This is too good to resist!

I grew up having this milkshake and never got tired of this. In the U.S (or non-tropical countries), it’s hard to get hold of fresh tender coconuts. Whenever I find them I buy them and most of the times been deceived. It’s very hard to tell if the coconut will taste good or not without cracking it open. If you got lucky you could devour it. Tender coconut pudding, is my favorite South-Indian dessert. Last year, when I visited Kerala – the land of coconut trees, I made this pudding quite a few times and never got tired of it because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get the same taste until I visit again.

Last weekend, I found coconuts at an Asian supermarket. I took my chances and bought a few. First thing after getting home, I cracked it open and tasted the tender coconut and the coconut juice. I jumped up and down with joy, it tasted fresh just like the ones I get in Kerala. And then there I was busy making tender coconut milkshake and tender coconut pudding.

The milkshake tasted so refreshing and yummy…

Tender Coconut Milkshake

Serves: 2 glasses

Ingredients:

• Tender coconut, chopped 2 inch slice- 1/2 cup
• Tender coconut water- 1 cup
• Milk, chilled- 3/4 cup
• Sugar or honey- 1-2 tbsp

Preparation:

• It’s good to use fresh tender coconuts rather than frozen or canned ones.
• If you have the fresh tender coconut, first make a small hole on the top of the shell using a sharp knife.
• Pour the coconut water into a bowl, keep aside.
• Using a sharp knife break the coconut into halves.
• Be very careful while breaking it, let your husband do this.
• Using a sharp knife cut the coconut from the shell.
• The coconut would easily detach from the shell.
• Cut the coconut into small slices.
• In a blender, blend together the coconut slices, coconut water, milk and sugar or honey.
• Pour into glasses and serve chilled.

Tips:

• Use only tender coconut and not the regular coconut.
• Make sure the coconut has blended well.
• You could adjust the amount of coconut water, milk, sugar according to your needs.

This drink refreshes your mind and body, quenches your thirst…

I have to tell you that as a teenager I was never fond of mint. If I find out that mint is an ingredient in a dish, I would step back and would wave goodbye to that dish. I absolutely didn’t like it. Every time I shop for herbs, I would briskly walk past it.

It was a few weeks ago that I thought for the first time to overcome my hatred for mint. As a first step, I bought a bunch of fresh mint and stored it in my refrigerator. It was in there for a few days and I found all possible excuses to ignore it. Occasionally, I did get the urge to take the mint out of the refrigerator and sprinkle it into the dishes that I made. But I never did.

Finally, one day I just went ahead and grabbed the mint. I first tried to get comfortable with the fragrance of the mint, I smelled, took a few breaths in and kept inhaling. It was soothing, my mind and body was found refreshed instantly. It felt really good and I kept inhaling its fragrance. As the second step, I tried to infuse it in my dishes. I had watermelon that day and so made a drink by blending mint along with it. Took a sip of that drink and I nodded with approval. I absolutely loved the combination of watermelon and mint. It was so refreshing and a perfect thirst quencher for summer or any day.

After I befriended mint, I added it to some of the dishes that I had made recently and all the dishes tasted remarkable. Now, I can very well handle the fragrance of mint.

Mint Watermelon Drink:

Servings: 2 glasses

Ingredients:

• Watermelon, cubed- 3 cups
• Mint leaves, fresh- 5 leaves
• Sugar- 1-2 tbsp

Preparation:

• In a blender, blend watermelon, mint and sugar together.
• I didn’t add water to it, if it’s too thick for you thin it down with cold water.
• Taste and add more sugar if needed.
• Pour in a glass and garnish with mint leaves.

