Whipped Banana-Chocolate "Ice-cream"

Who knew one could make something taste like ice-cream with just bananas? I heard someone talk about it a while back, but remained skeptical. Then, when I heard one of my friends mention that she often resorts to whipped banana as a substitute for ice-cream when she craves for something sweet, I decided to experiment. It is as simple as this - frozen banana chunks are thrown into a food processor/blender and pulsed/ground/whipped until the whole thing "magically" churns into ice-cream like consistency! I was apprehensive of putting my old blender to the task of whipping frozen bananas, but the old thing didn't let me down! If you have a food processor or a heavy-duty blender/mixer, be assured of having banana ice-cream any time!

 

Ingredients (serves two)

1. 2 ripe (but not overly ripe) bananas
2. 1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup (optional)
3. 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 
4. 2 teaspoons (or more) cocoa powder

Preparation

1. Peel and dice the bananas into thin discs. Put them in a plastic bag and freeze for 4 hours or  until they are completely frozen
2. Throw the frozen chunks (in parts or whole, depending on the power of your food processor/blender) into the blender. Pulse a couple times to break down the chunks. Then blend/grind/use the ice-breaker setting to start grinding and churning the chunks. If the blender struggles, pause and turn the mixture around with a spoon and then continue. If the chunks are too hard, it helps to wait a couple of minutes (to slightly melt the chunks) and then resume grinding. Or worst case, drizzle in some milk (very little and slowly) to get things going. But despite all the initial noise and resistance the blender seems to be throwing at you, worry not, keep at it, and within a couple of minutes the whole thing will churn to the consistency of whipped butter. When you see this phase approaching, drizzle in the honey/maple syrup, vanilla essence and cocoa powder. Give the whole thing a couple of extra whirs to incorporate everything. Do not over-whip or grind, because the whole thing will begin to melt in the heat.

That's it. Scoop out the whipped frozen-bananas and serve/eat immediately. It really really does taste like banana ice-cream! It tastes more like soft-serve ice-cream, though. I personally like my ice-cream to be soft than hard and cold, so it works for me! Plus, I can adjust the flavorings to my choice to result in an easy dessert that is surprisingly low in fat and sugar, but tastes great!

Stack up on some flavorings and you have a versatile recipe to whip up a fake ice-cream anytime!

Almond-Cashew-Pistachio Burfi

To round the savory Thenkuzhal with a sweet bite, I made some Burfis with all the nuts in my pantry - almonds, cashews, and pistachios. Burfi is a unique Indian sweet. It is softer than candy but firmer than fudge. It is a little crumbly and intensely sweet. After several failed attempts to make coconut burfi, I decided to take a shot at the last minute and tried my mother's recipe for almond-cashew-pistachio fudge/cake, and ended up with burfi! A happy accident.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup almonds
2. 1/2 cup pistachios
3. 1/4 cup cashews
4. 3/4 cup milk
5. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
6. 2 tablespoons ghee (plus a little more to grease the plates) (Note: my mother uses at least 1/2 cup of ghee, and yes, it does make a difference)
7. 3 cups sugar (traditionally it is 4 cups sugar)

Preparation

1. Soak the almonds in very hot water for 20 minutes. Soak the cashews and pistachios in warm water for 10 minutes. 
2. Rinse the almonds in cold water and remove their skin (the skin should slide right off). 
3. Roughly grind the almonds (without water). Then (and only then), add 1/2 cup milk slowly and grind the almonds to a smooth paste. Keep separetly.
4. Then dry-grind the cashews and pistachios till the nuts are crumbled. Slowly add about 1/4 cup milk (more or less) and grind the nuts to a smooth paste. 
5. Mix the almond and cashew-pista pastes together and measure their volume. I got about 2 cups of paste. 
6. The ratio of nut paste : sugar is traditionally 1:2. So, technically this requires 4 cups of sugar. But since we get fine powdered sugar here, I think it is far too sweet to go with the traditional measure. But it's up to you to make the call. 
7. I added 3 cups of sugar and 1/3 cup of water in a pan (non-stick is fine) and started heating the mixture on medium heat.
8. Keep stirring until the sugar dissolves and the syrup beguns to boil. Stir until the syrup reaches "one-string consistency" (see picture below). Take a drop of the syrup, let it cool a couple seconds (literally) and then take it between your fingers and pull it out. If the syrup makes one unbroken string/strand, then the syrup is ready. The syrup will reach this stage in about 10-12 minutes.

