Hibiscus syrup

Cooking with flowers is always therupatic, but cooking with hibiscus is doubly so because of the rich colour, and the burst of flavours. The way the colours change is also wonderful. This time, I found a few more flowers than usual, so decided to make and bottle hibiscus syrup.

6-8 hibiscus flowers

3/4 cup sugar

4 limes

1 1/2 cup water

(The proportions are 1:2:4, juice-sugar-water, with 2 flowers for each lime)

Method:

Bring the water to boil, take off the flame. Add the hibiscus petals and let it infuse for 30 minutes. 

Squeeze in the lime juice, add sugar, and heat till the sugar dissolves. Keep heating, till the syrup reduces to 3/4th of original volume. 

Bottle in a dry glass bottle. 

To make the juice- add water or soda according to taste. 

Green with Envy

This drink, apparently, is prefect during a de-tox diet, where you can zap your system with alkalies. I really wouldn't know. All I know is that on some days you really want to sip something as beautifully green as this, and feel virtuous and evil at the same time.


Chop one small cucumber, 1/2 a small bunch of spinach leaves and 1 small green chilli. Blend till smooth, adding upto 1/2 cup water.
Strain (and keep aside the strained portion to spread on crackers and eat).
Squeeze the juice of 1/2 lime, salt to taste and 1 tbsp honey.

Pour into a glass and slurp.

Beetroot juice

I never attempted juicing beetroots, but since there was a solitary one languishing in the fridge, decided to use it up. And it came out better than expected, so after a quick gulp, decided to take a picture and post it here, so I don't forget what I did.

Peel, chop and blend one beetroot with a glass of water, a tsp of salt (not rock salt), the juice of one
lime and a green chilli. Drink immediately after making.