While breaking the fast or for Iftar we first drink a glass of juice or smoothie before eating anything heavy. So lately, I’ve been making juices and smoothies with different fruits, veggies and dry fruits. I prefer fresh homemade juices over any store brought ones. If you have tried drinking homemade fresh orange juice and then drink Tropicana orange juice, you could feel the difference. I agree store bought juices are convenient especially in the morning when we are rushing for work. So, mostly in the evening or during weekends I try to make my own version of juices and milk shakes. I dare to combine different kinds of fruits, nuts and veggies while making my juices or smoothies. So far I haven’t made any weird tasting smoothies, most of the fruits and veggies when blended together seems to get along well.

Last night I tried combining apple and dates, as I didn’t have any other fruits left in my refrigerator. Pureed apple and dates along with milk and vanilla extract. I couldn’t get over the taste of this smoothie: it was rich, creamy and extremely delicious.

Apple Dates Smoothie

Ingredients:

Serving: 2 glass

• Apple, skinned and chopped- 1 large (red delicious or gala apple)
• Dates, pitted- 10 no’s
• Sugar- 2 1/2 tbsp
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
• Cold milk, skim- 1 1/2 cups

Preparation:

1. In a blender puree all the ingredients to a smooth constituency.
2. Pour into a glass along with ice or without ice.
3. Sip and enjoy this yummy creamy smoothie.

A simple dessert at its best…

You can have this as a pudding or as a pudding drink, either way it’s going to taste yummlicious. One of the desserts I often had while growing up is milk pudding. It’s the easiest and the simplest dessert ever. Just a couple of ingredients and very less time are needed to prepare this and you get to indulge in a delicious dessert. Last week, I tried to give a makeover to my usual milk pudding and it turned out to be delectable. I made milk pudding and strawberry coulis, layered them both, it tasted terrific!

Milk pudding with Strawberry Coulis:

• Serving: 4 cups

Ingredients:

For making milk pudding:

• Milk, whole or skim- 2 cups
• Condensed milk, sweetened- 3/4 of 400 ml can
• Agar agar strands, chopped 2 inch slice- 1/4 cup
• Water- 1/3 cup to dissolve agar agar

For making Strawberry Coulis:

• Strawberry, fresh or frozen, halved- 3 cups
• Granulated sugar- 1/3 cup
• Lemon juice- 1/2 tbsp

Preparation:

1. In a saucepan heat milk.
2. Add condensed milk to it and let it come to a boil.
3. Lower the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.
4. In the meantime, combine agar-agar strands and water together in a small pan and heat it, let the agar agar dissolve completely in water.
5. Strain the dissolved agar agar into the milk, combine well.
6. Remove the milk from the heat and pour it into a bowl, let cool down.
7. After it cools down, keep it in the refrigerator to set, for an hour or so.

Making Strawberry Coulis:

1. Heat a saucepan, combine strawberry, sugar and lemon juice together.
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes till the strawberries get mashed up.
3. Remove from the heat and let cool down.
4. Chill the strawberry coulis in the refrigerator for 15- 20 minutes.

Serving:

• In a tall or short glass: first layer with milk pudding, top with chilled strawberry coulis, repeat this one more time.
• Top layer should be strawberry coulis.
• Garnish with mint leaves and serve immediately.

Sapodilla or sapota or chickoo, is a fruit with exceptionally sweet malty flavor, its flavor closely resembles to that of caramel. This is widely found in India, Mexico and Central America.

In India, Chickoo shake is commonly found on the milkshake menu. With this one on the menu, I never had to think twice on which milkshake to order. In fact, there was a milkshake shop near to my house in Kerala and I was a regular customer. On my way back from college I used to buy chikoo shake almost everyday. I was literally addicted to this shake. Also, chickoo trees are commonly found in most of the houses in Kerala.

Seeing my love for this fruit, my mom planted a tree on the backyard of my Kerala house and I felt extremely happy to hear from her that it has started to yield fruits. However, in the US, this fruit is not available. Only place where this fruit is available is in Indian stores, that too frozen ones exported from India.

