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!

AAM anandAAM

The road that a mango follows from the tree to the plate and then the palate is paved with a lot of excitement and anticipation and especially so when it is the first such journey of the season. Very soon mangoes will flood the market in all their sweet glory but the wait for the fruit to ripen can seem to be very long. So for all of you impatient people, here is a mango chutney to kick off the mango season.

• 2 cups of raw (green )mango slices, without the skin being peeled. This helps retain the fibre as well as the vitamins.
• 1-1/2 cup sugar
• pinch of salt and turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon PanchPhoron - mixture of five spices, kalanji (kala jeera), saunf ( mouri), fenugreek seeds (methi), mustard (shorshe), cumin (jeera)
• 2 teaspoon mustard oil
• 1 tablespoon flour for thickening

• Soak the mango slices in cold water for half an hour and drain. Take a fresh pan of boiling water and place the mangoes for a couple of minutes and drain again. This will reduce the acidity of the raw mangoes.
• Add sugar, salt, turmeric powder into the bowl of boiled mangoes and put on heat. Cook for 15 minutes till the mango slices are tender. 
• In a separate bowl, take half a cup of water and stir in the flour. Add this into the boiling mango mixture and stir for another two or three minutes till it thickens.
• Heat the mustard oil in a skillet and add the PanchPhoron till it starts splattering (Chaunk !) 
• Pour the hot Chaunk into the boiling mango mixture.
• Cool before serving.
• Suggested garnishing : Ginger juliennes / Raisins

Mango-Mourala (Aam-mourala)

Ingredients:

• Green Mango : 1 large (grated)
• Green Papaya : Same quantity as that of the green mango (grated )
• Mourala fish : 250 gm. (cleaned, washed and marinated with salt and turmeric powder)
• Mustard oil for frying.
• Sugar : 100 gm
• A few red chillies and Mustard seeds for CHAUNK (phoron)
• Salt and turmeric powder

Procedure:
Fry the Mourala fish in hot mustard oil till crispy. Keep aside. In the same oil, add mustard seeds and red chillies to splatter. Add grated mango and papaya into it. Then add salt, sugar and a little turmeric powder. Now add water. Bring to boil. Then add the crispy fried fish on top of it.

Serve cool as a relish with rice on a hot summer noon.