Watermelon juice

This year, I didn't get watermelons even once, so when I saw them in offer at an online grocer, I added one to the cart. Half we ate, the rest we juiced.

1/2 large watermelon

1 cup water

1/2 lime juice

A dash of Tabasco

A pinch of salt

Method:

Remove the rind of the watermelon, remove seeds and cut into chunks. 

Juice with 1 cup water till well blended. Strain (I partially strained)

Add lime juice, salt and Tabasco. Mix well. Serve chilled. 

Mango mojito mocktail

I've been wanting to make a mango mojito for a really long time, but could never get hold of all the ingredients. Towards the end if the mango season, and in a new city, it finally got made.

Makes three glasses

2 small mangoes

1 sprig mint

Juice of 1 lemon

2 bottles soda

Method:

Peel the mangoes and blend the pulp till smooth. 

Put the mint leaves in a glass and muddle it with the back of a spoon. Add the mango purée and mix well. 

Add the lemon juice and soda and shake to mix well. 

Serve chilled. 

Aam panna, with subja seeds

A nice conventional aam panna, served with subja seeds.

Raw mango - 1 large size
Sugar - 3 tbsp or as required (depends on the sourness of the mangoes and how sweet you want it to be)
Roasted jeera powder - 1/2 tsp (dry roast the jeera, then roughly pound it)
Mint leaves - few
Rock Salt to taste
1 tsp subja seeds

Method:
Cook the mango in the pressure cooker till soft (2 whistles should do it- I cooked it along with the dal), and let it cool
Gently peel off the skin, and remove the pulp
In a blender, blend the mango pulp, rock salt, powdered jeera and sugar till smooth.
This forms the stock of the aam panna, and can be stored in the fridge for upto a week. 

Before serving, soak sabja seeds in water for 30 minutes. Pour 1/4 glass of aam panna concentrate, add soaked sabja seeds, and top up with water. Serve chilled. 

Ragi Milk

I know it is ridiculous, but ever since I bought ragi flour, ever meal seems to have become a ragi meal. This ragi milk is very popular in Karnataka, and though my mother has it often, I made it for the first time today. And we all loved it.

For 3 cups ragi milk:

1/4 cup ragi flour

1/2cup water

2 1/2 cups milk

1/3 cup sugar-cinnamon mix

Method:

Heat the water, add some water to the flour to make a paste. Add the paste to the water, and cook with constant stirring till the paste turns shiny. 

Blend milk, ragi paste and sugar in a mixer till smooth. Serve chilled. 

You can replace the cinnamon with cardamom powder. 

Savoury ragi drink

Ragi Ragas is my seemingly endless list of dishes requiring ragi!!!

1/4 cup ragi flour

1/2cup water

1/2 cup buttermilk 

Salt to taste

To temper:

1/2 tsp til oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

4-5 curry leaves

Method:

Heat the water, add some water to the flour to make a paste. Add the paste to the water, and cook with constant stirring till the paste turns shiny. 

Blend buttermilk, ragi paste and salt in a mixer till smooth. 

Heat the oil, and temper with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Pour over the ragi-buttermilk. 

Serve chilled. 

You can replace the cinnamon with cardamom powder. 

Kokum juice

Kokam juice is a drink I really love, but the problem with the store bought juice is the fact that it has too much sugar. I decided to make it without sugar, and it was every bit as good. 

3-4 dried Kokum fruits

6 mint leaves

2 1/2 cups water

Salt to taste

Method:

Bring 2 1/2 cups of water to boil. Add the kokum, mint leaves, and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Drain. Add salt to taste. Chill and serve. 

Cucumber juice

Agni Nakshatram, it is called. The fortnight after Guru Poornima when summer is at its most scotching hot. I promised my children coolers everyday as long as the heat holds up. Today's is a cucumber juice that I threw together. 

2 cucumbers

4-6 mint leaves

6 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1 cup water

Method:

Deseed the cucumber and cut into chunks. 