The fresh ripe fruits tastes incredibly sweet, it can be eaten just like that or made into milkshake. I always end up making milkshake out if it. I just blend the chikoo with milk and sugar and the shake tastes extremely delicious. Most of the milkshake shops in India add vanilla ice cream as well. This enhances the taste of the chickoo shake greatly.

Just the chickoo when blended with milk and sugar made the milkshake unbelievably creamy and sweet. You’ll be surprised to see the creamy constituency of the shake as if it has heavy cream added in it.  Now, this is my husband’s favorite milkshake too.

Where to buy chikoo in the US?

• In the US you could find frozen ripe chikoo in almost all Indian stores. You could use this to make the milkshake.

Chickoo Shake:

Ingredients:

• Chickoo, ripe – 8 slices, defrosted if using frozen or use fresh

• Milk, chilled- 2 cups
• Sugar- 3tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp (optional)

Preparation:

• Blend the chickoo, milk, vanilla extract and sugar in a blender until the chickoo has blended well and the shake turns creamy.
• Pour into a milkshake glass and serve immediately.
• You could even add vanilla ice cream, ice cubes etc.
• For a healthy version: avoid the ice cream, it tastes delicious even without the ice cream.

Tips:

• If using frozen chickoo, defrost the chickoo in the microwave for 10-15 seconds or until it is no longer hard or you could keep it outside for few minutes to defrost.

This tropical fruit is abundantly found in Kerala, India. There are couple of papaya trees in the backyard of my Kerala house. Due to the tropical weather in Kerala, it grows almost everywhere and the they don’t need any special pampering or care for its growth. It just grows like a weed. I am quite embarrassed to say that I had ignored this fruit while growing up. For some reason, I couldn’t stand the smell of ripe papaya. We never had to buy papaya from any stores, we just had to pluck it from the trees standing in the backyard. May be this could be the reason why I didn’t give much importance to this fruit; the more I had it, the more I ignored it. But, things got changed when I started living in a country where finding papaya is once in a blue moon thing and frequent buying of papayas will put a hole in the wallet Apparently, papaya is one of the expensive fruits here and it never tasted any closer to those papaya plucked from the backyard of my kerala house. In the US, you could see papaya trees in Hawaii and Florida. When I had visited Hawaii, this was the one fruit that I had gobbled from the fruit bars of all the restaurants I had dined.

After knowing about the amazing health benefits of papaya, how I wish I could grow papaya trees in my backyard, sigh…

Health benefits: (www.traditionaloven.com)

• Increases quality of proteins in whole organism.
• Revitalise the human body and maintain energy and vitality.
• Encourages the renewal of muscle tissue.
• Supports cardiovascular system.
• Boosts up the immune system.
• Helps with the digestive system, by breaking down the proteins and supporting production of digestive enzymes.
• Papaya can be use also externally as a treatment for skin wounds that don’t heal quickly, for this you can use papaya peel or ointments made out of papaya.
• Prevents the cataract formation.
• Due to high vitamin A, it lowers the risk of emphysema in smokers and passive smokers.
• Alleviates inflammation.
• Helps with the nausea and constipation.
• Can benefit people suffering colon cancer and other forms of cancers and aliments of cardiovascular and gastroitestinal systems.

Papaya Milkshake

Ingredients:

• Papaya, ripe, diced- 1/2 papaya
• Milk, skim milk- 2 cups
• Sugar or honey- 2-3 tbsp

Preparation:

• Wash the ripe papaya under running water.
• Cut it into half, peel off the skin and remove the seeds from it.

• Cut the papaya into small cubes.
• Put diced papaya, milk, sugar or honey in the blender and blend it into smooth milkshake.

• Pour this into a milkshake glass and enjoy.

