Desi Chatpata Mango Salsa

 

Aeonian blogging for months and then a sudden breach that kept me on a lazy halt for around 2 months....gosh, this was so awkward and undesirable!! Once you lose the pace for going, you naturally go dumb and otiose, and so was I during the past couple of days. The beginning was great, being at mom's place and hogging on those yummilicious desi plates full of love and spice, but then came a phase of indolence in which my cooking and baking got lost somewhere..... but now I feel rejuvenated in travelling back to those glorious days of culinary practice again. To begin with, I could not think any better than jumping on the king of fruits, which also happens to be the star ingredient of this month's 'Cooking Made Easy Series' of mine: Mango

Of all the recipes I received so far for this event, I found 'Mango Salsa' the most tempting and easiest and thought of replicating it with a few changes to make it typically khatta meetha and Indian, so here comes the Desi Chatpata Mango Salsa.

DESI CHATPATA MANGO SALSA

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1. Ripe Mango: 1 

2. Onion: 1

3. Tomato: 1

4. Salt: 1 tsp or as per taste

5. Olive Oil: 1 tbs

6. Honey: 1 tbs

7. Lemon Juice: 1 tsp

8. Chat Masala: 1 tsp
9. Black Pepper Powder: 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Peel off the mango and cube it in small pieces.
2. Chop the tomato and onion finely. 
3. Transfer them to a bowl and add olive oil, honey, salt, lemon juice and chat masala to it. 
4. Give a flip and serve immediately with chips, papad, biryani or anything you wish.

Suggestions:

1. You can use any variety of mango here, but I prefer the tangy yet sweet ones, like the 'Raspuri' or 'Kesar Aam'.
2. You could also add bell pepper and jalapeno, though I found it good even without them. 
3. Addition of honey is a choice. You could skip this if you don't like honey or don't wish the salsa to be sweet.
4. Red Chilli Powder can be added for an extra kick.
5. Always add salt and spices just before serving, else the salsa will start giving up juices and will turn slightly watery.
6. Dried herbs like mint, parsley, basil or oregano can be sprinkled for that over-the-top flavor and aroma. 
7. This can even be served in tarts or small canepes.  

Submitting this to:

 My ongoing event: Cooking Made Easy With Mango,

99 day festival - Mango Mania,

Bon Vivant Fruit Recipes,

Let's Cook With Fruits by Radhika,

Summer Spunk by Anusha

Guest post for CWK Series: Instant Raw Mango Pickle

In this life full of hustle n bustle, hurries and worries, sometimes you come across pearls that shine and leave their radiating reflection in your eyes never to be forgotten. One fine day when I was playing with my daughter, rhyming with her on the tunes of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', and I received a buzz from this young, talented girl on my chat. I only knew her as a blogger by then and that day I saw the other side of her, the brilliant girl who's going for her C.A., all destined and aimed towards her goals, and still the passion for cooking reigning her mind. I was bewildered to know that she learnt cooking at the age of 9; gosh, I didn't know how to make tea at that age!! She is a girl full of life, vivacious and charming, talented and determined, and I wish she stays like that forever. We all love you, Kavi, and your blog 'Edible Entertainment' rocks!!

This girl has been hosting a number of events, and now with this new event of hers, called 'Cooking With Kin', she's inviting her fellow blogger and non-blogger friends to guest post on her blog; what an honour!! I'm literally delighted to be a part of that team and I feel great in writing this post for her. 

 

This recipe is a favorite in my family because it's very simple, very quick and goes well with just anything and everything. I always used to see my mom and grand-mom making pickles/ achaar during summers and saving them for the whole year, but I never did that. For me, life has always been a run from here to there, flipping countries like pages and going on and on. With this fast pace of life, this recipe is what I cherish as a gift. This one is very close to my heart and hence I feel elated in posting this for someone who's also a sweetheart. 

