Quinoa Mango Salad for #Food of the World

This month's country for 'Food of the World' event is Senegal, a country located in West Africa. I wasn't familiar with Senegal or Senegalese cuisine until I started looking for recipes for this event. I made this simple quinoa salad with mango from here.

Since Senegal borders the Atlantic Ocean, fish is a very important component in the cooking. Most other meats are also popular except for pork due to the nation's large muslim population. Peanuts are the primary crop of Senegal along with couscous, white rice, sweet potatoes, lentils and various vegetables.

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Wholewheat Sweet Rolls with Mango Filling for #BreadBakers

We are baking with stone fruit for Bread Bakers this month. Our lovely host Mir, asked us to bake a bread with any kind of stone fruit, in any form, fresh, dried or juice. There are quite a few fruits to pick from like peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and mango.

With so many fruits to choose from, I was initially confused on what fruit to choose and which bread to bake. But finally decided on baking these sweet rolls with fresh mango. I flavored them with a little bit of ground cardamom instead of cinnamon.

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Aam Doi (Bengali Mango-Yogurt Dessert)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines
Week 1: Bengali Cuisine
Day 1: A for Aam Doi - Bengali Mango-Yogurt Dessert
It's April 1st and it's time to start another edition of Mega marathon which means that the blogging marathon group is going to blog everyday (well almost, except for Sundays) in April. Our theme this time around is 'Journey through the Cuisines'. We will be posting recipes in alphabetical order from the cuisine/s we picked.

I am going to post recipes from 4 states (1 state/ week) and the first state is 'West Bengal'. Bengali cuisine is so vast and elaborate. I think of Bengalis as true foodies because food is part of their culture and their identity. Here's a lovely post by Ishitaunplugged about Bengali's passion for food.

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Avocado Mango Salad

Blogging Marathon# 58: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: Salads

Dish: Avocado Mango Salad

After a super simple moong dal salad yesterday, I have yet another simple, no-cook, easy to make Avocado Mango salad. I made this salad in July, during the peak mango season. But somewhat good-quality ripe mangoes are available in grocery stores all year long. So there is no reason to wait for summer to make this dish.

Recipe is from 'Vegan Eats World' By Terry Hope Romero. All the recipe needs is some chopping and mixing and that's it, you have a delicious salad in no time. Adding cashews adds a nice crunch factor to the otherwise creamy salad.

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Mango Almond Smoothie

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Fruits in any form

Dish: Mango-Almond Smoothie

We are starting a brand new week of blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Fruits in any form'. It's for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted this month by Harini. I have 2 extremes at home, my son doesn't want to touch any fruit and my daughter loves most of the fruits. So for this week, I've tried to make dishes that would (hopefully) please both of them.

First up is this delicious and nutritious mango-almond smoothie. With mango season in full swing, I am making sure to keep fresh, juicy mangoes in stock all the time. We eat most of them as is -- peeled and diced.

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Shortcakes with Strawberry & Mango

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Seasonal Veggies & Fruits

Dish: Shortcakes with Strawberry-Mango 

For the final day of this week's marathon, I picked juicy strawberries and mangoes as my seasonal fruits. Spring brings in so many fresh and delicious produce that is very exciting to visit the farmers market or even the grocery store. So many varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables to choose, it is sometimes overwhelming. I feel like I have to buy everything because what if they are not there the next time I come to the store.

We have been enjoying strawberries a lot this season. My daughter loves them and she's been eating them for snack almost every day. She feels so disappointed when I tell her that we are out of strawberries. So strawberries have become a regular item on my grocery list now.

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Tropical Smoothie with Hemp Seeds

Weather is slowly taking a beautiful turn in our neck of woods. I was looking through my last year photos and noticed that the trees were already in full bloom by this time, now we only have tiny buds on trees. But at least it is getting warm and I have no complaints.
I have a summery smoothie today with pineapple, mango and banana. I added some coconut milk to the smoothie and it reminded me of pina colada a little bit.

But the secret ingredient in the smoothie is "Hemp Seeds'. I read about these seeds in Vegetarian times magazine a while back and when I saw them in Trader Joes, I couldn't stop myself from buying them. I started adding them to my morning cereal, they don't have any distinct taste -- so blend well in just about anything.

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Strawberry Mango Salad with Balsamic Dressing

For this month's International Food Challenge, we are going to explore the Bordeaux cuisine from France. Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as “an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble” of the 18th century. Bordeaux is also an upscale place- a city for luxury shopping, drinking, and eating. It sits in the center of the world famous wine region that bears its name and thus tourists come here come to eat, drink, experience wine, and be merry. 