The queen of spices and the symbol of love blended together with the nature’s perfect food, and served in a sweetheart cup…

The inspiration for this post is my new “sweetheart cup” which was gifted by my sweetheart on a perfectly casual day. How I adore this cup, it’s cute and cute. I’ve been wanting to introduce my sweetheart cup to everyone the moment I had received it. I wanted to inaugurate this cup by sipping something special from it. While thinking about the hot drinks I could make instantly, hot chocolate was the one that first flashed through my mind. Before my mind got diverted to something different, I started my hot chocolate preparation. Hot chocolate itself is rich and needs no further enhancement. Yet, I decided to add my favorite spice Cardamom to make it even more aromatic and delicious.

It turned out to be a perfect evening to sip this hot cardamom chocolate. It was a foggy and a gloomy evening. I entertained my body and mind with this aromatic, rich and chocolatey hot drink…

Hot Cardamom Chocolate

Ingredients:

• Milk- 2 cups
• Whole cardamom smashed or ground- 2
• Semi-sweet chocolate morsels or chips- 2 ounzes
• Sugar- 2 tsp
• Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
• Whipped cream- for topping
• Cocoa powder- for garnish (optional)

Preparation

• In a saucepan, combine milk, cardamom, semi-sweet chocolate and sugar in medium heat.

• Stir constantly to melt the chocolate.

• When it heats up, lower the flame and let it simmer for few minutes.

• As soon as the mixture starts to thicken, remove from the heat and stir in vanilla extract.
• Whip the hot chocolate with hand mixer or a whisk to make it creamy.

• Pour into your favorite cup and garnish with whipped topping and cocoa powder.
• Serve hot and sip hot with your sweetheart or your dear ones.

Tips:

• For chilled cardamom chocolate: keep this in the refrigerator and serve chilled.
• You could even try adding different spices like cinnamon, cloves etc.
• Adjust the amount of chocolate and sugar according to your needs.

Tired and exhausted? I am going to show you the cheapest and the healthiest instant-energy-boost drink that you can make at home…

Had I not been down with the flu I wouldn’t have remembered this drink, which my mom used to make me drink when I was growing up. In Kerala, India where I grew up, a day without rice for lunch is seldom seen.

The hot water from the cooked rice with a hint of salt is often shared with everyone in the house. A glass of this water provides with the needed instant energy to be active for the rest of the day.

In Kerala, cooked rice water has been the energy booster for almost all people, from the white-collar executive to the blue-collar construction worker. I am surprised to see it still is given much importance as in the olden days. This reminds me of the proverb “Old is gold”.

When I told my mom about the flu, she recommended a few things that would help me to recover fast. First, she told me to drink lots of water and as energy drink cooked rice water. Secondly, she told me to inhale steam, which helps to reduce the nasal congestion. Thirdly, she asked me to take good rest.

For the first two days, I totally ignored all of the above. I then realized I was getting weaker and weaker. On the third day, I managed to enter the kitchen slowly, took the rice from the pantry and cooked it in a pressure cooker, drained the water from it. Added salt to the piping hot rice water and sipped it gently. After I emptied the glass, I started to sweat and found my body regaining its lost momentum. I kept the cooked rice water in a flask and sipped it frequently. End of that day, I felt much better and energized.

The benefits of cooked rice water doesn’t stop just with the energy drink, it has lot more to offer:

• Cooked rice water with an extra hint of salt offers an instant remedy for Diarrhea.
• Rice water in treatment of infantile gastroenteritis: Read this
• Cooked rice water and beauty:  It provides shiny hair and a clear facial skin. Wash the hair with cold rice water and rinse it with water. Wash your face with cold rice water, helps in improving the facial skin.
• In Kerala, rice water has been used for starching white clothes. White clothes are usually soaked in rice water diluted with water for few minutes and washed, after drying it, the white clothes will turn wrinkle free and firm just like newly bought.

I feel happy for being able to share these facts with my dear readers. Flu is just a reason; the energy drink I used to drink still gets a special corner in my heart.

Cooked-Rice Water

Ingredients:

• Rosematta rice ( Kerala Matta Rice) or Ponni Rice, washed- 1 cup
• Water- 4 cups
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Place the rice on a sieve and wash under running water.
• In a pressure cooker, add the rice and water along with the salt.
• Cook the rice until it is well done.

