Shahi Falooda / Royal Falooda

Falooda is a popular Indian layered dessert with very different textures and components. The layers consist of rose syrup, vermicelli, tukmaria seeds, jelly, rose milk, fresh fruits and nuts and vanilla ice cream. The recipe and the process looks very elaborate but if you make all the things ahead of time it will be very easy to assemble just before serving. Tukmaria / Sabja seeds / sweet basil seeds are available in Indian stores and it is entirely different from Chia seeds. Tukmaria or sabja seeds are believed to have a lot of health benefits and you can read about it here.... There are a lot of different versions of Falooda recipes and I liked Ria’s version of vermicelli cooked in milk to a kheer than just boiling in water. So here is the recipe for one of the most beautiful looking desserts for you…

Shahi Falooda / Royal Falooda

Ingredients:

For the Vermicelli Payasam / Kheer:

½ cup Semiya / Vermicelli

2 cups milk

⅓ cup Sugar

¼ tsp cardamom powder

For the Rose Milk:

1 ½ cups cold milk

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp Rooh-Afza / Rose Syrup

For the Tukmaria:

1 tbsp Tukmaria / Sabja seeds / Sweet Basil seeds

1 cup water

For Falooda:

1 packet Strawberry / Raspberry jelly / jello

2 tsp Rooh-Afza / Rose Syrup

Fruits of your choice like Straberries, banana, apple etc, chopped

Vanilla Ice Cream

Pistachios / Cashew Nuts / Almonds, to decorate

Mint Leaves to decorate

Method:

For the Vermicelli Payasam / Kheer:

Bring 2 cups milk to a boil, add ⅓ cup sugar and ½ cup Semiya / Vermicelli and cook till the vermicelli is soft and the mixture is thickened, stirring often.  Add cardamom powder, mix well and turn off the heat. Chill until use.

For the Jelly:

Make jelly by following the instructions on the packet. Cool and refrigerate. Once cool, cut into small cubes and set aside.

For the Rose Milk:

Add 2 tbsp Rooh-Afza and 1 tbsp sugar to 1 ½ cups cold milk and chill till needed.

For the Tukmaria:

Soak Tukmaria / sabja seeds / Sweet Basil seeds in 1 cup water for 20 minutes and allow to bloom. Drain the water and set aside.

To Assemble Falooda:

In a tall glass add a tea spoon of Rooh-Afza / Rose Syrup, followed by 2 tsp of tukmaria, a couple of table spoons of vermicelli kheer, chopped fruits and jelly cubes. Pour some rose milk to cover the assembly. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and garnish with sliced nuts and mint leaves and serve immediately.

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Homemade Mango Ice Cream

It’s that season of the year when supermarket shelves are filled with different varieties of mangoes. I made this easy condensed milk mango ice cream that needs no cooking at all. Just whip up everything and freeze and you will have an amazing homemade mango ice cream. Even teenagers can make it at home! If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you need to whip the ice cream 2-3 times as it freezes to avoid crystallisation in the ice cream. You will get soft and smooth ice cream without an ice cream maker at home :) :) 

Homemade Mango Ice Cream with Condensed Milk

Ingredients:

Ripe Mango puree – 3 cups
Milk – 3 cups
Fresh Cream – 2 cups
Sweetened Condensed Milk – 1 tin
Sugar – ½ cup 

Lemon juice -1 tbsp

Method:

• Combine the condensed milk, milk, mango puree and lemon juice in a bowl.
• Whip the cream lightly with sugar and fold into the mixture.
• Pour into a freezing tray and freeze till half set. Remove and beat with a whisk or electric beater until smooth. Repeat the process two more times. Doing so will help keep the texture of the ice cream soft and creamy while it sets.
• Return to tray and freeze till well set and serve.

