Summer Special: Mango Panna Cotta

No, I'm not going to talk about the invisible global enemy in this post. I'm fed up of hearing/reading about it. Instead, I'm going to talk about something that sparks joy 😊

In case you haven't noticed (and I wouldn't be surprised if that happened), MANGO season is here. This means something more to me because of where I'm from. Like most Indians, I happen to be passionate about mangoes....it truly is a national obsession for us! Indian mangoes are world-famous for their richness, sweetness and unique flavour so it has become a symbol of national pride and identity. Alphonso, malgova, badami, mallika, raspuri, neelam, totapuri....to me, these varieties of mangoes are synonymous with balmy Indian summers. Much like wine, the aroma and flavour of each variety differs from the region it comes from.

Every year, my kids eagerly wait for mango season because the undisputed king of fruits is their absolute favourite too (ties with raspberries). During the months of peak mango season, my family and I spend languorous evenings stuffing our faces with this exotic tropical fruit thereby keeping us appeased until next season rolls by. 

I wanted to make mango panna cotta last year but somehow I rarely have extra mangoes lying around to make dessert. No matter how many I think I have, it just gets consumed within the blink of an eye.  Having said that, there are a couple of mango based desserts that I've managed to sneak into my blog You can check out these recipes if your are interested - Easy Mango Sorbet,  Tropical Mango Cupcakes, Mango Chia Pudding and Fresh Mango Cake with Whipped Cream and Dark Chocolate Collar. This year, considering we are cooped up indoors with a lot of free time and could do with anything even remotely exciting, I didn't want to pass up on the opportunity to make mango panna cotta and add it to my arsenal of mango-based recipes.

Three weeks ago, I caught sight of a gloriously abundant (and inviting) display of mangoes in the fruit stall of my local wet market and I have been buying them ever since. Nobody has the luxury of repeated trips to the market these days so during my bi-weekly grocery trips, I have been buying 3-4 large mangoes each time. And fortunately for us, every single one of them has been delightful so far. 

For those who are unaware, panna cotta (Italian for "cooked cream") is an Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with a setting agent and molded. Even though it is a very simple dessert, it is versatile and exceedingly popular.

Yesterday, me and the kids made mango panna cotta using agar (also called agar-agar, china grass or kanten) instead of gelatin which is traditionally used. I must admit that I am using agar after ages. Around 14 years ago, I used to frequently make a chilled variety of pineapple soufflé that I used to set with gelatin. But once I became more aware of how gelatin is procured, I completely avoided the use of it in my kitchen. But I somehow never fancied the texture of agar set desserts. They lack the lovely wobbly texture that you get from using gelatin and so I abandoned making any kind of dessert that required a setting agent altogether. 

Obviously, I've made an exception now 😁 This mango panna cotta has been set using agar powder. The powder form is easily available in supermarkets here and is the easiest form of agar to use. I used enough of agar to set the dessert firm but it didn't turn rubbery so the texture was reasonably good. The mango I used, although didn't have the deep orange color that I would have preferred but was at least pulpy and sweet so I didn't have to add too much sugar. I didn't add cardamom powder to the mango puree because I wanted to retain the fresh zesty mango flavour but you can add it if you feel like. The white vanilla cream layer didn't turn out cloyingly sweet so it was just right for me. My husband and kids liked the dessert and I have gotten requests to make it again.
 

Book review: The American Crusade by Mark Spivak

One of the benefits of self-isolation is that one has more time to read than usual. I hope to make use of this time to read as many books as I can. Having said that, I have only just started getting accustomed to the new routine of working from home and so my reading pace has slackened since the past few weeks. I have temporarily paused my reading of the Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series to devote time to this invited review. 

Mark Spivak is a writer and editor in the areas of wine, food, and culinary travel. He also identifies as a political junkie who likes to explores the seamy underbelly of the American political system through his writing. The American Crusade, was published in April, 2019.

Political thrillers are normally not the kind of books I covet but since I had never read any book by this author before and am fairly well-acquainted with major events in American history and highlights of the current events, I agreed to this review. 