   

   One-string consistency of sugar-syrup

9. Quickly, but gently, add the ground nut-paste and stir to mix everything. Keep stirring to avoid lumps. 
10. Reduce the heat to low (on a scale of 0-10, my heat was at 2), and keep stirring the mixture. This is the most strenuous and stressful part of the sweet, because for novices like me, the right consistency of the mixture is ever elusive. 



The consistency of the mixture when I removed from heat

11. After about 25 minutes, add 1 tablespoon of ghee and cardamom powder, and keep stirring. Keep stirring until the mixture reduces and thickens and leaves the sides of the pan (picture above). It took me 40 minutes (timing from the start) to get to this stage. At this point, add one more tablespoon of ghee and remove the pan from heat (immediately!). Pour the mixture into one or two pans (greased with ghee) and smooth out the top (immediately). I used the bottom of a flat cup (that was greased) to even out the top as much as possible.
12. With a knife score the sweet into patterns of your choice. I just the cut the whole thing into rectangles. Wait until the sweet completely cools (about 1 hour). When cooled, remove the scored/cut sweets and store in an air-tight container. If you are living in a hot/humid place, store the burfis in the fridge. 

The cooled Burfis

My burfis could have been removed from heat 1 or 2 minutes earlier. But, I wanted a picture of the all-determining consistency. So, in my flustered (and excited) state of  realization that I actually reached that elusive phase, I tried to take a picture with one hand (unsuccessfully) and then ended up hollering at the husband to take a picture for me. In all the drama, I lost a precious minute or two. And a minute is all it takes for the mixture to turn from just-right to just-missed. 

But, it still tastes like burfi, is not crumbly or hard, and the shape holds, so I am declaring it a success. You can add more ghee if you would like the burfi to be softer. 

 Happy Deepavali to all!

Mullu Thenkuzhal

Diwali is right around the corner. This means Indians are all busy deciding which sweets and munchies to gorge on. Then Kuzhal (literally meaning "golden flute") is one of the popular savory dishes from my place. It's a deep fried savory made from rice flour and lentil flour. A soft dough is kneaded and is squeezed through a tool that is shown in the picture. It results in intricate strands of fried dough that is supposed to look like symmetric overlapping spirals (like jalebis). Depending on the template used to squeeze the dough out, thenkuzhal can have a couple of variations. Mine has little thorn like spikes all around the strands, so it's called Mullu (thorn) Then Kuzhal. As always, thanks to my mother-in-law for the recipe!

The dough is put inside the left part of the tool with a template placed at the bottom. The right part is used to push out the dough

 Ingredients (results in about 15-20 then kuzhals)

1. 1 cup rice flour
2. 2 cups kadala maavu / besan / bengal gram dhal flour
3. 4 tablespoons butter (or more for crunchier, crispier then kuzhal)
4. 2/3 cup water (or less)
5. 1.5 teaspoons salt (or as needed)
6. 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder (or as needed)
7. 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
8. 1/2 teaspoon hing / asaefoteda
9. 4 cups vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Mix the flours together. Sieve them through a fine-meshed sieve. 
2. Add salt, hing, chilli powder, and cumin seeds and mix well. 
3. Add room temperature butter and knead it into the dough
4. Then slowly add water and knead the dough until it comes together as a soft, but firm mass. Do not add all the water at once. The dough should not be sticky. If it is, then there is too much water. 
5. Heat oil on medium heat in a heavy bottomed dish. Test if the oil is heated by dropping a small pinch of dough. If the dough starts sizzling right away, the oil is ready.
6. Make sure the oil is not too hot because the Thenkuzhals will fry on the outside without being cooked inside. Reduce the heat to somewhere between low to medium. Gently squeeze the dough into the oil in a clockwise fashion (one rotation). Carefully remove the strand of dough from the bottom of the tool with your hand and gently drop the end into the oil.  Make two then-kuzhals at a time. Do not overcrowd the pot. 
7. Gently turn/move the Thenkuzhals in the oil to ensure all sides cook and crisp evenly. Remove when they turn golden. 
8. Drain on paper towels and store in an air-tight container for up to a month. 

Squiggly ones! Only experienced chefs can get the perfect symmetric shape of the then kuzhal