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Christmas Pudding

Hi everybody, How was your Christmas celebrations? Hope you all had a lovely Christmas with family and friends! We had a cosy Christmas just three of us. This time my son asked me to grill a full chicken for Christmas lunch! He really enjoyed the food of his choice and for dessert I made the British Christmas Pudding. I always wanted to try the Christmas Pudding but never desired to buy it from the shop, especially the non-alcoholic version we get here. Every year I kept postponing due to the non-availability of suet here, until recently I read somewhere that I can use butter instead. The butter should be cold enough to grate it. I made half the amount of pudding with the left over soaked fruits after making the ChristmasCake. The pudding is a dark, sticky and dense sponge. The pudding tastes better if you make it ahead of time and allow to mature and then reheat on Christmas Day. Traditionally the Christmas pudding has to steam for a total 6 to 7 hours in a steamer and you guessed it, I made it the traditional way! You can also make it in a pressure cooker in around 2 hours, without weight and if you are brave enough, you can make it with weight in just half an hour. Flambé or flame the pudding was really fun and all of us really enjoyed seeing and photographing the flaming pudding!! 

Christmas Pudding Recipe

(Recipe Adapted from here) Serves 8 – 10

Ingredients:
450g dried mixed fruit
1 small cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped

Grated zest and juice of ½ large orange and ½ lemon
4 tbsp brandy, plus a little extra for soaking at the end
2 oz / 55 g self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
4 oz / 110 g shredded cold butter (If you get suet, go for it instead of butter) 

4oz / 110g soft, dark brown sugar
4 oz / 110 g white fresh bread crumbs
1 oz / 25 g whole shelled almonds, roughly chopped
2 large, eggs
Lightly butter a 2½ pint/1.4 litre pudding basin/17cm
125 ml Brandy, rum or vodka (to flame the pudding)

Method:

• Place the dried fruits, apple, orange and lemon juice into a large mixing bowl. Add the brandy and stir well. Cover the bowl with a lid and leave to marinate for a couple of hours, preferably overnight.
• Stir together the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon in a very large mixing bowl. Add the cold shredded butter, sugar, lemon and orange zest, bread crumbs, nuts and stir again until all the ingredients are well mixed. Finally add the marinated dried fruits and stir again.
• Beat the eggs lightly in a small bowl then stir quickly into the dry ingredients. The mixture should have a soft consistency.
• Spoon the mixture in to the greased pudding basin, gently pressing the mixture down with the back of a spoon. Cover with a double layer of greaseproof paper or baking parchment, then a layer of aluminium foil and tie securely with string.
• Place the pudding in a steamer and steam the pudding for 5 hours. Make sure you check the water level frequently so it never boils dry.
• Remove the pudding from the steamer, cool completely. Remove the paper, prick the pudding with a skewer and pour in a little extra brandy. Cover with fresh greaseproof paper and retie with string. Store in a cool dry place until Christmas day. 
• On Christmas day reheat the pudding by steaming again for about an hour. 
• To unmould the pudding, take off the parchment paper, put a plate on top and turn it upside down.
• To Flambé / flame the pudding, heat the brandy/ rum/ vodka in a small pan till it is hot, but turn off the heat before it boils, light the pan of brandy using a gas lighter or matchstick, then pour the flaming brandy over the pudding and enjoy the pudding with Brandy Sauce or Custard. 
• Left over Christmas pudding can be reheated and served.

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White Chocolate and Passionfruit Celebration Cake

I had an eye on this White Chocolate and Passionfruit Cake for a long time and was waiting for an occasion to try it. Finally on our 20th Wedding Anniversary last week I decided to make this cake to celebrate.  This is a time consuming, very rich and dense cake and just as its name suggests "a true celebration cake". The whole cake is huge for a small family like ours, so I halved the recipe and baked two 8 inch round cakes which gave me a two layer cake. If you are making half the amount you can also bake it in three 5 inch round pans to get 3 layers. Finally, I decorated the cake with sugar paste roses.  

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Lemon Meringue Pie

I am re-posting one of the recipes from my initial days of blogging. This was our 2015 New Year day dessert and I thought of changing the old pictures with new ones. This Lemon Meringue Pie is a very easy to make delicious dessert with easily available ingredients... A perfect dessert to include in a party menu!

