Microwave made Mango-Blackberry Layered steam Sandesh
To me, when I think about ‘food’ like a main dish and its color, mostly I think about yellow, red, green, maroon, white as the normal color for food. Any other colors such as blue, pink, purple etc are colors for cake icing or ice cream rather than main food. Although ice cream and cakes are also main food, yet I would not really think about a purple chicken dish. Would you?
Therefore, when the blogger buzz recipe contest required bloggers to make food needs that are yellow or purple or of butterfly theme, I was really at loss. Making a yellow dish is easy. Most of our dishes are yellow. But purple? Purple only remind me of feminist purple which I like a lot. Nevertheless, I am not very keen on eating purple color food. And I do not eat ice cream of purple or pink color at all. And to be honest I am not fond of purple as individual color.
Therefore, when the blogger buzz recipe contest required bloggers to make food needs that are yellow or purple or of butterfly theme, I was really at loss. Making a yellow dish is easy. Most of our dishes are yellow. But purple? Purple only remind me of feminist purple which I like a lot. Nevertheless, I am not very keen on eating purple color food. And I do not eat ice cream of purple or pink color at all. And to be honest I am not fond of purple as individual color.
Hence, to make something purple, without using food color was a struggle. And I wanted to make something that is both purple and yellow. To think of it, it is a great combination; my organisation’s logo is a combination of purple and yellow. However, it also means that I had to think out of box to make something that is easy, tastes wonderful and looks great.
So after much thought I decided to make Mango-Blackberry Layered steam Sandesh (Bengali Sweet). I love mango and it gives a lovely yellow color, blackberry is sweeter than other berries which is good news and it gives a lovely purple color to food ( unlike blueberry) and making steamed Sandesh is as easy as boiling egg. And, I wanted to make something sweet from Bengal so that people get to know our treasured desserts. And it solves the purpose of the yellow-purple combination. Basically, it meets the hunger of the eyes as well of the tummy. Absolute win-win situation!
I am sending this to Blogger’s Buzz and also attending the event on 23rdFeb 2013, UK . To know more about them, click here
Hope you enjoy looking at it and end up making it!
Ingredients: (will make six pieces)
1litre full fat milk
1-lemon/lime, juice
11-blackberry
2-tablespoon mango pulp
2/3-dry mango pieces, cut in to thin slices
6-teaspoon sugar
½-cup sugar to make black berry compote
2-tablespoon of any nuts, cut into small piece
Little bit of oil or butter or ghee
Method:
1. Boil the milk
2. Add the lemon juice in the milk so that it curdles
3. Using muslin, strain the curdled milk and keep it hanging for at least 1 hour so that all water is drained properly. What you will have is called chana in Bengali, paneer in Hindi and nearest English would be cottage cheese
4. Soak the dry mango into very little milk. Keep aside
5. Meanwhile heat a pan, add sugar and blackberry, and cook until blackberry and sugar have melted. It would look like blackberry jam
6. Now take a strainer and strain the blackberry seeds so that you are left with just the sugary juice. This is almost blackberry compote
7. Now take the Chana and divide in to half
8. Take half of the chana, place it in blender, add sugar, blackberry compote, and mix it well. You can your hand to do the mixing too. Then you will have to mix until sugar has melted. Keep aside
9. Wash the blender
10. Now take other half of the chana, add sugar, mango pulp, and dry mangoes (not the milk) and mix well either using hand or mixture. keep aside
11. In case you are not getting the desired yellow or the purple please use few drops of natural food color to the respective halves
12. Now take a microwave proof square dish and oil/ butter it
13. First of all, make the first layer by spreading the blackberry chana mix all over the dish. it would be around 1cm in height
14. Sprinkle the nuts on the layer
15. Now make the second layer by spreading the mango chana mix over the nuts layer
16. Press a little with hands
17. Fill another big microwave proof bowl with little water and place the square box. Keep a eye so that water is not too much
18. Steam in full microwave powder for 3 to 4 mins
19. Take it out and let it cool
20.Turn in over a plate and cut into square shapes
21. Serve either cool or at room temperature along with fresh fruit or on their own
For regular update from my blog, please visit my face book page pet pujo and adda and click ‘like’. Also, follow me at my blog. I am featured at Networkedblogs. You can also leave your comments here. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Hope to see you again!
This comment has been removed by the author.
This is such a great idea simon…love the innovation. Good luck 🙂