Sherbets

The word "sherbet" is from Turkish "şerbet", which is from Persian "شربت" "sharbat", which in turn comes from Arabic شربة "sharba" a drink, from شرب "shariba" to drink. Also called "sorbet", which comes from French "sorbet", from Italian "sorbetto" and in turn from Turkish "şerbet". The word is cognate to syrup. (British and American English) historically was a cool effervescent or iced fruit soft drink.

In a tropical country like India, sherbets are just one way we can get some respite from the otherwise lethal heat that scorches us all. In this post I shall discuss some of these wonderful sherbet recipes which I hope, shall beat the heat out of the you!

1. Aam Panna

Peel off raw mangoes, boil them adding a pinch of salt without adding water, in a pressure cooker. Cool. Remove the seeds and using a hand blender, mash the kernel. Add sugar (pulp : sugar = 1:1), and heat it again. Let it cool, and add, permitted class 2 preservatives, color and flavor. Refrigerate. Take two spoons of this concentrate, and dilute with water and ice cubes and serve.

     2. Strawberry lassi

Ingredients - strawberry ice cream. fresh curd. salt. sugar. rose petals.

Take 2 tbsp fresh curd, 2 scoops of strawberry ice cream, a pinch of salt, and a little sugar.

Churn all this together, in a glass and sprinkle rose petals on the froth. Serve chilled.

    3. Fresh lime with Watermelon

Scoop the inside of the water melon and using a hand blender, churn after adding a pinch of rock salt, sugar, and 1/2 cup of fresh lime juice (kagji lebu). Place in the empty shell of the water melon and serve chilled. Sprinkle some lemon rinds on top.

     4. Vanilla float with Green Mango

Churn a scoop of vanilla ice-cream with 2 tbsp of fresh curd with a pinch of salt and a little sugar. Add a little cold water, and another scoop of ice cream on top. Now add, 2 tbsp of the green mango syrup previously made (in the first recipe). Serve chilled.
  
     5. Mango Mazaa

Here's a funky way of serving peeled ripe mango ... you can also prepare similar mango shakes as before.

6. Bel-Panna

For Making Bel-Sharbet aka Bel-Panna you have to scoop out the ripe bel fruit and after removing the seeds soak it into water  and crush with your hand smoothly. Then add a pinch of salt, sugar, tamarind juice. Starin the mixture through a stainer and serve cold by adding a "gandhoraj lime" ( available in the summer). This is a very refreshing as well as healthy drink for summer!