Celebrating crossing 100,000 page views - Mango Soufflé #FoodieExtravaganza

G'Gina's Kitchenette has crossed another milestone and I am so thankful to all our readers. Reaching this milestone would never have been possible without my Good Lord and my constant inspiration Mummy.

So to celebrate this milestone, I would like to share my Mango Soufflé recipe as a part of our Foodie Extravaganza June event. I had a choice to either bake this soufflé or to use the normal double boiler method. I preferred the latter to allow the natural flavours of mango to appear. Not only did my little one like this soufflé, two of my friends (and neighbours) Divya and Ribu, did too. I missed on giving some to another friend and neighbour, so I may make this again this afternoon. In fact the talk of my making this soufflé was two-fold, one was as a part of the Foodie Extravaganza challenge and the other one is because there is a tradition that I follow from Mum. We never return an empty container back to anyone who offers us their food/delicacies. Ribu made this awesome fish curry for me to try and Divya offered me one of my many staples I used to regularly have in Hyderabad (Gongura Pickle). 

Lemon Rice with Paneer

Lemon Rice has always been one of my favourites since childhood. We had a live-in maid growing up and her name is 'Aleyamma'. She often made lemon rice. Though I never liked rice much, a heap full of lemon rice always brought a smile to my face and she made it sooo well. She was quite young so was more like a friend to us. She never hesitated making lemon rice for me whenever I asked as I was such a poor eater back then. I guess I always loved the tangy flavour of the rice and anything salted or tangy found its way in my good books back then.

Ever since I got married, my husband who has always followed all the Orthodox Christian lenten practices, had inspired me to follow the same. So that is 50 days of lent before Easter, 14 days in August before the Feast of Assumption of Our Blessed Virgin Mary, the 7 days before Mama Mary's birthday in September and the 24 days before Christmas.

I wanted to incorporate some protein in the Lemon Rice itself as I was not much in the mood for cooking. I had made some paneer which was in the freezer. So eureka moment I just thought of combining the two.

This is a super simple recipe so I recommend this for a lazy last day of the week or even a busy mid week meal.

You need:

• 2 cups of  Cooked long grain or Basmati Rice
• 1 cup of Paneer, cut into bite size or small cubes as preferred
• A sprig of  Curry leaves 
• 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
• 2 whole dried Kashmiri Red Chilies, hand torn into pieces ( I left it whole as my toddler is anti-spice eater)
• 1 tsp grated Ginger
• 1 clove of crushed Garlic (optional)
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp Lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp Urad dal (split Black Lentils)
• 1 tsp Chana dal (split Bengal Gram)
• Salt to taste
• 1.5 tbsp Oil
• Mint leaves, minced (optional)
• Yoghurt (optional)

**(If you look at the minimal background carefully you can see my little one's angry birds' drinking glass! She was all ready to have her yellow rice. She loved it and her expressions reminded me of mine when I was as young as she was! Smiling from ear to ear ;-) )

The Make
Preparation time: 5 minutes | Cooking time: 15-20 minutes (includes rice cooking time) | Serves : 4 adults

1. In a flat non-stick pan, drizzle and heat some oil. Add the paneer pieces. Pinch and spread some salt over the paneer cubes. Fry until lightly browned on both side.
2. Heat the oil in a large wok or non-stick pan and splutter the mustard seeds.
3.. Next add the curry leaves, followed by the Urad dal, Chana dal and saute well for a minute on medium-low heat.
4. Next add the crushed garlic, ginger, red chilies and saute for a minute.
5. Add the turmeric powder and slowly fold in the rice, taking care not to mash the rice on medium heat for about 2 minutes. Continue tossing.
6. Add the prepared paneer cubes and fold in and leave on heat for a minute folding well.
7. Add the salt, lemon juice and fold occasionally for another minute on medium-low heat.

Serve hot with a cup of yoghurt with some mint leaves on top on the side.

