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Summer Drinks

Ridge Gourd with Sesame (Turai Til Subzi)

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This is one of my favorite subzis to make in the summer when ridge gourds are in season.

No ridge gourds? Try it with bottle-gourd, sponge gourd, any soft gourd like calabash, or a soft squash or even pumpkin.

Tender. Flavourful. Very satisfying, with the delicious, rich taste and creamy texture of toasted, powdered sesame seeds that complement it beautifully.

Also an excellent choice for a plant-based diet or disease-reversal program, as it is just as delicious when made with zero oil – and still contains a good amount of essential healthy fat (along with fibre!) from the sesame.

Goes well with rotis, rice, or can even be a light, salad-like meal in itself….

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Piña colada Smoothie (Vegan)

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When the mercury is rising, there’s nothing better than a nice drink to chill and feel better.

And what could be nicer than a tropical holiday drink that instantly conjures up an image of relaxing under the coconut palms, with the mesmerizing sounds of the waves…..

If you like coconut and pineapple, then this is just the smoothie to try.

In a healthy avatar (and vegan, to boot!) this uses freshly prepared fruit without any added ice.

A fresh and seasonal burst of energy-giving nourishment for those young minds of kids who might be slaving away for their exams, which are going on right now in my city. 😉

But if you wish, feel free to use ice or frozen fruit (frozen banana slices will make it creamier in fact!). Add before the blitz.

Replace the tender coconut water (and/or flesh) with coconut milk for an even richer version!



Ingredients (For two large servings):

Fresh, tender-coconut flesh*  – 1/2 cup (I used the entire contents of one medium-sized tender coconut)
Fresh, tender-coconut water – 1 cup
Fresh Pineapple pieces – 1 cup
Fresh Banana – 1, sliced
Honey – 1 Tablespoon, or to taste (not required if the ingredients are quite sweet)

*(locally referred to as “malai” – the creamy, solid part from a medium tender coconut.)

Tender coconut water.


Method:

Add all the ingredients into a blender and blend till creamy. Serve immediately.

Note:  Do not store. (The tender coconut is very perishable, flavour-wise, and of course, nutritionally speaking, as well). 



Enjoy!

In-the-Pink Mocktail

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Simply refreshing.

With a wonderful natural drink like tender coconut water, I wouldn’t be inclined much to add anything to try and improve the flavour.

If at all I had to, though, then it would be just the merest hint of a complimentary flavour with just a suggestion of a cool, herbal note to take that “refreshing” a little further.

And so this light and nourishing mocktail is made with just four simple, fresh, natural ingredients. No refined sugar. Makes an awesome Preggatini, too.  🙂

This recipe is my entry to the UrbanDazzle Contest for the Indian Food Bloggers Meet about to happen soon!

I rather think these z-stemmed margarita glasses from UrbanDazzle would be ideal to showcase the beautiful delicate pink colour of this lovely and healthy Preggatini!

Ingredients:
Tender coconut water – 200 ml
Organic raw Litchee honey – 1 Tablespoon (or to taste)
Fresh Pomegranate juice – 30 ml
Fresh Peppermint/Spearmint/Japanese mint leaves – 2 nos (plus for garnish)

Method:
Combine all the liquid ingredients add the finely shredded mint leaves

Serve at room temperature or chilled as desired.

Great in summers, or  monsoons! 🙂

Aam Panna – Green Mango Cooler

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Liquid delight when the mercury shoots up!

Aam panna, a sweet-tart drink made with raw mangoes is not only delicious,  but drinking it has the added benefit of protecting  the consumer from heat stroke – a much valued quality in the land of mangoes and sizzling summers.  Yum good, I say.

Ingredients:

Raw mangoes – 2 – or, as required.
Sugar or Jaggery – to taste
Roasted cumin seed powder (Bhuna Jeera powder) – 1 tsp (or to taste) (for method see here)
Black Salt (sanchal) – 1/2 tsp
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder – (optional)  1/8 tsp or to taste

TIP: One average sized raw mango would provide upto four servings. This will vary depending on the consistency.

