Mango Milkshake

This is the simple yet delicious beverage, everyone knows about. But I couldn't resist posting this simple recipe. As I found Ratnagiri Hapus pulp in the store, now I can make it anytime irrespective of the season.

Ingredients

Mango pulp 1 cup
Milk 2 cups
Sugar 2-4 tbsp (according to pulp’s sweetness)
Few Saffron strands (optional)
Coarse dry fruit powder for garnishing (optional)

Recipe

Just blend pulp, milk, sugar and saffron strands in a blender. Garnish it with dry fruit powder and 1-2 saffron strands and serve chilled.

Tip

1. If you have nice blender, then blend ice cubes with it. As I blended it in mixer, I didn’t add ice cubes. So you can serve it immediately. Otherwise you have to chill it for some time and then serve.
2. In mango season, you can make it with fresh mango pulp.
3. You can use any kind of mango variety. But I like hapus mango's taste better.

Chipotle style vegetarian bowl (Burrito Bowl)

Since the time I ate this bowl, I am in love with this dish. This is very tempting mexican rice dish, made with fresh ingredients. After eating mexican food, I realized one thing that this is the kind of food which can satisfy indian taste buds for people like me. This dish is very easy to make at home, if you have all ingredients. So here is the recipe,

Ingredients for making rice

Rice 1 cup (you can use white or brown rice)
Fresh cilantro finely chopped
Lemon  juice
Cumin seeds (my improvisation, they don’t use this in Chipotle)

Fajita veggies

1 cup julienne of green bell pepper
1 cup julienne of red bell pepper
1 cup onion thinly sliced
Salt to taste
Black pepper powder to taste
Lemon juice to taste
1-2 tsp olive or any other oil
 
Other ingredients

Black beans
Pinto beans
Guacamole (Recipe)
Fresh Tomato salsa (Recipe)
Sour cream
Shredded Lettuce
Sweet Corn Salsa (Recipe)
Mexican blend cheese (or just cheddar cheese is perfectly OK)

Recipe

1. For rice - cook the rice as usual. Now in a pan add little butter and add cumin seeds, lemon juice. Then add rice and gently mix it to cover the rice with lemon juice. Add salt to taste and fresh cilantro. Lemon rice is ready.
2. Cook the black beans and pinto beans separately
3. For fajita veggies - In a pan take some oil. Add onion first. Saute it for a minute, then add garlic and again saute for minute or two. Then add bell peppers and just saute them for a while. Do not cook them. We want these veggies crunchy.

To make a bowl

Take a medium sized bowl, first add rice to it, then beans and on it add fajita veggies and sweetcorn. Now add guacamole, tomato salsa, sour cream. And top it up with lots of veggies. Mix everything well and serv.
Tip

For sour cream - If you don’t want to buy or don’t have store bought sour cream, then do not worry, just take homemade sour curd and hang it in muslin cloth, to make hung curd. And there you have the fresh homemade sour cream. Before adding to the bowl, just whipp it nicely. I must tell, sometimes I just use our regular plain yogurt. Which works just great. Though hung curd and sour cream are different, it tastes just good.

Sweetcorn Salsa

Ingredients

1 cup sweet corn
1 small jalapeno
1-2 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Fresh cilantro

Recipe

1. First roast the jalapeno. After roasting, take out the black skin and chop finely.
2. In a bowl take sweet corn, roasted jalapeno, salt, pepper, lemon juice and cilantro. Just mix it and your salsa is ready.

Guacamole

The most tempting mexican salsa. The simple yet delicious. You will be surprised, if I said, you can eat this with roti as side dish like chutney or salad.

Ingredients

1 Avocado
1 small tomato finely chopped
1 small onion finely chopped
Finely chopped green bell pepper Half or less than half (if it is big)
Garlic cloves 2-3 finely chopped or grated
Jalapeno finely chopped ½ to 1 tsp (add extra if you like it hot)
Salt to taste
Black pepper powder to taste
Lemon juice 1-2 tsp
Fresh cilantro finely chopped

Recipe

Take perfectly ripe avocado, just mash it. Add other ingredients and gently mix all together. Adjust salt and pepper according to taste and your guacamole is ready.

Tomato Salsa

Ingredients

Tomatoes 1-2 medium sized finely chopped
Bell pepper ½ or less the half (If it is big one)
Onion 1 small finely chopped
Jalapeno 1 tsp finely chopped
Salt to taste
Black pepper powder to taste
Lemon juice 1 tsp
Fresh cilantro finely chopped

Recipe

Mix all ingredients. Adjust salt and pepper as per taste and your fresh tomato salsa is ready to serve.