit of more ghee to get a brown color on the other side too.

5) Remove the appam, when both the sides are well cooked.



Note - I soaked 1/2 Cup of Mung Bean and 1/2 Cup of Urad Dal for 3 hours and then washed, rinsed and ground them into a fluffy smooth batter. Used 1 cup of batter for these and used the rest to make dry fruits and nuts paniyaram which I will post later.



The idli batter also works out fine for this, but I prefer the one without grains.

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Mango Mania - Eggless Sugar Free & Guilt free Mango Ice Cream using Xylitol

Mango season would surely be incomplete without mango ice cream, but  I don't use refined sugar at my home and substitute xylitol instead of sugar in all the recipes. When I had some guests  coming over and staying with us for few days, couple of weeks before, I wasn't too sure if an ice cream with xylitol would be welcome by them. But I was flying in clouds when the youngest guest who is a very picky eater said this is one of the best Ice Cream he has ever tasted and tastes much better than the store bought one. I don't think one can expect any appreciation better than this. So if you love mangoes and are looking for guilt free ice cream, do try this out and let me know how you liked it.



Preparation Time - 15 Minutes

Cooking Time - 10 Minutes





Ingredients



Heavy Cream - 3 Cups

Half & Half - 1/2 Cup

Milk - 1 1/2 Cups

Mango pulp - 1 Big Mango

Xylitol(powdered) - 1Cup

Agar Agar flakes - 3 Tbsp



Method



1) Soak the Agar Agar flakes in little bit of water(around 1/4 cup) and let this sit for 20-25 minutes.



2)  Once the agar agar flakes are softened add them to the milk and simmer for 5-10 minutes till the milk becomes hot, now add the cream, xylitol and half and half and simmer till the agar agar flakes is all dissolved.



3) Cool this and let this sit in the refrigerator for an hour and then add the mango pulp to this milk mixture and in your blender blend till smooth and the mixture is well combined.



4) Now pour this mixture in the ice cream maker and process as per instructions. Once this is done, keep the ice cream in the freezer over night and serve with chopped nuts and cut mango pieces.



5) Enjoy!!!

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Mango Mania - Vegan Whole Wheat Mango Cake

Even though my house hold is gluten free and I am moving more towards Almond flour for all baking needs. I do get requests to make certain cakes from my other  family members and this is one of the cake which I made for my Parents couple of weeks before I went on vacation.  Very easy to make and was liked by everybody for whom I made this. So if you are not on a gluten free, grain free diet do try this out.  I am sure you will like this.

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Flour - 1 1/2 Cups

Mango Puree/ Pulp home made - 1 Cup

Raw Sugar - 1 Cup

Sunflower Oil - 1/2 Cup

Baking Powder - 1 Tsp

Baking Soda - 1/2 Tsp

Apple Cider Vinegar - 1 Tbsp

Salt - 1/4 Tsp

Cardamom powder - 1/2 Tsp

Nuts - Handful

Method

1) Sieve and combine the dry ingredients Whole wheat flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and keep this aside.

2) In a wide bowl add the mango puree, raw sugar, sunflower oil and combine thoroughly with a whisk.

3) Preheat a oven to 350 Degrees Fahrenheit and grease and flour a 8 * 4 baking pan.

4) To the wet ingredients add all the dry ingredients and using a spatula fold the batter without over mixing other wise the cake will be very hard. Now add the apple cider vinegar and combine thoroughly one more time.

5) Pour in the baking pan, top with the handful of nuts and bake for 35-40 minutes till a tooth pick inserted at the center comes out clean.

6) Cool in a wire rack and slice once cooled completely.

Recipe adapted from Champa's Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen.  Thanks Champa for the wonderful recipe.

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Mango Mania - Mango, Strawberry & Nuts Salad with Ginger, Honey dressing

What do you do with fruits which are neither sweet nor sour? How about some fruit salad with some Ginger, Honey dressing? This salad was made in spring when the season's first mangoes were available in the farmers market. The mangoes and strawberries were looking so good and flavorful, I couldn't control my urge to buy. But they both tasted totally bland and I didn't know what to do. So tried out this fruit salad and it was gone in few minutes.



