Indian Mango Ice-cream- You Are My Summer

GulabKhaas Indian Mango Ice-cream with Pistachio praline dust n leaf-the true essence of summer n why home-made ice-cream makes all the difference

I set the battery in the camera, I set the two plates ready, the pistachio praline dust is ready and the praline leaf has come out of the oven 5 minutes ago and they came off the baking sheet in one shape, much relief, now all I need is the ice cream on the plate. So I run down to the ground floor to get the tray of ice cream and I start scooping as soon as I reach the veranda, the rays of the evening sun are on the plate, one by one I put 3 scoops on the plate and by the time the 3^rd scoop is getting ready the first two starts to melt, at this time I start to panic, I should have frozen the plates, the sun is at 42 Celsius  and I have to take good pictures before my ice creams melts down, with a stiff heart I place the fresh mango puree on the plate around the ice cream, place the pistachio praline leaf on the ice cream and I start to shoot, gosh it’s not easy at all, every second the ice cream melts a little more and loses its height, I’m worried now, if I can’t find good frames in this frame of mind today is gone, I have to shoot next day because the ice cream wont set again in 5 minutes and the evening sun isn’t going to stay…tough. 

That’s what I go through almost in every shoot, though some are more dramatic like this one, but then at the end of shoot when I spoil myself with the half melted ice-cream, all the hard work seems fine, I can just eat it like that but the photographs are for you really, who come to this blog to find some beautiful delicious food.

I love ice-cream in every season n I think it’s only in the summer when you can enjoy it like in no other season. I dream of a warm beach, I’m sitting on a rock looking down at the sea with the wind on my face with ice –cream on my lips, I imagine of walking inside a dark green forest with an ice-cream in hand with the sense that something is following me, I imagine of walking in the woods in golden sunlight with heaps of dry leaves under my every footstep with ice-cream drops running down my hands, I imagine of sitting by the bone sculpture of a dead camel in the Kalahari desert with chocolate ice-cream in my hands.

Right now in India the summer is tremendous and not much rain till now, we are waiting for the rains, our genes are praying for the rain n at home I’m making ice-cream with mangoes n I realize these are the best mango ice-cream I have ever eaten, the freshness n the flavor of the mango is in every scoop, every time I’m making it with different varieties of mango the flavor changes, the store bought one are the same all the time and most of the time the flavor is artificial. So why would you not make a little effort to create something so good?

In my ice-cream I use fresh mangoes, single cream, full-fat milk and sugar syrup and corn flour n a touch of salt-that’s all. The first mangoes to appear in the market every summer in Kolkata are ‘Golaap khaas’/’Gulab Khas’/’Gulaab Khaas’, they are in a prominent shade of green with a stroke of red on one side esp. on the lower half on the mango, the flesh is smooth and not fibrous and  it is not completely sweet when ripe, it still has a touch of acidity or tartness, that’s what makes them so desirable in a hot summer afternoon, the perfect balance of sweet with a touch of tartness.

When I put the ice-cream in the freezer to set I give it about 4-5hours as it begins to go solid, since I don’t use an ice-cream maker I take it out, put the solid parts in a blender and blend it until it becomes a smooth mixture that can be scooped with spoon, then it get in the freezer to set again for 3 hours, I repeat this blending process for 3 times with the gap of 3-4 hours, the result is an ice-cream that is smooth in texture with less icy crystals in the bite, if you freeze the ice-cream right away overnight and eat it next day it will give much less smooth mouth feel n more icy crunch feel than if you churn it every 3 hours.

Every time you are blending the ice-cream to smooth, you are redistributing the ice-crystals already formed inside preventing them to grow bigger in one shape, with 3-4 churning the final ice-cream becomes more scoop able with smooth mouth feel and with much less icy crunch. So now here is the recipe.

