Alphonso Mango Pavlova Cheesecake (Eggless Recipe)

Alphonso
Mango
Pavlova
Cheesecake (Eggless Recipe)
‘Tis the season to eat mangoes! I had my annual fix of Indian
Alphonso mango this weekend and they were flawless, as always.
I was so desperate to get my mitts on them, I immediately went
on a mango hunt after leaving work on Friday. Stepping into
the Indian shop closest to my London train station, my eyes
darted from shelf to shelf. There were rows upon rows of
lentils, spices and green vegetables, but alas, there was not
a mango in sight. My heart sank.
As I meandered through the tiny, yet unfathomably packed shop,
my nostrils filled with the smell of ajwain, dried turmeric,
fenugreek… and then finally, the sweetest scent of fresh
mango. There they were, a pile of mango boxes lying in wait
like treasure in Aladdin’s cave, except better.
I pounced on them faster than Shere Khan on Mowgli, the man
child in Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. As usual, the two
mango varieties were Alphonso and Kesar. When given the
choice, I get Alphonso. They have more fragrance and a superlush orange colour.
They were only sold in boxes of twelve so I got the whole lot.
The only glitch was that I had to carry the entire box back
home. The entire train carriage was filled with the heavenly
scent of fresh mango – a welcome change from the stench of
somebody’s hot Burger King dinner *shudder*. You’re welcome,
fellow commuters. You’re welcome.
After eating three of twelve mangoes, I figured I better whip
up one of my favourite desserts before they all disappear.
This egg-free Alphonso Mango Pavlova Cheesecake is a true
showstopper.
It’s a malted milk biscuit base, sweet mango and vanilla
mascarpone cheesecake filling topped with eggless pavlova,
fresh cream and all your favourite fruit. This pavlova
cheesecake is rich, decadent and unashamedly two of the most
awesome desserts ever stacked to make one epic masterpiece.
If you’re a lover of Indian Alphonso mango, this is a glorious
way of celebrating it.
Here’s how I did it.
Alphonso Mango Pavlova Cheesecake (Eggless Recipe)
Serves 12-14
Ingredients
For the pavlova layer:
1 x 400g tin chickpeas in water (left in the fridge overnight)
280g golden caster sugar
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
½ tsp arrowroot or cornflour
3 tsp vanilla extract
For the cheesecake base:
260g malted milk biscuits (you could use ginger biscuits or
NICE biscuits too)
100g unsalted butter, melted
For the Alphonso mango cheesecake filling:
500g mascarpone cheese
300g full fat cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
200ml double cream + 100ml extra
450g icing sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tsp vanilla extract
300g Alphonso mango, blended (this was approx. 3 mangos for
me)
2 tbsp agar agar powder
For the decoration:
Whipped cream
Mixed fruits of your choice (I used more mango, kiwi,
strawberries, grapes, physalis, blackberries and figs)
You will also need a 24cm spring form tin.
Method
1. First, you’ll need to make the pavlova. Preheat the oven to
120C.
2. Take a piece of non-stick baking parchment and draw a
circle on it, using the removable base from your cake tin.
Flip the paper over and place it on a large baking tray. You
now have the perfect outline for your pavlova.
3. Drain the can of chickpeas and reserve the water. Put the
chickpeas in a container and use it to make Channa Masala or
Hummus later.
4. Pour the chickpea water and vinegar into the bowl of an
electric stand mixer fitted with the balloon whisk attachment.
Make sure your bowl is really clean and grease free. Any oil
could cause your meringue to deflate.
5. Whisk on a high speed for 4 minutes. Mix together the sugar
and cornflour. Gradually add the sugar mixture a tablespoon at
a time and continue to beat until you have stiff glossy peaks.
Congratulations, you’ve just made your own vegan marshmallow
fluff! But right now, we’re making pavlova.
