It's a Mango Delight

This is slightly off-season since the mangoes have come and gone, well at least in my part of the world that is.  But hey, they will be back sooner than you can imagine, time flies :)  This was made about a month and a half back, somewhere in May when mangoes flooded the market.   I love eating them fresh the best, but we weren't eating fast enough.    There were lots lying around in the house at that time.   There was some greed buying i admit, we had an entire crate that hubs brought back from India too, plus quite a few (and the dragon fruits too) that my friends brought over when they visited.

I love how these turned out, they are as tasty as they look :)   The inspiration to make this combination came from wanting to make good use of the 2 fruits that my friends brought over and i remember being attracted to something similar at  Jessie's Cooking Moments some time back. 

The taste of this mango pudding dressed with some dragon fruit jelly and mango cubes was very refreshing.  The pudding was smooth , creamy and had a very rich mango flavour.   The dragon fruit jelly broke the monotony of the creamy pudding and the little black seeds provided a nice bite.  It was a nice combination of sweet and tangy deliciousness in a dessert.

I only had two of them in these cute little bottles.  These bottles were containers for some imported yogurt and they were the most expensive yogurt that i have ever bought, hence i bought only 2!  I was more interested in the bottles than the yogurt in them when i bought them!  The yogurt was good though.  If i had more, i believe they will make quite an impression if served during parties :)

On a last note, apologies for not having a photo to show the texture of the pudding.  I rushed to take this photo just before sunset and at that time it wasn't completely set yet, so no digging in yet.  Then it was too dark for good photos (by my skills) when we indulged and like they say the rest is history :)

Recipe-Mango Pudding
Source: Food4Tots

Ingredients

• 2 large ripe mangoes (250g for puree and 300g for cubes)
• 9g (3tsp) gelatin powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 50 sugar 
• 100ml + 40ml water
• 80ml fresh cream (I used whipping cream)

Method

1. In a small glass bowl, sprinkle gelatin powder over 40ml water. Let the gelatin absorb the liquid and bloom.  Set aside.
2. Cut and slice mangoes. Set aside 300g to cut into small cubes.
3. Blend 250g mango flesh into puree.  Add in ½ tsp lemon juice and mix well.
4. Add another ½ tsp lemon juice to mango cubes and set aside.
5. Use a medium saucepan, add in 100ml water and sugar. With low heat, bring it to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Off the heat and add in the soaked gelatin into the pan to combine with the sugar mixture.
6. Add in mango puree and mix well.
7. Add in 3/4 of the mango cubes and mix well.
8. Add in fresh cream and mix well.
9. Transfer the saucepan to a large pot (or any kind of container with large base) that filled with ice water. Use a spatula or wooden spoon to stir the pudding mixture until it becomes slightly thick. Remove the pan from the ice water. 
10. With a large spoon/ladle, pour the pudding mixture into moulds/ramekins.   Place the moulds/ ramekins onto a tray.  Chill it while dragon fruit jelly is being prepared.

Recipe-Dragon Fruit Jelly

Ingredients 

• 25 gm. sugar
• 1 tsp. agar-agar powder
• 150 ml water
• 40 gm red dragon fruit, pressed into a puree with a fork (don't blend to have seeds in whole)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 pieces of pandan leaves 

Method 

1. Boil sugar, agar-agar powder and water with pandan leaves in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves.
2. Lower flame and mix in dragon fruit puree and lemon juice.

Assemble

1. Pour some dragon fruit jelly on top of pudding that has slightly set. 
2. Chill until pudding completely sets.
3. Serve topped with some mango cubes.

Note:

1. It is important to use mangoes that have ripen (but not too soft), sweet and less fibrous for a good result.   I used the Thai Rainbow mangoes for this.
2. There will be some extra dragon fruit jelly if poured in this proportion.  One can either pour more or set them in separate moulds.

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Jelly Good Cake

Coffee, i never get bored of it. I wish i could say the same for a lot more things, life would be a lot easier, or wouldn't it? Never mind :)

I was craving for something with coffee aroma, yes again. I stumbled on this one at Aunty Yochana while I was contemplating whether to make a coffee chiffon. This looks fairly light compared to a full blown cake, something that would be delightful in the current hot weather.

A wee bit smarter this time, I am no longer confused or despair when I don't have any lying around when I see the word Kaya. Typically, the word Kaya refers to a spread made from coconut milk and eggs that we Malaysians love on our bread. However, I have learned from previous recipes that there is a tendency to use this word when the combination of ingredients are similar to those used for making Kaya, it does not by all means Kaya as in the end product is used. And it applied to this one too, the green layer was made from coconut milk, sugar and pandan juice without any eggs though.

The first layer was coffee jelly, the second was Kaya (i.e. coconut milk, sugar, pandan juice, jelly and corn flour) while the last layer was vanilla sponge.

