Vegan Mango Bundt Cake Recipe

I brought back 4kg of mangoes when I came back after my two-week vacation back home. 4-5 days after I got back, they all they started ripening at the same time and pretty rapidly at that. I started panicking and quickly looked up mango dessert recipes. After indulging in a good amount of mango lassi and mango milkshake, I was still left with more mangoes than we could just eat up (what a lovely lovely problem to have!) so I started looking for mango dessert recipes. Although I was tempted to make the no-bake mango cheesecake, the fact that we would both end up finishing it in 2 days deterred me.

If I had Photoshop installed in my Mac and some patience, I would have edited that grey line out of this pic.

Since I was out of eggs, I started searching for eggless mango cakes. Quite a few popped up and most had some other ingredient that I didn't have either - like sour cream or buttermilk. Then I saw this vegan mango cake recipe in Holy Cow Vegan and decided this is it!

I've always wanted to take an artistic shot like this. Since I don't use a tripod, it was tricky. Shaking the sieve with my left hand and holding camera and clicking with the right (all the while fearing that the camera would fall and the lens would break *shudder*)

Vegan Mango Bundt Cake Recipe
Serves 10
Adapted from: Holy Cow Vegan

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1 1/2 cups ripe mango puree

1/3 cup neutral oil (vegetable, canola, etc)

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

How I Made It:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 180C.

2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cardamom powder well together.

3. In another bowl, whisk the mango puree, oil, sugar and vanilla until well combined. Add this to the flour mixture and fold until there are no traces of flour left. Don't overmix, just use your hand whisk or a silicon spatula to do this.

4. Transfer to a a greased bundt pan and bake in the pre-heated oven until the cake is cooked through and a skewer passed through it comes out with a few crumbs in the end. It took my cake about 40 mins to reach this stage.

Transfer to a cooling rack, dust with some icing sugar and serve warm or at room temperature with some mango puree drizzled over it if you'd like.

Notes:
- Although this cake came out just fine, I realised that I am not a fan of eggless cakes using oil as a substitute. I think the mental image that this piece of cake has oil in it turns me off. Although for this mango cake, the flavour of oil was at a minimum, I would just add 1/2 a cup of melted butter next time when I try it. Of course, then it will no longer be vegan.

- If you don't have fresh ripe mangoes in stock, just use canned mango puree. Works just as fine too.

Also, HUGE thanks to Sakshi for the super cute cake stand she gifted me while we met and roamed around the Bay Area and SFO. You the best!

Eggless No-Bake Mango Cheesecake Recipe

I have taken pictures at every stage of this recipe and I am going to force you to look at them. This does not mean this is not an easy recipe. I mean, this is cheesecake you don't need to bake. It really doesn't get easier than that. Round up your ingredients and let's get started.



You are going to need graham crackers for the base. I got some from the US because I really really love graham crackers but if you don't have any handy, go with digestive biscuits, marie biscuits, or even Oreos.



Give them a whiz in your food processor to turn into crumbs. You can even put them into a ziplock and use a rolling pin to smash them into small pieces. I always take the easy way out, especially when the end result won't show much difference anyway.



Time to pour in some melted better.



Give the mixture another whiz so that the base becomes moist and crumbly, just the way we want it. At this time, I urge you to smell this mixture. I swear it already smells a bit like cheesecake!



Now, you can go many routes. Use an 8" springform pan if you want one full cake which you can later slice up. I decided to set them in individual glasses and picked out whatever I had in hand. This will make serving much easier, especially if you are making this for a small party or something. Also looks infinitely prettier.



Spoon some into each glass and press firmly with the back of a spoon or fingertips. Leave this in the refrigerator while the rest of the cheesecake is prepared.



Mix well together the cream cheese, sugar, and cream. You can do this with a whisk by hand since you are not going to beat it much, just until it all comes together. I used my Kitchenaid for the job.



Time to bring out the gelatine. This is our setting agent, since this is a no-bake cheesecake recipe. You can also use china grass, I am sure, but I haven't tried it with that. If you want to go that route, I would recommend starting with 5gm and following the rest of the steps as mentioned here.

Dissolve 1 tbsp gelatine in hot water.



Mix this into the mango puree. I used canned mango puree but if you have fresh mangoes that you want to use up (lucky you!), then go for that, please. Make sure the mango puree is well combined with the gelatine mixture.

Reserve half and pour the rest into the cream cheese mixture. Incorporate well. This is our middle layer or the main part of the cheesecake. How easy was that?



