Summer was here/ Mangoes from the Backyard

A couple of months ago, I visited home after a solid 7 months- the longest I've ever been away. One of the things I missed he most was the mangoes from the tree in my backyard (now 13 years strong!). My mum had left out a bucket of those bad boys to ripen up, and before I knew I was inspired to manipulate it into shapes and flavours that reminded me of my childhood.

Rice pudding has been replicated in various forms all over the world, but mostly known as kheer in the northern part of India. The south uses special rice paste flakes to make theirs, so I decided to pair that with mango ice cream instead of kheer. Known as ada payasam, the rice is a bit more chewy and jelly like and swells up a lot more than rice, so essentially comes out to be a chunkier rice pud.

I added some mango carpaccio for the sake of having more mango in there. Not sure why starch on starch works so well, but I have been infamous in the past for absolutely loading dishes with starch. Also explains my mild obsession for potatoes.

mango, ada payasam and mango ice cream

Dessert hiatus

Perhaps the title only tells a part of my story of not having being able to cook since my move to the states, in part of lack of facilities but also, inspiration. It had been about 7 months before I created this dessert, but as always, it's the environment that matters. This is something I can attest to being in college, which nearly gave me a crisis of my own identity of being a creative person. During my time off and my trip back home, I felt as though I was in a position to create again, and so I did.

This dessert is inspired by one of my favorite combinations of lemon and pistachio, replacing the lemon with yuzu. I got a hold of some fabulous pistachio paste from Eataly, and I knew the time was right. 

A lot of the components arise from things that I have learnt in the past in new forms, like the Pistachio 'Toblerone', this time sans chocolate. Mixed with almonds and palm sugar for texture, the paste is frozen to obtain hardness. The paste was turned into a sable as well and used on the plate as it is. 

Coming to yuzu, some water would have been great to cut down the incoming fat, and hence came into play the ice in the form of long sticks and jellies. The 'base' of the entire custard was a whipped vanilla pana cotta. It's one of the desserts that works in bigger portions, and tasting it instilled in me the fact that I could still create after all this time. 

Whipped pana cotta, pistachio paste, sable and Toblerone, yuzu jelly and ice

Summer trials from last year

Roughly a year ago, when I was still really into the food service side of the industry, I developed this dish for a trial. Possibly for a dessert night that never went through (I will be back someday however). 

The very exotic combination of coconut and pineapple never fails to please especially in weather like India's, making it an appealing choice for a dessert. Trying to use mostly locally sourced ingredients, cashew nuts were used for some extra crunch and some basil to give it a little kick of freshness. 

It takes be right back to the days when coming up with a dessert was easier than ever, antithetical to my days now. However, I've noticed my approach to food change drastically as I familiarize myself with the production side of the industry, and I do feel like I've made the right decision taking up food science. In time, I should be able to translate this better in dessert, the reason I joined this industry to begin with. 

Coconut custard and cake, pineapple granita and caviar, basil, vanilla cream, cashew praline. 

Yuzu and Mushrooms

During one of my stages, I encountered one of the restaurants making mushroom crumble. At the time, the very idea of any mushroom in dessert was very appalling perhaps; as someone who did not like mushrooms at that point, I certainly became a convert. The taste of earthly, thin and crisp shiitake to complement the toastiness of the crumble aided by milk powder, the gluten free crumble quickly became one of my favorite things at the restaurant. Fast forward a year, I'm served a yuzu creme brulee, so mildly scented yet packed with the flavor I love so much.

Me being the person that I am could only do what I think of when thinks click- put them in a bonbon.

Pureeing a tiny batch of creme brulee, I piped them in white chocolate shells that I dusted with raspberry powder for an extra kick- and color. A more regularly shaped mould would have been more ideal for temperamental bonbons like this, since I could have simply put in a white chocolate mushroom crumble insert and capped them off. That would have been much better than struggling another way, like I did with these.

Kinako Chocolate and Truffle

Kinako tuile and ice cream, warm chocolate mousse, butterscotch and summer truffles

I guess an apology is in order for not posting anything for almost 6 weeks! With a massive number of papers due and finals, it isn't a surprise that I got carried away. 

Learning from the kinako chocolates I made a while back (seriously, its been a while, but an idea worth checking out) it made a lot of sense to combine another deep, earthy ingredient into the equation- summer truffles. The slightly warm chocolate mousse has always been comforting to the heart; here the truffles season this warm, airy yet rich base to coat the mouth.

