Mango and Passion Fruit Flavored Savarin ~ April 2013 Daring Bakers Challenge

Savarin is a yeasted cake made with the same dough as Rum Baba. I made Rum Baba a couple of years back… the difference between the two  are, rum baba has raisins or currants in the dough and is baked in tall cylindrical baba mold and served without a filling. Savarin is made without raisins and baked in a large ring mold and the hole in the centre is filled with pastry cream and fresh fruits. 

Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina challenges us to make a traditional Savarin, complete with soaking syrup and cream filling! We were to follow the Savarin recipe but were allowed to be creative with the soaking syrup and filling, allowing us to come up with some very delicious cakes!

I made a Mango and Passion Fruit flavored soaking syrup. The glaze was made with mango jam. I served the Savarin with fresh mangoes and vanilla whipped cream. I halved the recipe and used 2 small bundt pans for baking. We all enjoyed the Savarin and thank you Natalia for a great challenge.

Orange-Soaked Bundt Cake

Recently when I saw this recipe I tried it and we really loved this amazingly moist cake.... The cake has a good orange flavor and is very moist.... both flavor and moistness improves with time..... I made some changes from the original recipe, the amount of oil in the original seemed a little too much for me so I reduced it to ½ cup, I used orange zest in the cake not lemon zest and for syrup I used fresh orange juice not frozen.... It was a really good cake and the best part is you can make it 2 or 3 days ahead of time if you are planning a party and the cake tastes wonderful after 2 days.....

Uppumanga / Salted Tender Mangoes in Brine

I think Uppumanga (Raw mangoes in brine) with kanji along with a kanthari mulaku (bird’s eye chilly) is the Malayali’s favorite comfort food... right?? I know my husband will not agree with it :D...  Almost a year ago when Sarah of Vazhayila posted this recipe it triggered my childhood memories...  But I never got tender mangoes (kannimanga) here...  so this year when I saw some green mangoes I decided to make it with that... so I selected the smallest thin skin mangoes available and made Uppumanga and now I am a happy girl having it with kanji and making uppumanga curry and chutney! Traditionally uppumanga is preserved in a big bharani (earthen pot).... In one of my old recipe books it’s written that to prevent it from fungal attack, in the old days people make a pouch with clean sand in a cloth and tie the bharani with this sand pouch and the Uppumanga preserved this way lasts yearlong! If you don’t have a bharani use clean glass bottles, make sure to add enough salt water to cover the mangoes.... My aunt told me to add little coriander powder tied in a clean cloth in the brine to givethe mangoes and the brine a lovely smell.... Always use clean sterilized bharani / jar to preserve mangoes and use a dry spoon, else you will see fungus attack....

Arabic Stuffed Zucchini in Tomato Sauce / Kousa Mihshi Recipe

Kousa Mihshi (Stuffed Zucchini) is an Arabic main dish and widely popular in this region. Minced beef / lamb is mixed with raw rice and spices and then stuffed inside the cored Kousa / koosa (marrow squash / Arabic zucchini) and cooked in tomato paste. I used minced chicken instead of red meat.... I got the basic recipe from my maid and then I searched on the net and made this dish to suit our taste buds.... While searching the net I remember reading on one site that you can make a vegetarian version of this dish by replacing the meat with chopped mushrooms, I never tried it though.... If you like zucchini you will enjoy this mildly spiced dish. Serve as a main dish along with some nice salad.... 

Passion Fruit Squash Recipe

Like I have said in many of my passion fruit recipe posts, my appa collects and freezes passion fruit pulp for me which I then bring back to Kuwait. Since my son loves passion fruit juice appa always tells me to make juice for his grandson....  alas little does he know that his daughter uses most of the pulp for her baking / desserts or wine than for making squash for his grandson :D.... But this time I made sure to make some squash as I received many requests for the squash recipe... Amma used to make passion fruit squash using this recipe.... Potassium meta bi sulpahte is used to preserve the squash, so that you don’t need to store this syrup in the fridge.... But if you are making small quantities I suggest not to use preservatives and to keep the juice in the fridge and it will lasts months.... Do make this squash if you get hold of some passion fruit and also you can use this squash to make fabulous cocktails with rum or vodka.... 

Hot Cross Buns Recipe

Hope you all had a great Easter celebration with family and friends! In Kerala traditionally we make IndariAppam on Maundy Thursday and have it for supper. Good Friday we spend 6-7 hours in church and  serve piping hot Kanji and payar at the end of mass.... And on Easter it’s always Appam and Chicken curry for breakfast, followed by a lavish lunch and dinner with non-veg delicacies made with chicken, beef, mutton and pork... Hot Cross buns are not even part of our tradition :)... But since I see a lot of Hot Cross Bun recipes all over the net during this time I too got tempted to try and made a batch of these.... I followed Poineer Women’s recipe and the buns came out super soft and delicious.....