Celebrating My 100th Post! A Drink and a Few Tips

I can't believe that I am at my 100th post! And what is a better than to celebrating it with a celebration drink recipe and also, providing a lot of tips and tricks that  I have come to rely on a daily basis.

I generally spend about 30-45 minutes on daily meals and try very hard to not spend more time. Family, work, and chores have higher priorities and my goal is to make healthy, tasty and wholesome meals in the minimum time possible. So I am sharing a few tips that come in handy and make the cooking process much easier. So, if you a beginner, don't despair, things just get easier.

If you are a beginner or just want to reduce time in the kitchen here are a few tips that will come handy.

Tip 1: Do preparation work over the weekend or when you have some free time. This includes things like chopping different vegetables and storing them in ziploc bags or boxes. Vegetables that last well in the fridge for 3-4 days are onions, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, cucumber.

Tip 2: You can knead dough and portion it out into appropriate quantities and then freeze it in an airtight container. It freezes beautifully. Then, thaw it during the day or overnight in the fridge, on the day you want to use it. Then prepare fresh rotis as needed.

Tip 3: If you don't want to roll out a lot of rotis on a daily basis, roll out the amount you need for 3-4 days and refrigerate. When you want to reheat, wrap it in a damp towel and then microwave for about 30 seconds. Serve the rotis hot, when they are soft. Try to minimize the number of times you re-heat for the freshest taste.

Tip 4: Plan ahead. Decide on a few menu options that you can prepare during the week. Then, make sure you buy the necessary items when you do your weekly grocery run. When you know what you are going to prepare that week, it's easier. You can decide on what kind of preparations you can do to facilitate the daily task.

Tip 5: A complete meal needs to have components like carbohydrates, protiens and vitamins. So, pick and combine different dishes,  so that you are including all these components in just a couple of dishes. Then you do not need to make elaborate or  multiple dishes to accomplish that. I will be putting together a list of various menus that you can use as a quick reference. Coming soon - watch out for it.

Tip 6: This is probably the most useful tip - use a pressure cooker. Pressure cookers are absolutely wonderful devices. They reduce cooking time is drastically. So if it's a recipe where there is a possibility, then do it. You will note how much time it helps you save. This is very noticable when you are cooking any kinds of beans, lentils or rice.

Finally here is the recipe I promised. This drink is the perfect accompaniment to any celebratory dinner.

Creamy Citrus Mocktail
1 cup orange juice
juice of 1 lemon
2-3 tbsp simple syrup
club soda
vanilla icecream
lemon slices

Method
Mix together the orange juice, lemon and the simple syrup. Taste it to adjust the sweetness. Add more syrup if needed. When you are ready to serve it, pour the syrup and juice mixture into the glasses. Top it with some club soda (about 1/4 cup per glass) to create the fizz and then add a scoop of vanilla icecream to the drink. Garnish the glass with a slice of lemon.

Enjoy with your celebratory dinner. Also seen in these photos - Boondi Raita, Shahi Palak Biryani and Apple Cobbler.

Tips
To make simple syrup, heat 1 cup of water and dissolve one cup of sugar in it. Turn off the heat once the sugar is dissolved and let it cool. Simple syrup is ready.

Panha - A Refreshing Raw Mango Drink

This is one of the most refreshing summer drinks and always takes me back to those long summer vacations spent at my maternal grandmother's place. She used to make pitchers of "panha" during summer along with other summer drinks like "taak" and "limbu sarbat". This is also a great accompaniment to the "kairi chi daal". I made panha this summer and realised that it is a very simple recipe. I shall definitely be making it every summer from now on. The main ingredient for this is the raw mango (kairi) and as its available only during early summer, this is a seasonal drink. Its definitely a bit late to find raw mangoes now but do try it the next time you bring raw mangoes home.

Ingredients
1 large/ 2 medium green mango - must be raw
salt to taste
jaggery to taste - depends on how tart and sour the mango is
a couple of pinches of cardamom powder
a few strands of saffron
1-2 cups of water - depends on how much pulp you get from the mango

Method
Pressure cook the mango. I cooked it till I heard 1 whistle. Once the mango cools, peel the skin and discard. Scrape the pulp off the mango and discard the seed. To this pulp add the jaggery, salt, cardamom powder and the saffron strands. Add about half a cup of water and blend all these ingredients together. Increase the amount of water and adjust the salt and jaggery based on the kind of consistency you want. You will also need to adjust the salt and the sweetness based on how sour the mango is.

In the Instant Pot you would cook it for 3 minutes on manual mode, high pressure and then let the pressure release naturally.

Tips
A friend gave me a tip that if the skin of the mango is a bit tough and not very sour, then its best to peel the mangoes before cooking them. That will prevent the drink from any bitterness. You can substiture jaggery with sugar. Brown sugar has molasses and will have a taste closer to jaggery, but if you don't have brown sugar use regular white sugar. If the raw mango is not very sour, you may need to add some lemon or lime juice to adjust the tartness.

Blueberry Smoothie

I enjoy smoothies, for breakfast, as desserts or even as an occasional meal. There was a smoothie shop right around the corner from where I worked and I was regular visitor. I remember my afternoon trips to the smoothie shop very fondly. Most often than not, after browsing through the menu, I used to end up selecting one of the berry smoothies. These days, I enjoy making these berry smoothies at home. The following smoothie recipe is perfect with a dollop of vanilla icecream.

Ingredients
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup crushed ice
vanilla ice cream (optional)

Method
Blend together all the ingredients except for the ice cream. If its too thick, add a little more ice or orange juice. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.



Tips

If you do not have flavored yogurt, you can use regular yogurt.