Mango Panna Cotta

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This layered mango panna cotta is an absolutely delicious yet easy to put together dessert. A perfect way to use mangoes during summer and wow your guests.

Mango panna cotta with recipe video

I love panna cotta as a dessert. It is an easy to put together dessert, and always loved by everyone. What’s not to love- a luscious creamy pudding that you can prep in advance. Plus, it tastes great with fresh ripe fruits like strawberries, cherries, peaches and in this case mango.

Panna cotta is also easily adaptable to fit many dietary restrictions. It is gluten free in its most simple form, and with a few easy dairy replacements can be made vegan too.

So, what is Panna Cotta?

Panna cotta is an italian dessert, made from warming cream just enough to dissolve sugar and gelatin. It is served chilled, and is super easy to make. Panna cotta can be a very light, soft pudding using milk and fruit puree, or a rich, thick pudding using mostly cream. The basic core ingredients are inexpensive, and yet it tastes luxurious and looks beautiful.

Wikipedia cites the origins of panna cotta to a Hungarian woman in the early 1900s, though there is also a mention of a dish in an 1879 dictionary made of cream cooked with gelatin and molded. Whatever the origins, panna cotta is one dessert you should have in your recipe cards.

How do you make Panna Cotta?

Many are under the wrong impression that panna cotta is a complicated dessert. It isn’t. There are very few steps in the preparation of panna cotta, and the only way you can screw up is if you don’t dissolve the gelatin properly.

The steps to make panna cotta are pretty simple.

  • Warm the cream in a saucepan.
  • Add sugar, and heat the cream till the sugar dissolves. (Here is when you can get creative by infusing the cream with vanilla beans, or different spices or adding coffee or any other flavor)
  • While you are warming up the cream, soften the gelatin in a cold liquid.
  • Once the gelatin blooms, you add that to the warm cream mixture, making sure there are no lumps.
  • This mixture is then poured into molds, and allowed to set.
  • You can serve the panna cotta in the molds itself, or unmold and top it with your favorite toppings. Fresh fruit makes a lovely pairing with the creamy panna cotta.

The hardest part about making panna cotta is achieving the proper consistency and texture—it should be silky smooth and just firm, with a gentle wobble. Getting the cream to gelatin ratio helps in that. For every cup of cream, 3/4 tsp-1 tsp gelatin is the ideal ratio to get a good texture.

Mango panna cotta with recipe video

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Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

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These gluten free chocolate cupcakes are the perfect indulgent treat. They are a healthier alternative to the regular chocolate cupcakes. Almond flour makes these cupcakes gluten free and their natural fat and nutty flavor adds depth, flavor and richness to the final product, while lending extra moisture to the baked good. 

Gluten free chocolate cupcakes

After gluten free brownies, I am here with a gluten free chocolate cupcake recipe. The recipe is adapted from Foolproof Living here, and its a keeper. I did replace some of the almond flour with oat flour. Also, I used regular sugar as maple syrup is more difficult to get and super expensive in India, though I am sure maple syrup would be a great addition too. Since I used regular sugar and did reduce the amount, I compensated it with a little extra liquid to keep the cupcakes moist.

I would love to try these with dates for the sweetness and some orange zest the next time I try them. Will update when I do 🙂

Store bought Vs Homemade Almond Flour

Since almond flour is super expensive, I have started making almond flour at home. It does require certain pre preparation. You need to blanch the almonds, remove the peel, let the almonds dry and then dry grind them on pulse to get a fine powder. Once you sift the powder, the fine flour you get is almond flour that you can use to bake cakes and cookies.

The reason why I use oat flour in both the gluten free brownies recipe and these gluten free chocolate cupcakes is so that I can fine grind any leftover unsifted almond flour. This way all of the blanched almonds is used in a single recipe.

You could of course make these gluten free chocolate cupcakes with store bought almond flour, but then what’s the fun in that. Also storage for nut flours is critical to avoid rancidity. You need to keep your almond flour either in the refrigerator or freezer, and since I am always struggling with refrigerator space, making one recipe portion almond flour at home, helps me avoid storing store bought almond flour problems.

Store bought almond flour is of course finer but having a powerful and reliable grinder or food processor makes it easy to get fine almond flour results at home too. I use my Hamilton Beach JMG for it, and although slightly expensive its one of my most used kitchen equipment. In collaboration with them I also made a video for making these cupcakes, and you can watch it here on my instagram.