6. Dollop the meringue mixture onto the piece of baking paper,
staying inside the circle you traced. Even it out using the
back of a spoon, creating a little crater in the middle for
your cream and fruit later. I like to keep it looking craggy
and rustic so don’t fuss over it looking too perfect.
7. Place into the middle shelf of the oven
turn the heat down to 100C. Bake for 2 hours
this time is up, crack the oven door open a
it to cool completely. You’ll then be able
from the non-stick paper.
and immediately
30 minutes. Once
little and leave
to peel it away
8. Next, make the cheesecake base. Blitz the biscuits in a
food processor until they resemble the texture of sand. Stir
in the melted butter. Press into the base of the tin, making
sure it’s even and packed tightly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
9. To make the cheesecake filling, beat together the
mascarpone, cream cheese, 200ml double cream, vanilla, icing
sugar and lemon juice. Don’t overwork it.
10. Place the agar agar in a small bowl. Add 2 tbsp cold water
and stir to dissolve. In a small saucepan, combine the agar
agar and 100ml double cream. Heat gently, stirring all the
time until the mixture comes to a boil. You will notice it
will begin to thicken. Boil for a minute or so and then switch
off the heat. Add the mango pulp and stir to combine. This
will lower the temperature of the cream mixture.
11. Add the mango mixture to the cream cheese mixture and whip
until fully combined. It should thicken very slightly.
12. Pile the cheesecake filling onto the cooled biscuit base
and smooth out the top.
13. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.
14. To serve, run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake
and remove the sides of the tin. Place onto a cake plate or
stand and place the pavlova on top. Fill the crater in the
middle with whipped cream and fresh fruit. I recommend more
mango, obviously.
Devour immediately.
Note: Wrap your cooled pavlova in foil overnight to ensure it
stays crisp for serving the next day.
Love Sanjana
Vegan Mango, Raspberry and
Vanilla Meringues
I’m so obsessed with vegan meringue right now. I never thought
that it would be possible to create light, fluffy whipped
meringue that becomes so beautiful and melt-in-the-mouth after
a couple of very patient hours in the oven.
You might have already seen my previous recipe for Vegan
Saffron, Strawberry and Lime Meringue Nests which I did a
YouTube video for and still, I’m raving about the endless
possibilities aqua faba or ‘bean water’ holds for the future
of vegan baking. No longer do I waste and drain away the water
from cans of chickpeas, butter beans and pinto beans. Rather,
I save them and whip them in to the fluffiest meringue peaks
you’ve ever seen.
Just like egg whites, this bean water is packed with protein
and when it’s whipped with sugar, becomes glossier than that
expensive French manicure you just got.
It’s this that makes glorious desserts like pavlova, eton mess
and meringue cakes possible and it’s this that’s lit me up
from inside. I’m so hungry to experiment with magic aqua faba
more and I can’t wait to share more of these vegan-friendly
creations with you.
This recipe is unbelievably basic but the results are slapyou-in-the-face pretty. I promise, everyone will be asking how
you did it. I did toy with the idea of using fresh fruit to
create the stripes but aqua faba meringue can be quite
temperamental. Any trace of grease, oil, excess water or fat
will very quickly deflate the mixture and all those beautiful
air bubbles will be gone.
Also, I’ve had lots of comments on Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram about whether you can taste the chickpeas in the end
product. The short answer is no. After adding vanilla, natural
fruit extracts and baking for over 2 hours, there’s no trace
of chickpea flavour.
If you’re looking to try it with fresh fruit, I’d suggest
really blending it to a very smooth puree, boiling with a
little sugar and reducing right down so the water content is
minimal. Cool it completely before using.
I opted to use natural concentrated mango and raspberry
extracts, which you can buy online from Amazon. The flavour
they give these otherwise very simple vanilla meringues is so
incredibly intense.
Stick with me for more vegan meringue experiments.