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Mango Nog (Alcohol free - Kid Friendly recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Holiday Specials

Dish: Mango Nog

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Kid Friendly Holiday specials'. This is for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted this month by lovely Sandhya. For the first day, I have an alcohol free, kid friendly version of a holiday special drink, Eggnog.

Eggnog is a sweetened dairy based drink usually consumed during Thanksgiving and Christmas in Canada & US. It is traditionally made with milk and/ or cream, sugar and whipped eggs to give it a frothy texture. Brandy, rum or bourbon are often added. It is served with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon or nutmeg. It is also known as egg milk punch.

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Vegan Mango Bread

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Vegan Mango Bread

We are starting our last and final week of blogging marathon for this year today. My theme for this week is 'Bookmarked Recipes'. I have so many recipes in my bookmarks that it is even impossible to make them all in this life time. Also I don't think I will ever be able to organize them in a proper way to actually see what I have in there. All these recipes are bookmarked all over the place -- some on Pinterest, some on Foodgawker, some on my desktop and some on my laptop.

I looked through all my photo folders from this year and found 3 bookmarked recipes that I already made but didn't get a chance to post. So this is my idea of cleaning up my folders for the new year.

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Mango Jam (with Pectin)

It is officially the end of end of mango season. I was lucky enough to taste the final mangoes of the season in India. My mom and I ran to the market in the middle of a hot day as soon as we heard there're mangoes in the market. My daughter and I totally enjoyed the sweet Banganapalli mangoes, while the self proclaimed mango phobic person (my son) looked at us like we were crazy. It's been good 14 years that I ate a good Andhra mango.

I was excited to see some mangoes on our recent visit to the local Indian grocery and bought a whole crate out of sheer excitement, only to find that most of them had dark spots on them. They tasted super sweet and juicy, but the dark spots started to grow bigger by the day. With my husband travelling, I couldn't possibly eat all of them, so decided to make a jam with the rest of them -- this way at least we can preserve and relish the mangoes longer.

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Thai Sticky Rice with Mango

We are exploring the beautiful northern part of Thailand for this month's 'International Food Challenge'. Northern Thailand is blessed with the best scenery in the kingdom, it is the region with forests and mountains, rivers and waterfalls. It is the home to Thailand's hill tribes, whose conventions and customs differ from mainstream Thai culture. 

Rice is the staple of this region and they use both ordinary and glutinous varieties. Food is seasoned with fish sauce and chili peppers. Our host for this month, Sangeetha Priya, gave us some amazing Northern Thai dishes to try.

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Mango Fool

Blogging Marathon# 41: Week 1/ Day 2
Theme: Summer Specials
Dish: Mango Fool

Summer and Mangoes are like night and darkness (at least in my mind :-) I wait for summer to enjoy mangoes to its fullest. There is only one person I know who doesn't like mango or at least he thinks he doesn't like them because he never tasted them -- my super picky 6 year old son. He is reluctant to even taste it, but he LOVES mango lassi, so I'm sure when he tastes a good mango he'll like it -- hopefully that happens soon. My daughter on the other hand loves mangoes (along with most other fruits).

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Mango Lassi

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 2/ Day 3
Theme: Mango Mania
Dish: Mango Lassi

This post is possibly the least planned and last minute one in the past couple of months. I didn't have any mango recipes in the drafts and neither had I planned for anything. I was dilly-dallying until the last minute today as if miraculously the post will 'post' itself. But one good thing we did was to buy a case of ripe mangoes from the Indian store this weekend and the yellow beauties inspired me to make one of my kids favorite, Mango Lassi. 

I have never tried making Mango lassi at home mostly because my son orders it every time we are in an Indian restaurant and making it again at home is quite boring. Also my husband being a yogurt-phobic, doesn't drink it -- so I usually make mango juice instead of lassi or smoothie. But today, it was finally time to try my hand at making the classic Mango Lassi.

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Mango Pachadi (South Indian style Sweet Mango Chutney)

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Mango Mania
Dish: Mango Pachadi

As I was thinking for recipes to make for this weeks theme, I saw this sweet mango pachadi as part of Tamil Nadu thali on both Sandhya's & Jayanthi's blogs. It sounded sweet, tangy and spicy. I had some chopped mangoes in the freezer and I went ahead and made this chutney. It tasted great with white rice, curd rice and even roti.

The jaggery I used was a little dark that made the chutney a little darkish instead of the golden color in Sandhya's and Jayanthis blogs. Taste was however right on point.

