COFFEE ICE-CREAM

 

We had locked Danny out in the balcony as Skip was having breakfast. I was at my work desk, whipping out a draft when I heard Skip call out for me, followed by some incoherent sounds.

Lockdown has given me selective deafness and I wondered if it had turned into the actual one. While I wriggled my pinkie in my ear, the calls became frantic. Skip was standing with the plate in his hand, pointing towards the curtain rod adjoining the door that led to the balcony. I kept staring at it, seeing nothing untoward…

…until I heard the word Squirrel. ( I’m getting goosebumps even as I type this out). Those new to my blog may perhaps not know of my extreme fear of critters (including birds) that enter the house. I am at times unable to move in fear and have been known to abandon my baby and run for my dear life when a vicious  magpie, looking to attack only me, entered the house.

I, thankfully had my phone with me. I called my father-in-law and  whilst precious seconds ticked away, having to listen to the recorded, automated message on the importance of vaccination, Skip and I  had our eyes glued on the squirrel. I mustered enough courage to be able to talk in my extremely calm, low-pitched voice (at times like these, I cannot scare people by howling into the phone as soon as they receive the call) and asked him to come up and save us from the squirrel.

What followed was a chaotic chase. Danny had to be let in as the balcony door had to be opened to let the squirrel out. Danny spotted the critter and started barking. The Squirrel jumped on to our bar section and curled up into a ball (it was all an act, I would say). I pulled Skip in front of me as a human shield. My father-in-law, coolly walked into the kitchen, got a long-handled broom and gently prodded the squirrel out of the house. It ran out and jumped on to the jackfruit tree facing our house.

Skip proclaimed I had frightened the Squirrel away.

All in a ‘work from home’ day’s work!

My favourite flavour in ice-cream is coffee and while adding the coffee powder, I wondered if it was enough for the flavour to come through.

Yes, it was!

Oh, how I miss the Corner House Coffee Ice-Cream but I could confidently say this came pretty close to it in taste, if not in texture.

If you do not have heavy cream, you can also use fresh cream. Read up on how to use fresh cream for ice creams on this post – Mango icecream.

Stay home, stay safe and follow me on Facebook and Instagram (Lucidlucent).

COFFEE ICE-CREAM

Ingredients:

Instant coffee powder – 3 gms (2 tsps)

Hot water – 2 tbsps

Heavy cream – 250 gm (1 cup)

Condensed milk – 200 gm (1/2 cup)

Method:

1.     Whip the cream and set aside.

2. Dissolve the coffee powder in hot water. Once cooled, add it to the condensed milk and mix well.

3. Add the whipped cream to the condensed milk mixture and mix until fully combined.

4.     Pour the mixture into the ice-cream tin. You may also additionally pour coffee decoction on the ice cream mixture and swirl it.

5.     Freeze it overnight.

6.     Done.

 

 

 

 

 

OREO ICE CREAM

 

Those easily offended by ‘bad’ words may kindly skip to the recipe.

The ‘F’ word is banned in our house.

We have a child, of an impressionable age at home. He’s 8 years old. I call him Skip in my posts. The other day (when I say the other day, I mean pre-covid days) when I was out, I heard a little boy, who I think was in Standard V, use the F word and my inner 1980s self, went “cheee bad word, I’ll tell your Mummy”. Of course, that’s not what happened, I just gave the child a stiff smile and moved on. This had me wondering if Skip used the word too.

He doesn’t. (Need to put this out soon else my parents who read all my posts will be calling me up even before they finish reading this).

I overheard this conversation between Skip and Sky.

Skip: I know many bad words.

Sky: Uh huhn *and gets back to work*

Skip: verry very bad words.

Sky: Which all?

Skip: *giggles*I don’t want to say.

Sky: You can tell me, I bet I know all those words.

Skip: I can’t.

Sky: Does it rhyme with duck?

Skip: *peals of laughter*

I don’t honestly understand the fascination with the word FUCK anymore. It’s so overused, it’s lost any “appeal” it had. It’s no longer the forbidden word. Apparently 6-year-olds are using it. We need to come up with a new word.