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Passionfruit Satin Chiffon Pie

Hi everybody, How are your holiday celebrations coming along? Hope you are all set for Christmas. It’s been a very busy time for the past couple of weeks, hence couldn’t update my blog even though I had a couple of posts already drafted! Son had exams and I got busy with him… Now his school is closed so I may get some time to spend on my blog, hopefully :).... Like every year I made the Christmas Cake, but couldn’t do the icing yet:( .... Today’s recipe is a Passionfruit Pie I tried recently and if you are still thinking of dessert for Christmas or New Year you can try this! If you are a regular reader you know my love for passionfruit by now :P...  So here is another passion fruit recipe to add to my list :)...
For the crust you can either use the Buttery Vanilla Nut Crumb Crust recipe given below or can use vanilla biscuit crust or Ginger Biscuit crust

May this Christmas fill your hearts with warmth, peace and joy!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! 

Passionfruit Satin Chiffon Pie

Serves -8

Recipe from 365 Great Cakes and Pies

Buttery Vanilla Nut Crumb Crust

Ingredients:

½ cup nuts (can use pecans, walnuts, almonds or cashew nuts)

1 ¼ cups vanilla cookie crumbs

5 tbsp butter, melted

Method: 

• Preheat oven to 350°F / . Arrange nuts on a small cookie sheet. Bake 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly toasted and fragrant. Cool and finely chop.
• In a medium bowl, combine cookie crumbs and nuts. Stir in butter, tossing until mixture is evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture evenly over bottom and sides of a 9 –inch pie pan. Bake 8-10 mints, or until crumbs are lightly toasted. Cool completely on a wire rack before filling.

Passionfruit Filling:

Ingredients:

10 fresh passionfruit or ½ cup frozen passionfruit puree, thawed

1 tbsp unflavored gelatin

4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

½ tsp grated lime zest

½ cup heavy cream

Whipped cream and passionfruit puree for decoration

Method:

• Cut each fresh passionfruit in half and scoop out pulp and seeds with a spoon. Transfer to a fine sieve set over a bowl; strain pulp through sieve, pressing with back of spoon. Discard seeds. You should have ½ cup passionfruit puree.
• In a cup, sprinkle gelatin over ¼ cup water; let it stand 5 minutes to soften.
• In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and ½ cup sugar. Whisk in passionfruit puree and lime juice until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and coats back of a spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Remove from heat and stir in softened gelatin and lime zest until gelatin is completely dissolved. Place the mixture in a larger bowl filled with ice water. Let cool, stirring occasionally, until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from spoon.
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer to soft peaks. Gradually add remaining ¼ cup sugar. Increase mixer speed and continue to beat until stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted. Remove partially set gelatin mixture from ice water. With a rubber spatula, fold in beaten whites until blended.
• In another bowl, beat cream with an electric mixer until stiff. Fold into passionfruit mixture. Turn filling into Buttery Vanilla Nut Crumb crust. Cover and refrigerate until filling is set, several hours or overnight. Uncover, decorate top with whipped cream, passionfruit puree and lemon zest. 

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Mango Tart with Ginger Biscuit Crust

Made this mango tart with the last mangoes of the season. Instead of the regular Marie biscuit base I used Ginger biscuits this time and it was a really good decision! We really liked the combination. If you don’t like ginger biscuits use any other tea biscuits for the base. To maintain the freshness of the mangoes you can bake the base and the filling a day ahead and add mango pieces and whipped cream decoration just before serving.

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Mango Burfi / Aam Burfi

It’s been a long time since I updated this space. Took a short break that got extended because of my laziness! Meantime I did two courses in cake decoration from PME London. Also did a couple of cakes for relatives and friends here. Will share the pictures of the cakes soon…. On the cooking front I didn’t experiment much except a couple of recipes. This Mango Burfi was one such new trial. Got the recipe from here and it came out good. It’s a little time consuming recipe that needs almost constant stirring and the contents will splutter all over the counter and sometimes on our hands too if we are not careful. But the end result is really worth all the hard work. Do try this Mango Burfi before the mango season ends…

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Orange Cardamom Bundt Cake

I love simple citrus cakes and I enjoy making bundt cakes:).... It’s amazing to see the beautifully baked bundt cake in front of us when we remove the cake from the pan..... My heart always beats faster when I try to remove the cake from the bundt always apprehensive of whether the cake will retain its beautiful shape or not ;)..... Now a days I am obsessed with collecting bundt pans along with props; so if anyone is planning to give me a gift, hope you got some ideas right?? ;).... Jokes apart, this is a fabulous cake with the orange and cardamom flavor and the citrus glaze drizzled on top of the warm cake makes it a delicious treat!

