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

Manga Rasam - Raw Mango Soup

MANGA RASAM

Once again it is mango season. It is time to include mangoes in almost all the dishes prepared for a full meal. Pickles, curries, salads, dals, sambar, morkuzhambu and chutneys, mango rice, sweets like halwa and payasam prepared out of ripe mangoes - the list of mango based dishes is endless. At least one mango dish a day, is the order of the day, as long as the season lasts!
Here is a recipe for Rasam which is an integral part of a South Indian meal - prepared with raw mango.


                                             



INGREDIENTS

Raw mango chopped - 1 cup
Tur dal - 1 cup
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Powdered jaggery - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1 1/2 tsps

INGREDIENTS FOR RASAM POWDER

Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Red chillies - 5
Black pepper - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - one small piece
Curry leaves - a few

FOR SEASONING

Ghee - 2 tsps
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp


FOR  GARNISHING

Fresh coriander leaves ( chopped ) - 1 tbsp

METHOD

1. Wash and chop mango with peel and pressure cook with dal and turmeric powder adding 3 cups of water.
2. Heat one drop of ghee in a pan and fry asafoetida.
3. Add coriander seeds , pepper, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds and red chillies and roast together till it emanates a very pleasant aroma.
( If asafoetida powder is used, add it just before the curry leaves ).
4. Lower the flame and add curry leaves and roast till they become dry.
5. Allow to cool and powder the roasted ingredients and keep aside.
6. Mash the cooked dal and mango retaining a few mango pieces as they are.
7. Add salt and jaggery and boil till they blend with the cooked dal mango mixture.
8. Add rasam powder and wait till it starts boiling.
9. Immediately add 500ml of water in a slow stream, holding the water jug high up , so that the rasam is topped with foam.
10. Lower the flame and add coriander leaves.
11. Cover with a lid and allow the rasam to gather more foam on top.
12. Switch off flame when the raam is just about to boil. Over boiling will kill the pleasant aroma of rasam.



                                             



13. Heat ghee in a seasoning ladle and add mustard seeds.
14. When the mustard seeds splutter add the seasoning to the rasam.


                                             


Enjoy the flavoursome Manga Rasam with hot rice topped with a spoon of pure ghee or  relish  the tangy rasam sip by sip from a tall glass topped with a dash of ghee.

Grilled Shrimp Skewers

Seafood is my every time favorite and when it's grilled you cannot believe the flavor just pops up and clicks your brain and with a touch of lemon it's awesome. I always loved eating grilled food, because it's more flavorful and easy.

I marinated the shrimp with a simple ingredients and after I took it out of the grill pan I sprinkled with some lemon juice and paired it with a papaya salad.

I used a indoor grill pan, you can use outdoor grill or any grill that you have or just do it in a wide pan or just broil it in the oven by placing a cookie sheet under the skewers, so that the drippings will stay on the pan and in this way you can avoid the mess in the oven.

Ingredients:

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1 lb Shrimp, shelled, de-veined and cleaned

1 Red Onion cubed 

1 tsp Red Chili powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1/2 tsp Curry powder

1/2 tsp Cumin powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tsp Olive Oil

1 Lemon, juice squeezed out of it

Method:

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1. In a bowl add the cleaned shrimp, make sure that you shake of the water, else it will become watery while grilling.

2. Add all the ingredients except the lemon juice and marinate it for about 15 mins.

3. Insert the shrimp and onions alternatively into each medium size skewers. Make sure you don't overcrowd the skewer, as the shrimp will not have enough space to cook.

4. Place a grill pan and when it's hot arrange the skewers, and cook the shrimp for about 3-4 mins on each side or until you get some nice grill marks and the shrimp turns into pink color.

5. Arrange the shrimp skewers into the serving platter and squeeze the lemon juice and serve it immediately.

6. I served this with Latin Papaya Mint Salad (Click on the link to view the recipe), you can serve with you choice of sides or rice or noodles or salad or soup, or anything that you think will go well with this grilled shrimp.


Sending this recipe to event:

Ayeesha - Taste Of Pearl City - Event Name: Any one can cook and Event: "Serve It - Grilled" hosted by Krithi and Denny