Green Goddess

The season of mango is in, summer. This is that time of the year when trees become laden with mango blooms. The most beautiful thing of summer is the abundance of ripe mangoes. Mangoes of different types, shapes and sizes deluge the markets of Kolkata during these two-three months period of extreme weather. I am very fond of mangoes, both ripe and raw ones. I could eat 2-3 ripe mangoes at one go when I am in mood and the mangoes are deliciously succulent, but sadly outside Bengal or abroad, the quality of mangoes are not as good as those of Bengal.

 

 

 

West Bengal with its humidity and extreme climate offer perfect ground for mango cultivation. The sweet juicy fleshy mangoes of Bengal is a great miss here, though mangoes are on sale in US market all over the year, but the quality of taste and juiciness come nowhere near to that of West Bengal. Few times over tempted by the external good looks of the mangoes specked with perfect combination of crimson, orange and yellowish tinges, I bought a good many mangoes that resulted in disappointment for the taste being blandly sweet or tart. Later on, I used them for making custard as I couldn't relish them uncooked.

After the same experience repeated time and again for couple of times, I finally have settled myself on only buying the green mangoes; at least I won't keep vain hope of them being sweet and succulent while buying and the pangs of disappointment will be less. The following is recipe of a juice enjoyable during those scorching summer afternoons when the body thirsts for something cool and sensational to keep itself from dehydration.

 

 

Banana Blue Lagoon

The name 'Blue Lagoon' reminds me of the first adult film I had seen years ago starring Brooke Shields in her adolescence. It was a beautiful film, a mash up of love and innocence found in its pure form unalloyed by any external influence.

It was in a restaurant in Kolkata where I was taken by a pleasing sensation of epicurean delight at the very first sip of this aphrodisiac mocktail. On our return journey from Mahabaleshwar we came across a lush winery and vineyard in Panchgani where among a ceaseless selection of choice beverages and drinks, we picked up a bottle of concentrated blue lagoon specialty drink. It was very easy in preparation; one has to add measured cup of chilled water into 2 or 3 tsp blue lagoon essence and the drink would be game for serving.

Banana Blue Lagoon deviates a little from the regular blue lagoon in taste and flavor. Of course, as the very name suggests, it is a novel concoction of banana, coconut milk, lemon and soda with few cubes of ice adding to the savor, a perfect combination to win you praises.

 

Grape Juice

My husband has this quirky averseness towards fruits because of which I cannot make fruit salad sort of stuff for the fear that he won't even put them into his mouth, but prepare something juicy and he will gulp it down. That is why most of the time when fruits are brought home, I usually make juice out of them so that both of us can relish it together or else the responsibility of polishing off the fruits raw and diced is left entirely on to me.

 

So these grapes were shelved in the refrigerator for quite some time now and before they began to grow stale, I wanted to make use of them. The idea of making grape juice clicked my mind and since I wanted to avoid adding sugar as grapes are already quite sweet in flavor, I rather packed a punch by adding a blend of chat masala and kosher salt. If kosher salt is not readily available, you may use black salt as substitute.

 

Orange Lassi

Summer has set in in Kolkata and my mother was telling me how last night she could not sleep due to the AC not working properly. In Kolkata summer is so terrible with temperature coupled with high humidity conspiring into making life a living hell. In the part of Kolkata my paternal house is located at frequent load shedding makes summer go beyond any tolerance level. There were many a sleepless nights I spent in darkness tossing and turning in my bed waiting for the power to come back, but in typical fashion power remained off for at least 3-4 hours before being restored. I think load shedding is a big problem in any part of India.

 

 

When I thought of powercut being worse in Kolkata, I didn't know of the picture in Bangalore where powercut occurs at intervals of every one or two hours with night load shedding being a common phenomenon. Load shedding in Bangalore was so frequent that within 2 months of our shifting there, the refrigerator along with its compressor gave in to the on and off powercut and voltage fluctuations, making the purchase of an inverter along with a slew of voltage stabilizers a mandatory option. Trust me when I say that due to not being able to sleep for two consecutive nights after a power cable went off in thunderstorm, me and my husband took shelter in a nearby hotel on the third day to have a goodnight's sleep.