Procedure:

Wash the green (raw) mangoes).
Isn’t it easy to see how the “Paisley” or “Kairi” motif, that of a twisted tear drop,  were inspired by these beauties?

I always like to take off the tops first, because of having been brainwashed early on that the sap from the stems is not good to touch – it can cause skin irritation.

Not really required, they can just be washed thoroughly, – but I like to be on the safe side.

Place them in a saucepan (I’m using my favorite pressure cooker, of course) along with a cup or so of water to be cooked. The water used for boiling will be a part of the drink.
Traditionally, in some areas, the mangoes are roasted on coals or an open flame instead of being boiled, which is another option.

One could also peel, deseed, chop the raw mango and boil the pieces.
As a rough estimate, the whole mangoes will take as long to cook as small potatoes – which is fairly quick.

Hmmm – perhaps a saucepan would have been more gentle… (But mangoes do invariably split when boiled.)
No problem, all we need is the pulp. It should be soft.

Reserve the water from the cooker which has some of the mango pulp.

Also there will be quite a bit to scoop off from the skins.

A lot of the pulp will be still attached to the skin and seed, and can be scooped off using either a blunt knife, a spoon, or simply by hand. The seeds and skin can then be discarded.

I find it easier to do the seeds by hand.  Squelch it off.  Yes – that’s right.

So now we have the basic, cooked, green mango paste.

To this we will add roasted cumin powder (TIP: make it fresh for a real zing), some black salt (that lends a very characteristic flavour to this drink), a bit of regular rock salt, and a pinch of chilly powder, and…..

… about a ton of sugar!  This can also be jaggery if you like. Here I’ve used khandsari or unrefined sugar.
You might be surprised to find yourself mixing in much more sugar per glass than you would in lemonade (Shikanji). That’s because of the very intense flavours that aam panna contains – the tart mangoes, the earthy, slightly bitter, roasted cumin, the rather sulphuric black salt….

Put it all into the blender, and give it a good whizz.

The “concentrate” is ready.

This will even keep in the fridge for 2-3 days (perhaps longer – but I can’t say, – it’s always wiped out by the next day in my house!)

Fill up about a third or half of each glass with this and top up with water (and ice, if you like) a good stir and it’s ready.

Adjust the spices, salts, sugar and consistency to your liking  – thick or thin using more or less of the ‘concentrate’ in the proportion.

Have a great summer!

Oranges.

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I’m not much of a one for juices. I’d rather eat the fruit instead. And for that, you just can’t beat the “naati” variety which is so much easier to peel.

But juicing does provide the easiest solution to make use of two dozen Californinan oranges (gasp – imported! What about the carbon footprint? And not even organic, at that!) that somehow arrived at our home and have been ageing gracefully in the fruit basket for a couple of weeks.

The tendency is to identify with Groucho Marx when he thriftily exclaimed: “Now, just a minute, – oranges don’t grow on trees you know.”  (His guest had requested a second glass of OJ, having loved the first.)

But these need to be consumed fast, while the ageing is still graceful!  Can you spot some uncut, green-skinned oranges at the top-left corner of the picture below? Those are the “naati” ones (from Coorg in this case).  They were much greener – although very orange and sweet from inside, but they, too, have been ageing, albeit more visibly by changing their colour.

Here they are in CS side by side.  On the right is the naati orange that tends to be smaller, juicier, has thinner skin, lots of seeds, and a more intense flavor.  For grating the zest, or cutting a thin slice across  it’s easier with the other one, though.

Not to mention using with a citrus juicer. It’s certainly helpful if the entire ball of pulp with the inner skins doesn’t land up in the juice!  The local technique that works very well with the naati oranges, is simply to peel them (the outer skin comes off quite easily) and pop them into a blender, then strain. There are other varieties, – the fruit vendor will generally ask – ” Juice, ah?” – which are easier to use with the citrus juicer if you really, really want to.

And so it came to pass this lazy Saturday morning that we had fresh OJ.  It was delicious, I must admit.

Picture Credit: DH.