Vegan Mango, Raspberry and Vanilla Meringues
Ingredients
1 x 400g tin chickpeas in unsalted water, drained and the
liquids reserved
140g icing sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped
For the raspberry stripe:
Wilton gel food colouring in rose
2 drops vegan raspberry extract
For the mango stripe:
Wilton gel food colouring in lemon yellow
2 drops vegan mango extract
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 100C. Line three large baking trays
with greaseproof paper.
2. Drain the chickpeas and reserve the water. Put the
chickpeas in a container and use it to make Channa Masala or
Hummus later.
3. Pour the chickpea water into the bowl of an electric stand
mixer fitted with the balloon whisk attachment. Make sure your
bowl is really clean and grease free. Any oil will cause your
meringue to deflate.
4. Whisk on a high speed for 4 minutes. Gradually add the
sugar and continue to beat. During this time, add the cream of
tartar and vanilla.
5. In a small bowl, add a teaspoon of the lemon yellow gel
food colouring and two drops of vegan mango extract. Stir to
combine. Repeat in a separate bowl for the rose colouring and
raspberry extract.
6. Fit a large piping bag with a large round tipped piping
nozzle. Use the back of a teaspoon to stripe the two colours
lengthways all the way up inside the piping bag but not right
to the top – leave at least 2 inches at the top free of any
colour. Use two different spoons to keep the colours separate.
I did three stripes of each colour.
7. Place the bag inside a large mug and fold down the top
slightly. Fill your piping bag with half the meringue mixture
and holding the nozzle straight, pipe 1 ½-inch chubby
meringues, pulling away quickly when you get to the top to
achieve those cute little peaks. Leave a bit of space around
each meringue to ensure they don’t touch in the oven. I have a
quick video for this on Instagram. I’m @korasoi.
8. Wash out your bag and repeat this process for the remaining
meringue mixture.
9. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 2 ½ hours or until the
meringues are totally dry to the touch and come away from the
baking paper easily. Remove from the oven and allow to cool
completely.
10. Serve with your favourite vegan ice cream, on top of
cakes, or dip the bottoms in melted vegan chocolate and
crushed freeze-dried raspberries or chopped nuts. You can also
serve them with fresh raspberries, mango slices and whipped
coconut cream, but assemble this right before you want to eat
or the meringues are likely to dissolve.
Go on, experiment with your favourite flavours and colours.
I’d love to see where your imagination takes you.
Love Sanjana
Mombasa Kachri Bateta
I’ve always strived to be a great cook like my grandfathers.
My parents tell me their Gujarati and East African classics
like Mombasa-Style Daal Kachori, Jalebi Paratha, gathia were
inspiring. Their tips and tricks are recalled in the
conversations of our extended family with a joy that I cannot
even describe. I wish they’d have been here long enough for me
to watch them at work.
Someone who had the pleasure of spending many hours in the
kitchen with my Bapuji (paternal grandfather) was my wonderful
aunt in Mombasa, Kenya. She’s an incredibly-talented cook with
an edible garden I could only dream of. Packed with mangoes,
coconuts, bananas, tree tomatoes and herbs, she’s an expert at
cooking everything from Gujarati classics, to East African
staples. When I visited their family home last year, I was
treated to it all and my word was it dreamy.
One of the dishes she cooked up was this Mombasa Kachri Bateta
– a light potato stew with sour green mangoes, topped with
coconut fresh from the garden and fried cassava crisps. The
coconut is a kind of dry chutney rammed with flavour from
grated green mango, chilli, turmeric, salt and sugar. That’s
it. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – the
simplicity with which East African food is cooked blows my
mind and my taste buds. It’s unbelievable how a few simple
ingredients put together in a clever way makes everything
Taste. So. Damn. Good.
Grated raw green mango is EVERYTHING to this dish. It adds a
gentle, fruity sourness lemons just can’t deliver. If you
can’t get raw green mango, try adding lime but I seriously
would encourage you to hunt the mangoes down. Ensure they’re
super hard and very green and keep the skin on when you grate
it, because life’s too short.