 

Please click here for the recipe and do check her fabulous blog for those utter tempting recipes. :)

 

 

Linking this recipe to my ongoing event: Cooking Made Easy With Mango

 

 

 

May Event: Cooking Made Easy with Mango

Gosh, when you are at your mom's place, the world turns into a paradise, rather like a dream world of Cindrella. I feel, and moreover, I am treated no less than a princess when I'm in this 'City of Lakes'. I get all that I want, from Paav Bhaji to Ras Malai, from Pani Puri to Falooda, from trendy outfits to brilliant footwear, and from love to all that adorable attention. Well, keeping this aside, let me announce the surprise ingredient for this month's 'Cooking Made Easy Series'. I'm already very late in announcing this since I was busy hogging on mom cooked food and some family get together. (What a stupid excuse, no!! :P))

This month's surprise ingredient is:

The King of Fruits: Mango

The rules to participate can be found here.

You can make smoothies, shakes, pickles, salads, juices, squash, desserts, ice-creams, kulfis, kebabs, amrakhand, just anything that pings your heart and brain.

Kindly link your entries using the linky tool below.

Besan Ke Laddoo

Nairobi, it's time to say 'adios' to you, with a dolorous heart and rainy eyes. Though the exhilaration of going back to desh is profound, yet the agony of not seeing you again is sore. These three months have been a potpourri filled with varied emotions, smiles, and tears. The lush green foliage, twinkly flowers, blossoming buds, and pearl rain showers, these all will always rest in my memory, never to be forgotten.

This place gave me ample time to play with my culinary skills with creativity imbibed. From baking breads to muffins, I almost found all baking artillery here which I could hardly find in India. 

Today, when this is my last post from this land, I want to make sure that I pay due regard to it and leave behind memories full of sweetness and charm. It's not just that I have to finish the gram flour and ghee before I leave, but I actually wanted to make these 'Laddoos' on a special day, so chose to do so just a day before the final day. 

Sugary, simple, yet comforting, this is an Indian Sweet that I and my hubby love a lot, joined in by our little princess who also has a sweet tooth.

BESAN KE LADDOO

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes

Makes 10 Laddoos

Ingredients:

1. Bengal Gram Flour/ Besan: 1 and 1/2 cups

2. Powdered Sugar: 1 cup (more if you like them sweeter)

3. Ghee/ Clarified Butter: 1/2 cup

4. Cardamom Powder/ Pisi Elaichi: 1 tsp

5. Sooji/Semolina: 2 tbs

6. Almonds and cashews (optional)

Method:

1. Take a heavy bottomed pan/kadai and melt ghee in it.
2. Add in the gram flour and cook on low flame for around 10 minutes, stirring continuously, till the flour turns golden brown. You will be able to breathe a nice aroma by now.
3. Initially when you add the ghee, the mixture will not appear very greasy and runny (unlike for 'halwa' where we keep it very greasy and flowing). Slowly as the flour gets cooked, it starts leaving ghee and towards the end you'll find the mixture greasy and smooth.
4. Put off the flame and let it cool completely.
5. On the other hand, powder the sugar in a grinder with cardamom added to it. 
6. Now add this sugar cardamom mix to the cooked flour and mix well with hands.
7. Divide into 10 equal portions and make round laddoos. I have learnt a special technique of making laddoos from my grand-mom where you make a ball with both the hands, and then roll it in your right palm, letting it move to and fro, so as to get that shiny, smooth texture. 
8. If you wish, you could add some slivered/finely chopped dry fruits to the flour mix before forming balls. 

Suggestions:

1. If the ghee is more in laddoos, and the temperature is too warm outside, they will flatten when you make balls. In such a case, let them cool down/refrigerate for 5 minutes and then reform immediately, giving the perfect round shape. 
2. In place of sooji, some people even use maida/all purpose flour.
3. Adding dry fruits is always an open option, though I generally prefer them plain.
4. Decrease or increase sweetness as per your taste.

The laddoos take off to:

 Any One Can Cook  by Umm,

Cook. Eat. Delicious.Desserts