 

 

Anyway, just in case if you suffer the same misfortune as mine in dealing with loadshedding on continuity basis and you need some power boost drink to keep your composure, here goes the orange lassi for you. It is refreshing and cold with each slug reviving the lost energy back. Kudos!!

Grapefruit Orange Apple Juice

I talked to my mother in the morning who complained about the soaring mercury in Kolkata making life a living hell. She is worried if the temperature in the late March is so forbidding, what would turn out in May and June. The city of joy with its ever escalating temperature coupled with humidity going beyond tolerance level becomes quite insufferable during summer especially the way the heat ratio in weather turning worse every year. Cold drinks fresh out of the fridge give crisp refreshment to a parched throat thirsty after a travel outdoor. The following grapefruit orange apple juice served cold cools you down in addition to providing the vitamin needs of your body.
 

Beetroot Juice

The current life style of young generation racked with work pressure, irregular food habit, consumption of food look-alike junk foods, alcohol and cigarette smoking is conducive to n number of degenerative diseases including cancer, kidney and heart failures etc. The number of young men and women suffering from untimely heart ailments has become increasingly common these days, our growing anxiety related to peer pressure, work and personal life balance have significant roles to play in this. Hence it is more than essential to take care of our body through an intake of healthy foods that are packed with nutrients. After all, health is wealth. 

 

Beetroot is a potent detoxifier of liver, if consumed daily it besides cleansing your system will step up the performance of your digestive tract, release a spurt of iron into your blood stream and fill your body with antioxidants that prevent the growth of cancerous cells. I have made the beet juice by combining beet with apple to acquire a hint of sweetness and added a squeeze of lemon juice and chat masala to enrich the taste. If you want you may make the juice greener by adding more vegetables like carrot, celery and the like.

Strawberry Blush

I went to the supermarket last weekend and noticed a carton of plump strawberries in the counter

 which were delicious to look at. Unable to hold myself, I grabbed them and headed home. Now a

carton holds at least 20-24 strawberries, half of which went into making Strawberry Cheesecake

 leaving me to worry about the usage of the remaining half. Then I got an idea to make Strawberry

Blush.
 

Whenever there is a leftover of fruits like apple, guava, mango and even grapes, I usually blend

them with cold milk and a dash of ice cream and drink them down with pleasure. This way,

nothing goes waste and the shake tastes yummy too. I hate wasting food and it repels me to see

 someone tossing away eatables into the dustbin. My husband is into the habit of throwing

vegetables or meat, in perfectly good state, into the garbage bin saying they are stale, a habit which

 irritates me most about him among others, but some people are incorrigible and I have given up
 
trying to make him mend his ways.

 

Anyway, Strawberry Blush can go very well on breakfast. The bubbly mixture of ice-cream
 

and milk blending with strawberries creates a wonderful delight loved by all, adults and children

both. I can gulp down two glasses at once.

Pudina Magic

The temperature is soaring high in Kolkata with scorching hot waves testing the strength of endurance in people. While in some parts of India, the dry heat drains people of their stamina, in Kolkata, it is extreme humidity coupled with the scorching heat that makes life a living hell.

My summer experience in Kolkata was pretty dreadful especially while I was serving in a school. Many a time the power cut would last through the entire day forcing us, the teachers, to work in the furnace of school building for hours on end. The compulsory dressing code of wearing saree only added to the agony of suffering. Now in summer months, to help the body from giving in to dehydration, drinking gallons of water is a must. Nothing seems more blissful then than a glass of cold drinks topped with ice cubes gurgling down the throat quenching your thirst. It feels like an elixir amid the scathing summer heat. Hope this Pudina magic does its magic giving you some respite from the painful summer.