The toppers for Kachri Bateta are endless – from fried cassava
or potato crisps, to thick gathia, jinni sev, fresh coriander,
sliced chillies and of course, the dry mango chutney. Gathia
and jinni sev are fried chickpea flour nibbles – think Bombay
Mix but better. You can buy them in most big supermarkets.
This dish is so easy and a delicious taste of Mombasa. The
only difficult part is waiting for the potatoes to cook in the
sour, spicy mango and tomato broth.
Mombasa Kachri Bateta
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the potato stew:
750g potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 tbsp crushed garlic
75g raw mango, grated
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp concentrated tomato paste
2 tsp salt
½ tsp red chilli powder
1.5L water
For the coconut chutney:
100g fresh coconut, grated
100g raw green mango, grated
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp turmeric
1 small chilli, chopped
To serve:
Cassava crisps or potato crisps
Gathia or jinni sev
Chopped coriander
Sliced chillies
Method
1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and tomato
paste and cook for a minute or two, stirring all the time.
2. Next, add the mango, potatoes, salt, chilli powder and
water. Allow to cook on a medium heat for around 30 minutes or
until the potatoes are cooked and the water has reduced by
half. The starch in the potatoes will thicken it perfectly.
3. To make the chutney, mix all the ingredients together.
Cover and keep in the fridge. This is best served cold on top
of the stew.
4. Serve the stew in bowls, topped with the coconut chutney,
crisps, gathia, sev, coriander and chillies.
Love Sanjana
Mango and Courgette Salad
with Jaggery-Lime Dressing
There are some ingredients in Indian cooking which attract
gasps and sighs whenever they’re mentioned. Take ghee for
example; no, it’s not good for you – but is a tablespoon of
ghee in a curry for four really much worse than a dollop of
butter on a jacket potato for lunch, or pouring cream over a
freshly-baked crumble for dessert?
Taboo ingredients like ghee receive bad press even in Indian
households, and with good reason. Although I do have one rule:
both biryani and paratha are not complete without ghee. Just
don’t eat them every day.
Gettin’ jaggery with it
Jaggery (gor/unrefined cane sugar) is another one of these
ingredients. Just like putting too many sugars in your tea,
using jaggery in everyday cooking isn’t advisable. However
when those hunger pangs hit, the deep, caramel flavour of this
sugar is just.so.satisfying and an exciting treat once in a
while.
If you can’t find jaggery in the shops, you can substitute it
with palm sugar or dark brown sugar. However, if possible, try
to bag yourself a block of jaggery – it lasts for ages when
wrapped up tightly in cling film.
Have I justified my use of jaggery in this recipe by making a
salad dressing out of it? I’m going to say yes, and so will
you once you’ve tried this combination of flavours for
yourself.
Let me describe it to you. Ribbons of slightly sweet, slightly
sour mango and crunchy yellow courgette, a scattering of red
onions, fresh coriander and red chillies make up the body of
the salad. Next comes the warm sweet and sour jaggery-lime
dressing, spiked with black kalonji seeds for a deep, peppery
flavour. Toss it all together for a crisp, juicy salad with an
Indian twist.
Mango and Courgette Salad with Jaggery-Lime Dressing
Serves 2 as a side
Ingredients:
1
1
½
2
1
green mango, peeled
large yellow courgette
red onion, peeled and finely chopped
tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped
red chilli or 1/2 scotch bonnet, chopped
For the jaggery dressing:
80g jaggery, grated
Juice of 1 lime
½ tsp kalonji seeds (nigella)
Pinch sea salt
Method:
1. Using a vegetable peeler, shave ribbons from both the mango
and the courgette. Add the finely chopped onion, fresh
coriander and chilli. Toss together.
2. In a small saucepan, lightly toast the kalonji seeds until
aromatic. Next, add the grated jaggery, lime juice and salt.
Whisk with a fork until smooth and heated through. Allow to
cool slightly.
