Shocks and Shoes

Recipe for the Week – Eggless Mango Cheesecake (Baking Partners Challenge #9)

11:51:00 am

I’ve been missing for some days, haven’t I?? Blame it on the endless weddings happening around me!! There are about 2-3 weddings every week, and they all insist the guests participate in all the functions – so do the math and calculate the number of biryani I’ll end up eating!! It’s playing havoc with my healthy diet, although I do restrict the number of invites I attend J.

Coming to this month’s Baking Partner’s Challenge – it’s something I’ve been wanting to try for quite some time – Cheesecake without cream cheese! Where I live, it’s extremely rare to find cream cheese on supermarket shelves, and even if it’s available, the price is a putoff. So this recipe’s paneer-hung curd combo has worked like a dream!!

The original recipe is from Divine Taste, and I’ve followed it to the T. I don’t have much experience with cheesecake, so I didn’t dare experiment much J.

What you’ll need:

For the Crust:

160 g digestive biscuits crushed (I used Britannia)

100 g salted butter, softened and cut into cubes

For the Cheesecake Filling:

160 g powdered sugar

800 g thick yogurt (I used Milky Mist)

400 g Paneer (I used Milky Mist)

375 ml water

15 g China Grass (I used Bakers)

1 cup of mango puree

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the Mango Glaze:

½ cup mango puree

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp lime juice

What you’re going to do:

Overnight Prep:

Place the yogurt in a muslin cloth placed in a colander, over a bowl and let it drain overnight. By morning, you should get about 400 g of thick, creamy hung curd.

Note: I used low fat curd (mistake), and so I ended up with about 300 g of hung curd. I went ahead anyway without any major disasters J.

For the Crust:

1. Break the biscuits into pieces and grind them to a powder. Drop in the butter and process again till well combined.

2. Remove the mixture and press it evenly into the base of an 8” deep round springform pan. Chill in the fridge for half an hour.

For the Cheesecake Filling:

1. Break the china grass into small pieces and soak in 375 ml water for about 10 minutes till soft.

2. Squeeze the paneer to get rid of all the excess water. In a blender jar, process the paneer and hung curd till smooth and creamy. Transfer this mix to a large bowl.

3. In a saucepan, heat the mango puree over a medium flame, without letting it boil.

4. In another saucepan, place the softened china grass-water mix and stir on low heat till completely melted, for about 5-6 minutes. Do not let it boil.

5. Pour this hot melted china grass solution into the hot mango puree, stirring continuously. Both mixtures need to be very hot. Slowly add this mango mix into the yogurt-cheese mixture.

6. Stir in the sugar and vanilla, and whisk well till completely blended.

7. Pour this mixture over the prepared crust, level with a spoon and chill in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or till firm.

For the Mango Glaze:

1. Place all the ingredients for the glaze in a saucepan and cook over medium heat.

2. When it begins to boil, reduce the flame and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more. Allow to come to room temperature.

3. Spread the glaze over the cheesecake with a spoon. Allow the glaze to set over the cheesecake for 2 to 3 hours or more.

4. Carefully take the cake out of the spring form pan and slice and serve.

All done!! I admit, it does require a bit of prep work – hanging the curd, peeling, chopping and pureeing mangoes. Also, pureeing the paneer and curd took some time for me, as also melting the china grass. But the best part is that this is a great dessert for a party, which can also be made ahead!! Even though I was 100 g short of hung curd, my cheesecake turned out quite soft and delish, although I found the glaze a little too tart for my taste. Maybe next time, I’ll skip the lime juice.

My cheesecake set perfectly well, but the glaze dripped a little on slicing. Not that I’m complaining much J.

This is a perfect dessert for this season, when mangoes are abundant. You may use more sugar if you’d like, but I had perfectly sweet mangoes to begin with, so didn’t need more. This recipe gives you a pretty big cake, so I shared with our neighbors and extended family. Everyone loved it, though my brother wasn’t a big fan of the glaze, like me J. Now that I’ve found a way to replace the cream cheese, a thousand opportunities have just opened up!! Check out other bloggers’ cheesecake versions here!

books

Book Review – Tantra

12:50:00 pm

Title: Tantra

Author: Adi

Plot: Anu is a reputed, slightly hot-headed but sincere vampire killer from New York. Her near and dear ones are blissfully unaware of her activities, and Anu likes leading these double lives as threads separate from each other. Until the day the threads intertwine and chaos enters her life.

The loss of a loved one provokes Anu to seek vengeance and to this end she reaches New Delhi. But, the vampire scene here is completely different from New York, and no sooner has Anu found her bearings, than she encounters other darker, sinister forces at play, and the whole city seems to be in danger.