Verdict?
Light and refreshing. Nice combination. Yummy! Good as dessert. I think I didn't do a good job on the sponge. There are some parts that looked dense. Otherwise, this cake would have been just perfect.

Recipe
Source : Aunty Yochana

Ingredients for Sponge Cake

• 2 eggs
• 60 gm. caster sugar
• 70 gm. cake flour
• 1 Tbsp. Water
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Essence
• 1/2 Tbsp. Ovalette emulsifier
• 50 ml. cornoil

Ingredients for Coffee jelly layer

• 1 1/2 tsp. agar-agar powder
• 50 gm. sugar
• 1 tsp. Instant coffee granules (Nescafe)
• 1/2 tsp. coffee paste (optional)
• 300 ml. water

Ingredients for Kaya Layer

• 2 tsp. agar-agar powder
• 30 gm. cornflour
• 60 gm. caster sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 150 ml. thick coconut milk
• 300 ml. pandan water (blend 5 pandan leaves with water, sieve it and then weigh 300 ml)

Method:

For cake

1. Whisk all the ingredients for sponge cake at high speed except corn oil until it becomes thick and creamy.
2. Pour in cornoil and let it mix for awhile.
3. Pour mixture into a lined 10" square tray and bake at 180C for about 20 mins. or until cooked.
4. When cooked, remove from oven and leave it to cool on a wire rack.

For Jelly Layer (Coffee & Kaya)

1. Boil all the ingredients for coffee jelly in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves. When set, use a fork to scratch the surface.
2. Pour coffee jelly mixture into a 9" square tray and let it set.
3. Cook the agar-agar powder and sugar in pandan water for kaya layer until boiling and dissolve. Turn down fire. Pour in coconut milk (mix corn flour into it) until boiling.
4. Pour on top of set coffee layer jelly.

Assemble

1. Place the baked sponge on top of the jelly layer.
2. Put in the refrigerator to let it set.
3. Slice and serve chilled.

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Gemstone Jelly

Doesn't it look pretty? It's jelly but gemstones came to my mind when I was removing it from the mould. It's like a combination of gemstones! Rubies, amber and diamonds, all in one! Imagine having gemstones as big as these, nice... Unfortunately, my photo may not do it justice. A little overboard maybe, but it won't hurt to let one's imagination go wild, at least once in awhile. Well, don't they say nothing happens without a dream??

Normally i would just make dragon fruit jelly but these had a combination of 3 types of fruits. The top layer got its red (the "Ruby") from the dragon fruit, orangy hue ( the "Amber") at the bottom came from orange juice while the lychees hidden inside were like sparkling Diamonds!

Now, let's talk about the taste, honestly, i am not too sure about it. Another case of don't be deceived by its look? The orange flavour was so dominant that it overpowered the other two. Of course, one will not forget the presence of the dragon fruit with the crunching of the little black seeds but there was not much rescue for the lychee, it was kinda like there but not there, because the taste and scent of lychee was missing.

I am not sure if I am gonna make this again. Yes would be the most likely answer but I will omit lychee, might try longans (I have tried longan and dragon fruit and it was a good combination). Longans instead of lychees for diamonds, after all Diamonds are Girls' Best Friends, how can we live without them :))

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Purple Duo

Love the color more than anything else :) These were made from Purple Sweet Potatoes. According to little one Purple is the new Red, whatever that means! For now, purple is his favourite color since he's still feeling a little Bieberish!!

1. Purple Sweet Potato Swirl Bread

I thought this time i will attempt some swirls instead of making an entire purple loaf. It turned out to be a shade of pink instead of purple! Probably because the potatoes were from a different species, they had a light instead of a dark purple hue. The bread was very soft, potatoes always have that effect on bread. Moreover, this recipe used the tangzhong method. A nice hint of potato fragrance and sweetness in its presence.

2. Purple Sweet Potato Ondeh Ondeh
Had to find something else to make with leftover sweet potatoes from the breadmaking session. It was between this and a chiffon cake.

Ondeh-ondeh, a traditional Malay kuih (meaning cake), normally served during tea time or as dessert. Err, mine is a wee bit of digression from the traditional ones. Those are made from yellow sweet potatoes and infused with pandan juice, giving them a green shade. These little balls are essentially mashed sweet potatoes mixed with glutinous rice flour. They are then filled with some Gula Melaka (palm sugar) in the centre and boiled. Once ready, they are rolled in fresh grated coconuts, giving them a furry look :) Something that i learned to make during the early days of my Home Science subject, a long long time ago... The best part about eating this is when you bite into them, the palm sugar will squirt in your mouth,blending with the rice balls giving them a nice, sweet, fragrant and slightly chewy bite.

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