Mango Jalapeno Margarita

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Fresh mango pulp and a spicy kick from the jalapeños makes this refreshing and quick to make Mango Jalapeno Margarita. A perfect drink for mango lovers this summer.

So… its been a while.

More than a year. 

I have been irregular for a while on the blog, but I still would wake up after a few months to post. But to not post an entire year (the last post was January 2021), that’s a first.

I have no excuse except I did not feel like writing. The convenience of posting a picture and sharing a recipe if someone wants it on my instagram page was more tempting. Not that I was doing that often either. My postings on instagram have not been very consistent- the addition of reels to the platform hasn’t helped, even though I do like making videos. I started making videos in 2013 and making food videos is what started my career in photography when I moved back to India in 2016. But that was when there was no one making it. And while I am thoroughly entertained by reels (pet reels are my stress buster), I hate that most of the feed is the same song played repeatedly with people dancing on the same steps. Not to say there is not good quality content on that platform. Instagram was always aspirational, but it did come to become a little overwhelming for me. Content creators churning new content every day. And that too video content- which to my old school brain takes time to conceptualize, shoot, edit, find music (!). For someone who has always been used to working alone, it became overwhelming to manage everything and delivering so much.

While the first wave of covid saw me productive as never before, I soon could not keep up. So the recipes stopped. The personal projects stopped. And the silence took over. Photography, styling and video work for clients went on. But creatively I felt lost. I felt lost in general. I still feel do. 

I am trying to revive this space. While I had not been posting, I did discover some new recipes along the way. Some were shared on instagram, but I feel they all deserve a more permanent space too. Today I am sharing the recipe for these quick and easy to make mango jalapeño margaritas.

Mango Jalapeno Margarita

This spicy margarita drink was something I first tried at a restaurant in Dallas, and soon became a favorite. During the first lockdown, A and I worked on this recipe and while I posted the recipe for these mango jalapeno margaritas on instagram, it deserves a permanent blog space. 

Ingredients required for this spicy margarita cocktail:

  • Tequila
  • Cointreau (or any other orange liqueur)
  • Lime juice
  • Mango – you need the pulp and a few fresh pieces for the garnish
  • Jalapeños (if fresh are not available, I have used the jar ones also successfully)
  • Chilli salt- to rim your glasses (if you have tajin that works too, but make your own chilli salt with red chili powder/paprika and salt. I use pink salt, but regular will also do.

The steps are fairly easy and quick. Given that mangoes are in season, I do hope you get to try this summer perfect drink mango jalapeño margarita recipe.

P.S: We have some mangoes in the refrigerator, so guess we might make it for the weekend too. 

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Homemade Mushroom Ravioli

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Homemade mushroom ravioli: a meatless pasta dinner. Homemade pasta dough stuffed with a creamy mushroom filling. Learn how to make ravioli completely from scratch into a complete meal.

Homemade Mushroom Ravioli

I have made this mushroom ravioli recipe so many times, but some how never been able to post the recipe for it. I have even shot it once before but never been happy with the images. Even now, since I was concentrating more on the mushroom ravioli recipe video, I was not able to shoot the image the way I wanted. Plus the day I shot this image for the mushroom ravioli I tried to make it with a swiss chard addition which gave a pink tinge to the ravioli. I loved the addition of leafy greens that makes the dish tad bit healthier, but yes it did take away from the focus of a traditional ravioli picture. And since we are trying to cut back our flour intake wherever possible, I do not plan to make the dough any time soon again which meant postponing the recipe post for mushroom ravioli on the blog. And I did not want to do that. Yet again.

I love ravioli and with a creamy mushroom filling it is so good. Homemade mushroom ravioli can be a slightly time consuming process. If you have a pasta maker it does help. I love mine, and even though it comes out occasionally, it does cut down the work tremendously.

While rolling the pasta dough might not be everyone’s cup of tea, making the pasta dough is not a difficult thing to do. I use eggs in the dough since that is the traditional way, and I do not have any dietary restrictions. But you could go with an egg free pasta dough and should find one online too. They mostly replace the egg liquid with water and olive oil and use semolina with the flour. I am sorry I can not help with an eggless recipe yet, but once I come across one I have tried and tested will surely update here.

Homemade Mushroom Ravioli

TIPS FOR GOOD RAVIOLI

  1. Roll your dough out thin. I go to 7 setting on the pasta machine. For a thin rolled out dough, you need to have the right liquid to flour ratio. I generally do not need to flour the dough much while passing it through the pasta machine, but feel free to if you are having difficulty rolling it too thin. Most flour egg pasta recipes and even the recipe I am using use only 3 ingredients- eggs, flour and a little salt (though I don’t use that and just salt my water). They also use the formula of 1 egg to 100 grams of flour. You could make it richer by adding a yolk to every 300 gms of flour.
  2. Let the ravioli dough sit for atleast 30 minutes after kneading, covered in plastic wrap. The reason to rest pasta dough after kneading is to allow the flour to fully hydrate, which will aid gluten formation, and result in a dough that stretches easily.
  3. Make ahead: The best part is you could prep the mushroom ravioli ahead on a free day, freeze it and then use it for a quick weeknight fancy meal. To freeze mushroom ravioli, place the uncooked filled ravioli in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Freeze the ravioli for an hour or until they are frozen. Place them in an air tight freezer friendly container/bag. They can be frozen for up to 6 months. When you want to cook them, throw unthawed (straight from freezer) ravioli in boiling salted water until they are cooked.

