Showing posts with label Summer Drink. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer Drink. Show all posts

22 June, 2017

Aam Panna Recipe | Indian Raw Mango Cooler

Learn how to make Aam ka Panna ~ Sweet and sour Indian raw mango cooler flavoured with spices, black salt and mint

It’s officially summer in my neck of woods and for the last two weeks the heatwaves have swept across the nation. I am not very active on social media these days as it will be considered sin to spend time within the four walls. The windows and doors are wide open, and I spend most of my time pottering around the garden, laying on grass and snoozing under the perfect blue skies. My morning walks have become longer as I enjoy the company of mother nature and her children like tweeting birds and wild life, walking in the woodlands under the protective canopy of giant trees. The kitchen is the last place on my mind as simple salads, quick coconut-yogurt based curries and ice creams have officially become our meals and washing them with gallons of water to quench the thirst and to keep the body cool.



It's time like this when I sift through my handwritten recipe diary in search of recipes that has been tried and tested for centuries. The recipes for scorching summer months to keep the body cool due to excess hear from the sun. One such recipe is a very popular raw mango recipe from the northern part of India called Aam Panna, a very refreshing raw mango cooler flavoured with spices and good helping of fresh mint. It is this Aam ka Panna, with its sweet tangy flavor makes it extremely rejuvenating and its health benefits make it a go to drink and a must try recipes for the summers when the mighty mango season arrives. Aam Panna is consumed in the summers as it acts as a coolant, rehydrates body and provides the essential electrolytes lost during the hot weather. A glass of this drink in a summer afternoon can combat fatigue and energize a person.

05 April, 2017

Rama Navami Panakam Recipe | Jaggery Limeade ~ Healthy & Refreshing Summer Drink

How to make Panakam or Panagam ~ Jaggery Limeade flavoured with crushed cardamoms, peppercorns and dry ginger, a refreshing and healthy summer drink

Today is the ninth and last day of Chaitra Navaratri as per Hindu calendar. Today is also Ram Navami, a festival that celebrates the arrival of Vishnu’s 7th avatar, Lord Rama. Growing up in South India, it meant eating kosambari (cucumber and moong bean salad) while guzzling down tall glass of Panakam (sweet and summery health drink of jaggery and lime flavoured with crushed green cardamom, peppercorns and dry ginger), listening to the tales of Ramayana.



I am not a religious person, but that doesn’t stop me from cooking and eating festive foods. As with any other Hindu festival, Ram Navami is also celebrated with special food offered to the deity called neivedyam. Once the food is offered to the god, it is distributed among people as prasad or prasadam, a blessed food. Panakam is one such food that is made during Ram Navami along with other neivedyams such as kosambari, and majjige neeru (spiced butter milk). They are simple and quite refreshing summer recipes, showcasing the wisdom and scientific reason with great health benefits behind every festival food designed by our ancestors. The word Panakam in Sanskrit means ‘sweet drink’ and as the name suggests, it’s a sweet drink of jaggery and lime flavoured with crushed green cardamoms, peppercorns and dry ginger.

30 July, 2015

Watermelon-Citrus Cooler/Juice Recipe | Simple and Quick Summer Cooler Recipe

Learn how to make the Watermelon-Citrus Cooler/Juice

It’s been a wonderful summer so far… In fact, it’s the best summer season I have ever experienced in Britain! The flowers in rainbow colours are in full bloom, the rich green foliage of trees kissing the bright blue skies, the fluffy white sugar candy like clouds drifting away in the bright sky, the dainty white daisies smiling on a rich Persian green grass carpet and the smiling tanned faces that greets others in the streets. Ah… Blissful days of the year!



Summer is the time when I am busiest, inspite of the fact that the schools are closed. I see myself like an ant working long hours. With five year old for a company, the 24 hours in a day is not long enough to get everything done in a day. By the end of the day, I am so tired that I snooze off as soon as my head hits pillow.

30 June, 2015

Mangalore Bonda Sharbat Recipe | Tender Coconut Lemonade

Learn how to make Mangalore Bonda Sharbat ~ Tender coconut sherbet or tender coconut lemonade

“Echara, we want some bonda. Please!” pleaded a girl with two missing front teeth and two pigtails bouncing as she jumped up and down with her sister and cousins.
“Let me first finish peeling these arecanuts, and then I will get you kids the tender coconuts”, said Eshwara.
“No, we want you to come with us right now. We are very, very thirsty”, said all the kids in unison.
“There is no escaping from you little brats”, said Eshwara as he smiled indulgently.



He got up from the low seat of wooden plank with a blunt moon shaped knife designed especially for peeling the skin of arecanuts. Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the towel tied around his head as a turban called mundaas, once red when it was new and now turned a shade of burnt rust after many washes, he flexed his five feet short body and joined us as we bounced along a narrow footpath around grandma’s ancestral two-storey art deco styled house with huge panelled windows.

21 May, 2014

KaaTu Mavina Hannina Saaru/Gojju Recipe | Wild Mango Soup from Udupi-Mangalore

Learn how to make KaaTu Mavina Hannina Saaru/Gojju ~ Sweet, spicy and tangy wild mango soup/curry from Udupi-Mangalore

A big hello from India! :) It’s been 3 weeks since we landed here and the life has been, well, little chaotic trying to do hundred and one things at once! We have been struggling to come up with the fact that this is not our annual month long holiday with our loved ones and we are actually going to live here permanently!



Sometimes I feel it’s all a dream and I will wake up next moment in our old house in England listening to the howling wind, grey skies and rain drops splattering around! But that is not the case as every time I wake up here in my parents’ home, all I can hear are the noise of tweeting birds, bright sunlight streaming through the curtains and to the lull of ceiling fan… Life is so much different to the life that lived just a month ago… I will write more about our Indian adventure later as we are still living out of suitcases.

20 August, 2013

Strawberry Limeade Fizz Recipe | Simple Summer Fizzy Drink Recipe

Learn how to make Strawberry Limeade Fizz ~ Sweet strawberry and lime fizzy drink flavoured with cardamom

Its long weekend for us with the end of summer holiday marking official end to all summer fun and the fall will be upon us soon. This year the weather goddess has been quite generous with beautiful sunny days, clear blue skies and high temperature making us a happy bunch of people. So just the thought of actually all the fun and frolic coming to an end is making me a wee bit sad!

31 July, 2013

Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino or Strawberry Frappe Recipe | How to Make Starbucks Styled Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino

Learn how to make Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino or Strawberry Frappe | Strarbucks styled Strawberries and Creme Frappucciono recipe

It’s 1:15 in the afternoon as I watch the little angelic face so close to my face as we share our pillow. His head is nestled safely in the crook of my arms while his legs are tucked close to my body. The only noise I hear is the whirring sound of pedestal fan that is over working to keep us cool in this hot summer day. The two windows in our bedroom are wide open bringing in warm breeze, making the light coloured curtains flutter and flow.

17 July, 2013

Watermelon-Mint Limeade Recipe | Simple and Easy Summer Drinks Recipe

How to make Watermelon-Mint Limeade ~ Refreshing simple and quick summer drink made using watermelon, fresh mint and lime juice

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Psst... We are expecting heat waves here in the United Kingdom!!! There... I said it! ;)