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Pastel de Tres Leches – Three-Milk Cake ~ Daring Baker’ September 2013 Challenge

Pastel de Tres Leches or Three milk cake was on my do list for quite some time and I even bought all the ingredients once too… But somehow I was never able to make it …. When this month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge was announced I did not want to miss the opportunity to make this cake. I did not add fruits to the cake layers, just decorated the cake with some raspberries. If you want you can add fruits like peaches, mangoes, berries or cherries. I really enjoyed this month’s challenge and will definitely make this cake again!

This recipe slightly adapted from an interview given by one of Mexico's best Pastry Chefs; Paulina Abascal to the magazine Revista Secretos de la Pastelería Caserais it produces a super moist yet light Tres Leches.

Pastel de Tres Leches– Three-Milk Cake is a super moist, light, airy and super delicious sponge cake soaked in the three kinds of milk (evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream). Tres Leches is a very light cake (especially if made without butter), with many air bubbles in its crumb. This distinct texture is why it does not have a soggy consistency, despite being soaked in a mixture of three types of milk.

Inma was our Sept. 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and WOW did she bring us something decadent and delicious! Pastel de Tres Leches or Three Milk Cake, creamy yet airy, super moist but not soggy.. just plain delish!

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Mango and Passion Fruit Flavored Savarin ~ April 2013 Daring Bakers Challenge

Savarin is a yeasted cake made with the same dough as Rum Baba. I made Rum Baba a couple of years back… the difference between the two  are, rum baba has raisins or currants in the dough and is baked in tall cylindrical baba mold and served without a filling. Savarin is made without raisins and baked in a large ring mold and the hole in the centre is filled with pastry cream and fresh fruits. 

Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina challenges us to make a traditional Savarin, complete with soaking syrup and cream filling! We were to follow the Savarin recipe but were allowed to be creative with the soaking syrup and filling, allowing us to come up with some very delicious cakes!

I made a Mango and Passion Fruit flavored soaking syrup. The glaze was made with mango jam. I served the Savarin with fresh mangoes and vanilla whipped cream. I halved the recipe and used 2 small bundt pans for baking. We all enjoyed the Savarin and thank you Natalia for a great challenge.

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Orange-Soaked Bundt Cake

Recently when I saw this recipe I tried it and we really loved this amazingly moist cake.... The cake has a good orange flavor and is very moist.... both flavor and moistness improves with time..... I made some changes from the original recipe, the amount of oil in the original seemed a little too much for me so I reduced it to ½ cup, I used orange zest in the cake not lemon zest and for syrup I used fresh orange juice not frozen.... It was a really good cake and the best part is you can make it 2 or 3 days ahead of time if you are planning a party and the cake tastes wonderful after 2 days.....

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Mango Cheese Cake Recipe

This recipe was shared by Neethu, a friend of mine in Kuwait. You can make this in a spring form pan and cut it into wedges before serving or you can make it in individual dessert glasses. This time I made it using my small cake rings and it came out looking very pretty :).... For the first layer I baked the sponge cake in a jelly roll pan  as I was planning to assemble it using  small cake rings.  Alternatively, you can bake it in a square or spring form pan.... For the cake base you are free to use store bought sponge cake, eggless cake or ready to make cake mix.... For cream cheese I used Kiri cream cheese but you can use any brand you prefer.... Substitute mango with fresh strawberry jelly and pulp and you will get a beautiful pink cheese cake.... Do try this easy Mango Cheese Cake this Valentine’s Day and let me know how you like it.....

