Fresh, cool, summer Eid
It's almost Eid time and well, you already know that it's also summer time. How can you escape from the scorching heat? Maybe with a gulp of icy cold water from the fridge or a guzzle of fresh juice topped with ice cubes…
Here's a list of few fresh juices that you can prepare in a moment's time and give to your guests frequenting your nice little abode, maybe to meet and greet or maybe to drop off the Qurbani meat, as a gesture of friendship.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Whatever it is, juice is the saviour here, especially for your tired guests.
MINT LIME JUICE
Ingredients
1 lemon, cut into 1/8 pieces
½ inch ginger, sliced
A few mint leaves
A pinch of black pepper and salt
5-6 tbsp sugar
Cold water as required
Method
In a blender, add a lemon which has been cut into 1/8 small pieces, ginger, black pepper, salt, mint leaves, sugar, 3 cups of cold water, and blend them together and then strain. Transfer the juice into a serving glass. Add some ice cubes and a mint leaf for garnish.
RAW MANGO JUICE
Ingredients
3 raw mangoes, boiled until soft, peeled and grated.
Mint leaves as required
½ cup sugar or to taste
1tsp roasted and crushed cumin
½ tsp black salt
½ cup water
Method
In a blender, add raw mango pulp, water, mint leaves, sugar, and salt and crushed cumin, and blend until combined. In a jug, add some ice cubes and mint leaves, then transfer the juice. Now add 3-4 cups of cold water and mix. (Or you can make the juice with grated raw mango, without boiling the mango, and add some lemon juice, mint leaves and sugar to taste.)
JAGGERY (GUR) AND TUKHMA (BASIL SEEDS) SHERBET
Ingredients
3-4 tbsp tukhma, soak with a cup of water for 10-15 minutes
250g crushed jaggery, soaked in 1litre water, and dissolved
3-4 tbsp lemon juice
Method
In a jug, add soaked jaggery, tukhma, lemon juice, and mix using a spatula until combined. Serve with ice cubes.
WATERMELON PUNCH WITH MINT
Ingredients
1 medium size water melon
Handful of mint leaves, chopped
½ cup sugar, 4-5 lime juice
Method
Make a syrup by adding ½ cup sugar and ½ cup of water in a saucepan and stirring until the sugar dissolves. Next, slice a medium sized watermelon into pieces, remove the rind and the seeds and blend into a puree. Repeat the process until approximately 1 litre of watermelon puree has been made and place in the fridge for 1 hour before serving. Meanwhile, coarsely chop a handful of mint leaves, add it to a mortar and pestle or just use a bowl and wooden spoon and crush it with 2 tbsp of sugar syrup. Juice 4-5 limes and add it to the sugar mint paste. Next, add 2-3 tbsp of mint lime juice to the watermelon puree or if you prefer it sweeter, add more syrup. Serve chilled with ice cubes. You can also make this drink by adding vanilla ice cream into watermelon puree instead of adding mint lime juice.
GRAPE JUICE
Ingredients
4 cups green grapes
4 cups black grapes
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp sugar
1 cup cold water
Method
Add sugar and water in a saucepan and keep stirring until the sugar dissolves, to make a syrup. Let it cool. Then add lemon juice and a pinch of salt. In a blender, blend green and black grapes separately. Put the juice into 2 separate glasses and adding half of lime sugar syrup into each glass. Place in the fridge for 3-4 hours. In a serving glass, pour black grapes juice, add honey, then pour green grapes juice, and put some whole grapes on the top. Serve.
MAJA MANGO
Ingredients
1 cup sweet mango juice
½ cup yoghurt, 2 tbsp sugar
1 cup vanilla ice cream
½ cup soda water
Some pieces of mango cubes
Method
Put mongo juice into a separator ice tray, and keep in the deep freezer for making mango cubes. Blend together yoghurt, sugar, and ice cream until combined. In a long glass put yoghurt mixture, add soda water, then add some ice mango cubes and serve chilled with some fresh mango cubes.
ICE COFFEE SHAKE
Ingredients
2 cups milk
2 tsp coffee
2 tsp sugar
½ cup cream
2 scoops vanilla ice cream
Method
In a bowl, mix together coffee, sugar and some milk, using a spoon. Then put them into blender, add 2 cups of chilled milk, ½ cup of cream, some ice cubes, blend until smooth. Add 2 scoops ice cream, blitz 1-2 times. In a serving glass, put some ice cubes, then pour the coffee mixture and put one scoop of ice cream and chocolate syrup on top. Serve.
ALMOND SHERBET
Ingredients
200g almonds (soaked overnight and peeled)
½ cup of water or as required
1kg sugar
1litre water
Method
Grind almonds with water to make a paste. In a saucepan, mix sugar and water, boil well until sugar is dissolved. Cook until syrup is thickened. Add almond paste, mix, and cook on medium low flame for 5 minutes. Add one and a half teaspoon of cardamom powder. Cook for 4-5 minutes. Let it cool. This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a month. In a serving glass, add ice cubes, 2 tablespoons almond syrup or to taste, and 1 cup chilled water, mix well with a spoon, and serve.
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