Summer fruits: Dates

UAE summers are extremely hot. Well, that is an understatement. A short walk outside and you are searing, tired and completely dehydrated. But there is a beautiful side to the scorching summer – dates! Ever street, park, beach area is lined with date palms laden with plump, ripe fruit, waiting to be plucked. The young yellow dates turn a deep red as they ripen and black when they dry.

A 100 gram portion of fresh dates is an excellent source of vitamin A, B and C, carbohydrates, protein, iron and other minerals and amino acids. 100 grams of dates supplies 230 kcal of energy. Dry or soft dates are eaten as such or may be pitted and stuffed with fillings such as almonds, cashews, pistachios, walnuts, candied orange, lemon peel, marzipan or cream cheese. It is very popular to gift chocolate covered dates on festive occasions. Dates are also used in a variety of desserts.

Date syrup or date honey, commonly available at supermarkets, is consumed with milk as an energy provider. It can also be used as a topping for icecream, pancakes, yoghurt, waffles or Danish pastries. Or even on kulfi.

For a power packed energy drink, blend together 5 dates, 10 figs and 15 raisins with a glass of milk - drives away fatigue instantly.

Read more about the nutritional benefits of dates here, here and here. Did you know that dates could be the oldest food producing plant? Read this.

Karkade

I've seen many vendors in my part of the world selling dried little blossoms called karkade and wondered how popular it was with the Arab women - aren't they a fashionable lot? Someone suggested using karkade as a natural hair conditioner and colouring agent, I bought a bunch and used it regularly along with henna, but I didn't see it having any effect on my hair colour! I had no idea what karkade was, only after seeing this post did I learn it was the good, old and very common hibiscus!

The outer leaves of the hibiscus flower called the hibiscus calyx/ rosella/ natal sorrel/ karkadé is commonly used in many parts of the world to make hot and cold infusions. Nutritionally, it contains vitamin C, flavinoids, amino acids and other antioxidants, and its extract has been used in medicine to improve metabolism, liver and pancreas function, reduce fevers, clear a blocked nose, regulate appetite, improve digestion, decrease blood pressure and cholesterol, improve resistance and reduce eye fatigue. Karkade is Egyptian hibiscus tea believed to be the preferred drink of the Pharoahs. In Egypt and Sudan, wedding celebrations are traditionally toasted with a glass of hibiscus tea. In other parts of Africa, roselle is used to make wine, in the Caribbean as tea with ginger and other spices, in Guatemala to cure a hangover. Hot or cold, it is a delicious drink having a ruby-red wine hue and tastes tart like a pomegranate or cranberry juice. Read more about karkade here, here and here.

For the hibiscus tea, you'll need:

1 cup water

a handful of karkade petals

sugar or honey as per taste

Boil the water along with the karkade petals and simmer for five minutes. Add sugar/honey and cover for a few minutes till it infuses. Serve hot like tea.

I made the hibiscus cordial from Happy Cook's blog but cut down the quantity.

For the hibiscus cordial you'll need:

2 cups karkade

2 cups sugar

3 cups water

Heat the sugar and water till the sugar dissolves completely. Add the karkade and bring it to a boil. Reduce the flame and simmer till the volume reduces and you get a deep red syrup. Remove from flame, strain and cool. Bottle the syrup in sterilised bottles - keeps well in the fridge.

To serve add one part syrup to nine parts water and mix well. Top with some ice cubes and a dash of lime.

This goes for MBP to Nupur of One Hot Stove who says Less is More.

This also goes to JFI-Edile FLowers hosted at Soul Food and Summer Splash hosted at Nalabhagham.

Sambharam - Spiced Buttermilk

Hot summer noons and cool, refreshing buttermilk go hand-in-hand. While the summer isn't too harsh on us yet, spiced buttermilk does bring on some respite. The other day I saw Nags' spiced buttermilk recipe and decided to piggy-back on that as my entry to MBP-Mixed drinks hosted by Sig of Live to Eat. Thanks Sig for extending the deadline, I'll squeeze in my entry too!

A variant to the more famous lassi, Sambharam or spiced buttermilk is a combination of buttermilk, salt and spices to suit your taste. The proportion of water added to the buttermilk may be more or less depending how thin you prefer the sambharam. You may also add a pinch of asafoetida, some grated ginger or a few kaffir lime leaves for a different flavour.

You need:

1 cup yoghurt/curds

4 cups water

2 green chillies slit

1 sprig of curry leaves

3 tbsp coriander leaves

2 tbsp mint leaves

1 stick of lemongrass

salt to taste

some icecubes

Blend the yoghurt, water, salt, curry leaves, coriander leaves and mint leaves well till frothy. Add the green chillies, lemongrass and icecubes and let it sit in the refrigerateur for half an hour till the spices infuse into the buttermilk. Strain and serve chilled.

Watermelon Icecream and Melon Surprise

Bee, here's a watermelon postcard coming your way....! :)

We love watermelons. For us, watermelons and summers are synonymous. No fruit quenches thirst like the crunchy watermelon. True to its name, watermelons have very high water content about 92%. They are also an excellent of vitamins A, B and C, magnesium and potassium. Pink watermelons contain beta carotene and lycopene, a cancer-fighting anti oxidant.

