Banoffee Ice cream

This easy-to-make ice cream is a great crowd pleaser at parties. Photo: Sriram Narayanan

The best time to write a food blog post is right after you are done savouring the sweet results of your efforts. Although I must add, it is surprisingly difficult to put any words on paper after having licked a bowl of the softest, homemade banoffee (banana+toffee) ice cream clean. Nevertheless, in the interests of writing about good food, I shall make one final sugar-rush riddled attempt. 

Banana and toffee (in this case, dulce de leche - a gooey, Argentinean milk toffee made by slowly simmering milk and sugar) is one of those classic combinations that work brilliantly in a range of desserts. A few years ago, I ate it for the first time in a banoffee pie, a sweet pastry tart layered with dulce de leche, thinly sliced bananas, and topped with whipped cream. 

Good dulce de leche is key to this flavour combination, and is easy to make. You need not sweat over a stovetop, stirring milk and sugar for hours. Pop in an unopened 400-gm can (or two!) of condensed milk into a large vessel of water on the stove. Let the water boil for two hours. A word of caution: Make sure you top up the vessel with more water to keep the can submerged. Do not let the can boil dry as this may cause it to overheat and explode. All this careful effort will be worth it in the end when you peel off the tin lid to the most delicious dulce de leche inside.

Dulce de leche has a smooth, spreadable texture and tastes like a strong, condensed version of the Indian basundi, which is made using a similar process.  Photo: Sai Raje

Yesterday, when I had a few overripe elaichi bananas at home, I thought of trying my hand at an ice cream version of the banoffee pie. I had already made a can of dulce de leche in the morning. After that, it was just a matter of whisking together all the ingredients, pouring the mix into a rectangular tin covered with cling film, and freezing it overnight. 

Apart from playing perfect partner to the bananas, the dulce de leche also gives homemade ice cream a really soft and creamy texture. So much so, that the ice cream does not require any churning to keep it from forming annoying icicles. You can pretty much bunge it in the freezer and forget about it until it is time to enjoy this treat. If you are on the lookout for a low-effort and delicious party dessert, you must definitely try this recipe out.  

Banoffee Ice cream

Ingredients

1000 ml skimmed milk cream (I used Amul Cream with 25 per cent fat)

400 gm dulce de leche

6-7 ripe elaichi bananas, mashed

1 cup caster sugar

Large pinch of sea salt

Method

Use a stand-in mixer or hand blender to whisk the cream, dulce de leche, banana mush, sugar and salt together. Pour this mixture into a rectangular tin, cover with cling film, and freeze overnight. Scoop or slice into bowls to serve.

Orange Crème Caramel

The citrusy zest adds a lovely zing to the creamy custard Photo: Sai Raje

Don’t let the fancy French name fool you. A crème caramel is that good old Irani restaurant staple, caramel custard, by any other name. There’s also a South American-Spanish version of this dessert called the flan, which is sweeter and richer, made so by the addition of condensed milk.

Truth be told, crème caramel aka caramel custard is one of the simplest, yet elegant desserts to make if you are looking to wow your guests at a dinner party. It’s a soft, creamy pudding that is not overly sweet, and sits in an oozy pool of bittersweet caramel sauce. What’s not to like?

In my parents’ home, crème caramel has been that ever dependable dessert to serve friends and family on special occasions. And we are always eager to try out a slightly tweaked recipe for the dessert. A couple of days ago, me and my mother came across an orange crème caramel recipe by the noted British chef and food writer Simon Hopkinson, who hosts a popular TV show called The Good Cook.

I tweaked his recipe slightly, by using only whole eggs and totally omitting the extra egg yolks.

You can make and chill it in the fridge a day ahead too, which makes it a hassle-free party dessert. 

Orange Crème Caramel

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients

3 large Valencia or Navel oranges, zest only

60 gm fine caster sugar

300 ml whole milk

3 eggs

70 gm granulated sugar

Note: Do not use Nagpur or any other Indian variety of oranges for this recipe. 

Method

Peel the zest of the oranges very gently using a sharp peeler. Make sure you leave out the white pith. Blitz the zest finely in the mixer. Add the caster fine sugar, and blitz again.

Transfer this mixture to a heavy-bottomed pan and add milk. Stir the mixture continuously over a very low flame for 10 minutes, just below simmering point. Turn off the heat, cover with a lid, and leave to infuse for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 150 degree Centigrade. Strain milk to remove the zest. One, by one, whisk eggs lightly into the strained milk.

Set a heavy-bottomed pan onto a medium flame and add in 3-4 tablespoons cold water, along with the granulated sugar. Let it caramelise to a light amber colour. Pour this caramel into four individual ramekins or custard moulds. Now pour over the milk mixture until each ramekin is 3/4^th full.

Ramekins with rich amber caramel

Place ramekins in the oven on a baking tray. Pour hot water into the tray, so that it rises up outside the ramekins, 3/4^th of the way up. Cover the ramekins loosely with an aluminium foil. Bake for 40-50 minutes until the crème caramel is set and just wobbly.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Cover and chill to set for at least two hours. To pop out on a plate, run a small knife around the inside edge of the ramekin. Gently use your fingers to pull away the custard from the ramekin wall, just enough to create an air bubble. Now, put an individual serving plate on top of the ramekin and turn it upside down.

10-minute, Forgotten Plum Compote

From gathering the ingredients to cooking, this plum compote is ready in 15 minutes. Photo: Sai Raje

There are two things I never do when it comes to eating and cooking. One, buy large fruits that are smartly packaged in plastic and cellophane. And two, make something from scratch in a microwave oven (it doesn’t excite the cook in me). 

Last week, I ended up doing both. With fantastic results.

Until now, I had steered clear of those clingfilm and Styrofoam packed, large 'imported' plums. However, on one particularly mundane grocery run last week, I was really tempted by the plums. Their dark red colour suggested that they would be perfectly ripe. So I picked a pack of four. I promptly ate one as soon as I got home. The plum was surprisingly crisp, very juicy, and a tad more tart than sweet.

So sprinkling the segmented fruit with a bit of caster sugar and microwaving it seemed like a good idea. I half expected to end up with warm, soft segments of sweet and sour plum. But I accidentally set the microwave oven timer to 10 minutes instead of three, and forgot all about plums once they went in.

Ten minutes and three warning beeps later, I opened the microwave door to see a glorious, bubbling, ruby-red mess in the glass bowl. The plums and sugar had more or less turned to a mush that was a perfect balance of tart and sweet. I call it compote because it uses just fresh fruit and very little sugar. You can really taste the plums in this one. And it is certainly more satisfying than any store bought jam that's laden with preservatives and artificial colours. After letting the compote cool down for a bit, I transferred it to a clean, dry glass jar and popped it into the fridge.

It makes for a great topping on toast, pancakes, hot chapatis and homemade scones. But I especially like to stir a spoonful of this compote in a bowl of hot oatmeal and milk porridge at breakfast.

Forgotten Plum compote

Ingredients

4 large, preferably ripe plums

6-8 teaspoons of fine caster sugar

 

Method

Cut the plums into segments and transfer to a microwave safe glass bowl. Add and mix in the caster sugar. Pop into the microwave at maximum power (that was 750W for my microwave) for 10 minutes. You may stir through the plum mixture halfway through the microwaving process.

Cool the compote at room temperature for 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a clean, dry glass jar with a good lid, and store in the refrigerator. It will store easily for three weeks, but I am not sure it will last until then!

 

Makes about 250 gm of compote.