For The Recipe:  You will need

For the ice-cream:

Mango-2 Gulab Khaas, medium size around 300-350 gm

Single cream- 200 ml

Full-fat milk-100ml

Sugar-8-9 tbsp heaped

Cornflour-3 tbsp

Water-11 tbsp

Salt- a pinch

For the Pistachio Praline:

Pistachio-14-17, slightly roasted for 4 minutes

Sugar-3 tbsp

Water-3tbsp

1.  Place the sugar with the water in a saucepan on medium flame, as the sugar dissolves completely put the flame high and let it come to a boil, simmer for 4 minutes and you will see the color gets a little touch of yellow, the flavor of the sugar will change a bit, that’s what we want, after 4 minutes take it off in a container and let it cool.

2. Peel the mango and scoop the flesh out with spoon and then place them in a blender and blend till completely smooth, add a dash of water if needed.

3. In a deep saucepan or wok place the cream with the milk and let it come to a simmer on a medium flame, stir it often and make sure nothing catches at the bottom, dissolve the corn flour in little water , once the milk n cream comes a to almost a boil reduce the flame to minimum and add the corn flour tbsp by tbsp, stir continuously at this time and make sure nothing catches at the bottom, once all the corn flour is added give it 1 minute, then add the sugar syrup n pinch of salt n mix well, take off the heat. Taste at this point if you would want it more sweet, add more sugar if you feel like and make it dissolve. Pour the mixture in a flat container which is floating on cold water or ice to cool it down. When the mixture is at room temperature n not hot, add the mango puree and mix well until homogeneous. Then pour the whole thing into a flat container which will go inside the freezer. Freeze for 4-5 hours at the initial stage.

4. Once the mixture has begun to get solid, touch it and you can feel if it is still gel like or begin to get hard, if it is beginning to get hard take it out and cut the mixture with a knife and put inside a blender and blend with little breaks in between when you scrape down the sides n blend to a stage when it looks smooth n fluffy, at this stage pour it back into the container n freeze again in the freezer for 3-4 hours. Repeat the same thing after 4 hours, refreeze n do it again, repeat one more time.

This is why you should begin making the ice-cream in the day time so that by night your blending process is done and you are not blending at 2 in the night and everyone is wondering what on earth you are doing at this hour. So then let the whole thing freeze for a good solid 8-10 hours in freezer in that container or in moulds if you like and next morning your ice-cream is secretly ready, well not so secretly actually.

5. For the pistachio praline, toast the pistachios on low heat for 4 minutes, then in a heavy bottom saucepan place the sugar with water gently, make sure there is no sugar cubes outside the wet sugar in the pan , place it on low heat for 4 minutes, then increase temp to medium high, when it reaches brown color, shake the pan gently for even color, when it gets dark brown stage, throw in the pistachios and pour the whole thing on marble counter, after 5 minutes they will easily come off.

Place the praline in a blender and blend till you obtain a smooth powder, make sure the blender is dry before placing the praline into it.

To make leafs or round disc first make a template on paper and cut out those shapes, the place that paper on a baking sheet and with a spatula lift out the praline dust and scatter over the template, make sure the shapes are getting coated in a thick layer of praline dust, if they are too thin you won’t be able to get them out in one piece, so dust well, when you have dusted over all the template carefully lift up the paper and you have the shape on the baking sheet.

Pre-heat the oven to 150 Celsius/330 Fahrenheit and place the baking sheet carefully n bake for 2 minutes, then let the sheet cool n then with a spatula lift up the shapes carefully.

Ice-cream is ready, take out the tray and dip a spoon in water n scoop in a line and the ice-cream will curl with the spoon, what a beautiful thing to watch, place on cold plates, place each praline leaf over a scoop, scatter some praline dust around the ice-cream and add a piece of fresh mango in the plate or even a fresh mango puree. And then forget everything and take a spoonful of ice-cream and place it carefully in your mouth, close your eyes and be loyal to the ice-cream, everything else will fall in place. Bon appétit.

Kulfi Kulfi!

