Summer is in its full swing. This means scorching weather outside and delicious mangoes in the house, what a fabulous combination. Then, why not beat the heat with this delicious Mango Smoothie and make your summer more soothing and fun.

Ingredients:

• Medium sized ripe Mangoes (preferably Alphonso) or half cup mango pulp (packaged)
• 1 Cup- Curd/Yogurt (Dahi)
• ½ Cup- Cold Milk (Thanda doodh)
• ½ Cup- Sugar (Preferably organic)
• 2 teaspoons- Cardamom powder (Elaichi powder).
• 1 tablespoon- Finely chopped dry fruits (Cashew nuts, Almonds and Pistachios) for garnishing.

Method :

• Peel mangoes and cut into small pieces. (If you are using packaged pulp, you can skip this step)
• Take mango pieces (or pulp), curd/yogurt, milk, sugar and cardamom powder in a big grinding jar. Grind the mix for 2 minutes or until the sugar dissolves completely.
• Transfer into serving glasses and garnish with chopped dry fruits.
• Optionally, you can add ice cubes/shaved ice to serve chilled.

“Kheer” or “Rice Pudding” is a very popular homemade sweet dish in Indian homes. Kheer is a delicious dessert and main ingredients are rice and milk. Like many people, you may be a big fan of Kheer. However, there are chances that you may want to curb your rice intake or simply bored with the traditional Kheer flavour. Today’s recipe is a variation of usual Kheer which replaces rice with cabbage and still gives an exquisite taste. Try this innovative Kheer and add one more sweet dish in your cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups – Grated green cabbage
• 1 litre – Whole milk
• ½ cup – Sugar (preferably organic)
• 1½ tablespoons – Clarified Butter (Ghee)
• 2 teaspoons – Cardamom powder (Elaichi powder)
• 1 tablespoon – Finely chopped dry fruits (Cashew nuts, Almonds, Pistachios and Raisins) for garnishing

Method :

• Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed deep pan and add grated cabbage.
• Sauté on medium-low flame until the smell of raw cabbage fades and colour changes to slightly brown. Now add milk and bring it to boil, stir continuously.
• Let the pudding (Kheer) cook on low flame till it reduces to almost half of the original quantity, keep stirring occasionally to prevent sticking on the bottom.
• Add sugar and cook until the pudding (Kheer) becomes slightly thick in consistency.
• Now mix cardamom powder and cook for two more minutes, then switch off the flame and keep the pan aside.
• Take out pudding in a serving bowl and garnish it with finely chopped dry fruits.
• Your cabbage pudding (Kheer) is ready to serve hot (or if you like to have it chilled, you may keep the Kheer in the refrigerator once it reaches the room temperature).

I strongly believe that everyone deserves a nice meal and every meal deserves, guess what??……A nice dessert!! Having something sweet or at least a mouth freshener after the food gives a finishing touch to the food. Paan (Betel Leaf) is one such mouth freshener which is widely popular among Indians. Paan is prepared by wrapping the betel leaf around several ingredients like fennel Seeds, grated coconut, Gulkand, Cardamom, Clove, Chuna (Lime), Supari (Areca nut), Kattha (Catechu) etc. Paan gives a great juicy flavour and refreshing fragrance in mouth due to herbs and spices used in it. However, some people don’t like Paan because of its contents like Chuna (may burn the tongue if not diluted properly or cause stones in body if taken excessively), Kattha (causes long lasting stains on the clothes and may cause low blood pressure a.k.a. hypotension in some people) and Supari (that may cause gum irritation, tooth decay and can lead to mouth cancer in some extreme cases). Also, since most people buy Paan from local vendors, the hygiene of the ingredients is not always reliable. These problems turn people away from the delicious flavour of Paan and unfortunately, eating Paan leaf in its raw form isn’t much fun. Therefore, we need to find a way to enjoy the goodness of Paan while leaving behind then problems mentioned above. So today I am going to tell you a recipe that is a fusion between sweets and mouth freshener. This innovative dessert lets you enjoy the taste of Paan in the form of Laddoo without worrying about the complications of the regular Paan. So here it goes…

Ingredients:

• 5- Paan/Betel leaves (washed and finely chopped)
• 200gm – Sweetened condensed milk
• 2 Cups- Desiccated coconut powder
• 1/4 cup- Dry fruits (Cashews, Pistachios and Almonds)
• 1/4 cup- Gulkand (Sweetened rose Petals)
• 2 Table spoons- sugar coated fennel seeds
• Edible green colour (Optional)

Method :

