Pineapple Cooler

I love pineapple juice very much, so instantly fell in love with this drink when I saw it in Tarladalal site. I made it during summer and it totally satisfied my thirsty craving of my favourite fruit juice.

Pineapple Cooler Recipe

Recipe Reference : Tarladalal



Ingredients:

• Pineapple chopped roughly - 1/2 cup
• Icecubes - 2
• Salt - as required
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp (optional)
• Milk(preferably cold) - 25 ml
• Sugar - 3 tsp
• Soda water - 3 tbsp

Method:

• Pressure cook pineapple pieces for 1 whistle until soft or Stem them until slightly soft.
• Blend all the other ingredients together with cooked pineapple until frothy in a mixer or blender.
• Pour into individual glasses and serve chilled.

I am always scared by the thorny look of pineapple so I always prefer buying them in fresh cut pieces instead of the full fruit. Pineapple with a hint of salt and chilli powder is a yum combo, do try and see.

My Notes:

• I was skeptical about adding lemon juice with milk(as I doubted milk will curdle) but went ahead as given in the orginal recipe and the drink was yummy and didnt disappoint me. But still if you are not comfortable adding lemon juice just skip it and proceed.
• You can skip the steaming/pressure cooking step and make the cooler with raw pineapple itself.
• You can add honey instead of sugar.
• As the orginal recipe says, you can also add a pinch of pepper.

The creamy frothy pineapple cooler is ready to be served. This can be served as a party welcoming drink too.

I always complain that the froth always doesnt cooperate well till I click but this time I was satisfied :)

Orange Mocktail

I usually browse for new beverages/juices and this one caught my eye one fine day. The tangy taste of orange combined with lime with a hint of soda...hmm it was so refreshing!! When I googled to find more about mocktail I found it easy to understand mocktail as non-alcoholic cocktail :)

Ingredients:

Makes 1 cup

• Orange Juice - 1 Cup
• Lemon Juice - 1/4 Cup
• Sugar - 2 tbsp (or adjust according to your taste)
• Water - 1/4 Cup
• Soda - 1/4 cup(optional)

Method:

1. Filter the juice alone from oranges.
2. Combine all the ingredients and stir well.

My Notes:

• If you want add crushed ice before serving
• Also garnish with freshly cut oranges
• I used demerera sugar for coating the rim of the glass, you can use normal white sugar also

For coating the serving glass with sugar :

• For presenting the serving glass coated with sugar.
• Take a small plate, spread athin layer of sugar over it.
• Dip the rim of the glass with orange juice, or any citrus juice then turn over the glass and rotate it in the sugar evenly.

Papaya Milkshake

The city looks like naturally air conditioned and am loving every bit of the cool breeze which is the typical CBE climate. The summer is slowly creeping away and am happy to welcome the chill weather but the only thing I hate about this gloomy weather is that it makes me lazy. Now blame it on the weather though I am lazy even in hot summers ;)

I am very bad at eating fruits and was keeping my fingers crossed that my daughter shoudnt take after me and thank god she is liking most of the fruits, hope her eating habit continues the same.

Papaya Milkshake:

Makes 2 small cups

Ingredients:

• Papaya - 1 cup cubed
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Sugar - 1 tbsp(adjust according to the sweetness of papaya and to ur taste)
• Elachi powder - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Add little milk and the cubed papaya in a blender/mixer and blend it to a very smooth paste.Do not blend it for a longer time it will make the milkshake bitter
2. Then add sugar and remaining milk and blend until smooth.
3. Add elachi powder , give a stir and serve chilled.

My Notes:

• Do not blend it for a longer time it will make the milkshake bitter. And also dont refrigerate for longer time(5-10mins is ok) have the milkshake fresh...else it will give a bitter taste. But if you want it to be chilled then add crushed ice while blending itself.
• The raw smell of the papaya will be reduced by the flavour of elachi powder so dont skip it.
• You can add 2 cubes of crushed ice and blend it along with papaya and milk.
• Adding honey will give a nice taste too so you can replace sugar with honey.
• For the above mentioned quantity I got 2 small cups of milkshake.

Papaya has lot of health benefits and read it gives a nice glow to the skin and can be used as a nice bleaching agent to the face......It also helps in reducing weight. So girls have I tempted you enough to eat papaya?! Having said all these now I can say the truth that I am a avid hater of papaya ;) he he as I can have papaya only in the form of jams as it hides the papaya taste completely.

I made this milkshake especially for amma as she is fond of papaya. Amma loves this fruit so she was very happy to have this milkshake :) This milkshake is so tasty that was the statement that came from amma. Make sure to choose a papaya that is ripe enough to enjoy a yummy milkshake.

Mango Milkshake

I have been waiting for the mango season....No no not that I am crazy after mangoes but I wanted to fill in Sharmis Passions with mango recipes :) I do like mangoes but I m very choosy as I like only banganapalli variety and have restrictions like the mango shouldnt very ripe and the color should be lemon yellow only.... yeah yeah too much right?! thats what my mother says too :)

As I have said earlier, if I am not comfortable with any fruit then I have it in the form of shakes, juices or smoothies. Mango milkshakes are always my favourite so wanted to give a try at home. My mother loves mangoes be it any variety she can have it night and day even skipping lunch and dinner :) So this is for 'amma', the word has added more meaning after me becoming a mother :) Happy Mothers day!!

Ingredients:

• Mango - 1 cup
• Milk - 2 cups
• Sugar - 3 tsp
• Elachi powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
• Ice crushed - 2 small cubes

Method:

1. Peel of the skin of mangoes and chop the mangoes roughly.
2. Add 1/2 cup milk with mango cubes, sugar and crushed ice and blend it in a mixer until smooth for 10 seconds then add remaining milk and blend again until smooth.
3. Add elachi powder, mix well. Your mango milkshake is ready in minutes.

