Easy Strawberry Dessert...

And yet another strawberry filled dessert! Well, I bought all these strawberries and couldn't eat them 'coz I got diagnosed with Typhoid - so I am on a strict diet of  various types of rice preparations, Bottle gourd ('Lauki'), Round gourd ('Tinda') and lots of fluids. Needless to say I don't have any taste in my mouth and all I dream is about able to eat some YUMMM - O food. Not allowed to step out of the house my daily dose of television consists of Rachel Allen, Nigella Lawson and Masterchef US and all the other lovely blogs that keep updating their websites regularly.

My son has been a bit upset seeing me lying down for most parts of the day and so he has been kept company by his dad (who managed to be by my side for most of my down days), grandparents, friends. One such friend of ours has been really helping us out with the baby and sent over some yummy Mutton Biryani for my hubby (the recipe and pics of which I am going to be featuring soon...) - so as a thank you gesture, the minute my fever vanished and I could get back on my feet I whipped together the easiest strawberry dessert I could. I had to use the yummy strawberry and couldn't let it go waste.

 I have very rough estimations to give for this dessert, as I didn't taste it and didn't measure anything - but everyone said it tasted great so I am assuming it was good!

Start with about 250 grams of strawberries - wash and slice them finely.

Take about 1 cup of whipping cream and whip well. Add icing sugar and about 100 grams strawberries and whip it into the cream. Don't over puree the strawberries so you can taste chunks of the fruit in it.

Now take 3/4 cup of water, mix some sugar and chocolate powder in it and make a thick paste. Dip the lady fingers in it and line the bottom of your bowl or dessert glasses (I made it for my friends, hubby and toddler... I think I used about 8-10 lady fingers). Then cover the lady fingers with the chopped strawberries. Douse this with any leftover chocolate - sugar- water mixture. Now add the whipped cream mixture over this and decorate with cut strawberries, lady fingers and chocolate powder. Leave in the fridge to chill and enjoy!

I completely forgot that I wanted to send this as my entry to "Cooking with Fruits" event to the Tastebuds blog  http://tastebuds1.blogspot.com/2011/01/cooking-with-fruits-event.html that I came across online. It is a lovely blog with lots of interesting recipes and kitchen tips!

It's the season to be Strawberried....

Strawberry, strawberry here and there
Strawberry, strawberry everywhere

Two strawberry & chocolate cakes in two weeks - need I say more. The Delhi / Gurgaon markets seem to be flooded with these berries and chocolate cake is always a nice accompaniment for strawberries and cream or mascarpone!

                                 

Strawberry Mascarpone Ice Cream

I know my posts have been sporadic and a bit disorganised - I have photographs sometimes and no recipes and the other way around but it kinda shows how my life has been - a bit chaotic!

I always seem to be on the look out for a a good full-time help and when I don't have one life goes into panic mode as there seems to be more work that I can pack into a 24hr day.

I am also back from spending a good 2 weeks at my mom's place and in that span of time I didn't seem to have the time to enter the kitchen and therefore all the gaps in my blog.

I am again back with a Strawberry post - coz whatever I say about this berry just ain't enough. I keep looking for innovative ways to get my son hooked onto it (milkshakes, desserts, custard, pancakes) - but he doesn't seem to be biting the bait. Beside strawberries being a luscious red fruit that looks inviting whether had on its own, with whipped cream, in yogurt or in poes ice-cream et al it has many health benefits to its claim also. Strawberries are have antioxidants and are hight vitamins, minerals and fibres and low in calories so I would pretty much call it a 'perfect food'.

So back to my recipe :

I had about 400gms of bright red not soo sweet berries with me and wanted to make something creamy and sweet and not worry about the calories - also I wanted something I could prepare in a jiffy. I also had a tub of mascarpone cheese and thought what better than to celebrate the arrival of spring with a fruit flavoured ice cream!

So here goes the recipe for a no churn ice cream -I tried looking online for a recipe but couldn't find anything that I had all the ingredients for so tried this out as an experiment and it came out pretty well - Ia m definitely looking for suggestions to improve it also.

400gms Strawberries
100gms Icing Sugar
1 Lemon
200gms Mascarpone Cheese
200gms Low Fat Cream (Am sure it will taste better with whipping cream but it's not easily available in India)

I coarsely churned the strawberries, icing sugar and juice of a lemon in my mixie. I then added chilled cream and a tub of mascarpone using a rubber spatula and mixed it. I then popped it into a freezer in a plastic air-tight container and removed it after 4 hours to mix and put it back. But it was pretty well set without any icicles - so my hubby and I decided to taste some before I popped it back into the freezer.

And some became more and then we didn't have the opportunity to put it back! The taste was yummy and creamy with pieces of strawberry and the ice-cream just melted into the mouth. I also used it to make milkshakes it got the same reaction. But my son didn't enjoy it so much.

Do remember to keep some berries to decorate... I didn't have any left!

Until next time....so I finally have the picture for you guys :)!