• After the pressure of the cooker has subsided, open the lid and drain the rice through a sieve, collecting the water in a bowl.
• Add salt if required and serve in a glass.
• For an extra kick, drink this water with pickle or any spicy side dish.

If you are using rice-cooker:

• If you are cooking rice in a rice-cooker, cook the rice until done.
• While cooking in a rice-cooker, the water added is absorbed completely by the cooked rice.
• In this scenario, take enough rice in a bowl, add hot water to it, salt and mash the rice with your hand or wooden spoon.
• The water from the mashed rice should be strained through a sieve and serve in a glass.
• You could also have the water along with the mashed rice, which is highly nutritional.

Tips:

• I prefer Rosematta Rice to Ponni Rice as the water from the cooked rosematta rice is higly nutritional and flavorful.
• Rosematta Rice is the popular rice in Kerala, which is pinkish in color, it’s available in some Indian stores. Ponni rice is available in almost all Indian stores.
• Add enough water while cooking the rice, otherwise the cooked rice will absorb all the water.
• You could also flavor your cooked rice water with Rasam or pickle for a spicy kick.

VGYO smoothies represent Violet, Green, Yellow and Orange colored healthy smoothies…

The truth: I was hoping to make VIBGYOR smoothies and ended up with VGYO. The idea of making VIBGYOR smoothies had been tuning in my mind for a while. This was not an effect of seeing a rainbow. The last time I had encountered a rainbow was during my camping trip at Starved rock, IL in the summer of 2008. Since then, I haven’t seen one. Is it because it’s banned in my place? or does this mean that I don’t look at the sky these days?

When I decided to go with this VIBGYOR idea, I never thought that I would end up making VGYO smoothies instead. My whole idea was to make healthy fruit smoothies. However, while attempting to make these, I found that it was nearly hard to achieve indigo and blue colored smoothies with the fresh fruits. I tried a few of the blue and close to blue colored fruits like blueberries, purple grapes and plums, when they were blended I didn’t get a blue color, but got more of a violet color. Hence, I dropped the indigo and blue colored smoothies. Now, you must be thinking what happened to the red color. I knew it was quite easy to make red colored fruit  smoothies with watermelon or strawberries. Without much reasons, I skipped this too.

If I had added color I could have gotten the blue and indigo color. My goal wasn’t to make artificial colored smoothies, but to make healthy and refreshing smoothies.

VGYO Smoothies: for Violet color: Pomegranate; for Green color: Kiwi and Apple; for Yellow: Mango Lassi; for Orange: Cantaloupe.

Yes, I do have a favorite among these smoothies, hands down my favorite smoothie is Mango Lassi. I doubt if there is any Indian restaurant without this. Believe me, making this in your own kitchen is easy and fast.

Fruits Used:

Pomegranate Smoothie

Ingredients:

• Pomegranate seeds- seeds from half of the pomegranate

• Milk- 1 1/2 cups
• Sugar- 3 tbsp or as required

Preparation:

• In a blender, combine all the above ingredients.
• Strain the milkshake to discard the seeds.
• Serve the drink by topping with some pomegranate seeds.

Kiwi and Apple Smoothie

Ingredients:

• Kiwi, ripe- 2

• Apple, cored, seeds removed and cut in wedges-2
• Sugar- 3 tbsp

Preparation:

• Place these ingredients in a blender and puree to a smoothie constituency which will be thick and fibre rich.
• You could also make this in a power juicer to remove the fibre and for just the juice.

Mango Lassi (My Favorite)

Ingredients:

• Fresh ripe Mango or canned mango pulp- 1 ripe mango  diced or 1/2 cup canned mango pulp
• Yogurt- 1/4 cup
• Milk- 1/2 milk
• Sugar- to taste, if you are using sweetened mango pulp, avoid adding sugar. Taste the lassi and add accordingly.

