Lemonade With Rooh Afza, Rooh Afza Lemon Sharbat

          Today's post is another summer cooler, Lemonade With Rooh Afza. Actually till this summer, I had never tried anything with Rooh Afza, except for, might be, I would have had a sharbat but without knowing it had Rooh Afza in it. For those of you who are not familiar with Rooh Afza, it's a concentrated squash made with extracts from herbs, flowers, vegetables, roots and fruits. It's usually used to add flavor to sharbats, lemonade, ice creams and milk and when had during the summer months, it's supposed to cool down the body. If you want to know more about it, you can read this article here. Coming back to the drink, I have made the regular lemon juice, but I have flavored it with Rooh Afza syrup and mint and I have also added another healthy ingredient, sabja seeds/ sweet basil seeds, also known as tukmaria seeds or falooda seeds. The seeds are black in color, a little similar to chia seeds and have many health benefits. Rooh Afza, not only gives a flavor to the lemonade but also gives a beautiful pink color to the drink and the sabja seeds and mint leaves makes it look even more prettier..

Watermelon Granita

          Here in Bangalore, the summer is really hot this year, of course, this is only my third year here, but the last two years has not been this bad. The afternoons are becoming more and more unbearable, hope it'll become better in a couple of weeks. Coming to today's dish, refreshing and delicious Watermelon Granita, what better time to try it than now, when the temperature is soaring and watermelons are found allover the place. Of course, we love to have the fruit as such, or sometimes make a juice with it, this is the first time I tried out Granita at home. I can't say how good it tasted, so so good, we just loved it and I am planning to try out Granita with other fruits..

Karpuravalli ( Doddapatre ) Moru, Ajwain Leaves Buttermilk

          After I tried and tasted the Thayir Pachadi/ Raitha/ Tambuli with Ajwain Leaves/ Karpuravalli, I wanted to try out something else with it. Since these leaves tasted very good with yogurt, I wanted to try a moru/ buttermilk with it. The buttermilk tasted really good, just like the  ' masala moru ', but using just two ingredients apart from the buttermilk. I used the raw leaves, no sauteing or boiling, so no nutrients lost in the process, next time you make ' moru ' do try this out, you'll definitely love it..

Summer Coolers

          It's summertime, and most of us are inclined more towards juices, lassis or something cold, rather than having spicy and heavy meals. Here is a compilation of delicious summer coolers that I have posted in my blog..

Aam Ka Panna, Raw Mango Drink

          Aam Ka Panna, a refreshing drink with raw mangoes, I had tasted this only a couple of times but never tried making it at home. Last week, I wanted to try this and while browsing, I found that there are two ways of making it, either pressure cooking the mango or grilling the mango on direct flame, then peeling and removing the pulp. I was not sure how the smoky flavor from grilling would taste in a drink, so went ahead with the pressure cooker method, next time, of course, I am going to try the other method too. It's a very easy and tasty drink and is an excellent cooler, with a nice flavor from the roasted cumin and mint, a perfect drink for the hot summer..

Papaya Milkshake

          Papaya, I have never been a big fan of this fruit in the past, the smell was too strong for me and for all other unknown reasons, I had avoided it. But now, I have developed a liking for this fruit, I think, might be the hybrid varieties available don't have the very strong smell and also, knowing the health benefits of this fruit, you want to set a good example for your kids. At home, we like it ripe but at the same time firm, not overripe and mushy and we just have it as such. The other day I tried out this simple milkshake with it, it turned out very good. I didn't add any flavors to it, just milk, papaya and honey, very healthy and tasty. Only, one warning, make this milkshake fresh and just have it right away, it might taste a little bitter with time..

Oats Apricot Smoothie

          As I had already said, both my husband and daughter are totally against having oats in the form of a porridge, the only way they'll have it is in a upma, or camouflaged  in some dosa batter, they both don't like the slimy texture of cooked oats. Couple of weeks back, I made this smoothie with oats and apricot, is very easy to prepare and tastes really delicious, sans the sliminess of oats. My daughter had no complaints and I am happy that I could include oats in her diet in some form, try this out when you are tired of having the regular oats porridge..

Strawberry Almond Milkshake

          It's already very hot here in India, especially the afternoons, no longer do I feel like having hot coffee or tea, even kids want to have something cold. Milkshakes are the best, kids get their daily dose of milk, plus, when you add fruits and nuts to it, makes it even more nutritious. Since strawberries are now in season, I made this Strawberry Almond Milkshake, very easy to make and very delicious..