My choice of ‘bad’ words is bloody and shit and when I’m really angry, I use them together. I must confess, when I’m driving, I switch to Hindi.

I must clarify the F word banned in our house currently is FOOD.

That’s one of the few words, the Puppy recognises. Skip now uses our technique on the Puppy. He spells words he doesn’t want Puppy to understand. “Should I bring him his F-O-O-D?”

Summer is on us and it’s time to stock up on ice-cream unless you have a ‘tickle’ in your throat, then please do avoid refrigerated items. Now is not the time to tempt fate.

This recipe follows the same method as the mango ice-cream and Skip says it’s the best ice cream he’s ever eaten !!!

OREO ICECREAM

Ingredients:

Oreo biscuits – 12 + 5

Heavy cream – 250 gm (1 cup)

Condensed milk -   200 gm (1/2 cup)

 

Method:

 

1.    Powder about 12 Oreos in the blender.

2.  Mix the powdered Oreos with the condensed milk. (It will solidify in some time, it’s fine)

3.    Whip the cream.

4.  Add the condensed milk-oreo mixture to the cream and mix until fully combined. (You may also coarsely chop some oreos and mix it in).

5.     Pour the mixture into the ice cream tin. Top it with chopped oreos (minus the cream filing).

6.    Freeze it overnight.

7.  Done. 

 

I do hope you try the ice-cream because it’s fucking good. *cheee, bad word, need to rinse mouth with ice cream*

 

MANGO MILKSHAKE

I recall having mango milkshake in beer mugs as a child. Those were the tallest glasses we had at home, Mamma would fill the glasses till the brim and sprinkle a few chopped cashews on top. We'd all end up with a mango moustache. 

One can rarely go wrong with a dish that has mango in it (unless you're making some fancy shmancy 17-ingredient baked item). The taste of the mango is such that it overpowers all other ingredients. 

The milkshake I've made is with ice cream. You can adjust the quantities or limit the ingredients based on your taste preference or availability of ingredients. Ice-cream makes the milkshake thicker and adds an extra creaminess and sweetness to it. I've earlier made milkshake with just plain milk and it tastes almost as good as the one with ice-cream. If you find the milkshake too thick, you may dilute it with a little water or ice cubes. 

The nuts and dollop of icecream on top are optional but the milkshake tastes so much better with it and looks prettier too. 

Ideal for these hot and humid, summery evenings, this mango milkshake will cool you down and bring a smile on your face. If you have pineapples at home you may want to try some pinacolada.

MANGO MILKSHAKE (serves 5) 

INGREDIENTS:

Ripe mangoes - 4

Milk - ½ cup 

Vanilla Ice cream - 1 ½ cup

Cashews nuts - 4 tbsp (chopped and toasted) 

METHOD: 

1. Scoop the mango flesh and blend it in the mixie. 

2. Add milk to the mango puree and blend well. (Add a little water if required). 

3. Add the ice cream and blend one final time. 

4. Pour into the serving glass, top it with a scoop of ice-cream and sprinkle the toasted nuts on top. 

5. Done. 

Recipe Notes : 

• Use only sweet, ripe mangoes.
• If you aren't using ice cream, increase the quantity of milk. 
• You may use mango ice-cream too.

3 INGREDIENT MANGO KULFI

Mandatory mango recipe post for this year!!! 

I soak mangoes in water for 24 hours and then keep them in the fridge. Apparently, this draws the heat out from the fruit. We eat the mango at night and follow it up with a glass of milk. Skip has milk with Milo and I have Golden Milk or as more commonly known, Spiced Latte ( Fine! It's Haldi wala Doodh).

I spend at least half an hour a day going through recipe videos. I love looking at good food and attempting to recreate it, such joy it brings into my life! (Almost as much as my other creation). 

I love Kulfi but I'm quite fussy about the way it should taste. It can't be too grainy or have ice crystals in it. It shouldn't be too sweet else I end up with a headache. So when I say this mango kulfi was DELICIOUS, you may just go ahead and make it.

