Mango Lemonade

When life give you mangoes...

... make mango lemonade!

When Ramzaan and mango season coincide, what better way to put those mangoes to use than by brightening up your Iftaar lemonade with a dose of fresh mango puree. This refreshing drink is bursting with flavour and is the perfect thing to rehydrate yourself with after a long day of fasting.

Mango Lemonade
Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

For simple syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
(Makes approx. 1¼ to 1½ cups syrup. You will need  ½ to ¾ cup for this recipe.)

For mango puree:
2 large mangoes
1 cup water

½ to ¾ cup lemon juice
6 cups water
½ teaspoon salt

Ice, to serve

1. Make the simple syrup: In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for about 3 minutes, remove from heat and cool.
2. Peel and chop the mangoes. Add them to a blender with 1 cup water and puree.
3. In a large jug, add ½ cup lemon juice, 6 cups water, mango puree and about ½ cup simple syrup.
4. Taste and add more syrup if necessary. If you prefer a more tart lemonade, add more lemon juice.
5. Add ice and serve.

Pear and Chocolate Loaf

When I spotted some beautiful pears at the fruit shop a few days ago, this loaf was the first thing that popped into my head.

This is one of my favourite recipes and comes from one of my favourite blogs, Poires au Chocolat (French for 'pears and chocolate'). The blog is actually named after this recipe as it was the first one Emma (the woman behind Poires) created from scratch. Emma no longer actively blogs but the website still functions as a recipe book of sorts.

What I love about Emma's recipes is that it is evident in every step of baking (and eating) that she put in time, effort, and care into making sure the recipe is just right. Pears and chocolate are a classic made-for-each-other combination and they come together perfectly here.

I baked this loaf twice within the past five days and both cakes are finished, so that should tell you something about how good it is.

Click here for the recipe.

Note: The only thing I did differently was to bake the loaf at 350⁰F (180⁰C) for 45 to 50 minutes.

No-bake Cheesecake

I recently started writing for Dawn.com and, while it has been a lot of extra work, I'm enjoying the process. 

I don't keep a regular schedule for this blog. I've tried to in the past but struggled to keep up with it. So I like that this project has forced me to make time to cook and bake, and to write on a regular basis.

This is the very first piece I wrote and was published a couple of weeks ago. I am posting the recipe here but to view the original article in full, click here.

The recipe was born from a desire to create a simple dessert recipe that didn't require the use of an oven. It's a basic cheesecake but requires only four ingredients. I topped mine with lemon curd but you could use whatever topping you like.

No-bake Cheesecake.

Ingredients

150g Digestive biscuits (about 10 biscuits)

75 g butter, softened or melted

400g cream cheese (see note below)

½ cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

1. Prepare the cake tin (or Pyrex/ceramic serving dish) by greasing it with butter or oil.
2. Add the biscuits to a food processor and process until you have fine crumbs.
3. Add the butter and process again until the butter is evenly mixed into the biscuit crumbs and the mixture begins to clump. (You can do this without a food processor as well; add the biscuits to a plastic/Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin, then mix in the butter with a spoon.)
4. Tip the biscuit mixture into your prepared tin/dish and press evenly into the base, using your fingertips or the back of a spoon.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and icing sugar. Beat with an electric mixer, or by hand, just until the mixture is smooth and no lumps remain. This should only take about a minute with an electric mixer; don’t overbeat.
6. Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the biscuit base.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill overnight, or at least 4 hours.
8. If you have made the cheesecake in a cake tin, then remove it from the tin, add whatever topping(s) you’d like and return to the refrigerator until it is time to serve.
9. Twenty to 30 minutes before serving, place the cheesecake in the freezer to firm up. This will make slicing it easier.

Note: I use cream cheese spread for most recipes calling for cream cheese, because the box packages are mostly impossible to get hold of in Pakistan. I use either Philadelphia 200g tubs or Happy Cow 150g tubs

A Few Of My Favourite Things

I haven't posted a new recipe here in a while. A few other projects are keeping me busy, but I intend to post some new recipes very soon. In the meantime, I'm trying something new. I thought I'd share a few of my favourite things and purchases from last month:

Left: This Fuji Green Tea shower gel from The Body Shop has a fresh and clean scent. It's almost unisex, a decidedly unfeminine scent in a very good way.

Centre (top): Watermelon juice and Essie Mint Candy Apple nail polish.

Centre (bottom): I have a weakness for prints with birds on them so I had to have this cushion when I spotted it in Khaadi. 

Right: I fell in love with this kurta from Khaadi as soon as I saw it and I want to wear it ALL the time.