***Plot***

On May 1st 2001, a hijacked 757 jetliner crashes into the iconic Mall of America in Minnesota sending a fireball into the sky, visible for miles. Later in the day, suicide bombers walk into selected targets around the country and blow themselves up. A second hijacked airliner bound for Washington never makes it to its intended destination and crashes in a field south of Delaware instead owing to the heroism of the passengers who successfully manage to foil the plot. A Middle-Eastern Islamic terrorist organization called Husam-al-Din masterminded by Salman al-Akbar (a wealthy Saudi construction business heir) claims responsibility for the attack that results in over three thousand American civilian casualties. Naturally, pressure mounts on the Republican President George Kane’s administration to retaliate. The American public want nothing more than the perpetrators brought to justice and hence, a military response is unavoidable.  What the public do not know however is that there had been advance warning of the May day attacks and that the administration including the Vice-President had known about Husam-al-Din all along. 

Sound familiar?

Recipe of the month: Aloo Pyaz Kachori

Okay, so starting April 7th, I will be officially working from home. Last Friday, Singapore announced a one month shut down of schools and non-essential workplaces as "circuit-breaker" measures to curb the increasing local transmission of the coronavirus. Most of us saw it coming so it wasn't much of a surprise.

For those of you who don't know, I am a biomedical researcher. I rely on a well-equipped laboratory to conduct my experiments on a daily basis. I need advanced instruments/equipment, various kinds of chemicals and consumables, containment facilities and clinical samples to further my research. Working from home, is not really an option for someone with a career like mine. The last time I stayed at home at a stretch was only to write my Masters thesis way back in 2010. But judging by the circumstances of the past few months, my lab did anticipate that this day would come and so me and my colleagues prudently planned ahead and accelerated our experiments, making sure that we would have enough data to prepare a scientific manuscript if the day came where we have to be confined to the four walls of our homes.

So the next one month is going to be spent seated in front of my laptop pouring through literature, brushing up on scientific writing, analysing data, applying statistics and preparing illustrations, figures and tables. Although I don't mind the process of writing a journal paper, sitting in front of the computer for a prolonged period of time is something I find very hard to do.

I miss so many things about my usual work routine - I miss grabbing pau and fruit from the canteen, sipping green tea while checking my e-mails in the peace and quiet of an empty office (I'm one of the earliest to reach work), I miss doing my experiments, crossing off my to-do lists for the day, chatting with my colleagues, going for my exercise classes during lunch breaks, attending intellectually stimulating seminars and the drive to and from work with my husband.

I had come up with a well-thought out plan for how I am going to manage working from home. But it mostly went down the drain yesterday. I was supposed to review certain sections of a manuscript draft, which normally doesn't take me very long but today, in the midst of getting my kids to do their homework, thinking of ways to keep them occupied, making sure they don't disturb my husband during his conference calls, getting them snacks every few hours, breaking up their endless fights, cooking lunch and making sure everything and everyone was okay, I couldn't accomplish much of anything on the workfront and ended up feeling quite frustrated. Maybe it was a case of unrealistic expectations or else me just not being able to let go of the little things and get on with my work.

I understand too well that in the current situation, it is a privilege to have a roof over your head, good food to eat, family that is safe, income not affected (at least not yet 😅) and the added perks of full-time domestic help.  Not to mention, we have a government who is providing every household with free hand sanitizer, reusable masks, free/subsidized medical care and one of the best stimulus packages to soften the blow of the virus impact. So if I was coming across as petty and whiny, that wasn't the intention at all. I was just going through a normal human emotion of feeling unsettled with this drastic change in routine. But I am determined to make this work so today is going to be better.....I can feel it. I am learning to deal with a situation that I previously never had to deal with so it is bound to have teething problems.

When you are at home all day, the temptation to snack is unusually high. Same holds good for my family. I am indeed worried that my husband and I will turn into a food scarfing lethargic lumps. We need to start social distancing from the kitchen and pronto 😆 Since the past few weeks, I have been cooking and baking more and I realize that this has mostly stemmed from boredom. Well, in stressful times like these, if cooking and food gives people some solace and joy then it can't be all that bad, can it?

Kachori is something that recently came up in a conversation between me and one of my close friends (and fellow mom of two young daughters). She shared the same snack woes as me and living in Delhi, she mentioned that Aloo Pyaz Kachori was something her family liked very much. Now I'll be very honest. I have very little experience with kachori. Forget making it at home, I have barely eaten it more than a handful of times. As a food blogger, I am always interested to try something that is unfamiliar territory for me. So I immediately made a mental note to try Aloo Pyaz Kachori at the next available opportunity.