3. Dress the salad just before serving.
Serve with Tandoori Paneer Kebabs and naan. Even if you’re not
vegetarian, I promise this will make a unique and exciting
side to other barbecued/grilled main dishes.
Gujarati-Style
Buttermilk Kadhi
Mango
Summer may not have graced the UK yet, but it has made a
secret appearance in my kitchen. Yesterday I was given a huge
box of Alphonso mangoes which are now filling my house with a
beautifully sweet and fruity aroma. So with mangoes abundant,
what was I to cook? I was scouring my favourite blogs on a
mission to seek out an innovative recipe using perfectly ripe
mangoes. I was thrilled when I found a South Indian recipe for
Mampazha Pulissery by Namitha from Collaborative Curry. Not
only did the fruity recipe sound delicious, but the pictures
were so striking that I had to rush to the kitchen and feed my
curiosity more or less immediately.
I admit that I’m a bit of a recipe mutineer, and I almost
never follow instructions to the letter *slaps wrist*. As
mouth-watering as Namitha’s recipe sounded, I had to
incorporate aspects of the traditional Gujarati way of making
Kadhi into the recipe. Kadhi is the Gujarati name for the
almost-sacred buttermilk soup loved by every Gujarati I have
ever met. It is similar to the South Indian soup Mor Kuzhambu,
although the tempering process and ingredients usually differ
significantly. You can find my recipe for Peas and Paneer
Kadhi here. Kadhi is a versatile soup that is a great
accompaniment to curries, chapattis and rice. Instead of
making vegetable curries separately, I sometimes like to add a
colourful array of vegetables to the Kadhi itself; the usual
suspects are peas, sweetcorn, carrots, potatoes and onions.
When served with rice, this can be a meal in itself. Gujaratis
love plain, unadulterated Kadhi with Matar-Bhaat, which is a
rice dish made by steaming rice with fresh green peas. I hope
to bring you my recipe for Matar-Bhaat soon, along with a
curry that pairs amazingly with Kadhi.
Kadhi is another one of those Gujarati dishes which screams to
taste hot, sweet and sour, just like the recipe for Gujarati
Toor Daal. Remember to use semi-sour yogurt, sugar (or
jaggery- raw cane sugar) and chillies. I haven’t added any
garlic to this recipe, like I usually do in traditional Kadhi
because I didn’t want too many strong flavours overpowering
the delicate fruitiness of the mangoes. Therefore, this recipe
is suitable for those who have a strictly no-onions and nogarlic diet. I think the ginger and green chillies give the
Kadhi the flavour-kick it needs without masking the taste of
mango. I have added my mango pulp at the end in order to keep
the mango flavour fresh and noticeable.
Ingredients
1 cup ripe mango, pureed
2 cups yogurt
1 ½ tbsp chickpea flour
5-6 cups cold water
2 medium hot green chillies, minced (or to taste)
1 tbsp ginger, minced
½ tsp turmeric
¼ cup coriander, chopped
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste (according to how sweet your mangoes areremember that Gujarati Kadhi is supposed to be hot, sweet and
sour)
To Temper
1 tbsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
4-5 curry leaves (optional)
3-4 cloves
¼ tsp asafoetida
Method
1. Combine the yogurt, chickpea flour, water, chillies and
ginger. Blend in a food processor or with an immersion
blender. Set aside.
2. In a large pan, heat the
cloves and asafoetida. When
and stir constantly until
medium/low heat. This is to
curdle.
ghee, cumin seeds, curry leaves,
aromatic, add the yogurt mixture
it comes to a gentle boil on a
ensure that the mixture does not
3. When the mixture is gently simmering, add the turmeric,
salt, mango puree and sugar. Adjust the consistency with water
if you like, and simmer for a further 4-5 minutes. Taste to
check for hot, sweet and sour.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped coriander.
Serve with hot basmati rice, chapattis and your favourite dry
curry. In my next post I’ll share my favourite dry curry
recipe with you! It pairs wonderfully with this mango Kadhi.