Bring out the glasses from the fridge and spoon the cheesecake mixture into each, until about 3/4th full. Return to fridge for atleast 10 mins. I took them out in about 15 mins or so.

Once the cheesecake has set a bit in the fridge, pour the reserved mango-gelatine mixture gently on top of the cheesecake. If you don't do the refrigerating bit after you pour in the cheesecake, that will blend into the top layer that you are pouring in now so its important to let the cheesecake mixture set for a bit.

That's it! Refrigerate overnight or atleast 6-8 hours for a delicious dessert.

Full credit for this recipe goes to my classmate from school, Swetha and her cousin. She emailed me this recipe long back and I had kept it starred for ages. Glad I got around to finally making it. This is an easy dessert that makes you look really good for making it, just the kind I love!

Here's the recipe, all in one place.

Eggless No-Bake Mango Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients:
Cream cheese - 1 block (250gm, Philadelphia Cream Cheese)
Cream - 170 gm (I used Nestle)
Sugar - Half a cup
Mango puree - 3/4 of a cup
Gelatine - 1 Tbsp
Hot Water - 1/4 cup
Graham cracker crumbs - 1.5 to 2 cups (Depending on how thick you want the base to be)
Unsalted butter, melted - 75 gm (about 1/3 of a cup)

How I Made It:

1. Whiz the graham crackers in a food processor. Add melted butter and whiz again until the mixture comes together. Press into the bottom of an 8" springform pan that's lined with aluminium foil or use individual glasses. Refrigerate while preparing the rest of the cheesecake.

2. Mix the cream cheese, cream, and sugar in a bowl until well combined. You can do it by hand or use low speed on your Kitchenaid. An electric beater is not needed.

3. Add the gelatine to the hot water and stir till it completely dissolves. Add the mango puree and stir well. Keep half of this mixture aside and add the rest to the cream cheese mixture. Stir gently until well combined.

4. Pour on top of the graham cracker base. Return to fridge for another 10-30 mins.

5. Pour the mango mixture as the third layer. Do this gently so that the layers don't combine. If you use a springform pan, the top layer will be much thinner, as it should be.

6. Refrigerate overnight and get ready to serve a yummy dessert at your party that can be prepared well in advance!

Sweet Mango Pickle - Amma's Recipe

This sweet mango pickle takes me places. It takes me to places that I lived as a 12-year old, in a house that had a huge kitchen, the time that we had the hottest summers in Kottayam and the baths we used to take under the backyard tap in the dusky evening light. The hot dosas for dinner and this sweet and slightly sour pickle that complemented the dosas like not even coconut chutney could. The bottle was brought out when there were chapatis and parathas on the table too.

Easily, the best part of this recipe is that fact that amma came up with it just like that one hot, sweaty Kerala summer day. She was slicing onions, oh so fine like she normally does, and then randomly took a couple of raw mangoes from the counter-top and starting putting together this condiment that would later be made again and again and filled in many many bottles, devoured by her youngest daughter with practically anything, and sent to relatives and friends who were near and far.

The sesame oil and the near-burnt fengreek seeds create a symphony with the chopped onions and mangoes that's hard to describe. It gels with anything you spread it on, making the meal magically taste better. Just like mothers spread their love and support on everything and magically make your life better. This is my soul-food, my comfort, amma's love.

Amma's Sweet Mango Pickle Recipe

Makes one small bottle

Ingredients:

Raw mangoes - 3 nos (orange sized ones, approx)

Onions - 3 big

Jaggery / raw sugar (or brown sugar) - 1/2 cup, grated or melted

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilly powder - 6 tsp

Gingelly / Indian sesame oil - 1/2 cup

Fenugreek seeds / uluva / menthayam - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida / hing / kaayam - 1/4 tsp

Mustard seeds / kaduku - 1/2tsp

A few curry leaves

Salt to taste

How Amma Makes It:

1. Slice the mangoes and onions into thin pieces.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When they pop, add the fenugreek seeds. When they turn a nice brown, add the onions. Take care not to burn the seeds otherwise they turn very bitter. Let the onions brown well.

3. Now add the chilly powder, turmeric powder, hing and curry leaves. Stir around for a minute and then add the sliced mangoes and salt. Add 1/2 cup water to this and cook covered on a low flame (on sim, preferably).

4. After abount 10 mins, add the jaggery, mix well and let the mixture come to a boil. Remove, cool and store in air-tight bottles. Keeps in the refrigerator for up to a month.

