Sambharam /Spiced Buttermilk - Ultimate Thirst Quencher and Summer Cooler

Sambharam/Morum Vellam is buttermilk thinned with water spiced with curry leaves, limes leaves, hing, chilly and salt. In the olden days when fridge was not part of the kitchen, buttermilk was stored in the china pot/bharani. This will ensure that the buttermilk doesn't turn sour faster. Buttermilk and curd are different. Buttermilk is obtained after churning the curd and the butter is removed. Buttermilk is healthier than curd, with the butter removed. Buttermilk has many healing properties and Ayurveda always recommends the use buttermilk . You can read here to know more.

During the summer months, most homes in Kerala, will prepare the sambharam in large quantities and will be offered to any guests who drop in. In some homes, you can find an earthen pot filled with sambharam in their courtyard. Any passerby can partake the sambharam. In Kerala, summer is the period which the annual temple festivals (pooram/vela)  is celebrated. The celebrations will be through the day and participation of people will be in huge numbers, despite the scorching heat. And you can definitely find at least  one outlet where sambharam will be distributed free to the people. 

A glass of sambharam will instantly quench the thirst and can give a run for the money to any of the bottled drinks, available in the market. A sambharam need not be chilled. The inherent cooling effect of buttermilk is enough to cool your body. The chilled bottled drinks may cool your senses while drinking it, it may not cool the body. The buttermilk cools the senses and the body too.

Each house has their way of making this sambharam and there is no standard recipe for this. You can just go by your taste and availability of ingredients.

You need

• Buttermilk -1 cup
• Water - 3 cups
• Green chilly - 2 nos, slit
• Curry leaves - few sprigs
• Lime leaves/Narakathila - 2 nos
• Hing - few shakes
• Salt to taste

Method

Take all the ingredients in a bowl. Crush the leaves and chilly between your fingers. This will release the flavors into the buttermilk. Enjoy the spicy, flavorful buttermilk. You can't stop with one glass. 

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me 

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Eggless Mango Souffle

Regular readers of this blog might have noticed that I have been posting summer coolers for the past 5 days. As part of the blogging marathon, I have been making various frozen desserts to suit the Summer Cooler theme. For today, its mango souffle. I adapted this recipe from Nita Mehta's Eggless Desserts. In the original recipe, mango drink (Fruity) in tetra pack is used. I have used fresh mango pulp and also scaled down the ingredients to make two servings.

You need

• Mango pulp - 1 cup
• Sugar -1/2 cup
• Fresh cream - 1/2 cup
• China grass/Agar agar - 5 gms
• Hot Water - 1/2 cup

Method

Take a big mango, which is not fibrous.  De-skin and chop into pieces.  Pulse the pieces and add the sugar to it and blend once.  Take the mango pulp and sugar mixture to a bowl and heat it to get a saucy consistency.  Take half cup of  water and add the agar agar to it. Heat on slow fire to dissolve the agar agar. Gradually add the dissolved agar agar to the mango mix. Make sure you add the solution while hot. Else the china grass will start to set.  Leave the mix to cool. 

Take the cream in a bowl and beat till fluffy. Fold in the whipped cream to the mango mix. Beat well till smooth. Transfer to a serving dish or individual serving glasses. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Garnish with chopped mango pieces and serve.

This mango souffle is joining the event- Kids Delight-Cool Comforts, hosted by PJ, an event started by Srivalli


Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me 

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

Ice creams are available in stores under various brands in numerous flavors. And consumers are really spoilt for choice. And top with, majority of brands comes with attractive offers. So when one has too many options to choose from, why would you go for a home made ice cream. As for me there is some satisfaction when you make your own than buy it straight from the shelf. Not that I don't buy them at all. But when you are making it at home, you are free to play around the flavors and the ingredients that go into it. This chocolate ice cream is a result of one such experiment. I started with the idea of adding cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor. While I took out the ingredients, the chocolate bar inside the fridge caught my attention. That also went in to the ice cream. And finally added the chocolate chips for the extra flavor. There isn't like too  much of chocolate, isn't it.

You need

• Milk - 1 cup
• Fresh cream - 1/2 cup
• Sugar -1/2 cup
• Chopped chocolate - 1/2 cup
• Cocoa powder - 1 tblspn
• Corn flour - 2 tspn
• Chocolate chips - 2 tblspn

Method

Take the chopped chocolate in a MW safe bowl. MW for 1 to 2 minutes. After a minute, check if it is melted fully. Keep in intervals of 30 seconds. If melting it on stove top, do it using the double boiler method. Add the cream to the melted chocolate. Whisk well to blend chocolate and cream.

Make a paste of the corn flour with few tablespoons of milk. Boil the remaining milk. When the milk starts boiling, add the corn flour paste and cocoa powder. Stir well to prevent lump formation. Finally add sugar. When the sugar is fully dissolved, remove from fire. Add the chocolate+ cream to the milk mixture. Whisk to blend everything well. Cool and transfer to shallow freezable container. Make sure the height of the liquid is not more than 1 1/2 inch in height. This will ensure easier setting of the ice cream. 