The Inside-Mango kulfi- Cardamom- Mango kulfi served inside a mango-The special Indian Ice-Cream

Kulfis are so much fun- a breath of relief n joy in the hot summer evenings, full of flavors from fruits, nuts, flowers, saffron- they are a delight who gathers small crowd in the family tables with high anticipation. Kids love it and perhaps adults like it even more. In different parts of India different flavors of kulfi would be preferred and also would be spelled slightly differently such as “Khulfi” or “Qulfi” or “Koolfee”. Unlike ice-cream which is whipped Kulfis are not whipped and therefore they have a denser n solid texture being frozen, it takes a longer time to melt because of the same reason.

                                                    Kulfis being more solid n dense in texture you have to bite into a kulfi rather than licking as it starts melting in your mouth. Full-cream milk is simmered for a long time as the milk thickens, developing a distinct flavor and becomes more creamy. They are known as The Indian Ice-cream in other parts of the world. The traditional flavors of kulfi used to be Pistachio, Malai(cream), Rose, Cardamom, Saffron, in these time a huge variety of flavors have appeared, some of them being Mango, Paan(betel leaf), Thandai( a drink made with almonds, milk), orange, apple, strawberry, peanut.

When I was a kid, the Kulfiwallas used to visit our streets with their collection, the kulfis frozen in the kulfi molds inside an earthenware vessel called “Matka” which is filled with a mixture of ice n salt inside which the kulfis get frozen. It was a moment of temptation n anticipation when a kid would convince his parent after much effort those days to buy him a kulfi. In the modern changing times the Kulfiwallas have reduced in number, now-days some of them carry a box of thermocole full of ice and kulfis. But that doesn't mean that their kulfis are inferior neither the popularity of traditional kulfi has reduced nor is the technique of traditional kulfi making lost. In fact it is very much alive. What is most notable however is the difference in texture between the kulfis made in the traditional way and those made at home feels like.

 

                      

                                                                                 At home we tend to freeze them in refrigerator and in the traditional method the kulfis are frozen inside a earthen terracotta mold and then they are placed inside a Matka/Kulhar which is full of ice n salt, the kulfis rendered by this slow freezing develops a smooth saturated creamy mouth feel and not a slightly crunchy texture in the refrigerator kulfis because of the presence of water crystal in them. Also notable is the flavor in the traditional kulfis which carry the essence n subtle flavor of the terracotta pots in which they are frozen and it is such a desirable flavor that is lost in metal kulfi molds.

                                                                 The birth of kulfi began perhaps during the time-period when the Mughals ruled a big part of modern day India-16^th to 18^th century. The love affair of the Mughals with food is renowned and truly they were food-fanatics. Numerous recipes were invented in the Mughal kitchen which was never sort of money or supplies of food items from across the vast land on Hindustan-now India- and from around the world. During their time ice from the hills of Himachal Pradesh was shipped down the Yamuna to Delhi and it is during that time perhaps that kulfi was invented in the Mughal kitchen. However there is a Persian precedent for this desert and the name also has its source from the Persian word for ‘Lock’. Given that fact that the Mughals were very fond of the Persians, there is huge influence of the Persians on them, it is no wonder if the origins of the kulfi had its hand stretched to the Persian culinary traditions.

Now traditionally as aforementioned, milk was thickened by slowly simmering it for a long period of time, stirring from time to time to keep the milk from sticking to the bottom of the vessel where it might burn and done so until it’s volume has reduced to half or one-third. The resulting milk is high in lactose, fat, protein density and it has developed a distinct taste due to the process of caramelization of lactose and sugar during the time of cooking. This thickened milk is flavored and poured into special earthenware moulds, namely kulhars with their mouth sealed or into conical molds, they are then submerged into a mixture of ice and salt , these whole ice n salt mixture resides inside another earthen vessel named as ‘Matka’ which is shaken gently till the kulfi freezes. The Matka provides insulation from the external heat and slows down the process of ice melting. The traditional earthenware pots impart a distinct n lovely flavor to the kulfis and they will be known as ‘Matka Kulfi’. Those days a pot full of kulfi-Baraf ki Handi was a very special gift to send someone.

                         At the restaurants and  the road-side Kulfiwallas  often serve kulfi with ‘Faluda’ and a rose/strawberry sugar syrup, faluda are rice noodles which add a different texture to the kulfi being served, the additional sugar syrup provided another layer of flavor, many people however prefer their kulfis without the faluda.