I have served this mushroom ravioli with different sauces- sometimes its a tomato based sauce, most times its a simple butter sauce. This time though I served it with a browned butter sauce sauteed with some swiss chard to up the health quotient of the dish. I have used swiss chard since thats what I had in my fridge but the original sauce recipe that is inspired from here, uses spinach. Since the flavor profiles are similar I interchanged.

I also made a video recipe. 😀

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Homemade Gingerbread House cookies

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The perfect christmas tradition of making gingerbread cookies is complete with these spice loaded homemade gingerbread cookies recipe with tips and tricks to get them perfect. Template for your own gingerbread cookie houses included.

Homemade Gingerbread cookies

One day to Christmas and I finally have a gingerbread house cookie recipe for you. Ever since I started this blog I have on most christmases made gingerbread cookies. But I never got around posting a recipe. This time I have just about managed to post this recipe of gingerbread cookies.

These gingerbread cookies are bursting with spices and a subtle hint of orange zest in them. They are sturdy enough to be made into gingerbread houses but still have a slight soft chew in the center. While I love the grandiose vibe of a gingerbread house, I think these cookies in the shape of a house and decorated with royal icing are a great substitute for the house, and definitely not as much effort or planning that gingerbread houses generally requires. You can add a hole on the top and these gingerbread cookies would be lovely as edible ornaments for your trees, or to use to as gift tags, or even to put in place of napkin rings for your dinner table. If nothing else, just pick them and eat. No one is judging. Its christmas 🙂

Homemade Gingerbread cookies

GINGERBREAD HOUSE TEMPLATE

If you have a house shape cutter, go ahead use that. You could also use this dough to make gingerbread men, stars, trees, christmas ornaments and whatever your cute little christmas imagination thinks of. I made houses and trees. While I have one house cutter (which I only realised while I was typing this post), I wanted houses of different shapes and sizes, so I just made my own template.

I made the gingerbread house template in Microsoft word, and honestly if I can make it, so can you. I am uploading my template for the houses here but feel free to adjust sizes and shapes- or even add a chimney to your template to make it more fancy. I print the template on an A4 card stock so that it is a bit sturdier and stick parchment paper to the side that will be touching the cookie dough. That ways you are sure to be using a food safe template to cut your gingerbread shapes.

For the design with the royal icing, I was inspired by this pinterest vector image. And that’s what I went ahead for the houses. There is plenty of inspiration online, or if you are an arty crafty person I am sure you can think of one in your head.

This dough is sturdy enough to make gingerbread houses too. Hopefully next year I will have a proper tutorial for that as well.

Homemade Gingerbread cookies

SUBSTITUTES, TIPS and TRICKS

Here are some tips and tricks to make sure you get the perfect gingerbread house cookies.

  • Molasses substitute: For the molasses, I actually used this easy substitute made from palm jaggery. I used this for my christmas cakes too, and it worked well here as well.
  • Egg substitute: While personally I haven’t tried this recipe without eggs, you can easily use any of the traditional egg substitutes like flax/chia egg, or even cream to bind it all together. It should work. In case it doesn’t please let me know.
  • Rest your dough before rolling out: I used to do this step always because most recipes say to do it, but only recently understood why. The primary reason to rest your cookie dough, is so that you give the flour time to hydrate and soak up the liquids in the dough. Cookie dough is generally dry and thick fats like eggs take time to be absorbed by the flour. This resting period helps in better flour hydration, yielding cookies that will bake and brown more evenly. For this gingerbread cookie dough a 1-2 hour rest in the fridge is sufficient, but for the chocolate chip cookies on the blog I prefer atleast a 24 hour rest period for a slighltly more complex flavor. If you have the time, these gingerbread cookies will definitely benefit from an overnight rest too.
  • Rolling your dough: I always roll my dough out between two sheets of parchment paper. This way I do not need to add any additional flour to the dough. Also keeping to chop sticks on each side while you are rolling out, will help in the rolled out dough to have even thickness. This video where I am rolling the air dry clay explains it better how I use the chop sticks.
  • Making windows: While I did not cut out any windows and made them with royal icing once the cookies were baked, in case you want to Tip No. 5 in this article, sounds quite helpful.
  • Chill your dough once you have your cut out shapes ready: Chilling the dough allows for the fat (butter) in the cookies to chill and firm up. Cold fat will melt slower while baking, preventing the cookies from spreading too thin and losing its shape. So once I roll out the dough, I like to chill it again for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator. In colder seasons 30 minutes refrigeration is enough time, but if you are in a warmer climate you might need little more. The cutouts should be firm to touch before you start baking.
  • Bake for 8-10 minutes:  The biggest size of cookies (in my template) took no more than 10 minutes to bake, so keep an eye out. Depending on your oven you might need to move the tray once so that all cookies are baked evenly. DO NOT lift the cookies from the tray as soon as you remove them from the oven. They will still be slightly soft. Let them cool a bit on the tray till you can easily lift them without breaking them. Then let cool completely on a wire rack before you ice them.
  • To make ginger cookies crisp, you can leave out the baking soda. The main difference between soft and crispy ginger cookies has to do with this leavening agent. I like the centers to be a little soft, so add a bit of baking soda to it.
  • Make ahead: The dough will stay good in the fridge for about 2 days wrapped in plastic wrap. Let it come to a pliable temperature before you roll it out. The dough can also be frozen for up to 3 months, thaw at room temperature before using. If the disc feels super stiff, just let it be on your counter for a bit until it’s more pliable.The cookies can be made up to 1 week in advance, cover tightly and store at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

Homemade Gingerbread cookies

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