Pomegranate Juice

          Pomegranate, I am not going to go into a discussion about this wonderful fruit's health benefits, enough has been said, and also I am in the middle of so many things now, so straight off to the dish or drink. Pomegranate juice, unlike back in the US, here in India, whenever I tasted it, it's made with a little milk and tastes lot more sweeter, I think kids would prefer this much more. It's very easy to prepare, just takes about 5 minutes and perfect for the hot weather..

Strawberry Lassi/ Strawberry With Yogurt

          Few years back, strawberries were hardly seen in India, especially in Chennai, very difficult to get them. But now, I see a lot, not only in the big shops, the local vegetable vendor brings them too and they taste good too. Though we are happy to have them plain, as such, my daughter also likes to have it with some melted chocolate and we also like to have it in this lassi. It's not much of a recipe, just blending together the strawberries with yogurt and sugar..

Strawberry Jelly Milkshake

          How many times in a day or in a week we get excited about something, and then what are all the things for which we get excited, well, this differs from person to person. But as a food blogger there is one more thing we get excited about, when the dish we make comes out super good and it's a double bonus when it's just two ingredients that go into it and it's super easy too. Well this strawberry jelly milkshake is one such, it tastes very different from the regular strawberry milkshake but very tasty..

Rose Lassi

          Today before going into the recipe, I want to share something with my fellow blogger friends. On Tuesday, I was not able to see my blog, an error message kept popping up, saying that the blog has been removed, I got really worried, very close to tears. After checking on google, I left a query in the google help forum, I didn't get any reply, but finally my blog appeared after nearly 15 hours. I was truly vexed during that time, from what I understood, there is an automated procedure which identifies blogs as spam blogs, and as with all systems, there is a chance of a false positive. I am sharing this here, because this could happen to any of you guys, in that case, don't lose heart, post your question in the google help forum, if it's a false alarm, everything will be back to normal within some time. If any of you out there has experienced something similar to this, do share it, so that we'll all know that we are not alone. 

          Now coming to today's dish, I shouldn't be really calling it so, it's so simple, technically it's just mixing and serving. After coming to India, the daughter and I have become big fans of rose milk, mainly because of the heat, I give her this when she comes back from school. The other day, I made it with curd instead of milk and we both loved it..

Carrot Buttermilk

          Buttermilk, which is nothing but diluted yogurt (curd) is the best cooler for the hot Indian summer and an healthy option too. I try to make some variation to the simple plain buttermilk, this time I have added some carrots to the buttermilk and it came out good. My daughter who is not a big fan of carrots didn't have any problem in having this carrot buttermilk..

Watermelonade

         Adding a little lemon juice to many fruit juices gives a nice taste to the juice, in fact it is way of increasing the sweetness of a juice without actually adding more sugar. But for today's watermelonade, I didn't add lemon juice to the watermelon juice, instead I added some frozen water melon cubes to the regular lemonade, this made it more interesting..

Pineapple Juice With Ginger

         Pineapple is one of my favorite fruits, just love it in any form, plain slices, or sprinkled with some salt and chilli powder or as a juice. And also since the whole family likes it, I buy it very often. As always, fresh juice tastes better than the ones available in cartons. I also add some ginger to it, this makes it taste even better, adds more flavor and on the whole, a very simple and refreshing summer cooler..

Cucumber Cooler

           Though it is not yet summer here officially, the weather has become a little warmer. You feel like having something cold now, be it juices, salads or ice creams. In my family, all of us like buttermilk, and my daughter likes the cucumber raitha, so I put the two together and  added some cucumber to the regular buttermilk. It's very simple to make, very healthy cooler and tasted really good..

Mango Colada (Mango Drink With Coconut Milk)

          I like Pina Colada, with all the tropical flavors of pineapple and coconut in it, but of course without alcohol. Got to taste it only after marriage and thereafter, one of my favorite mocktails. I had bought this huge box of mangoes and wanted to make something with it apart from eating them plain and I also had some coconut milk ( not the canned ones, it comes in tetra paks at Trader Joe's, without the oily smell), so putting the two together, I made this delicious drink, replacing the pineapples with mangoes. Cheers, to all those mango lovers out there..

Jigarthanda

     
          Jigarthanda is a drink very popular in Madurai, a city in Southern India. When I was a school going kid I used to spend most of my summer holidays there and this used to be my favorite drink. Though now it is available in some shops in Chennai too, taste wise still it doesn't come close  to what you get in Madurai. The main ingredient in this drink is badam (almond) gum which you get in medical stores (naatu (country) marandu kadai) in India. Whenever I have this drink now, it brings back those childhood memories..