A Party Welcome Drink Idea

There's quite a story behind this drink and although I don't usually share much stories with the recipes, this one can't come without out so here goes. My dad's sister, athamma, is quite a cook but more than that, she is a very eager hostess. Whenever we go back home on vacation, dinner at her place is a done thing and all our favourites line up on the table from one end to the other.

She recently hosted my newly married niece and her family and my mom was very taken by the "welcome drink". She immediately got the recipe, got all the ingredients and was on the phone with me the next day insisting she will make it and send me pics for the blog. I said I wanted to be there as she made it and anyway, I was going home on vacation in another month or so. So she made this while I stood around taking a zillion pictures.

None of us know the name of this and my aunt got it from someone on her husband's side of the family so this drink shall just be called a party welcome drink idea.

The ingredients and combinations will sound a bit bizzarre but it was delicious!

A Party Welcome Drink Idea (Recipe)
Serves 6-8 people

Ingredients:
3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp orange tang (experiment with flavours here)
1 litre chilled sprite or club soda
1-2tbsp sugar (increase if using club soda)
1 apple peeled and finely chopped
A few sprigs of fresh mint, finely chopped

How Its Made:

1. Add the condensed milk and tang to a bowl and whisk until well combined. (My mom uses what we call the "Horlicks beater" back home. Many years back, the UK version of Horlicks that was sold in duty paid shops came with these and my dad gifted one to his mom. She later gave it to my mom and she uses it to beat egg whites stiff, make cappuccino, and of course to make Horlicks).

2. Add the powdered sugar and give it another whisk. Then add sprite making sure you pour through the sides gently. The mixture will foam up quite a bit.

3. Transfer to glasses, top off with some chopped apples and mint, and serve cold with ice cubes if you like.

Serve immediately.

Sangria Recipe

There are a few things very off with this post, I must say. First of all, I hardly ever post recipes for drinks. In fact, among 400 odd recipes in this site, only a handful are drinks recipes.

Photograph taken in natural light

You should know that Sangria is not served in such huge portions. Use wine glasses. I don't have any. In fact, these are the only glasses I have and you may have seen them in may posts before, but ignore that. 

Also, this drink is alcoholic! Well, if you grew up in a heavily Catholic-dominated community where every other family you know makes wine at home, you would soon stop looking at it as alcohol and just shut up and drink already!

Photograph taken in homemade light box for food photography

So anyway, I thought since we have known each other for a while now, I should tell you all that my favourite drink of all times is Sangria. Since leaving Hyderabad, I've hardly ever had it but decided to make it the other day at home. TH hates any kind of alcohol so I got to drink this over the next month ;)

To Make Enough Sangria for 8

500 ml red wine (click here to see what types of wine work best)
2 tbsp brandy (optional)
1 apple, cut into tiny pieces
1/2 an orange, cut into chunks
2-4 tbsp sugar

Mix all the ingredients, refrigerate overnight and serve cold in wine glasses (very important!)


                        Photograph taken in homemade light box for food photography

Easy Apple Crumble with Vanilla Custard Sauce- Step by Step Recipe

Before I even start talking about this deliciously simple recipe, I want to apologize for not sharing this earlier. The first time I made this was when I was about 16 or 17. My athamma got me this book from Salem since I was quite crazy about baking and Mallika Badrinath was quite the rage back then.

Actually, I lie. This is not the same book. I got this from Chennai this April when we were there because I lose the original one athamma gave me. And with it went the recipe of this super-crazy-easy Apple Crumble Recipe! I had been searching for the book online ever since and finally found it on a road-side second hand book stall in Pondi Bazaar. Such is life :)

An 'after' picture just to keep us going till we make the real thing

What makes this recipe extra yummy is the combination of the apple crumble with the vanilla custard sauce. The ingredients are easy-to-get in India and this is a great beginner baking recipe. Make it and impress guests ;)

Anyway, onto the recipe now.

Let's get started with apples. Good round red apples. Actually, any variety will work. Just go with red apples, ok? So about 500gm of that, or lets say 2-3 medium-sized apples.

Peel them. Or if you hate peeling apples as much as I do, make your husband peel them and pretend you are busy with taking pictures or dusting the furniture or something.

Once peeled, chop them up into small chunks. Its okay if they are going brown. To prevent this to some extend, squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on the pieces and mix well.

Add 2 tbsp sugar to the apples and cook on a low fire until soft and mushy. If you feel they are beginning to burn at the bottom, sprinkle some water but don't add more than that. This should take anywhere between 10-12 mins. Throw in a cinnamom piece if you like the flavour.

They will slightly reduce in volume and give out water. Keep aside to cool and resist temptation to snack on them.

Meanwhile, measure out one cup whole wheat flour / atta. Add a pinch of salt and 2 tbsp of sugar to this and mix well.

Chop up 100gm of salted butter that's almost at room temperature. The Amul salted butter that you get in India is a 100gm packet and works perfect for this. Remember to reserve a teeny bit to grease your pie dish!