Preparation Time - 10 Minutes

Cooking Time - Nil

Serves - 2





Ingredients



Mango - 1 (Peeled and cubed)

Strawberries - 5 to 6 (Washed and chopped into pieces)

Mixed nuts - Handful (Almonds, Cashews, Pistachios and pumpkin seeds)



Dressing



Orange Juice - 1 Tbsp

Honey - 1 Tsp

Ginger Juice - 1 Tsp



Method



1) Pour the orange juice, honey and ginger juice in a wide mouthed bowl and using an egg beater combine till the honey is mixed well with  the juices.

2) Now add the chopped fruits & nuts and toss well and serve. 

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Mango Mania - Amarkhand (Mango Flavored Yogurt Cheese Sweetened with Xylitol)

Craving for some dessert, try this nutritious Amarkhand!! Amarkhand is an Indian Sweet Dish made with strained yogurt, mango pulp and by mixing it with sugar, saffron, cardamom and nuts.  Instead of the sugar, I have replaced it with Xylitol and you can absolutely not tell much difference in the taste of Xylitol on dairy based desserts. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol sweetener used as naturally occurring sugar substitute. In fact Xylitol doesn't cause any cavities like normal sugar and is safe for kids too.

I am holding off on those summer beverages and thought of posting my series of mango recipes. Summer is incomplete without mangoes and in tropical countries like India you get a variety of them. But in United States except for the Mexican variety and few of the Indian varieties you don't have much choices. Unless you have seen and tasted the Indian varieties of mangoes it is very difficult to comprehend what I am talking about. But these mangoes are good to go in variety of dishes like this and with still Summer around the corner, do try it out and let me know how you liked it.

Preparation Time -30 Minutes

Cooking Time - None

Serves - 2

Ingredients

Greek Yogurt - 2 Cups (16 oz)

Mango pulp(pureed) - 3/4 Cup

Powdered Xylitol - 1/4 Cup or more based on taste

Saffron - Few Strands

Warm Milk - 1 Tablespoon

Sliced toasted nuts- 1 Tbsp

Cardamom powder - 1/4 Tsp

Finely chopped mango pieces - 1/4 Cup  (optional)

Method

1) Place the yogurt in a cheese cloth and squeeze out the excess water from the yogurt.( Make sure you don't squeeze out the yogurt and only the water).

2) Place this cloth in strainer with a bowl underneath and set this aside for 30 minutes to drain any more excess water.

3) Soak the saffron strands in warm milk and set this aside.

4) Now take the yogurt from the cheese cloth and wrap it in paper towel and place a flat bottomed heavy weight object for 5-10 minutes. The excess water any left out will be absorbed by the paper towel. Repeat the process with another 4 to 5 towels and voila you will have the thick, creamy yogurt.

5) Now add the saffron soaked  milk, powdered xylitol, mango pulp, cardamom powder and the chopped nuts.

6) Chill it before serving and add chopped mangoes before serving.

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Apple Cinnamon Milk Shake

 Cinnamon and Apple are such an unbeatable combination not only in muffins, cakes and pies. But also in milk shakes. Cinnamon is such a wonderful spice and gives a lot of flavor to the food and also with loads of health benefits. Recent studies show that half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day has shown to significantly reduce blood sugar levels, LDL(bad) cholestrol and total cholestrol levels in people with type 2 diabetes. You can also soak a table spoon of chia seeds in 3 Tbsp of water and add the gel to this milk shake to stay full for a longer period of time and also to fortify with omega 3 fats to this calcium and vitamin rich milk shake.

But if you are on a low sugar and low carbohydrate diet plan, this milk shake will not work for you. Instead go for Almond Butter Chocolate Milk Shake or Chocolate Truffle Shake. Green apple would be the best bet for people on a  low sugar diet because of its low fructose content. If you are going in for organic apple there is no need to peel the apple otherwise peel them to avoid the wax.

Preparation Time - 10 Minutes

Cooking Time - Nil

Serves - 2

Ingredients

Organic Apples - 2(Washed, Cored and chopped)

Raw Milk - 1 1/2 Cups

Water - 1/2 Cup

Cinnamon powder - 1 Tsp

Xylitol - 1 Tbsp or per taste

Ice cubes - 4 to 5

Method

1) Place the apple, milk, water, xylitol in a blender and blend till smooth.

2) Add the ice cubes and cinnamon powder and blend for few more seconds and serve in tall glasses.

3) Enjoy!!!

Event Participation



1) This goes to Ramya's ABC event - the Theme Apple for september

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