Come June and -- yippee! -- the monsoon will be here.
It's also time to bid goodbye to the mango. This is probably the last few weeks before many varieties of aam disappear from our bustling bazaars. Chef Sarab Kapoor has two king-of-fruit recipes for you to go crazy with over the weekend.
She offers a new version of the classic Indian dessert Kalakand, adding paneer and condensed milk, instead of chenna and combining it with mango puree. She tops it off prettily with rose petals and chopped pistachios.
Her super-easy Mangomisuis a layered dessert with ladyfingers, cream and sliced mangoes. It's her mango-fied take on Tiramisu.
Sarab has been called the encyclopedia of recipes. She has collected a treasury of food preparations on her journey from Mumbai to Jakarta to Singapore.
Mango Kalakand
Serves: 5-6
Ingredients
- 1 cup crumbled paneer
- 1 400 gm can condensed milk
- 1 cup mango puree
- 4 tbsp ghee + extra to grease a thali or plate
- ½ tbsp mango essence
- Few drops orange food colour, optional
- Dried rose petals, to garnish
- Chopped pistachios, to garnish
Method
- In a heavy-bottomed kadhai or saucepan, cook the paneer, condensed milk, ghee over low heat.
Keep stirring continuously until the mixture thickens.
Add the mango puree, essence, food colour.
Mix well and take off heat.
- Grease a thali or plate with a little ghee.
Transfer the paneer-milk-mango mixture into the greased thali and spread it out using a spatula.
Refrigerate.
Once set, take out of the fridge and cut into pieces.
Garnish with the rose petals and the chopped pistachio.
Mangomisu
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
- 300 ml thick cream
- 250 gm mascarpone cheese
- ¼ cup icing sugar
- 1 tbsp mango essence
- 3-4 mangoes, sliced 1 cm thick
- 1 cup orange juice
- 250 gm ladyfinger biscuits, available online
- Springform cake pan
- Cling wrap
- Baking paper
Method
- In a bowl, combine the thick cream, mascarpone cheese, icing sugar, mango essence and using an electric or hand blender, beat/whisk the mixture on high speed till well combined.
- Line the base of a springform cake pan with baking paper.
- Dip the ladyfingers, one by one, in the orange juice, and layer the base of the prepared pan with them.
Spread 1/3 of the cream-icing sugar mixture over the ladyfingers.
Top it with the mango slices.
Repeat the process and then top it with the remaining cream-icing sugar mixture and mango slices.
Cover the cake with a cling wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.
Serve chilled.
Chef Sarab Kapoor lives in Singapore and is a television personality, cookbook author and culinary consultant.