My Notes:

• I like my milkshake to be thick, if you want it to be little runny then add 1/2 cup of milk more.
• Adding elachi powder gives a good flavour , but its purely optional.
• Adjust sugar according to the sweetness of the mango variety.

Iced Lemon Tea

I am not much of a tea person and also cant stand any beverage which turns my tea and coffee to be cold except for cold coffee. But on the flip side, hubby loves tea either hot or cold so made this iced lemon tea for him on a sunny afternoon.

Ingredients:

• Water - 2 cups
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Honey -1 tsp
• Lemon juice - 2 tbsp
• Tea powder - 2 tsp
• Icecubes - 4 to 5

Method:

1. In a sauce pan bring 2 cups of water to boil. Add tea powder and allow it to come to a boil.Switch off.
2. Then strain the water, add sugar and honey, mix well. Squeeze lemon juice and mix well.
3. Allow it to cool down then refrigerate for 30mins atleast, add icecubes and serve chilled.

My Notes:

• You can use tea bags instead of tea powder
• You can skip sugar and use 2tsp of honey
• This is absolutely a refreshing drink for this hot summer which keeps you energertic.

Lime Mint Cooler / Minty Lemon Cooler

I'm trying different juices and milk based drinks to beat this summer. It has become really hot here these days...I recreated this juice after tasting in Pazhamudhir Nilayam with minor modifications.

Ingredients:

(Serves 2)

• Mint/Pudina leaves - 1/4 cup
• Lemon - 1 whole
• Sugar / Honey - 1 tbsp(adjust according to taste)
• Ginger juice - 1 tsp (optional)
• Cold Water - 2 cups
• Crushed ice - 1 tbsp
• Yellow/Green food color - a pinch (optional)

Method:

1. Remove the seeds and extract the juice from the lemons and keep aside.



2. Grind mint leaves with little water in a mixer until nicely grinded. Then add remaining water,lime juice, ginger juice, honey and blend it for a minute.



3. Filter it, then mix food color,add crushed ice and serve chilled.

Lime Mint Cooler is a very refreshing, and also a feel good drink to beat this summer. I had this drink in palamuthir nilayam and tried to recreate it at home and it tasted almost the same. With the tanginess of lemon and the flavour of mint leaves, the drink looks really fresh and cool. Now I am seeing this juice very common in many fruit shops.

Lime mint cooler is similar to lime juice with a slight twist of adding mint which gives a wonderful flavour. You can skip the food color , I just added it for the extra zing for the pics. As mint gives a dark green color it wasnt that appealing so added the food color to make it look bright ;) But I just thought green food color would be apt which the fruit shops use. Apart from chutneys, thogayals and biriyani, we can use mint in juices too, its cool, fresh and flavourful.

Carrot Juice - The Natural Fanta!

After about 35 days of living with the dust and the smell of paint, all our music was the driller machines sound all these days......Yes finally the interior work is over and we are totally relieved though few works are pending which are very minor. I tell you, it isnt that easy to get things done after occupying.....the house was in a total mess all these days and we are in the process of slowly arranging things. Next comes my job search, hope everything goes smooth :)

About this carrot juice recipe, amma learnt it from our neighbor.Once when it was served, we were clueless that it was from carrots, first we asked was it rasna? we were totally surprised to know that it was carrot juice. It is not only healthy but tasty at the same time, with lemon juice it tastes close to fanta minus the foodcolors and soda. Isn't that interesting?!

Ingredients:

• Carrots - 2 medium sized cut into small
• Water - 1 cup
• Salt - a pinch
• Sugar - 1 tsp
• Lemon - 1
• Ginger - 1/4 inch piece [optional]

Method:

1. Add carrots and ginger in a blender/mixer with little water say 2 tbsp and blend it until its crushed well. Blend it for 2 times to extract the pulp completely.



2. Now strain it using a strainer and press the pulp with a spoon, so that the juice is extracted completely.



3. Then add the extracted carrot juice to a glass, squeeze lemon juice(taking care to omit the seeds), sugar, salt and remaining water and mix well.Recommended to serve cold.

My Notes :

• If your carrots are sweet enough, then you can reduce sugar to 1/2 tsp or omit the sugar completely.



• For the above mentioned quantity, it serves 2 small glasses(as in the pic). I picked fresh tender carrots to get the nice orangey color, guess it worked out :)



• You can make this juice and refrigerate, it keeps well for about a week. Carrots with a dash of lemon makes it all the more healthy and tasty.



• The recipe calls for ginger, but its purely optional. I sometimes omit it to relish the true taste close to fanta :)

Its truely a tongue tickling drink with the sweetness of sugar and the tanginess lemon brings in. Try this refreshing drink and enjoy yourself. Stay tuned for the next post - Homemade Pizza with stepwise.

Pomegranate Juice

Pomegranate is a fruit that is not only delicious but also packed with vital minerals and vitamins that our body needs, Its very refereshing too. I luv juices very much if I hate any fruit I'l drink it in the form of juice...but pomegranate is in my fav list so either juice or fruit I just luv it! I need some juice or the other to beat this summer....so here is one of my favs.

Ingredients:

• Pomegranate - 2 small sized
• Lemon juice - 2 tsp
• Honey-1 tsp
• Water - 1/4 cup

Method:

1. Peel off the skin and blend the fruit along with honey and lemon juice.

2. Add water, filter, chill it and enjoy the juice.

My Notes :

• Lemon juice helps to reduce the bitterness of the seeds.
• Adjust water according to the thickness of the juice

And I am sending this to Divyas event .

Have a great week ahead and happy mothers day to all mothers out there!