Berries from the East and the West...in a Gelato !!

"I doubt whether the world holds for any one a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice-cream."

My last post was about my favourite summer fruit, which is nothing short of indulgence.
However not all fruits of this season are to be blamed to go straight to the hips. One such is the Indian Blackberry or Jaamun/Jaam as we call it here.
Although there is a riot of colours at the vendors’ cart, you can’t help but notice this raging crimson-purple oblong shaped berry.

Jamun (Sygium cumini L) also known as Myrtus cumini and Eugenia jambolanum is classified as a minor fruit since most of the trees have been planted accidentally by the ancestors of farmers, who are now happy to find a tree or two on their plots of land. They were grown mainly for shade along roads and highways and in coffee estates to provide shelter for the coffee plants. Cultivation has not been actively encouraged by the government and plantations do not exist. Sigh!

You can read more about the fruit here and here.






I remember my mother using this fruit to make red vinegar and soaking up baby onions in it for a week or two. Those onions then blushed in all their bright hue and decorated any platter with their mere presence (especially with a chicken dish). Ofcourse the tangy oniony taste was the talk of the meal !

Though indigenous to India, these fruits will remind you of the astringency of a good Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (Italian red wine). The same inadvertent ‘ch-tack’ and pursing of the lips after a sip (in this case ‘bite’) is inevitable. You develop a taste for it as with all good things. :)

The harvesting season lasts from the end of March to the beginning of June so, while they were still to be seen , I picked up quite a few to eat…I love nibbling in between meals and what better way than to pop these fruits (coated with some sea-salt) in my mouth and roll away, sucking the sweet-tart juice.
After eating quite a few; the insides of my mouth all purple black and when my tongue refused to take any more astringency of the fruit I decided to make something different out of it.
Thought …thought….and thought till it hit me why not use them (whatever little was left...chuckle!) along with some preserved blue berries to make a Gelato.





What a feast of colour it was right through the process! Talking about colour, I just wanted to share that purple coloured foods are full of antioxidants that prevent and some times reverse the ageing process. So ladies what are you waiting for…the elixir of youth lies in your own kitchen!

There is also a popular short story which features this fruit, and is related to kids during their primary schooling years, about a monkey and a crocodile. We once did a play to the effect, with some children of an orphanage. If interested you can find it here.

Blue berry and Indian Black berry Gelato-

Ingredients:

approx. 30 gms of firm Jamun/Indian blackberries

1 cup granulated sugar (adjust sugar according to tartness of jamuns)

4 tbsp dried blueberries, (soaked in two tbsp of warm milk for five minutes)

1/2 lt. skimmed milk

1 tin condensed milk (400 gm)

1 1/4 tsp of strawberry/vanilla extract (your choice)

1 cup whipping cream (25% fat)

Method:

Clean the tart berries by washing them under running tap water.

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, heat the berries with the sugar, till they become soft and pulpy.Mash and strain, thus removing all the seeds.Set aside.

At this point I would like to mention that the berries I used here were not very ripe, still very tart and I used a very small amount (since it was a tester) so I could not get the colour. But if using ripe berries/jamuns, you will get a lovely crimson hued pulp.

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the milk. Mix in the condensed milk and stir continuously to avoid forming lumps. Bring to a boil.

Let cool. Add the whipping cream, extract and jamun pulp. Blend in a food processor.

Pour in a tin/tupperware container and freeze. After an hour, take out the half-set mixture and whip at medium speed. Add the soaked blue berries now.

Pour in ice-cream container and freeze, preferably overnight.

Enjoy!

Sincere apologies....with the 'King of all fruits'.

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.

I know I am very late in posting this, but trust me when I say that I have been extremely tied down with home-shifting, either family and friends visiting over or we making courtesy calls. (Infact as I write this post my hub's busy booking tickets for another trip in May.)

There have been festivities but not without certain mishappenings innundating all this time. In the past month I have seen the frolic of a 'mundan' (a hindu ritual where the kids head is clean shaved) of my nephew, starkly contrasting the deep anguish followed by nervous calm when my maternal uncle lived through a major cardiac arrest.

In all this flurry I admit to have ignored my 'virtual' home and friends. All the wonderful endearing comments and concern as to how I am and whether I am doing fine makes me guilt ridden. For all those who showed concern and who remembered me in my absence, who support me always....I seriously love you guys! You all rock!!

Please accept my apologies though.

Quite true that friendship is a million little things.....a million kind words/thoughts lighting up my day!

