Mango Frozen Yogurt

The introduction of frozen yogurt in India is a very recent incident. And still it is very much concentrated within very few brands...and if I think Kolkata, you will get Frozen yogurt, under the name Fro-Yo from only Mama-Mia. Frankly, the Indian population is not very conscious of healthy eating, so the idea of frozen yogurt is still vague to a giant portion of the population. However if you look into the history of ice-cream in India, first you will find Kulfi. A frozen dessert made from evaporated milk, whole milk, sugar and lots of nuts, and it is very popular in every corners of India.

When I was in school, till then I could find kulfi vendors in some area where they used to sell kulfi from their big clay handi (an Indian cooking pot) filled with ice and kulfi moulds , which used to be covered with a red cheese cloth and when they used to get an order they scooped out a Kulfi mould from that handi, got the Kulfi out of that mould with the help of a small knife, sliced it in some portions and put them all on a shal pata(a small plate made of dried leaf) before giving that to a customer. Now a days, this scenario is very very rare....It has started fading with the growing popularity of Ice-cream in India.

In ice-creams, Indian people are not very experimental. They are happy with Vanilla, Chocolate,  Strawberry and two-in-one flavors. In such a situation when we were really happy with Cornetto, feast and different flavored pop-sickles from Max, Mama mia came with roaring publicity and introduced Italian Gelato to the hungry souls of Kolkata. After some time, they introduced Fro-Yo in their menu. I don't know if it is still continued or not, because I never my self had their fro-yo. The first time I had my Frozen yogurt was from Dubai Airport...and it was so good, that I felt really sorry for myself for depriving my taste buds from such a delis. If you really want a smooth home made frozen yogurt, you have to make it professionally. I searched a bit and found out that adding Italian meringue to the yogurt makes this really smooth and ice-cream like. But for a quick frozen yogurt, I always substitute that for condensed milk and churn them in the ice-cream machine. Without ice-cream machine its a little bit work, but the work is definitely worth it!!

Its the season of mangoes and strawberries....so I am starting my frozen yogurt session with Mango Frozen yogurt. The freshness of a home made dessert is so appetizing and delicious..that I doubt you will ever turn toward the store bought frozen yogurts again!!!

Mango Frozen Yogurt
makes 15-20 scoops

Ingredients:

• 2 mangoes
• 2 cups of greek yogurt / 3 cups of ordinary yogurt
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• sugar - as per taste
• Rose syrup - to garnish
• some fresh chopped mango pieces - to garnish

Method:

• One of the important obstacle of making frozen yogurt is its whey. They tend to pose a threat to a creamy frozen yogurt by turning into ice crystals. So get rid of as much as whey as possible. I do that by hanging the curd for 2 consecutive days. I know this is kind of a long process but the wait does worth it. So take a moderately long cheese cloth and put your ordinary or greek yogurt in it. Make a knot and hang in a long jar. I keep that in the fridge so that the yogurt does not turn bad.
• After 2 days, you will see plenty of whey collected in the bottom of the jar. Throw them away and put the hung curd in a big bowl.
• Peel the mangoes and chop up the flesh. Then grind them in a blender without any water and make a smooth pulp.
• Take the big bowl of the yogurt and add in the mango pulp and sweetened condensed milk. Blend well with a hand blender, so that no lumps remain and you get a mixture of smooth consistency. Taste and if required add sugar accordingly.
• Now churn them in your ice-cream machine as per the user's manual. 
• If you don't have an ice-cream machine, then freeze the mixture in the freezer for about 3-4 hours. When it is lightly set, put the entire mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. Do this process for 2/3 times, and finally you will get a mixture which will be equivalent to soft serve ice-cream.
• Now put a plastic wrap on it to prevent any ice-crystal formation and freeze overnight. 
• When you want to serve, take it out of the freezer and serve with rose syrup and some freshly chopped mango pieces.
• If the frozen yogurt is too hard, let it stay like that for 5-7 minutes, until it softens up a bit. Then scoop and serve chilled.