Preparation:

• Put the above mentioned ingredients into a blender.
• Blend it until smooth.
• Pour into individual glasses and enjoy.

Cantaloupe Smoothie

Ingredients:

• Cantaloupe, rind removed, seeded and cubed- 4 cups
• Lemon juice (optional)- 1 tbsp
• Sugar- according to your needs

Preparation:

• Put the cubed cantaloupes, lemon juice if using and sugar if needed into a blender.
• Blend until smooth and you will get thick and fibre rich smoothie.
• You could make this in a power juicer as well, to discard the fibre and for getting just the juice.

Tips:

Difference between Blender and Juicer:

Blenders do not separate the juice from the fibre, while Juicers do so.

Creamy, rich, delicious yet healthy, guilt free refreshing milkshake…

As you walk past the milkshake bar, when your head turns around and your eyes skim through the irresistible menu…your subconscious mind pops up to stop you from ordering your favorite deliciously unhealthy milkshake. There you will be seen conflicting with your subconscious right in front of the store. Next thing you hear will be “would you like to have something?” from the milkshake tender. Without any further pondering your answer will be- Yes, I would like to have strawberry milkshake with 2 huge scoops of ice cream, topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with shaved dark chocolates, here goes your order. Each spoonful of this milkshake will be filled with flavorful guilt and after you empty the huge glass, your subconscious would start listing the amount of calories and the saturated fat content you just sipped into your body by paying $5 from your pocket.

Do you really want to sip the milkshake with such guilt and pain? I don’t think so. We should sip the milkshake enjoying the richness, flavor and with each spoonful our mind and soul should be happy and delighted. Here is a guilt free, fat free, rich, creamy milkshake from my kitchen to yours. Sip with style and feel refreshed for the remainder of the day.

While innocently browsing through the ice cream aisle, I bumped into Organic So delicious dairy free creamy vanilla. Seeing the percentage of saturated fat it had, I couldn’t just leave it back in the shelf. It had 0% saturated fat. I must say this ice cream tasted much richer and tastier than the regular one. So, why buy the extra fat if we have better fat free choices?

Amazing health benefits of Basil seeds:

• Good remedy for constipation, indigestion and heartburn.
• It has the same effect of antibiotics eliminating bacteria.
• It helps to detoxify any toxin that might be circulating through the body via blood thereby have the property to purify blood.
• A glass of any juice with soaked basil seeds in it helps to refresh and cool our body and mind.

Fat Free Soy Ice Cream Shake:

Ingredients:

• Skim milk- 2cups
• Organic Soy vanilla ice cream or any fat free ice cream- 2 scoops  + 2 scoops while serving
• Cardamom powder- 2 pinches
• Rose Syrup or Rooh Afza- 4 tbsp
• Vermicelli, broken into 2 inch strands- 2 handful
• Basil Seed or Takmaria- 2 tbsp
• Coarsely ground Pistachios- 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• Soak basil seeds in 1/2 cup water for 20 minutes or until it is plumed up. Strain the water and keep the plumped up seeds aside.

• Cook vermicelli in water until just cooked, strain the water and keep aside.

• In a saucepan, heat the milk, add cardamom powder and rose syrup to it and let it come to a boil.
• Remove from the flame, add cooked vermicelli and stir it without any lumps.
• Add the soaked, plumped up basil seeds and 2 scoops of ice cream to the milk and combine well.

• Chill the flavored milk in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
• While serving, add 2 scoops of ice cream to the milkshake glass, pour the chilled milk over the ice cream making sure to add the vermicelli and basil seeds to the glass.

• Top the milkshake with 1 tbsp of coarsely ground pistachios.

Tips:

• Basil seeds should be always soaked in water. It can be added to any kind of  cold drinks.
• For a more colorful look, you could even add jelly to the milkshake.
• This flavorful milk can be made ahead of time and chilled, it actually tastes better the next day.