Anu’s usual weapons of choice are not going to work here, and there is hardly time to learn the new complex skills that might help her in this war. In a time when friends and foes are hard to differentiate, when Anu’s priorities are changing, will she be able to win??

Review: I have to say that I’m impressed with the book. Seeing the word ‘vampire’ might bring back memories of a sullen Mr. Cullen and his anemic Bella, but don’t worry, this book has nothing of the sort. I think the fact that the book has a female protagonist, and that too a bad-ass, weapon-wielding one – is one of the reasons the book impressed me J.

Mr. Adi has brought out a book that is probably going to open the doors to a whole new genre of Indian writing. This actually seems like a risk, but I think it’s worked. In this fantasy thriller, nothing is out of bounds, anything can happen and while the story does stick to the main plot, it offers frequent twists and turns to keep the reader interested. Vampires meet Indian saints meet Delhi clubs meet match making aunties. See, nothing is out of bounds!!! But though they may seem disparate, all the threads come together into a cohesive storyline.

The characters are well etched and you can sort of imagine them as people you know. The author has maintained a good balance between the east and the west, and you come to recognize the city he tries to depict. The protagonist, Anu, especially makes for a wonderful heroine. The writing is fast paced and keeps the reader intrigued. The action scenes are well described and you can’t help wondering how this would look like as a movie or TV Series. Way better than the current trash on Indian television, I’m guessing!!

Some of the characters and sequences reminded me of similar ones in the Harry Potter books – the significance of a mentor, having buddies to back you up, internal conflicts, taking on an evil superpower who will go to any lengths to maintain his power. The concept of ‘shifting’ was a little vague to me at first, but as the story progressed, I got an idea of what it meant. I wish there was some sort of closure for Anu’s initial quest for vengeance, but since that was left incomplete, I’m guessing there’s a sequel coming soon. Also a few proof reading mistakes are visible, though they don’t really mar the enjoyment of the book.

Verdict: A completely original story. Though not the kind of writing that touches you in deep places, you are guaranteed not to be bored. I recommend you pick it up at least for the sake of trying out something new!!

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!

Food, Personal

I’ve been featured in Femina!!

12:22:00 pm

Humor, Personal

DIY – Farm Diorama

8:03:00 pm

UPDATE: This Craft Project was a winner in the Artsy Craftsy March Challenge for Animal Crafts!!

Cub and I have been a little slack in crafting, so I figured we’d make up for it with a little project. I’ve seen loads of dioramas on the internet and thought it was a great idea. Thinking up a theme took some time, since I wanted it to be simple and easy for Cub to understand. So, ‘Farm’ came up toppers.

This is how the conversation with Cub went:

Me: ‘Let’s make a craft project’

Cub (With a big grin): ‘Yay!!’

Me: ‘Let’s make a farm. You like that?’

Cub: ‘Yes!!’

Me: ‘What animals should we have in our farm?’

Cub: ‘Mmm…..Sheep……Cow….Giraffe……..and Elephant.’

Looks like someone has to work upon his animal knowledge.

Anyway, we searched the internet again, and got some ideas and set to work. Most of the supplies we used are things lying around the house, along with basic craft stuff like scissors, glue and tape. All I bought specifically for this craft was some blue chart paper to make the sky. Here’s the complete list of supplies we used for this little project:

Old Cereal box

Blue Chart Paper

Plain white paper

Colored paper sheets – Green, Black, Pink, Red

Old newspaper

Cotton Wool

Piece of Thermocol/ polystyrene

Ear buds

Pieces of yellow sponge

Popsicle Sticks

Googly Eyes

Scotch tape

Scissors (and a child safe pair for Cub)

Fevicol

Screwdriver

Paints

Extra farm animals, tractor etc.

Note: This is a project that older children can do all by themselves, except maybe the part using the screwdriver. For younger kids, you’ll definitely have to help by doing the tough parts. I’d recommend doing it in phases, like the background on one day, the animals on another etc., which makes it a perfect project for the summer holidays!!

Background

For the background, I used an old cereal box and cut it open along the sides.

Then I folded it like below, cutting out the unwanted flaps and sticking the sides together with tape.

Then I stuck on blue paper for the sky background, and green for the distant hills as well as the ground. Cotton wool formed the clouds.

Then I cut out thin strips of the leftover cereal box scraps, and Cub helped to stick popsicle sticks in a fence pattern. We glued them to the edge of the background and then reinforced with scotch tape.

Farm Animals

If you refer to the above conversation, you’ll notice that for Cub, ‘sheep’ was the first farm animal that came to mind. So, that was the first animal we made.

First, we scrunched up a sheet of newspaper into a ball.

Then I wrapped it white paper and sealed the ends with tape.