I am sending this post to 'Of Chalks and Chopsticks' hosted by Bong Mom this month and conceptualized by Aqua.

Sri Lankan Mango Curry Recipe

When I saw the annoucement for the May edition of A.W.E.D on Siri's blog, I was thinking atleast this month I should send in something. Due to work, some personal stuff and more work, I forgot about it until the weekend when we visited the library. Guess what stuck its head out of the cookery bookshelf? This book!

I picked it up and once glance through it made me realize how similar Sri Lankan cuisine is to Indian cuisine as well South East Asian ones. I was amazed to see that Pandan leaves, that are a very common flavouring ingredient used in South East Asian cooking, are a staple in a Sri Lankan kitchen too, just like curry leaves are to Indians. In fact, they use curry leaves quite extensively too. I was also surprised to see Kerala aappams, they call it hoppers, as a common street food in SL. They call idiyappam string hoppers, so cute!

Fresh Pandan Leaves

I could go on and on because I am quite smitten by this cuisine. Similar yet so different from what I am so used to.

The first dish I tried from the book is this Mango Curry. Its similar to our mango pachadi recipe but has its subtle differences. I was diappointed to see that the author hadn't mentioned the local name for this dish. I did a search and the closest dish I could find online was Amba Maluwa but the recipe is significantly different from this.

The mangoes I used were semi-sweet semi-sour

Sri Lankan Mango Curry

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 30 mins

Source: Sri Lankan Flavours by Channa Dassanayaka

What I Used:

1 raw mango

1/2 onion, chopped fine

2 tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp crushed ginger

(or use 2 tsp ginger garlic paste)

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 tbsp vinegar

4-5 curry leaves
1 pandan leaf cut/torn into bits

a 1" cinnamon stick

1/2 cup thick coconut milk

1/2 cup light coconut milk

1 tbsp oil

How I Made It:

1. Peel mango and cut into long, thin pieces. I made the mistake of not peeling the mango and the curry came out slightly bitter. So please take the time and do it!

2. Grind mustard seeds and vinegar together to form a paste.

3. Heat oil in a pan and add the onion, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and cinnamon. Saute until onion turns golden - about 5-7 mins.

4. Add the mango, light coconut milk, pandan leaf bits and the mustard seed mixture and bring to a boil.

5. Reduce heat and simmer until mango is cooked and tender. Add the thick coconut milk and simmer for another 10 mins. Add salt.

Notes

- You can use store-bought coconut milk for this recipe. I used it and to get the light coconut milk, I added equal amounts of water to the coconut milk. It won't curdle if you cook it in very low fire. 

- The dish will taste just fine without pandan leaves. It will be like making an Indian dish without curry leaves - a certain flavour will be missing but that won't break the dish totally, so don't worry :)

This side dish is usually served with rice and some meat curry during a typical Sri Lankan lunch.

Needless to say, this goes to A.W.E.D Sri Lankan Cuisine hosted by Siri, conceptualized by DK.

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Have you mingled yet? Make sure your yummy rice recipes reach me before June 15th. Event details here.

Raw Mango and Coconut Gravy/Pacha Manga Curry

When it comes to making a kozhambu/chaaru curry/gravy for rice, I am normally stumped for choices, not because they aren't many, but because my answer is always sambhar or rasam or both. Yesterday, I tried this Kerala dish - a coconut based gravy with raw mangoes to give it the tangy flavour.



The wet market is overflowing with all kinds of mangoes now, mostly raw. Ripe ones are ridiculously expensive so we just eat them as is without bothering to waste even a morsel making any drinks or dessert out of it :D

Here is what I made with some nice and tangy raw mangoes.

Pacha Manga Curry

What I Used:

Serves 2

Raw mangoes - 1 cup, cubed
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt - to taste

Grind well together:

Coconut - 1/2 cup
Jeera - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - one pinch

For tempering:

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Dry red chillies - 3
Oil - 1 tbsp

How I Made It:

1. Close the lid and cook the mangoes in some water by adding turmeric and chilly powder, till they are tender.

2. Add the ground coconut and jeera mixture to this with some more water and bring to boil keeping the kadai open. Cook till the raw smell leaves the curry.

3. Temper the mustard, fenugreek, curry leaves and chillies and add to the above curry before removing from fire.

Note: if the mangoes are not sour enough, use some tamarind paste to increase the flavour. I used fresh raw mangoes that were sour enough so didn't need to do that.

This tangy gravy goes to Meeta for her Monthly Mingle that's all about mangoes this month.