I found a recipe that I thought would turn out nice, tweaked it a little and made the kachori and suggested accompaniments the very next evening. It turned out really well. The recipe recommended double-frying the kachoris but I didn't have the patience for that. The filling was flavourful and not too spicy so even my kids enjoyed it. I made both a spicy and sweet sauce and the kachori dunked in equal quantities of both was even better than dunking them separately. I will be making these again for sure and this recipe is a keeper.

Sharing this recipe with you all so you can chase away any boredom and make your family happy at the same time (just remember to do some home-based aerobics, pilates or zumba afterwards 😆).

Baker's Corner: Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes

Tough times we are living in right now. As you all know very well, we are amidst an unprecedented health crisis on a global scale with the novel coronavirus. Thousands of people across the world are getting sick every day or worse, dying, people are losing their livelihood, economies are nose-diving, frontline health workers are overburdened, healthcare systems are collapsing, and governments are scrambling to find a solution without much success. Several countries are under complete lockdown with citizens justifiably anxious about the availability of food or medical supplies for the testing quarantine duration. 

As of this moment, Singapore is still not under lockdown. Singapore was one of the early responders who swiftly implemented travel history recording, temperature screening and health checks as soon as the virus broke out. Working-from-home was soon adopted by companies island-wide and those who had to be at work are required to follow some sort of protocol. To slow the spread of the virus, Singapore has recently taken more drastic measures. First, the doors were closed to tourists and short-term visitors. Then pubs and entertainment outlets were ordered to be shut and large gatherings banned. However, public transport, schools, malls and restaurants continue to be open albeit with extra precautions put in place. Groceries are still in supply, medical care is readily available and people are going about their lives not drastically different from before. The measures the government has adopted is catered to the situation in Singapore. I don't know how this strategy will play out but I can only hope and pray that we can emerge from this without significant casualties and losses. 

I do not envy the job of government officials involved in the decision-making. If they keep businesses running and companies open, obviously, more people could catch the virus and pass it along, prolonging the public health and economic crises. But if they do not, it could spark a recession, perhaps even a depression that may inflict lasting damage to the country. It is a no-win situation right now. 

A cloud of gloom has descended over the world engulfing everyone in its path. Talk of the virus is everywhere and there is no escaping from it. There is misinformation spreading across social media like wildfire further triggering further panic. Tough times can bring out both the best and the worst in people and we can witness acts of kindness and selflessness as well as hate and greed. Everywhere, people are largely confined to the walls of their homes, unable to go out and meet their loved ones or do the things they normally enjoy and it is no surprise that the quarantine is slowly starting to take its toll on people both mentally and physically. 

Yes, socializing is an essential human need but if being at home as much as possible can break the chain of transmission and save lives in the process, then it is a no-brainer as to what we all should be doing. We can make use of this time to spend time with family, watch TV series and movies, read books, solve puzzles, do indoor exercises, get more sleep and/or engage in creative pursuits like painting, writing, cooking, gardening and home improvement projects. If not, being a couch potato is perfectly acceptable too (provided you pull your weight around the house when it is required). And then, there is always FaceTime, Zoom and Hangouts to connect with family and friends. As difficult as it might seem, having a roof over our head, enough food to eat and medical care is a privilege so keep in mind that compared to a lot of people, we have it so much better. We CAN do this folks.

Parents of small children (like me) may have to wrack their brains a bit more to keep restless minds occupied during times like these. At the start of the year, I had planned to bake more often with the girls but I never got around to doing it. Even though I haven't been inclined to cook elaborate dishes ever since this virus exploded across the globe (it has just been unremarkable one-pot rice dishes, roti, dals, subzis, salads and upmas around here for the past several weeks), I pushed myself to start baking again. I knew it would take my mind off thinking about the well-being of my family and friends scattered across the globe. 

Last week, I and the girls made sugar cookies with an easy icing which they enjoyed immensely. This week, I promised them that I would teach them how to make cupcakes. 

Raspberries are my daughters favourite fruit hands-down. And they love everything chocolate. So I tweaked one of my old cake recipes to make moist chocolate cupcakes, made a luscious chocolate ganache and a raspberry-cream cheese frosting. The girls were by my side from start to finish helping with the mixing and decoration. The girls loved the cupcakes (as I knew they would) and we managed to put a fun spin on what would have otherwise been, a dreary uneventful Saturday. 

If you are looking to brighten up your family's day during quarantine, try these cupcakes which do not require any fancy ingredients and can be make within an hour. 

Stay healthy and stay safe folks. This too shall pass 💗