 

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Kale Quinoa Salad

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This Kale Quinoa Salad is a super healthy yet delicious salad with two super foods – kale and quinoa. Vegan and gluten free .

Kale Quinoa Salad
One of the finds of this quarantine has been our love for Kale. Before the lockdown started I was going to work on a salad series for the blog, and given that covid cases had started in India, Anubhav and I decided to stock up on some food, so that we do not have to go out that often. While researching for vegetables that will last a little longer in the refrigerator Kale came up and so I decided to buy a bunch.

Previously, the only way I had eaten Kale was in smoothie form. The kale taste was masked by the taste of green apples, spinach and other veggies. When I got this big bunch of kale to use during the lockdown, I looked at ways to use it in meals. This kale quinoa salad was one of the main ways kale was used, but I also experimented with kale in my pizzas and that was a very tasty experiment. Will share that recipe soon too.

What is Kale?

Kale is a nutrient dense green leafy cruciferous vegetable and is a part of the cabbage family. It is a crisp vegetable and has a hint of earthiness in it. Since it has thicker leaves, as mentioned above, it lasts longer in the fridge than more delicate greens like spinach.

There are different types of kale, and it comes in a range of colors from deep green and purple with certain varieties even white and pink. The most common variations of kale include curly, purple, and Tuscan kale (the one I use most often and slightly less bitter than the curly variety). source

Health Benefits of Kale

In recent years, Kale has become popular for the number of health benefits associated with it. It is considered a superfood and has high contents of Vitamin A, K and C, while being a powerful source of antioxidants. Since its low in carbs and calories, it makes a great addition to healthy salad and meal options.

Kale contains phytonutrients that are known to fight cancer. Being rich in vitamin A, kale is good for vision. It is a rich source of Vitamin C which makes it good to include in your diet to boost immunity. 

Like spinach, Kale contains calcium and also is a source of Vitamin K, both of which are good for bone density. Kale is also good for people with diabetes, and aids digestion. The high content of vitamins makes it good for skin and hair.

Like any other food, excess of anything is not advisable. And in case you are on any medication or dietary restrictions, please consult with your nutritionist or doctor before including any new food item in your diet.

source

Kale quinoa salad

Cooking with Kale

Kale can be bitter, especially when you try to eat it raw. After using kale in a number of my salads, I have learnt there is a way to reduce the bitterness associated with kale.

  • Remove leaves from the large center stem of kale.
  • Discard the stem- compost them and help the environment.
  • Thoroughly wash the leaves, dry them and if you want, chop them.
  • Put the leaves in a bowl and drizzle a little olive oil on them, along with some salt and pepper. Massage the leaves with your hands for about 2 minutes. This wilts the leaves and tenderizes them making them easier and more palatable to eat.

While boiling decreases some of the benefits of kale, you can safely steam, sauté or bake kale to use in recipes. Kale chips are surprisingly tasty and a great way to have a crunchy snack.

Sourcing Kale in Delhi

INA in Delhi is one place that Kale is easily available and not as expensive as you would think. For 100-150 bucks you get a big bunch of Kale. Krishi cress also has a good stock of Kale, plus they deliver to most places in the NCR, though they are slightly more expensive than INA. INA too does deliver to certain areas in Delhi. I have also seen Kale in Foodhall, but have found Foodhall fairly more expensive than both INA and Krishi Cress for most items. These are the places I know of. Will update when I find more resources.

KALE QUINOA SALAD

With two super foods in this salad- kale and quinoa, you have a super healthy meal. This Kale quinoa salad is so easily adaptable to what you have on hand. I had made this kale quinoa salad when oranges were available in the local market, but you can play around with what you have. I love apple with kale, so it always is an addition to my kale salads. The great thing about kale is that it doesn’t wilt quite easily as lettuce so you can get away with letting it sit for a while for the flavors to meld.

The dressing is a simple vinaigrette with oil, vinegar, mixed with a little bit of dijon mustard and seasoned with salt & pepper . You could use lemon juice instead of vinegar is you want.

Give this healthy kale quinoa salad a try. Feel free to change the salad to your liking by adding or subtracting any vegetable you prefer. For a little crunch, add a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds.

Kale Quinoa Salad

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