It was a love affair long before we knew what love was. They were golden, dripping with a heavenly juice, fleshy and aromatic. As kids we didn't understand why we could gorge on them just once a year, but were happy just to be able to dig into them. The perfumed 'Alphonsos', the green 'Dasheharis', the succulent 'Chausas' and the golden skinned 'Langdas' (I am still intrigued why its called a 'langda' which means crippled), gleaming in their jewel tones - red, yellow and dark green.Decades later, the mango still has such a magnetic hold on my generation. Is it because it is so much more than a mere fruit? It represents a rite of passage, a time of giddy childhood, of endless summer days and life stretched into infinity - an unending field of gold, an abundant orchard of luscious mangoes dangling from countless shady trees....


Mangoes are ephemeral - here today, gone tomorrow - so many Indians hoard them and have found ways to keep the gem-like fruits with them as long as they can. Green unripe mangoes are pickled in so many different ways, to be drawn out in the cold of winter, to be relished - summer relived. Another delicious pickled treat is mango murba - mangoes marinated in a sweet sugar sauce, with garlic and black onion seeds. It's a real comfort food when eaten with a bowl of kichdi (rice gruel) or a chappati - you can feel all's right with the world. For a full-blooded Indian, any time is mango pickle time, and a dollop of ambh achaar enhances any meal.


Where did this wondrous fruit come from and why does it have such a hold on the Indian psyche?

The earliest mention of mango, Mangifera Indica, that means "the great fruit bearer," is in the Hindu scripture dating back to 4000 BC. The wild mango originated in the foothills of the Himalayas of India and Burma, and about 40 to 60 of these trees still grow in India and Southeast Asia.

The mango is a member of the Anachardiaceae family which includes poison ivy, cashews, and pistachios.

So passionate are modern day Asian Indians about their most adored fruit, the cultivated mango, that during mango season in India, families actually argue heatedly about which of the many varieties is best for their favorite mango dishes. For the rest of us, we're just delighted to welcome mango season ( the only good thing about the otherwise sweltering heat), enjoy the luscious tangy fruit that dribbles down our chins, and leave the fistcuffs out of it!

According to M. Varadrajan, author of The History of Tamil Literature, the eye of a woman is compared to a tender mango cut in half, with the stone being the pupil of the eye. Alexander the Great was a big fan of Indian mangoes and The Mughal Emperor Babur called it "O Fairest Fruit of Hindustan."

Alphonso Milk Shake
Ingredients-
1 medium sized alphonso or any mango of your choice
1/2 litre of skimmed milk
2 tbsp sugar (adjust according to sweetness of mangoes)
a pinch of ground cardamom

Method-
Blend all the ingredients together in a juicer/blender.
Serve chilled with cubes of golden ripe mangoes.



Folklore

India is a country rich with folklore that sometimes becomes woven into cultural rituals as well as religious ceremonies, and it's little surprise that it's India's national fruit.
It is said that the Buddha was given the gift of a whole grove of mango trees where he could rest whenever he wished. From that time on the mango tree was held in awe as capable of granting wishes.
So revered is the mango tree in its home country that it has become a symbol of love.

(A symbol of the love and adoration I have for my readers/friends and well wishers. I thus offer this exotic fruit as apology.)

Offerings of mango leaves are presented at wedding ceremonies, a ritual that guarantees the couple will bear many children.
In the villages there is a powerful belief that the mango trees grow new leaves each time a son is born. To herald the new birth to their neighbors, doorways are decorated with mango leaves.

Old Sanskrit writings reveal a legend of deep love and beauty that sprang from the mango tree. It was the daughter of the sun, Surya Bai, who transformed herself into a golden lotus to evade persecution of an evil sorceress. The sorceress became angry when the King of the land fell in love with the beautiful lotus, and she burnt it to ashes. Good overcame evil when a magnificent mango tree sprang from the ashes and Surya Bai stepped out from a ripe mango that had fallen to the ground. The King instantly recognized her as his long lost wife, and the two rejoiced.

Health Benefits

Revered not only for their exotic sweetness and juicy quality, mangoes are known for their many health blessings. They contain an enzyme similar to papain in papayas, a soothing digestive aid.

In India mangoes are used as blood builders. Because of their high iron content they are suggested for treatment of anemia and are beneficial to women during pregnancy and menstruation. People who suffer from muscle cramps, stress, and heart problems can benefit from the high potassium and magnesium content that also helps those with acidosis.
One lab test turned up rather startling results that raised mangoes to the "highest perch." Mango juice was poured into a test tube that contained viruses. Shortly, the viruses were destroyed.