Recipe from Sandhya's recipe:

Ingredients:

Mango - 1 large, peeled, deseeded and diced

Jaggery (or brown sugar) - ½cup, grated (adjust as per taste)
Sugar - 2tbsp

Green Chili - 1 small, finely chopped
Mustard seeds - ½tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Cook mango pieces with some water until cooked through and tender.
• Add jaggery and sugar, mix well and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the mixture thickens, about 4~5 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Heat 1tsp oil in a small saucepan, add the mustard seeds and green chilies. Once the seeds start to splutter, add the oil to the mango mixture and mix well. Enjoy!!

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked up today for BM# 40.

Also linking to Fabulous Feast# 14, being hosted this week by Valli & Prachi.

Mango & Roasted corn Salsa

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Mango Mania
Dish: Mango & Roasted Corn Salsa

We are starting our second week of blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Mango Mania'. We get mangoes here in the states all through the year, even though the quality of the off-season mangoes is questionable. I don't buy ripe mangoes from regular grocery store unless it looks really really good. I like the ripe mangoes we get at the Indian store and last year we totally enjoyed the mango season. I'm so looking forward to summer for some juicy, ripe mangoes.

I made this mango salad/ salsa couple of months back when I had couple of ripe mangoes and fresh corn in the fridge. There is hardly any recipe here, it is more of a guideline. It is very easily customizable too. Add some cooked black beans or any other beans to add some protein and make it more filling. I served it along with some avocado rice for a simple dinner.

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Mango Custard

Here's a delicious dessert recipe for any occasion. I made it a while back and wanted to share with everyone on the eve of Valentines Day. If you are still looking for something quick and easy to make for Valentines day, then this recipe is for you.

Unlike other Valentines day desserts which are either made of chocolate or strawberry, this is made with mango -- which in my opinion is more exotic than he aforementioned ingredients :-)

Valentines day or not, this is a great dessert that can be made ahead of time. Fruit Custard is quite famous in India and as I was thinking of how make it a little more fancy, I thought why not add some mango puree I had in the fridge. The end result is this creamy mango flavored custard that serves as a great base for assorted fruit. A must try for all mango lovers.

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Eggless Mango Cake with Mango Cream Frosting

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Eggless Cakes
Dish: Eggless Mango Cake with Mango Cream Frosting

Second Cake for this week is a very moist and addictive Eggless Mango Cake. My cousin and her husband have their birthdays within a week of each other in October and we celebrated with this yummy cake at my other cousin's place. I baked the cakes at home, wrapped them up and took them to my cousin's place, then frosted the cake at my cousin's house.

Recipe is adapted from Vaishali's Mango cupcakes recipe. I made the cupcakes once before and for this cake I doubled the recipe to get 2 8" round cakes. This is yet another simple recipe to make, just mix wet & dry ingredients separately then mix them together to make the cake batter.

I actually wanted to make a Mango cool cake, but the cake itself was so moist I didn't want the cake to fall apart, so left it as is. The final cake was a super duper hit with everyone. 

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Mango Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Favorite Celebrity Chef Recipes
Dish: Mango Chutney
We are starting 2nd week of blogging marathon# 33 today and my theme for this week is 'Favorite Celebrity Chef Recipes'. For the first day, I have Alton Brown's Mango chutney that I actually made couple of months ago in the middle of summer. Saved it in the drafts and totally forgot about it.
Alton Brown is one of my favorite chef / cook on Food Network. I love to watch Good Eats show where he explains the science of cooking in a way that is easily understandable to everyone. He's very knowledgeable and very funny.
My husband and I love mangoes (husband LOVES them way more than me) and we make sure to buy ripe mangoes when in season. We bought a pack of 6 from Costco and the first one we tasted was so sour that both was us were very disappointed. Since it was almost impossible to eat them raw I wanted to turn them into a yummy chutney. I had bookmarked this recipe from Alton Brown quite sometime back and after a quick trip to the grocery store made this spicy-sweet mango chutney.

I bought mango chutney for this recipe and a small jar costs a fortune. I've used that chutney in salads, sandwiches, also great with naans and even quesadillas. So instead of buying a small jar, I now have 2 jars full of my home made mango chutney.

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Mango Coconut Pulao (Pilaf)

After trying Mango curry, I was ready to expand my raw mango recipe repertoire. So when I saw this recipe for Mango-Coconut Pulao on a telugu cooking show, I promptly noted it down.

With Summer being in full swing in our neck of woods, fresh green mangoes are widely available in the Indian groceries. I always make sure that I get a few, so I can use them to make pappu (dal) or this aam ka panna or this masala curry. But this mango coconut pulao is simple to make and is perfect one-pot meal for weeknights.

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