Jal Jeera

Jal (Water) Jeera (cumin / Jeeragam) is one of my most favorite drinks. Its not a high calorie drink or any sugary junk. Its tangy, spicy taste will make everyone fall in love with it. This famous North Indian drink is very healthy for hot days. Yummy refreshment for summer days. But I prefer it drinking in all seasons for its taste. It clears all the tummy problems like gas, constipation and improves digestion. 

You can have it as a appetizer before food or after food or along with food like me ;-) It stay fresh for a week if refrigerated. 
I used the regular cooking salt as black salt in not in stock in my pantry. But if available, use black salt as it have many health benefits and it gives a great taste to the drink. 

Ingredients:

Coriander leaves - 1/8 cup
Mint leaves - 1/8 cup
Ginger - 1/4 tsp
Cumin powder - 2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Amchur powder - 2 tsp
Chat masala powder - 1 tsp
Tamarind puree - 3 tbsp (big gooseberry size tamarind)
Lemon juice - 3 tbsp
Black salt - 1 tsp (I used normal salt)

Method :

Soak tamarind in warm water and keep aside.

Keep all the other powders ready in a tray.

Place mint, coriander and ginger in the blender jar and blend to paste. Use little water for grinding.

Remove it and strain the pulp using a sieve. 

Add all the other powders and tamarind puree to the strained  juice.

Add water, lemon juice and stir well.

While serving, pour it in a juice mug, add some ice cubes and sprinkle some boondi on the top.

Or Use chilled water while preparing, straight away add boondi and serve chill without ice cubes.

Note:
Always serve the Jal Jeera chilled. 
Adjust the powders, lemon juice and tamarind puree as per your taste.
I like my Jal Jeera little tangy, so I added little extra amchur powder and lemon juice. 
Use black salt if available. 

Sweet and Fresh Strawberry Milkshake

A quick Strawberry Milkshake for a fresh morning Breakfast. Use sweet and fresh strawberries for perfect taste.

Ingredients:

Milk - 2cups

Strawberry – 12 medium sized
Sugar – 3tbsp
Chopped strawberries – 1tbsp

Method:

Wash the strawberries and remove the leaf.
Slit the berries into two halves.
Combine strawberries, milk, and sugar and blend until smooth.
Pour the shake into a juice jar, add some chopped strawberries and serve immediately.

Note: Adding ice cubes is optional. If adding, add them while blending.

          Instead of adding ice cubes, use cold milk.

 

 

Pineapple Mint Fizz

Fizz, I have no idea about it till I had it in a restaurant. I was overwhelmed in its taste and couldn’t resist myself from trying it at my home. Actually it was a Strawberry fizz. So thought of making it at home and I went for strawberry hunt in every possible fruit shops and supermarkets. But I couldn’t make it, as now it’s not a strawberry season L Ok I made up my mind to replace Pineapple for Strawberry. They came out well. This fruit with its sweet and sour taste blends well with mint flavor and crispy soda, here goes the Pineapple Mint Fizz recipe

Ingredients:

Pineapple chunks – ½ cup
Mint sugar syrup – 1/3cup
Soda water – 3cups
Ice cubes.

Mint sugar syrup:

Sugar – ¾ cup
Water – ¾ cup
Fresh mint leaves – 2tbsp

Method:

Peel off pineapple skin, cut into small chunks and keep aside.
Add sugar in the water and stir well. Bring them to boil in low flame. When the bubble starts appearing, add the mint leaves to the water and remove the pan from the heat.
Let the mint sit in the sugar syrup for 10 to 15 min.
In a blender add sugar syrup (remove the mint leaves), pineapple chunks, ice cubes and blend well.
Strain the juice using a strainer (or leave it as it is). Now the pineapple mint juice is ready.

Serving:

Add ice cubes in a juice glass, then pour the juice over the ice cubes, add the mint leaves removed from the sugar syrup, then finally add the soda water.
Serve chill and fresh.

Note: Serve immediately to enjoy the crisp fizz experience.  



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C'mon chefs cook up some - starters and welcome drinks- hosted by cookclickndevour

Sri Rama Navami Special (Panakam, Neer more, Vadaparuppu)

Panakam:

Panakam is a traditional drink specially made during “Sri Rama Navami” the birthday of Lord Rama. It cools the body and helps to beat the summer heat. Ginger helps in digestion, jaggery is a good source of iron. Totally it’s a health drink made of simple ingredients easily available at home.

Ingredients:

Jaggery – 1 cup
Water – 6 to 7 cups
Cardamom powder – ¼tsp
Crushed ginger – 1tsp
Lemon juice – 1tsp

Method:

Take 1cup water in a wide bowl. Add the jaggery to the water and mash them well till they get dissolve in water completely.
Now strain the jaggery water into a bowl, using a strainer. (this is to remove dust in jaggery)
Pour the remaining water to the bowl. Add cardamom powder, ginger and lemon juice.
Stir well using a ladle.
Panakam is ready to serve.

Note: You can also add sukku (dried ginger) to panakam which will make the drink more tasty and healthy.

Neer more:

Neer more is a very common summer drink which is also made on “Sri Rama Navami” as neivedyam (offering). Adding more water to butter milk is Neer (water) more (buttermilk). Like panakam neer more also have many health benefits, especially during summer they help to reduce the body heat. For more taste, finely chopped green mango is added to this neer more.

Ingredients:

Beaten curd – 2cups
Water – 7 to 8 cups
Green chilli – 1
Shredded ginger – 1tsp
Hing – ½tsp
Mustard seeds – ½tsp
Lemon juice – 1tsp
Salt to taste
Oil – 1tsp
Finely chopped coriander – 1tbsp

Method:

Take the beaten curd in a wide bowl and keep aside.
In a small kadai or in tempering pan heat oil, add mustard seeds, when they splutter add green chilli and ginger, pour them to the curd bowel and mix well.

Add hing, chopped coriander, lemon juice, salt and mix well.
Pour the remaining water and stir well.
Now Neer more is ready to cool your tummy J

Vadaparuppu:

Vadaparuppu is made of yellow moong dal as an offering to Lord Rama on “Rama Navami” along with Panakam and Neer more.

Ingredients:

Yellow moong dal – 1 cup

Lemon juice – 1tsp
Salt to taste

For tempering:

Oil – 1tsp
Mustard seeds – ½tsp
Urad dal – ½tsp
Green chilli – 1
Hing – ½tsp

Method:

Soak moong dal for an hour in water.
Drain the water and keep the moong dal aside.
Do tempering and add it to the moong dal.
Add lemon juice and salt to it and mix well.
Vadaparuppu is now ready.

Pomegranate, Orange juice

It’s a simple refreshing drink. Orange blends well with any other fruit.

Here I have not added sugar, as the juice already taste sweet. If you wish you can add powdered sugar.

What you need:

Pomegranate – 1 big

Orange – 2 big

Ice cube (optional)

For garnishing – 1tbsp pomegranate keep aside before blending

Method:

Slit the Pom fruit into two half.

Separate the seed carefully removing the white skin covering the seeds and place it in a bowl.

Make note you have removed all the white skin and only the seeds are left.

Blend them in blender. Using a strainer separate the juice in a cup.

Now extract the juice from orange using the blender or hand juicer. (If blender is used, remove the seed and skin thoroughly before adding it to the blender). Keep aside the juice in a cup.

Now mix pom juice and orange juice.

Pour it in a juice glass. Add 1tbsp pom to it.

Serve chill adding ice cube.