Everyone at home loved it. I poured it into the kulfi/ice cream moulds and the excess liquid went into bowls. The mango kulfi is thick and creamy and oh soooo good and mangoeey.

MANGO KULFI (makes 9) 

Ingredients : 

Milk- 1 litre 

Sugar - 4-5 tbsp (I used 4)

Milk Powder - 2 tbsp (optional) 

Mango pulp - 2 cups 

Almond / pista slivers - for garnish 

METHOD : 

1. Add sugar to the milk, stir and then boil it in a heavy bottomed pan on medium heat. Reduce heat after the first boil and add the powdered milk (optional). 
2. Cook the milk on medium heat , stirring at regular intervals until it reduces to half the original amount. 
3. At this point, a thick layer of cream would have formed on the milk , the milk changes colour and thickens (do not remove the cream).
4. Let the milk cool for a bit and then place it in the fridge for 20 mins. 
5. In the mixie, grind the mango pulp, add the cool, thickened milk into it and give it a quick short whiz until well blended. 
6. Pour into moulds and freeze for upto 6 hours or overnight. 
7. Garnish it with chopped nuts. 
8. Done. 

Recipe Notes : 

• I have used milk with 3% fat (Nandini blue packet), milk with higher fat content would turn out creamier when cooked on heat. 
• You can adjust the sweetness of the kulfi to suit your taste, but 4 spoons was ideal. Do keep in mind to adjust the sugar quantity depending on the sweetness of mangoes. 

MANGO ICE CREAM

We had three weeks of court vacation.  On the last working day I had made big plans of cooking every alternate day and flooding the blog with recipes.

The only recipe I made during those three weeks was the mango ice cream and that was prepared on the last day of the holidays and the only thing that is flooded is the ‘saved videos’ column on my Facebook page. I am addicted to these recipe videos, they all look so simple that they promptly make it to my saved items.

Hershey has the habit of sharing delectable food pictures on WhatsApp post dinner time. She shared the picture of the mango ice cream she had made at home and I set out to buy mangoes the next day. The recipe is from the blog - Cucina Mia.  

I have a collection of homemade ice cream recipes that range from the basic to the complex. The basic being, the one ingredient recipe. Freeze bananas and then blend them in the mixie and voila you have banana ice cream ready. You can experiment with this recipe and add choco chips, caramel, peanut butter, chocolate etc. I had made the frozen banana ice cream and promptly struck it off my list. The ice cream is too banananana for my liking.

This recipe is a 3 ingredient recipe – fruit pulp, heavy cream and condensed milk

I did not find heavy cream in any of the stores near our place so I used Amul Fresh Cream. Yes!!! you can substitute heavy cream with fresh cream. I needed whipping cream for my father’s birthday cake and that is when I came across the method to substitute heavy cream for fresh cream.

Place the carton of fresh cream, an empty utensil and the beater blades in the freezer for half an hour. Empty the cream into the cold utensil and beat for 15 minutes and you’ll have whipped cream (with peaks).

MANGO ICE CREAM  (SERVES 8-10)

Ingredients:

Mango pulp – ½ cup

Heavy cream – 250 gm (1 cup)

Condensed milk -   200 gm (1/2 cup)

Chopped almonds – 2 tbsp (optional)

Chopped mango – 2 tbsp  (optional)

Method:

1.      Whip the cream and set aside.

2.      In a separate utensil, whip the mango pulp and condensed milk until mixed well. I did add a spoonful more of the condensed milk.

3.      Add the cream to the mango mixture and mix until fully combined.

4.      Pour half the mixture into the ice cream tin. Top it with chunks of mango. Empty the remaining mixture onto the mango chunks. Drizzle any leftover mango pulp and swirl it with a chopstick. Top it with almonds.

5.      Freeze it for 3 hours.

6.      Done.

School reopens tomorrow and Skip has been hooting since morning, in an  attempt to cheer himself and failing miserably knowing that his TV time and phone time shall be cut down drastically starting 7 pm tonight.

We took Skip out on his first trip abroad only to be told there that he loves going to Coorg more.

Krabi, Thailand