Panfusine

Lesson learnt.. Taking a break of even a SINGLE post makes it that much harder to get back into the groove, the good news, its great to get back into the experimental routine. of experimenting, tweaking and sharing the results with friends & family and , get a real life validation (as opposed to the support that comes with simply reading about my kitchen capers & dishes that I create. It completely revalidated the saying "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".

It may be late winter in the US but this time of year marks the beginning of the Mango season in India and the 'Alphonso' is the reigning king of the hundreds of varieties that sequentially make their appearance. http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/05/10/travel/10mumbailetter.html Although the canned variety is never as good as the real thing, the uniformity in sweetness & texture renders it useful for baking purposes. I tried to recreate the taste of a refreshing mango punch ( referred to as 'aam ka panna' in hindi) made with ginger, mango pulp & a hint of cardamom. The tart pastry recipe is from Carole Walter's book 'Great pies & tarts, p. 104, with minor substitutions (ghee instead of vegetable shortening and equal parts of All purpose flour & pastry flour) Makes 9-10 Tart Pastry: 3/4 cups All purpose flour 3/4 cups pastry flour 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/3 cup frozen butter diced 2 tablespoons Ghe...