Anshu's Food Odyssey

For me, summers are incomplete without gorging on some chilled and refreshing drinks, ice creams and kulfis. Having said that, I always prefer making these items at home as they come out to be more economical and are absolutely preservative and color free.  If you have been following my blog, you must be well aware of my love for litchis. It is one of my absolute favorite summer fruits and I love trying out different recipes with the same. Recently I made and posted the Litchi & Rose Agua Fresca on my blog which was liked by many of you guys. Today, I have this amazing Litchi Ice Cream on my space; hope you like this as well. Ideally, for making ice creams, generally heavy whipping cream is a major requirement; however, the place where I stay, I don't get whipping cream so easily. So, instead of that, I have used the normal Amul fresh cream to make this ice cream. Also, I haven't added any condensed milk. Shall be posting another ice cream recipe using condensed milk ...

Summers are here and for us, that means the kulfi season is full on. So, presenting to you my first kulfi of the season, the most easiest, simplest and creamiest Mawa Malai Matka Kulfi that needs just a handful of basic pantry ingredients! If you don't have the matkis, don't worry...just freeze them in any kulfi mould or a container that you may have and you are good to go....let's begin with the ingredients and then the recipe. Easiest and Creamiest Mawa Malai Matka Kulfi Easiest and Creamiest Mawa Malai Matka Kulfi INGREDIENTS Full fat milk - 1 liter Mawa (dried milk solids) - 1/4 cup Fresh cream - 2 tbsp Condensed milk - 200 grams or as per your sweet preference Elaichi (cardamom) powder - 1 tsp Almond and pistachio flakes, optional - for garnishing NOTE: You can flavour this basic kulfi mixture with any fruit pulp of your choice such as mango, chiku, sitaphal etc. Just make sure, you add the fruit puree once the mixture has cooled down to room tempe...

Mango Mastani happens to be one of the most popular street foods of Pune, Maharashtra . Come mango season and you will find this soul-soothing beverage at every ice-cream parlor and cold-drink joint across the city. Basically, a thick milkshake, made with fresh mango pulp, chilled milk and huge scoops of vanilla ice-cream topped with all those dried nuts, candied fruits and glazed cherries, it is definitely a treat to your taste buds and off-course, a huge respite from the blazing sun in hot Indian summers. It is said that Mastani, the beautiful warrior princess of Bundelkhand and the love interest of legendary Peshwa ruler, Bajirao, was an ardent lover of mangoes; and this drink was invented as a tribute to her culinary taste buds. If you happen to visit Pune, do not forget to try this wonderful drink at two of the city's most famous Mastani joints: Sujata Mastani and Gujjar Cold Drinks. BTW, in these pandemic times, till the time you ...

Luscious, creamy and so delightful, Aamrakhand is one of the most classic and easiest Indian dessert recipes that finds its origin in the state of Gujarat & Maharashtra. The beautiful dessert has to it, a thick yogurt (that we also know as hung curd or chakka in Hindi) base which is flavored with some sweet and fresh mango pulp, mostly of the Alphonso or Hapoos mangoes. However, if you can't lay your hands on the said variety, any Indian mango variety would work just as fine. For that matter, if you get the canned mango puree, you can even go ahead and use that too. So, not wasting any time further, let's move on to the recipe and the ingredients below... Aamrakhand - Mango Shrikhand Recipe INGREDIENTS Yogurt (I used the home-set curd) - 3 cups OR  Greek Yogurt - 1 cup Powdered sugar - 6 to 8 tbsp Mango puree, preferably of Alphonso or Kesar Mango - 1/2 cup Cardamom powder ( optional ) - a pinch Kesar/saff...

Its raining mangoes and all I can think of is making use of these delicious fruits in one or the other way. There are numerous dishes that I have tried with mangoes in the past; Fresh Mango Cake , Mango Kulfi , Mango Lassi , Gujarati Mango Kadhi , the ever popular Raw Mango Panna and Mango Sabudana Kheer are few of them. As its the holy month of Ramadan , I thought of trying yet another dish with these sunshine fruits that could be made well ahead of time and enjoyed during Iftari ; at the same time it had to be light and cooling to the palette considering how hot and scorching the weather is. So, here I have on my blog today, the extremely easy MANGO CUSTARD which is made with readymade vanilla custard powder and fresh mango puree. A little hint of saffron adds that much needed royal touch to this sinful dessert. Do try and I promise you will fall in love with it!! Mango Custard | How to Make Mango Custard | Mango Custard Recipe Ingredients Milk - 2 c...

As the mercury is soaring high, all one can want is some chilled juices, coolants and lemonades to keep hydrated through the day. Though lots of drinks, squashes and ice creams are available in the market these days, they are not only high in sugar levels but also contain excess of preservatives, artificial colors and flavors which are absolutely harmful for our health. Now the question is, how to get away from such unhealthy stuff. Well the simple answer is make them at home. I know it is quite an effort but at the end of the day its all worth the hard work put in because you certainly would be treating yourself and your family with a healthy, fresh, flavorful and preservative free food. For those who have been following my blog would know how much I love mangoes....since these sunshine beauties are available in abundance in summers, I like to make most of the opportunity. In the past, I have used them in quite a number of desserts and drinks including those of  Mango Lassi ,...

Come summers and fruit markets are lined up with vendors selling a variety of mangoes. Emanating a strong aroma, just enough to captivate your senses, you certainly get tempted to buy some and arrive home with a bag full of them. Well! that is what exactly happened with my husband last week. He is so fond of mangoes that he could not resist himself and bought a huge basket of these sunshine fruits while returning from office. Besides relishing them as is, I invested some of them in this delicious, creamy and luscious " mango kulfi ". Imparted with a hint of cardamom and rose, it tasted simply divine, and not to mention explicitly, much much better than the store bought ones.    Creamy Mango Kulfi  Oh my my !! can you see the creaminess oozing from these kulfis in the picture above? That is exactly what we Indians love in our kulfis...don't we? In case you agree, I am sure you will love the recipe too which only requires three main ingredients. So, what are...

Though I am not very fond of sweets, there is one particular dessert which I absolutely adore and that is none other than our desi rice pudding, be it kheer or phirni. While this lusciously creamy sweet pudding is a must-prepare in our home during festivals, given an opportunity, I love making it on other days as well, especially on occasions like birthdays and anniversaries or even parties and get-togethers. So, recently when we had few friends coming over for dinner, I just could not miss this opportunity of making my favorite dessert once again....having said that, I did make it but gave it a little fruity twist by infusing peach flavors in the same (just can't help with the food experimentation bug within me 😜). To my immense pleasure, it came out really magical leaving all the guests absolutely delighted. Well! peaches are in season, if you too are planning to prepare kheer or phirni, do try giving this magical twist and I promise, you will really be surprised with its exoti...