Caramel Mango Pudding

Holidays are here and my daughter is at home keeping me on my toes throughout the day, I am bending down to meet all her requests and giving her company to play as well. Also I am counting days to leave for India...yippee...I am just so much excited to see everybody.

My DH loves pudding so I thought of making pudding with mangoes and caramelised sugar for additional sweet punch. This eggless pudding was a great hit with my folks. The recipe is loosely adapted from Anushruti's space.

I hope to post next something from my mil's and my mom's kitchen. I have been enjoying seeing all my fellow bloggers wonderful posts and I hope I will be able to keep in touch with all once I return from vacations. Till then do drop in at my space and forget me not.

Ingredients:

Whole Milk- 2 Cups
Pulp of 1 large Alphonso Mango
Cream- 1/4 Cup
Sugar- 4 tbsp
Cornstarch- 3 tsp
Agar Agar Flakes- 5gms
Water- 1/2 Cup
Butter- 2 tbsp

For Almond Praline:

Sugar- 3 tbsp
Almonds- 3 tbsp( Chopped)

Procedure:

• Out of the 2 cups of milk take 1/4 cup of milk and mix cornstarch in it and keep aside.
• Meanwhile tear agar agar in small bits and soak it in 1/2 cup water for 1/2 an hour to soften it.
• Blend milk, cream and mango pulp together and keep aside.
• Heat butter and add sugar together in a pan in medium heat and don't stir the pan, the sugar will start to caramelize and turn golden brown in colour.
• Add in the blended milk and mango mix and stir to combine everything nicely. Keep it for boiling. 
• While the milk is boiling in a separate pan take agar agar along with the soaked water and keep it to heat on medium flame and cook until agar agar melts.
• Once the milk comes to boil stir in the cornstarch and cook till mixture thickens.. Now add in the melted agar agar and stir. 
• Cook for another 3-4 minutes and switch off the gas.
• Pour the mix in a dish and allow it to come to room temperature. Once the mixture is cool transfer the dish to the refrigerator and chill for at least 3-4 hours before serving.

Almond Praline:

Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil and keep aside. Heat the sugar in a pan along with 1 tbsp of water and let the sugar caramelize without stirring the pan. Once the sugar turns golden brown in colour immediately add in the chopped almonds and stir. Transfer the mixture to the lined baking sheet and spread as much as thin as possible. Once the mixture is cool break the praline into small pieces.

Serve the chilled pudding topped with praline.

Sending this to my dear friend Meghna's Healthy Cooking Challenge Event- Desserts, originally started by Smita
Also sending this to Priya and Aipi's bookmarked recipes every tuesday event

Steamed Semolina and Carrot Cake

This is the time of the year when I pack my bags and anxiously count the days to go to India and meet my family.  Though I visit India every year but still each time its the same experience...nostalgic. And it's the same for them also...my parents, brother and my in- laws all anxiously wait for us to arrive and spend some days with their beloved grand child. My daughter will be spoilt with all the love, affection and how to forget..so many gifts as well. After coming back it becomes a great task for me to arrange her cupboard with the goodies she gets from her thathas, paatis and maama.

And before going  I have to do multitude of tasks...shopping, packing and cleaning my pantry, cupboards etc, and again I am finding myself short of time. I am also not able to feed my blog baby regularly and the cooking is also minimal in my kitchen, just using up what all is left in my pantry and still trying to eat healthy.

I had some semolina left and I was looking for some different way to use it up...just a bit fed up of eating upma....have to say~sorry dear upma but I need a change. I came across this recipe in Anjali's blog and was instantly hooked on it. I made very few changes to the original recipe and within 30 minutes I had  delicious slices of healthy and sweet steamed semolina and carrot cake...absolutely ~ guilt free.

Ingredients:

Semolina- 1/2 Cup
Carrot - 1 medium ( Grated)
Yoghurt- 1/2 Cup
Milk- 2 Tbsp
Sugar- 1/3 Cup or little more
Baking Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Cardamom Powder- 1/2 Tsp
Almonds- Chopped 7-8
Ghee- 1 Tsp to grease the dish

Procedure:

• Grease a round dish with 1 tsp ghee to steam the cake and keep aside.
• Dry roast semolina in low heat till slight golden brown in colour. Set aside to cool.
• In another big bowl combine all the ingredients and whisk till the sugar dissolves.
• Transfer the batter to the greased dish and steam on high in a pressure cooker ( without the whistle) for 20-25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• Once cool invert the cake onto a plate, and serve by cutting in slices.

Linking this to Ayeesha's Any One Can Cook Series- 23
Priya and Aipi's Every Tuesday- Bookmark event