We poked four holes in the bottom with a screwdriver. Then I cut two ear buds in half and inserted them in the holes for legs.

Then it was time for a sheep face out of black paper with googly eyes stuck on. Then we covered the entire white ball with fevicol and stuck on the face in front, and cotton wool over the rest of the body.

Doesn’t he look adorable?? (Ok, I admit he does look a little overweight and like he’s going to topple over any minute)

Next, the cow.

Out of some old packing material, we cut out a rectangle and a triangle piece each.

Then, as with the sheep, we used ear buds as legs and to fix the body parts together.

We then gave the head some details. Ends of ear buds for ears, some pretty googly eyes and a pink paper mouth.

I love her eyes!! Itsy Bitsy has some really cute craft stuff J. There they are, a little awkward at making friends with each other!!

I also painted some black splodges on the cow. At this point, the farmer came along in his tractor to check if things were going okay.

Cub used that opportunity to add some extra animals from his toy collection – a horse and a pig. I also put in some pieces of yellow sponge for hay.

Then I checked if everything was in place. Oh wait. I forgot something – THE BARN!!! I immediately cut one out of red paper. The black you see are paper pieces and the white is paint. I stuck a piece of thermocol on the back of the barn and then stuck it on the background to give a ‘3-D’ effect.

Here’s a look at all the farm inhabitants again.

Blackie the sheep, giving the Tower of Pisa tough competition:

Elsie the cow, looking bashful for no apparent reason:

Ernie the horse, wondering if the hay is low-fat:

And Porkie the pig, having the time of his life:

I wanted Porkie to have a place of his own, so I used an empty biscuit package and put some cocoa powder in it.

Here’s the whole team together:

Cub was very happy with it and couldn’t wait to start playing. I barely managed to get some snaps J. I left him with it and by the end of the day, this was the scenario at the farm:

It looked like someone had announced the farm’s 1^st Hunger Games, and Blackie the sheep had emerged the lone victor. Blackie, who could barely stand on his own four feet. I honestly have no idea where the other animals are. Oh well.

This craft is a participant in the ‘Animal Crafts’ Challenge at the Artsy Craftsy Mom, sponsored by Itsy Bitsy. Do check out the link to see what other bloggers have made!

Check it out here!

Personal

Weekly Goal Update – 24 March 2013

5:45:00 pm

Celebration, Food

A Kit Kat Birthday Cake

3:20:00 pm

Like I mentioned in my last post, I offered to make my sister’s birthday cake this time, rather than order it from somewhere. She’s the biggest fan of my baking, and so she was happy with the idea, though my parents were a little wary (talk about encouraging your kids’ talents!!). Anyway, I found several versions of the Kit Kat cake all around the internet and decided to give it a try.

I baked two 8” round cakes using the Devil’s Food Cake recipe from here. I baked it on Saturday evening and let them cool completely and then wrapped them individually in foil.

On Sunday morning, I made the chocolate ganache. I used 250 g of chocolate and 200 ml of cream. This was actually a lot, and I ended up with leftovers. Anyway, I made the ganache and let it to cool at room temperature. Then I chilled it for about 25 minutes before assembling the cake.

Ok, now the assembly. Here’s the list of everything I used:

1. 2 8” cakes made as per the recipe here

2. Chocolate ganache, made thick and spreadable as mentioned above.

3. 35 Kit Kat fingers, I used a combination of 4 pk and 3 pk, broken into pairs.

4. 4 Marshmallow chains

5. Cadbury Gems – I needed only pinks and purples, so I used up 3 small packs.

6. Wide pink ribbon.

Note: You can skip the gems and fill up entirely with mini marshmallows.

The assembly of the cake was actually quite easy.

1. First, I leveled the tops of both the cakes and placed one cake upside down on the cake stand.

2. Generously coated the top with ganache, then placed the other cake right side up and pressed down gently.

3. Started covering the sides with ganache, starting from the part where the two cakes joined. Proceeded to cover all the sides and top, smoothing with a paletteknife.

4. Stuck the Kit Kat finger pairs on the side, placing closely without any gaps.

5. Tied a ribbon around the Kit Kats to hold them in place and trimmed the edges of the ribbon.

6. Arranged the marshmallow chains in a spiral fashion on the cake.

7. Filled the centre with pink and purple Gems. Chill for 5 minutes before taking out.

When cutting the cake, cut considering the 2 finger Kit Kat as a guide.

I thought of leaving the space in the middle for a candle, but at 17 years of age, my sis thinks she’s too old for birthday candles J.

So that was it!! Really easy to make, but quite impressive. Everyone was quite surprised and said it looked great!!! It also tasted really yum, the Devil’s Food Cake melting in my mouth with that smooth ganache.