Once cut, watermelons must be refridgerated to preserve their freshness. They should be used up as soon as possible as cutting degrades the fruit rapidly. Watermelon puree or juice should also be freshly prepared and consumed as preserving it causes indigestion.

We happened to pick the best watermelon of this summer - deep red, juicy and crunchy. Cutting it up and picking out the seeds is the messiest part – something the better half does when the sun rises from the west. Now to finish off a huge watermelon between the two of us was a huge task in itself! This is how we finished it off!!

The best way to have watermelon – cut into chunks and gobble it up!

The second best way to have watermelon – blend the chunks into juice. You can strain it if you like, I don't. Freeze left over juice.

Melon Surprise

Blend together 2 cups of watermelon chunks and 1 cup of pineapple chunks. Add 2 spoons of amla/gooseberry juice, a dash of lime and a hint of ginger and blitz. Decorate with a pineapple slice.

I also had to come up with something for AFAM, created by Maheswari, and hosted this month at Jugalbandi. So I came up with the idea of watermelon icecream. A "lite" icecream with a beautiful pink colour - we loved it!

You need :
One recipe basic icecream
1 cup watermelon puree
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp sugar ( I used just 1 tbsp)
1 tsp cornflour
a drop of rose essence (optional). I didn't use it as my watermelon "smelt" good.

Prepare basic icecream as given here.
Cut the basic icecream into chunks. Churn it till it's fluffy adding the cream. Cook the watermelon puree with sugar for 2-3 minutes and add cornflour mixed in a little water to thicken the puree slightly. Cool the puree. Add it to the basic icecream and churn for a minute. Pour into a container and freeze till set.

Take a guess....

Summer's here and so are these summer coolers. Guess the main ingredients in these….

Most of you got one right!

The first one is mango! Yes, a mango milkshake with just alphonso mangoes and milk in it. No sugar, icecream and the like. Pure and natural as can be.

The second is Panakam, the secret ingredient in it is this :

I remember my grandma and grand aunt preparing panakam for some poojas at my native place in Kerala. They extracted the juice by crushing the sugarcane bits with a stone / ammikallu. Panakam prepared this way tasted heavenly! And this taste cannot be replicated by processors. To prepare panakam, I crushed 2-3 bits of sugarcane in the processor adding very little water. Seive the extract and discard the residue. Add to it 2-3 tbsp of jaggery, 2 cups of water, 2 pinches of ginger powder, a pinch of cardamom powder, 7-8 crushed peppercorns, mix and let it stand till the jaggery melts. Mix well and serve chilled.

The third is a mocktail, Sunset fizz. To make it puree 2 strawberries and pour into 2 glasses. Add 50 ml orange juice to each glass. Top with 50 ml lemonade in each glass. It should look like sunset colours – pale orange to dark orange-pink. Mine didn't quite stay that way, the strawberry floated on top and the fizz was missing too by the time I took a picture!

Pina Colada

The pina colada. Sorry folks, there's no alcohol in it!! Didn't we just talk of safety here? Ok, I'll call it Virgin Pina colada, here's the recipe.


Blend together 500ml chilled pineapple juice, 200 ml coconut milk and 250 ml vanilla icecream. Pour into a glass, garnish with pineapple chunks and serve. Off this goes to Maheshwari who is hosting AFAM-Pineapple.

Ginger Tea

Imagine waking up on cold winter mornings and sipping hot ginger tea…. the aroma of ginger blending with the fragrance of the tea and the warmth of the tea cup in your hands….. Divine isn't it? Ginger tea, ideal for winters, is said to keep away colds, sore throats and fever. It also relieves nausea and aids digestion.

Ginger tea is regular at my place especially in winters. Here's how I make it:

Ingredients:
¾ cup water
1 heaped spoon ginger minced
1 tsp tea leaves
½ cup milk
2 tsp sugar

Pound the ginger with a pestle. Heat the water in a saucepan on a medium flame. Add the ginger and let it simmer for atleast 10 minutes till a nice aroma wafts from the saucepan. Then add tea, sugar and milk and allow it to boil once. Simmer for a minute and take off from the stove. Strain the tea into a cup and serve immediately.
My entry to JFI-Ginger hosted by Rosie.

Pomegranate juice

Pomegranate is widely used in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking. Pomegranate is a rich source of folic acid and anti oxidants. One pomegranate delivers 40% of an adult's daily Vitamin C requirement. So why not have some pomegranate juice !

Blend together pomegranate seeds, black salt, sugar (if required) and water (if required). Strain and serve cold.

Orange Strawberry Smoothie

What should one do when the fridge is overflowing with strawberries and oranges??? Simple, make a smoothie!



1 cup orange juice
1 ½ cups plain yoghurt
4 red strawberries
Sugar as per taste
½ cup milk
A drop of vanilla essence

Blend all the above ingredients and enjoy!

Lychee yoghurt

Just what you need to cool off! To make lychee yoghurt, take a handful of lychees, peeled and de-seeded, a cup of yoghurt, honey, sugar, a few ice cubes and blend together. Refreshingly delicious!!