Blend all the ingredients, excepting leaves, together till completely juiced.

Muddle the mint leaves, and pour the juice over it. Chill for a few hours. 

Strain, and adjust salt and sugar. Garnish with mint leaves before serving. 

Cucumber lemonade

Plain old lemonade never goes out of fashion, but if you add a dash of cucumber, it takes it to a whole different level. 

1 large cucumber (or 2 small)

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

6 glasses water

Method:

Wash and deseed the cucumber (leave the seeds if there aren't too many). Chop into cubes. 

Blend cucumber, sugar and 2 cups water till smooth. Strain (I used the strained part as a salad dressing). 

Mix in salt and lime juice. Chill

Before serving, dilute 1/3 glass concentrate with water or soda. 

Carrot potato raita

The kids were having their regular dal- roti-subji, but I thought it was too hot for subji. So I threw in a few veggies into curds, and had a nice cooling raita instead.

1/2 carrot grated
1/2 potato, boiled and cut into small pieces
1 cup curds, beaten
1/4 tsp roasted and pounded jeera
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Method:
Beat the curds with the salt, chilli powder and jeera powder till smooth.
Add the grated carrots and finely chopped potatoes and mix well. Serve as an accompaniment- you can increase the amount of potatoes if you want to eliminate the rotis.

Chaas

Summertime, and our thoughts turn towards coolers. Buttermilk chaas is one of my favourites, and I can gulp it down in any quantity.

1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp roasted and coarsely pounded jeera
Rock salt to taste
1/2 cup water

Method:
Roast the jeera, and coarsely pound it. Keep aside, because you are going to use it a lot in summer.
Mix the curds, water, rock salt and jeera in a mixer till well mixed and frothy. Drink immediately.

Aam Panna, with jaggary

My mother used to make Aam Panna when I was a child, and I have strong views on what it should taste like and do not like deviating from my norm. But when I saw a recipe for a version which used jaggary instead of sugar, I wanted to try it out. The mix of spices gives it medicinal properties too, but me being me, I will only have it if it tastes good, and it does.

1 raw mango
1/3 cup jaggery
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp saunf/ fennel seeds
1/2 tsp ajwain/ carom seeds
1 green cardamons
Rock salt to taste

Method:
Peel the green mango, slice it into pieces. Cover with water, and boil for 10 minutes till soft.
Meanwhile, dry roast jeera, saunf, ajwain till well roasted, but not burnt. Dry grind and keep aside.
Powder the cardamons and keep aside.
Blend the cooked mango pieces (with the water), and jaggery till well mixed.
Add rock salt and powdered spices.
Store.

To serve, add 1 part of squash to 4 parts water, mix well and serve. You can also use soda instead of water.

Lassi

Nothing spells Summer more than a glass of lassi, so we had to have it before the summer got over. It was also a great way to use up excess rasagollas syrup,

Leftover syrup from rasagollas - 1/3 cup 

OR

Make the syrup by dissolving 4 tbsp sugar in 1/3 cup water

2 cup curds

Water 1 cup

Method

Mix the sugar syrup, curds an water in a mixer, and mix for 1 minute. 

Pour into glasses and serve with the foam intact.

Mango juice with subja seeds

My new found love is subja seeds, and I have been dreaming of drinks that use it. This was something that I concocted to use up the mangoes that had gone beyond their "eat by" date. Could have made a milkshake, but this was more fun.

2 mangoes, peeled and chopped into pieces
4 cups chilled water
2 tsp subja seeds
1 tbsp organic jaggary
1 tbsp lime juice


Method:
Soak the subja seeds in about 1 cup water for 30 minutes.
Puree the mangoes, add water, jaggary and lime juice and blend well.
Add subja seeds, and mix well.
Serve chilled, with additional ice, if required.