The kinako this time takes the form of an ice cream. This is in part a derivate of the chocolate mouse with potato skin ice cream that I found worked so well together, texturally and in terms of flavor, which led me to believe that it would sit well with a warm "mousse" in this case. I remember craving butterscotch when I was formulating this dessert- some sort of 'caramelized' milk has, in my opinion, always added more complexity to the dish when chocolate is included.

Perhaps the most common combination with chocolate in pastry shops this days has got to be feulletine- thin french crepe shards, delicious and crispy. In this particular case, my 'feulettine' piece was composed majorly of kinako powder, adding flavor along with texture.

The overall perception of the dish was perhaps that somewhat familiar flavors on somewhat familiar textures works really well. This particular set of textures seems like a great base for other combinations to experiment with, especially if they're sort of new and out there. I've found things slightly harder to accept if there isn't an easily recognizable component in the dish, regardless of how well it may work objectively.
 

Truffle Butterbings

Summer Truffle, Salted Caramel and Balinese Ganache Butterbings

It's been a while since I moved to the States, and this was the last thing I made back in my country. Thinking about them still warms my icy, black heart.

Butterbings are (unsurprisingly) a fairly new thing in Australia, but not too out of the way in their concept. Usually a filling/ buttercream sandwiched between 2 brownie cookies, they're fairly heavy but totally worth the 5k run after. The success of these beauties relies on getting the cookies as dense as brownies and slightly crusty on the outside, never forgoing their fudginess.

Fortunately for me, I had some summer truffles in brine that I could not resist shaving on top of what seems to be my favorite combination in the world- salted caramel, ganache and brownies. Balinese chocolate definitely makes it all the more special for me with its distinct regional flavors.

Versatile Christmas Trifle

With my last few days here and little time on my hands, my dear friend somehow managed to convince me to do an event at the cafe she was helping set up. What was supposed to be a dessert night got compressed to a demo for a nice fancy trifle, and I think everybody was really happy to say the least. My first demo an a nice, cozy full house, that too for a cafe opening! If you're ever in Chandigarh, make sure to visit Chapter 7 and attend one of their events!

I'll briefly cover what I covered at the demo here as well.

Ingredients are the real heroes- it is absolutely worth investing a bit more for say, fresh in place of frozen strawberries, because you'll never yield the same level of juiciness and result with the two. Ditch your regular chocolate and opt for coverture- if you live in the tropics, your country might be a producer. You get the hint, right? My favorite so far is Balinese cacao.

Remember, you create the dish and lead what direction it goes in. What you have in your heart will manifest in your food, so I will say what my colleague once told me- make with love.

This trifle is very versatile- you can swap the strawberries for any seasonal fruit (cherries and stone fruit are good choices) and you can proceed likewise for their frozen counterparts as well. The frozen strawberries recreate the feeling of an ice cream in conjunction with the cream, without all the hard work and having to own an ice cream machine (I genuinely feel clever on this one). You can even leave out the spices to make it more suitable to summer or just take the essence of the dish and make it your own. Let this trifle mark a new beginning to yet another amazing year, and a new chapter in my life!

Christmas trifle with gingerbread spice, strawberries and chocolate

Served 6 with some extra crisps to snack on

Spice mix

1 t cloves

1 T cinnamon

1/3 t nutmeg

1 green cardamom, only seeds

1/4 t fennel seeds

1/2 t powder of roasted coriander seeds

3 wings of star anise

1/3 of a small bay leaf

Dash of pepper

Grind in pestle and mortar. Reserve.

Gingerbread spice and cocoa shortcrust pastry (12 portions)

130g flour

47g sugar

10g cocoa powder

90g butter

25g egg yolk

1/2 t of minced fresh ginger

1 1/3 t spice mix

A nice pinch of salt

1. Cream butter and sugar till very light.

2. Add the cold egg yolk and ginger and cream till well emulsified.

3. Sift in the dry ingredients along with the spice and combine. Do not overmix.

4. Shape into a square and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for 30min.

5. Roll out to 3mm approx. thickness and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C till baked. (Approx 10 mins).