Once the ice cream is slushy, break the ice crystal with a spoon or fork. Leave it to set again. Repeat it for 2 more times. When you are leaving  it for the final setting, stir in the chocolate chips.  Ice cream will set in another 3 hours.  The ice cream is enough to serve 3 large servings. 

Note: Once you have the final liquid mixture ready, you can pass it through a fine sieve to filter out the undissolved chocolate particles, if any. Though this is optional, this will give a more finer texture to the ice cream. I skipped this.

I am sending this chocolate ice cream to the Kids Delight-Cool Comforts, hosted by PJ, an event started by Srivalli


Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me 

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Aam Ka Panna - Perfect Summer Drink

The summer vacation, during my school days, was always with my maternal grand parents. Those were the days without TV. All the day we used to play various games. While playing, we used to snack on cut raw mangoes sprinkled with salt and red chilli powder.  We used to smear the mangoes pieces with a paste mixed from red chilli powder, salt and coconut oil.   My mouth is watering as I type these.  The sour taste of the raw mangoes were balanced by the chilli and salt and coconut oil to reduce the heat of the chilli. Do try it once to know what I am talking about.

Now coming to the recipe of the post, its a drink made from the raw mangoes, perfect cooler to beat the summer heat.  The mangoes are cooked and the pulp is mixed with sugar and other spices to create a harmony of various flavors. The mangoes can be cooked with the skin on and later the skin has to be removed to extract the pulp. I find cooking the mangoes after removing the skin easier. You can choose either method according to your convenience.

You need

Large sized mangoes - 2 nos
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Roasted and powdered cumin - 2 tspn
Crushed pepper - 1/2tspn
Black salt - 1/2tspn


Method

Peel the skin of the mangoes and chop into big pieces. Take the chopped mangoes and the seeds in a pressure cooker. Add water enough to cover the mango pieces. Pressure cook for two whistles.  Meanwhile take half cup of sugar and 2 cups of water in a bowl and bring it to boil, till the sugar is dissolved fully. Leave it to cool. Open the pressure cooker and transfer the cooked mango pieces in a blender jar and pulse to get fine puree. Add the mango pulp to the sugar syrup. Stir in the cumin powder, crushed pepper and black salt. Stir well.  The concentrate is ready. The panna concentrate needs to be refrigerated else it will ferment faster.  Since no other preservative is added, this will have a maximum shelf life of one week, on refrigeration.

To serve, take one part of the concentrate, and mix in 3 parts of chilled water and stir well. Serve with a garnish of mint.

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me 

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Pineapple Yogurt Fool

Fruit fool is a British dessert which is a mixture of pureed fruit, whipped cream and sugar. In this recipe, whipped cream is replaced by hung curd for a low calorie dessert. This recipe is from Sanjeev Kapoor's Chill Out, which is a collection of summer treats. Thanks Veena for the book, which she had sent along with the Arusuvai secret ingredient. 

This dessert gets done faster since there is no freezing and other steps as in ice cream/sorbet. Its very creamy and makes a quick and light dessert. Hung curd can be replaced with thick yogurt too if you don't have time to prepare the hung curd.

You need

• Fresh Pineapple Slices - 10 nos
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Hung curd - 3/4 cup
• Cinnamon - 2 nos of  1" stick

Method

Combine chopped pineapple, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Microwave for 6 minutes till the pineapple turns soft. You can cook it on stove top too, on medium heat. It will take more time.

Remove the pineapple pieces  from the syrup. Blend it to a puree in a mixer grinder. Add the hung curd. Pulse to blend thoroughly. Chill and serve.

While serving the you can drizzle the left over syrup topped with  finely chopped pineapple cubes. There is not much syrup left and it can be added to milkshakes or fruit salads for a subtle pineapple flavor. This yogurt fool is similar to our own shrikand.

This goes to the Kids Delight-Cool Comforts, hosted by PJ, an event started by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me 

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Mango Ginger Sorbet

Mangoes are in season. To some extent, the presence of mangoes makes the summer bearable.  During my childhood days, ripe mangoes were eaten as it is. Those days, all that I knew was mangoes were either cooked in a gravy or eaten. At home, no one bothered to make milkshake or juice out of it. We enjoyed eating one full mango on our own.  As we grew up, milkshakes, jams and concentrates followed. And after I started blogging, I got many more ideas to use mangoes in. Also got to know more about different kind of frozen desserts till then it meant only ice creams. Sorbet is one of them.

Sorbet is a frozen dessert made from sweetened water flavored with fruit (typically juice or puree), wine, and/or liquer. (Source: Wikipedia) 

Recipe  source: Tarla Dalal. 
You need

• Mango puree - 2 cups
• Water - 1 cup
• Sugar - 4 tbspn
• Grated ginger - 1 tspn
• Lemon juice - 1 tspn (Optional)
• Lemon rind of one lemon (I used candied orange peel)

Method

Boil sugar and water for about 5 minutes to get a thin syrup. Remove from heat. Add grated ginger and lemon rind. I used candied orange peel. When the syrup cools, add in mango puree. Whisk to blend well. Transfer to a shallow container and freeze. Once it is slushy, break the ice crystals with a fork and freeze again to set.  To soften the sorbet, before serving, move the container from the freezer to the refrigerator. 