Mix the butter and flour mixture gently with your fingers untill well combined. Don't knead. Remember this is an easy recipe.

The resulting mixture will look like bread crumbs. In the above picture, there is slightly extra butter because I had a 108gm chunk and I added it all in. When you use just 100gm it will be drier and more crumb-like.

Smear some butter all over your pie dish next. For those of you who sighed and thought "but I don't have a piedish!!", fret not.

You can use a small cake tray of any shape. In fact, I used an old aluminium ice tray (that had removable plastic grids where you pour the water for ice) when I was in India. So pretty much anything works! I got this pie dish on sale so I am going all fancy this time ;)

Lay out the cooled, cooked apples evenly on the greased pie dish.

Next, add the butter-atta mixture and spread evenly. Gently press down to make it as even as possible.

Sprinkle some sugar on top. I use brown sugar these days but go ahead and use your white sugar. There is no reason for this. Its just a nice thing to do. Sugar should be added to everything possible, in fact.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 25-30 mins until the top turn golden brown. Do you see that crust? Now can you imagine what this dish can do your life? Its going to smell divine, to boot!

You can slice them up once they are cool and warm them slightly in the microwave before serving.

While the apple crumble is baking, you need to cook up the vanilla custard sauce. The combination will make you a slave for it and make you crave it every other day, so consider yourselves warned.

Here are the recipes, all in one place.

Apple Crumble Recipe

Source: Mallika Badrinath's 100 Excellent Puddings

Serves: 4 generous portions

What I Used:

Apples - 500gm (about 2-3 medium-sized apples)

Wheat flour / atta - 1 cup

Salted butter - 100gm + a bit for greasing

Sugar - 2tbsp + 2 tbsp

Salt - a pinch

Lemon juice - a few drops (optional)

Cinnamom stick - 1 (optional)

How I Made It:

1. Wash peel and chop the apples. Add a few drops of lemon juice to prevent browning. Mix in 2tbsp sugar and cook on a low fire until soft and mushy. Set aside to cool.

2. Mix salt and 2tbsp sugar with the flour. Lightly mix in the butter without kneading until you get a mixture that resembles bread crumbs.

3. Grease a pie dish/cake tray with butter. Lay the cooked apples evenly. Add the flour mixture evenly on top and press down gently. Sprinkle sugar on top.

4. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 25-30 mins.

Serve warm with chilled vanilla custard sauce (recipes below).

There are two options for the sauce. An eggless version and a slightly easier version with egg. I make the one with the egg but you pick depending on whether you cook with eggs or not.

It looks innocent but don't get deceived! Its sinfully tasty!

Vanilla Custard Sauce (with egg)

Beat with a fork, 1 egg yolk with 1 teaspoon cornflour and add 2 tablespoon sugar with that. Add one cup warm milk and beat well again. Cook on a low fire stirring constantly until pouring custard consistency. Add 1/2 tsp vanila essence, cool, chill and serve with warm apple crumble.

Vanilla Custard Sauce (eggless)

Blend vanilla flavoured custard powder with 1.5 cups of milk and 4 tbsp sugar (adjust to taste). Cook on a low fire until pouring consistency. Cool, chill and serve with warm apple crumble.

I don't bother with triangular shaped pieces. Just pile them on, top up with the sauce and dig in!

This goes to Madhuram's Whole Grain (Eggless) Baking Event: Whole Wheat.

Apple-Pear Salad with Honey Dressing

Summer is here and with it, end of March which brings in additional 'heat' of pending deadlines for events. I made this salad last week but was not very happy with the pictures. One would think I am quite used to posting bad pics on this blog but somehow, I feel bars have been raised now :D I didn't have time to make this again, so the post will have to do with bad pics.

Pears are known for its mild flavour and firmness. This is why I like them best in salads and maybe poached. Wiki also says that in some varieties, its difficult to tell apart apples and pears. This was quite surprising to me since we get only one kind of pear in Hyderabad and maybe a couple of varities of apples. And reall, its not difficult to tell them apart easily.

Anyway, I used up a couple of pears and one apple in this salad. I also experimented with some spices and flavours for the dressing and was quite pleased with the results.

What I Used:

Ripe pears - 2, cubed
Apple - 1, cubed
Honey - 4 tbsp
Lime juice - 2 tsp
Salt - 2 pinches
Cinnamon - a few small pieces
Chaat masala - one pinch

How I Made It:

1. Mix the cubed fruits well with salt, before they turn brown.

2. Sprinkle chaat masala over this.

3. Mix the honey, lime and cinnamon well and pour over the fruits just before serving.

The burst of different flavours was quite unique. I added more lime juice than necessary, so the measurement given here has been adjusted. Please check to make sure the measures are to your taste.

This fresh fruity salad goes over to Raaga's AFAM - Pears and Abby's Monthly Mingle - Fruit Sensations.