                                      Modern day kulfis are often made quickly making use of condensed milk/milk powder/mawa-dried solid milk/white bread/corn flour/evaporated milk which thickens the milk quickly thus arriving at the same texture at which the kulfis are frozen. The process of freezing using the mixture of salt n ice was introduced in India perhaps by Akbar as told by Abul fazl who was his vizier/political adviser.

Now it is time to give the recipe for my inside-the-mango kulfis.

For The Recipe: you will need

600 ml full-cream milk

3 small/2 medium ripe mangoes

2 heaped tsp of powdered milk

4-5 tsp of granular sugar (according to taste)

2 green cardamom pods slightly roasted and crushed into a powder

Pinch of salt

                        

1.       Begin by preparing the mangoes, wash the mangoes, wipe dry, then with your fingers start mashing the pulp of the mango softly from over the mango skin, work softly around the mango until after some time you feel the whole flesh of the mango inside have been quite soft like semi-liquid. Don’t work so forceful that you damage the skin of the mango because it is inside the mango where we will freeze the kulfi mixture, now with a sharp knife make a 2 inch cross-slit on the top of the mango, it will look X. now turn the mango upside down on a plate and slowly push the mango pulp through the cut you have made, work softly, you will feel the mango seed is trying to get out of the slit along with the mango pulp, be careful as you push the mango seed softly out of the mango, turn it softly with your fingers inside the mango so it can get out of the mango easily. Once the seed is out push out the remaining liquid pulp from inside the mango, then make the mango regain its previous shape with your fingers carefully. Do the same with all the mangoes, then place them on a egg-holder or somewhere they can stand vertically, place them in the freezer.

2.       Take a big wide pan for the milk, rinse it with water then pour the milk in it. If you rinse the pan of your milk with water before you put the milk in it, the milk won’t easily scorch in the pan. Put the flame to medium; let the milk come to a boil, with a big metal spoon scratch the bottom of the pan and the sides so that nothing sticks to them. You have to do that every 2-3 minutes throughout the time-period while the milk is reducing in the pan. Let the flame be on low to medium, time by time as you scratch the sides of the pan you will see milk solids gathering; include them into the milk as you scratch the sides. It will take about 15-20 minutes for the milk to reduce to half its original volume, scratch the bottom often making sure nothing is sticking at the bottom. When the milk has reduced to half by the end of around 20 minutes you will see it has thickened and it has got all the milk solid parts in it that you scratched from the sides n incorporated into the milk. If you taste it you will find it has a unique taste, now take the 2 tsp powdered milk in a container and pour a little of the thickened milk in it to dissolve it, when dissolved add it to the rest of the milk, let the flame be on low this time, add the sugar, let it melt, taste n adjust if you need more sweetness, remember the mangoes will add a bit of their sweetness when mixed, so keep it slightly less, lastly add a pinch of salt and take it off the flame.

3.       In a frying pan on low flame roast the cardamom pods for 1 minute then crush them in a mortar n pestle, discarding their shells. Add the cardamom powder to the thick milk, mix well, now let it cool and come to room temperature. As it cools take the mango pulp that you had and either just crush them in your hands so they become like a loose paste or do the same in a food blender.

4.       When the milk has cooled down completely add the mango pulp, you don’t need to add the whole amount of mango pulp, probably half amount will do, taste it, if you think you need more add more.

5.       Take out the frozen mango shells out of the freezer and pour the mango kulfi mixture with a spoon inside them, when done make sure they are stable in their holder and won’t tilt sideways, then carefully place them in the freezer and give them 7-8 hours or overnight until they are frozen.

6.       When completely frozen take them out and take one mango out of the stand and with a very sharp knife cut the frozen mango kulfi into long sections, dip the knife in hot water if you need to help cutting through the frozen mango kulfi, being careful all the time. Now you must attack them and enjoy them as they melt slowly, sloooowwwllllyyyyyyy……