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Mango Truffles

It’s the beginning of a new year and I wanted to start off with something sweet :).... I have already tried many truffles and mango truffles was in my mind for a long time, even tried once which did not turn out as expected ....  so this Christmas I tried these again and it came out pretty well..... I used the basic recipe of Pumpkin Truffles..... The only problem was to shape the ganache to a perfect ball.... the ganache was so fragile you need to freeze them before and after shaping it..... also you have to rub your hands with powdered sugar very well.....  May be using a chocolate mould will make the whole process little more effortless; I have to try that next time..... Mango puree should be thick and I used frozen Alphonso mango puree....

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Chocolate Date Cake Recipe

It’s been a couple of weeks since I have updated this space…. I was busy with shifting our apartment and settling down in the new home… Still I have a lot to unpack and I am only cooking some basic stuff just to survive ;)… Today just to relax, I thought of posting this easy one bowl chocolate date cake recipe that I made recently… The batter is completely prepared in a saucepan, and that means you only need to wash up one bowl!.... Dates add moistness to this dark, fudgy cake…. and this cake goes very well with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream…. A great dessert for a party with little effort :)…

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Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake

I love citrus cakes and this PassionFruit Buttermilk Pound Cake was a huge hit in my family… Many tried the cake after I posted the recipe and I received a lot of compliments....since then I was thinking of making the Lemon flavor like in the original recipe from Deeba’s blog... Recently I tried that and we loved this very soft and yummy Lemon Cake....

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Passion Fruit Mille-Feuille / Napoleon / Custard Slice for Daring Bakers’

This month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge is to make Mille-Feuille, the popular French patisserie treat. ‘Mille-feuille’ is French for ‘a thousand leaves’ (or ‘layers’), which is very apt, as it contains both layers of pastry (usually three) and layers within each pastry sheet..... Making puff pastry (or pâte feuilletée) basically involves a simple pastry dough, which is folded around sheet of butter (the beurrage). You then roll out your butter pastry package, fold it, roll it out, fold it, etc. – creating seams of butter that will puff up into distinct crispy layers when baked. The traditional mille-feuille is filled with a vanilla pastry cream (crème pâtissière) and is also known as a Napoleon, a custard slice or a vanilla slice. It’s often topped with royal icing and distinctive chocolate squiggles, and is popular the world over....

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Passion Fruit Frozen Yogurt Recipe

When Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt was introduced in Kuwait a couple of years back there used to be a huge queue in front of the shop and we literally had to wait for at least an hour to get a scoop of frozen yogurt.... and it’s a very rare sight to see Kuwaitis wait patiently to get something :P.... Now Pinkberry has opened lot of outlets all over Kuwait and the novelty has worn off and so have the queues.....We love Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt and undoubtedly a die-hard fan of Passion Fruit, I tried to recreate this at home using the recipe from David Lebovitz's  The Perfect Scoop..... I have added some Passion fruit puree to his basic Vanilla frozen Yogurt recipe and it tasted awesome and very similar to Pinkberry’s Passion Fruit Yogurt....

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Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe

If you like chocolates and bananas you will definitely like this chocolate banana bread :)...had some over ripe bananas in hand and I didn't want to make regular banana bread or cake..... I wanted something chocolaty that day and hence chose to make this chocolate banana bread..... basic recipe is from Joy of Baking and I did some alterations..... Original recipe calls for walnuts, I didn't add any as I don’t like walnuts but I doubled the chocolate chips instead, also reduced the amount of egg and butter than the original recipe… this cake bread turned out perfect...... 

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Mango and Passion Fruit Mousse

As usual when I return from my annual vacation in Kerala, my father gives me frozen passion fruit pulp; this year I got 3 big bottles of passion fruit pulp :).... That means you guys will get to see more passion fruit recipes here ;).... this time I tried Mango and Passion fruit Mousse and the end result was awesome...... Alphonso mango pulp and passion fruit pulp mixed with whipped cream and egg whites you just can’t go wrong :).....  It is a very easy to make dessert with absolutely no cooking involved....  Ensure gelatin and puree are at equal temperature to prevent lumps when combining.... Mousse is best made day before serving..... Since this mousse contains raw egg whites I will not recommend this dessert for small kids or pregnant ladies...... 

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