• Finely chop dry fruits and mix with Gulkand. Your filling is ready.
• Heat a heavy bottomed pan.
• Add sweetened condensed milk and chopped Paan leaves. Cook for 3-5 minutes on medium- low flame. Add 2-3 drops of edible green colour which is optional.
• Then add desiccated coconut powder and mix well, cook on low flame until mixture thickens. Turn off the flame and keep the mixture aside.
• Take a small portion of the mixture on your palm and flatten it, now put 1 tea spoon Gulkand filling with a pinch of sugar coated fennel seeds in the center and bring the edges together and roll it into a ball.
• Roll these balls over desiccated coconut powder and your “Paan Ladoos” are ready to be served.
• Store in an air tight container in refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup- Maida/ All purpose flour
• 1/2 cup- Mango pulp
• 1/2 cup- Condensed milk
• 1/2 cup- Milk
• 1/3 cup- powdered sugar/ organic refined sugar
• 1/3 cup- Melted butter
• 1/2 cup- Chopped dry fruits (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon- Baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon- Baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon- Elaichi (cardamom) powder
• 1/4 teaspoon- Salt, if using salted butter skip adding

Method:

• Place the muffin liners in the muffin mould, also preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit, 15 minutes before you start baking.
• Wet mixture- Take a big bowl add condensed milk, melted butter, Mango purée, Elaichi powder and sugar and whisk well to make homogeneous mixture.
• Dry mixture- Take another bowl add Maida, baking powder, baking soda n salt, mix them well and strain with the help of strainer to remove any lumps.
• Add dry mixture in the wet mixture bowl and fold gently with the help of spatula. Do not over do. Slowly add milk ( if needed) to make the consistency of batter like consistency of Mendu vada.
• Add chopped dry fruits and gently mix it.
• folding is the most important step and can make or break your muffins or cake. so do it
• Fill the batter in the muffin liners more than 3/4 volume of the liners. gently even the top with the spatula.
• Now put the filled muffin moulds in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for 25-30 minutes.
• The final check is a tooth pick or wooden skewer coming out clean from the mango muffins.
• After 3 to 4 minutes, remove them from the moulds, let them cool.
• Serve the muffins as dessert or a sweet snack.

Ingredients:

1. Milk- 1 litre
2. Water- 1 cup
3. Sugar – 1-1/2 cup
4. Lemon Juice- 1
5. cardamom powder or A few drops of rose essence

Method:

• Boil the milk in a heavy pan. Keep it aside for 5 minutes and then add 1 table spoon lemon juice and mix until the milk curdles.
• Keep stirring and add the remaining lemon juice.
• Keep stirring until the water and milk curdles separates completely.
• Strain it with a cotton/ muslin cloth.
• Wash the chhaina with fresh water to wash away the sourness of the lemon.
• Squeeze the excess water and hang the cloth above the sink for 30 minutes.
• Knead the chhaina for 10-15 minutes until it becomes a smooth dough.
• Divide the dough into equal size and shape it into a smooth round ball.
• Take a pressure cooker add the sugar, water and a pinch of cardamom powder/ rose essence. Let the sugar dissolve completely into the water.
• Then add the rasgullas carefully into the sugar syrup.
• Cover the lid and cook for a whistle.
• Keep the cooker in cold water and to release the steam quickly.
• Open the lid, the balls would be closely doubled in size.
• Refrigerate it, Garnish with kesar/ pista and serve chilled.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups- curd
• 1/4 cup- sugar
• 1 tea spoon- cardamom (elaichi) powder
• 2- Medium Sized Mangoes
• Finely chopped dry fruits and saffron leaves for garnishing

Method:

• Take a muslin cloth and cover the curd in the cloth and hang it until all the water drips off from the curd.
• Make a purée of mango.
• Take hung curd, mango pure, sugar and cardamom (Elaichi) powder all together in a grinder and make a fine paste.
• Take out the Shrikhand/ Aamrakhand in a bowl and garnish with chopped dry fruits and saffron, keep it in the fridge.
• Serve chilled as a dessert.

Ingredients:

• 5- Betel (Paan) leaves
• 2 table spoon- Gulkand (Rose Jam)
• 2 table spoon- Sugar
• 1 table spoon- Corn flour
• 1/2 cup- Condensed milk
• 2 cup- Whole fat milk
• 2 tea spoon- Fennel seeds (Saunf)
• 1 tea spoon- Cardamom powder (Elaichi powder)

Method:

• Cut Betel leaves, put in a grinder with gulkand, fennel seeds, cardamom powder and milk.
• Make a fine paste.
• Dilute corn flour in some milk.
• Heat a pan, pour corn flour mix and keep for 2-3 minutes on medium heat then add condensed milk and sugar, cook for another 5 minutes.
• Add paan paste, stir continuously for 2 minutes.
• Put the whole mixture in a grinder to mix it evenly ( and remove any lumps).
• Fill the mixture in a kulfi moulds and keep it in a deep freezer for 7-8 hrs.
• Serve as a dessert.