Pink lemonade with subja seeds

When the heat is killing you, the best way to beat the heat is to pull out the holiday knick knacks from all your previous beach vacations. If thinking about holidays that were memorable despite the heat doesn't make you feel better, nothing will.
And what better drink to sip while you are going through those old memories than pink lemonade?

1 lime
1 tbsp strawberry preserve
Sugar to taste (I didn't add)
1 glass water
1 tsp subja seeds

Method
Soak subja seeds for 15 minutes, and watch in amazement as they quadruple in quantity.
Mix the lemon juice, strawberry preserve and water* to make a lovely pink lemonade. Do a taste test and add sugar if required (I don't add any, because the strawberry preserve has enough for my needs).
Pour over the subja seeds and sip away.


*- I don't like my drinks to be too cold, so use regular water, but you can use chilled water.

Imli ka panna

Aam panna is one of my favourite drinks, so when I saw a recipe for Imli ka Panna, I knew I had to try it at once. Specially since RK is one person who's recipes I trust implicitly. It was such a refreshing cooler on a hot summer day, that I know I am going to make it more often- maybe I should just make the masala in bulk, to make it easier!
Note to self- reduce ajwain and cardamon next time.

4 tbsp Tamarind Pulp
1 tsp Roasted Cumin Powder
1 1/2 tsp Black Salt (kala namak)
1/3 tsp Green Cardamom Powder
1/3 tsp Black Pepper Powder
1/2 tsp Carom Seeds Powder (ajwain)
6 tbsp Sugar
Salt to taste
5-6 Fresh Mint Leaves (crushed)

Method:
Take the tamarind pulp in a big bowl and add five
cups of water to it and stir well to mix.
In a mixer, grind together black salt, pepper powder, green cardamom powder,roasted cumin powder, roasted carom seed powder, mint leaves, sugar and salt into a fine powder.
Mix this grounded spices to the tamarind water and stir well. Refrigerate for some time.(you can seive the water at this point if required)
Take glasses and pour out the panna...Garnish it with mint leaves and a slice of lemon...... add some ice cubes n serve chilled.....

Mango Chaas

There are versions and versions of mango lassi- mine is a low fat version with just a hint of mango.

Beat 1/2 cup dahi, 2 tbsp mango pulp and rock salt with 1/2 cup water tilll smooth. Delicious.

Chaas

With the mercury threatening to break through the top of the thermometer, and with me being on a particularly intensive running schedule, I've lost count of the number of times I have made this in the last few weeks.
 

Dry roast jeera and pound it till it becomes a coarse powder (I make this in a larger quantity and keep it).
Whisk curds with the desired quantity of water, add powdered jeera and rock salt to taste, stir, slurp.

Watermelon smoothie

During a weekend trip, we stopped at a stall where they were selling watermelons straight from the field. Not only did the look amazing, they cost a fraction of what they do in the city, and I just couldn't resist picking up a couple. Since there is only so much watermelon that you can eat, I decided to experiment with a smoothie, and it tasted amazing.

Blend 1 cup watermelon chunks (remove the seeds), 6-8 leaves of mint (mine were freshly plucked), and rock salt to taste, till nice and frothy. Slurp!

Watermelon salad

Did I tell you I love watermelons? Nothing speaks "Summer" as much as they do. As far as I'm concerned, they don't need anything to be wonderful, but adding a bit of proteins makes it a healthy snack, and not just pure pleasure.

Toss together-
1 cup watermelon cut into small bites
50 gms paneer cut into small bites
4-5 walnuts chopped fine

Keep it in the fridge for about 30 minutes, so the paneer soaks in some of the watermelon juice. Sprinkle rock salt and serve/ eat.

Chocolate Banana Smoothie

Smoothies in any form or kind are my favourite post-workout snack. This is one I reserve for long runs, because I have been told that chocolate is one of the best drinks you can have post run. Sometimes I wonder if I don't run as much as I do, only so I can indulge!!!!

Blend 1 cup milk, 1 banana and 1 tbsp cocoa powder till smooth. Yummy.