6. Once cool, break into shards.

Chocolate mousse (6 portions)

65g 53% coverture dark chocolate

1 egg yolk

60g cream

40g milk

10g sugar

90g whipped rich cream

1. Make an anglaise by combining the cream, sugar, egg yolk and milk and heating it gently. Cook till it costs the back of a wooden spoon.

2. Add the chocolate callets to the hot anglaise and mix with a whisk.

3. Cool to room temperature and fold in the whipped cream.

For the strawberry compote: (6 portions)

220g strawberries

80g Kinnow juice

8g minced candied orange rind

Sugar, to taste

1. Halve the strawberries and sprinkle some sugar on them.

2. Add the rind and the juice and cook on high heat till the strawberries as softened. Cool.

Frozen strawberries (6 portions)

7-8 Strawberries

1. Slice the strawberries thinly lengthways and lay out on a non stick mat. Freeze.

Whipped Vanilla Cream

100g rich whipped cream

1/4th vanilla bean

1. Scrape seeds from the vanilla bean and mix with whipped cream.

To serve

Pistachios, chopped

Pipe a generous portion of the mousse with a slightly less generous portion of the vanilla cream. Spoon on some strawberries from the compote followed by a  liberal sprinkle of pistachios. Place a shard of the gingerbread shortcrust and place frozen strawberry segments to finish, about a full strawberry's worth.

Share for more happiness tis season!

The plated trifle: Gingerbread chocolate shortcrust, Frozen strawberries, Strawberry compote, Vanilla whipped cream, Chocolate mousse and pistachios. Both pictures by Taher Hussain

Coriander Lentil Praline with Lemon Myrtille

On my recent trip (not so recent anymore) to the southern part of India, we visited Hyderabad in a bid to explore the zenith of Indian food- particularly the biryani. Bound to run into new ingredients, I was not disappointed in that department.

Forget fennel seeds and mukhwas post Indian lunch, greet Sukhmukh (or dhania daal; literally meaning coriander lentil). Served toasted, it has a nice refreshing flavour of coriander seed. Paired with the crunchiness of the lentil, I now see why it's such a popular 'aftermint'.

This ingredient made me look back at my days at pastry school and reminded me of this coriander hazelnut praline we did. Still one of my favourite bars after all these years. Deriving inspiration, it only felt right to turn this Sukhmukh into a praline. I did not let the lack of fat in the lentil be a problem; turns out, olive oil complements the flavour well given there is a day or two's worth of a maturation period.

Paired with a dark chocolate lemon myrtille ganache to further bring out the acidic notes if coriander, it added a change in texture as well. I somehow felt that white chocolate for the shell went best with it, bridging the two components with its milky notes and high fat content.

Fresh raspberries with potato and coconut

Some time back, I read in a chef's whose name I can't recall interview that for his last meal's dessert, he'd have whipped cream and raspberries. I found it truly intriguing, as I was so accustomed to creating and eating complex dishes, that it dawned on me- I was sidelining the quality of the ingredients.

I more or less haven't used commercial fruit purees and frozen fruit since.

And so as soon as I got my hands on fresh raspberries, I couldn't stop thinking about a nice, raspberry ice cream from my days back in Australia. Since most of my dishes are intended to be exploratory in nature, it was paired with house made coconut milk (you need to ditch those commercial cans for this real thing right here) and I feel that because I associate coconut with tropics and lightness, it boosted the dish in terms of freshness even more.

Filling some raspberries with a salted caramel made with coconut water, palm sugar and a bit of cream, I left the remainder of the coconut cream to 'sediment'- the film of coconut cream floats on top, forming a nice, concentrated and flavour packed disk.

Now I can’t possibly forget the cream, can I? As per usual, I whipped some house-harvested clotted cream and seasoned it with lemon myrtille. To add a variation of crunch to the dish, I added 3 components. It may seem contradictory to what I mentioned earlier, but another thing I’ve learnt over time is that in the end, what truly matters is how tasty and fulfilling the dish is. Juxtaposing this to a lot of other traditional dishes like a halo-halo, where lots of different components mumbling with each other is the highlight, one’s dish can go either way. What holds true in both is cases is respecting you ingredients.

Coming back to crunch- I made a raspberry ice disk from clear raspberry water, and added the element of potato. As it turns out, potatoes go surprisingly well with raspberries. Some fried potato chips and a potato tuile on the dish and it’s good to go.