Tuna in Spiced Tomato gravy

Ok no excuses this time! It has been almost a month since my last post. I have been whipping up several exotic creations, some failed and crashed. Although I had mentioned in my last post on G'Gina's Kitchenette's Facebook page of a sweet surprise, that did not happen as it was one of the ones that crashed and burned. The specialist who was to fix my grill and oven has been avoiding the visit due to heavy rains we have been experiencing here. I promise to come back to the sweet delights soon enough!

This one is a Spanish inspiration. With the monsoons coming in, one of my dear readers had suggested some wholesome warm recipe creations. If you love fish, this would definitely be up your alley. If not you can substitute with chicken or eggplant or even whole boiled eggs. Of course the cooking time would be reduced accordingly.

You need:

• 1 kg tuna, preferably skinned, filleted and cut into medium size pieces
• 4-5 medium sized tomatoes,skinned and de-seeded
• 1 large red onion, cut into 4 quarters
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, skinned and crushed
• 2 tbsp red paprika powder
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey (optional)
• 1 red capsicum (habanero ), deseeded and diced
• 2 tbsp fresh coriander (Cilantro) leaves, chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh mint leaves, picked and chopped
• 4 tbsp of olive oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 cup drinking water

The Make:

Cooking Time: 40 minutes | Preparation Time : 10 minutes | Serves 6-7

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the tomatoes, onion, and garlic on a baking sheet/foil and toss with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer baking sheet to the oven. Cook until the tomatoes are slightly charred, turning occasionally in 20 minutes.

2. Bring it to room temperature and then transfer all the ingredients from the baking sheet/foil to a blender along with the paprika powder, habanero, cilantro, white wine vinegar, honey (optional) and mint. Blend until smooth. Season with salt taking care not to add too much as the tomatoes have already has been seasoned.

3. Next drizzle some of the remaining oil in a claypot or non-stick deep bottomed pot. Rub some salt and pepper on the tuna pieces and lightly saute giving 2 minutes on each side adding the remaining oil as required. Pour in the blended mix to the tuna pieces and cook for no more than 15-20 minutes. Add water as required and bring to boil.

Serve hot with Spanish rice or any other rice of your choice, pasta or flatbread of your choice.

Mango Lassi - Flavour of the season - 2 ways!

I needn't tell you why mango? Mangoes, Mangoes, everywhere, lots of sweetness ratios, sizes and shapes. Of course as I mentioned in my earlier post. My toddler is now in no interest to drink hot milk. So I need to think of newer ways to get that milk in her :) And since its hot..hot...hot, what better way to beat the heat than think of different coolers! Made the best of the mangoes this season!

I made this Mango Lassi in one way for me and one for her. Hers had sugar and mine had none just the sweetness of the delicious mango with a tad bit of cardamom and a pinch of salt to enhance the flavour of the mango. Saffron threads can also be used. Just make sure to powder this first and blend in milk before mixing in.

You need:

• 2 medium sized sweet, juicy mangoes, diced into medium sized pieces
• 2 cups of homemade plain yogurt (you can used the store bought variety)
• 1/2 cup milk (toddler variety of lassi)
• 2 tbsp sugar (toddler variety of lassi)
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of cardamom powder
• Mint leaves (desired)
• Ice cubes ((if desired)
• Pinch of saffron (if desired), 1/4 cup milk

The Make:

Servings: 2 tall glasses | Preparation Time: 10 minutes

1. Cool two glasses with ice.  Alternatively chill the glasses in the freezer.

2. Powder the saffron if you are using and blend it with 1/4 cup milk, salt and cardamom powder. Set aside.

3. Blend the mangoes and yogurt. Set aside 1 glass of mango-yogurt with the saffron milk.

3. Next add in the sugar and  1/2 cup milk to the remaining mango-yogurt blend and then pour into a cooled glass, after taking out the ice and residual water from the glass if you used ice. Serve with hand picked mint leaves on top. The texture will be smooth and creamy.

4. For the saffron mix, blend once more and serve with mint leaves on top. Serve cold.

Cheers...drink up! Enjoy!