I had second thoughts if I should strain the sugar syrup to filter the grated ginger. I was doubtful how it will be if we bite into the pieces. Anyways I decided to go ahead. The grated ginger was not felt while eating the sorbet. The ginger and citric flavors compliments the sorbet very well. 

Scoop and enjoy the light and delicious sorbet, subtly flavored with ginger and orange.

                        

I am sending this sorbet to the Kids Delight-Cool Comforts, hosted by PJ, an event started by Srivalli


Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me 

Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials:Harini, Vaishali, Suma, PJ
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers: Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt ~ Blogging Marathon#5

Its fun to be back to blogging, after a break, as part of the blogging marathon, initiated by Srivalli. When Srivalli announced BM#5, the last group was the one that suited me. And I was not sure If I will be able to post soon after my vacation. Since I enjoyed the previous marathon, which was a first for me, decided to join and chose the Summer Coolers theme. So, starting today, you can see varieties of summer coolers here. I hope I can  bring in variety here.

I had some frozen strawberries. I went for a frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. This dessert was very light and very refreshing. Its a very easy recipe. Just blend all the ingredients and freeze.

You need

Strawberry - 15 nos (I used frozen)
Sugar -1/3 cup
Hung curd - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 1/2 tspn

Method

Hull the strawberries and halve them. Take the halved strawberries and sugar in the blender jar. Pulse to make a fine puree. Add in hung curd and lemon juice. Pulse to blend everything well. Check the sweetness and add more sugar to suit your taste. If the berries are not sweet enough, you might want to add some more sugar.  Transfer to a plastic or steel tiffin box. Freeze till it is set. Take it out and break the crystals using a fork and put it back in the freezer.    Repeat this for 2 more times and finally leave it to set for 3 or 4 hours. Scoop and enjoy. 

The frozen yogurt had set nicely. But, by the time I could arrange and click, it started melting.

This frozen yogurt goes to the Kids Delight-Cool Comforts, hosted by PJ, an event started by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathoners doing BM#5 along with me
Curry in a hurry under 30 min: Aarthi, Divya, Jayashree, Kaveri, Pavani,
Seven Days of Indian Sweets:Gayathri, Priya Suresh,
Seven Days of Microwave Meals: Monika,
Seven Days of Regional Specials: Cool Lassi(e), Harini, Vaishali, Suma
Seven Days of Colorful Dishes Kid's Special: Kalyani
Summer Coolers:Jayasree, Kamalika, Srivalli

Chakkakuru Podimas/Jackfruit Seeds Stir Fry

Come summer, the most abundant fruits are mango and jack fruit. In Kerala, almost all houses used to have atleast one tree each of these.  Mango and jack fruit will invariable make an appearance in any of the gravy or side dish for the lunch, during the summer months.  There is a saying in Malayalam “Aaru maasam chakkayum maangayum, Aaru maasam anganeyum inganeyum ".   This means Keralites can live with mangoes and jackfruits for 6 months and for the rest of the year with this and that. This tells the importance of both mango and jack fruit. This may not hold true for the present day. And in the olden days, they never got bored of the daily dose of these two. Jack fruit which is just matured and beginning to ripe is generally prepared into a molagushyam or chakka curry. 

You can find more dishes based on jack fruit here

Now coming to the recipe of the post, its with the jack fruit seeds. I love roasted  seeds especially the ones roasted in the traditional chulah. These seed are usually paired with other veggies in gravies or stir fries. I generally add one or two to mezhukuparatti or molagootal. Once in a while I make this podimas.

The seeds are washed and dried for a day. Drying them helps to remove the skin easily. I use a pestle to smash the seeds lightly so that the skin comes out with minimal effort. You could also cook with the seeds on and can be peeled later. And you could chop into cubes. But I haven't tried this way.

You need

• Jack fruit seeds - 20 nos
• Salt to taste
• Turmeric a pinch
• Red chilly powder -1/2 tspn

For Seasoning

• Oil - 1 tblspn
• Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
• Urad dal - 1 tspn
• Red chilly - 1 no
• Curry leaves - few

Method

De-skin the seeds. Pressure cook with enough water to cover them. Add a pinch of turmeric and cook for 3 whistles. When the pressure is released fully, drain the water and keep the seeds aside.

Heat a wok/kadai with oil. When the oil heats up, add mustard seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add urad dal, red chilly split into two and the curry leaves. When the dal start browning, add the cooked jack fruit seeds. Mix in salt  and red chilly powder. Cover and cook till it the spices blend in. I love this when it is seasoned in a iron kadai and let it cook over slow heat. The bottom part will turn crisp.I can just eat this podimas as a snack by itself.