Refreshing Almond Drink

This Saturday, I visited my friend at Versova after a long time. ”Your welcome drink is ready” she said as soon as I entered her house. There was a great variety of food cooked for us, but in this heat, we can’t eat too much. But almond drink was a clever idea. I loved the nutty taste plus it’s so nutritious. I can’t remember the number of glasses I drank ..was it two?…or maybe five…? I can't remember...

The taste lingers till you go for next sip.

I hate asking for recipes during eating and drinking moments, the concentration get diverted. But while I take each sip, savoring and guessing the ingredients is a wonderful game I play silently in my mind.

I am aware that almond juice is good for health, it’s good for selfie too…the pretty glowing skin that results after regular cups of this refreshing drink..

And if we are not too logy, why not make it regularly?

Just soak 25-30 almonds in the water for 5-6 hours.

The skin begins to wrinkle and easily slips off with soft touch.

Transfer the peeled almond in the blender and add 1tsp aniseeds (sauf) 1tsp Black pepper (kala miri) 1tsp Poppy seeds (Khus khus) 2-3 Cardamon(elachi), 1tbsp sugar and 1tbsp of pumpkin seeds.

Add 2glasses of water and grind it to thin paste.

Line the strainer with cheesecloth and pour the blended mixture over it.

Gather the cheesecloth over the almond mixture and twist and squeeze out all the milk

Garnish with saffron threads, ground cashew nuts, ground pistachio and rose petals

You could add jaggery, figs or dates instead of sugar.

Serve chilled.

Sol Curry

It’s always good to learn to make things that we like the most, or else, we will be always waiting for somebody to cook for us, whenever we need to have that particular dish.

Not that our friends/family mind, they will always be happy to cook for those who appreciate their cooking but then, no harm in learning the skill, no?

Every time, I have lunch at my friend’s home, the drink that I like the most is ‘Sol-curry’, its’ pungency, tanginess  and sweetness combination makes it a refreshing appetizer. Sometimes I mix it with rice and vegetables, and sometimes, I have a glassful at the end of the meals.

In many Malwani homes, this drink is used as a good digestive supplement and is served at every meal.

One of the important ingredients that is used in Sol curry is Kokam, which is very beneficial for health. It is used for treating skin rashes and indigestion. Kokam has cooling properties and it also controls pitta level in our body.

Last time, I had loved it so much that I had asked my friend for a recipe, but instead of extracting fresh coconut milk, I had used coconut milk powder that we get at supermarket, so naturally it was flop.  So this time, I asked my friend to make it in front of me. And this is how she made it:

Collected all the ingredients

1 cup grated coconut

Finely chopped green chilies

½ inch ginger

2 cloves garlic

4 tablespoons coriander leaves.

3-4 kokam leaves.

Salt to taste

Ready, steady, go:

Step 1:

Transfer into the mixer coconut, chilies, garlic, ginger and 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves and warm water.

Step 2

Grind it to a thin paste.

Step 3

Strain the coconut milk. Do the step 2 and 3 several times, adding warm water each time to the coconut husk collected each time after straining, till the husk is completely dry and no more milky.

Step 4

Add the remaining coriander leaves, kokam leaves and salt to the strained coconut milk.

Step 5

Serve it chilled.

That was the simplest way of making but if I were to make, I might try a bit differently.

I would like to temper cumin seeds, curry leaves, garlic, asafetida, kashmiri red chilies, mustard seeds and few coriander leaves and pour it over freshly squeezed coconut milk.

How would you make it? Have a variation?