I have many fond memories of partaking in iftar while being gainfully employed as a journalist in Bombay. Many of my co-workers and friends in the office (minus one famous character) were practicing Muslims and once the sun went down, bundles and bags of oil-soaked newspapers passed through the newsroom and were homed onto the desk of the conference room. After the reporters and editors prayed their namaz, the newspapers opened up to reveal samosas, bhajiyas, cutlets, bread vadas, vadas – all the BEST SNACKS to smudge the living crap out of the daily headlines.…
Summer drinks
Street style watermelon juice
I conceived this recipe not from anything original but rather from the way my Goan family thinks the best way to drink/eat a watermelon is. I can imagine people from around here (U>S>A) jaw hanging down to the ground watching my father sprinkle salt on a watermelon before serving it to us to eat. It’s the Indian way to take in-season fruit and vegetables and add seasonings to it. Not because they lack flavour but because after a while, you will easily tire of the same old same juice-dripping-down-your-chin-deep-burp-from-excessive-fruit-intake. The salt, chaat masala and chilli powder are the merry brigade of fruit flavour enhancers. They provide variety for your every fruit-eating experience all through the year. And in a country where there are more than one seasons for the same fruit, you need it. Trust. Even though I live in a one-summer place now, I don’t think twice about shuffling for my dabba of chaat masala. You should too.
You can make this recipe two ways: One with a blender and one without. I have you covered blenderless people. We are a team!
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Strawberry rhubarb lassi + Mango lassi
There’s a lot of talk about self-care going around in the anthropocene. I first heard the term about 2 years ago and my initial thoughts were “what a silly idea”, “self-care as in showering?” and “how?”. I soon understood the importance in my own upside down way: There are systems in place, running as smooth as we’re not, that profit from us not having the time to take care of our well-being. Of course, I am the over-analyser so I might be completely missing the point. But am I really?…
Frozen mango-cherry smoothies
Hi family in India and blog family!
Before I change my mind about showing you my ways of the frozen smoothie, I am going to SHOW YOU THE WAYS OF THE FROZEN SMOOTHIE. Because I had no idea how to make one myself and I figured it out by accident, I want you to know that I’m now living the dream. Yesterday, pureed fruit in icy drink form was our second dinner after pizza and before Spy (holy smokes Nargis Fakhri ((I wish they let you speak)) and Melissa McC!).
You can just freeze fruit and blend and add toppings and leftover crumbles and ice-cream. WHAT. Nobody told me this. I always thought I’d need a fancy juicer and hence paid no heed to recipes that ended with juice or smoothie-like words. Turns out, even our shitty blender with settings like “ice crush”, “blend”, “grate”, “puree” can spin this magic, even though I’m sure all those words do the exact same thing. So if you have a shitty-ass blender like us, make this and lets have more time enjoying the outside and less time waiting for the oven to hit 375F. I’m cool with not waiting.
PS: Mama, you can have “ice-cream”!!! Jane, you can steal this party trick!!! Gayle, you probably already knew this so I’m going to just pretend you didn’t and forgot to tell me. !!!
Frozen mango-cherry smoothies
Notes: Fruit with more water (grapes, berries) or a pulpier texture (mango, peaches, bananas) tend to freeze and blend better into a consistent iced drink aka a smoothie. It’s as close as you’re going to get to ice-cream. However, I don’t think you can go wrong with trying out almost any fruit. If it doesn’t work, so what? We’re all winners when we DIY fruity slushies.
I uses only 2 cups of liquid because I wanted to eat this with a spoon and give myself a smoothie moustache. If you’d like a thinner drink – something you can sip through a straw – add more liquid.
Ingredients
Makes 2 tall glasses
- 1 cup cherries, halved and pitted
- 2 mangoes, cut into cubes
- 1 banana, cut into 1 inch rounds
- 1 cup milk (use any kind: cow, coconut, hemp, almond, rice, soy, cashew)
- 1 cup orange juice
- 2 tbsp maple syrup or sweetener of choice (think about adding flavoured syrups too)
The night before making this, cut and freeze all the fruit in a Ziploc bag. You can do this 3-4 hours before you want to make the smoothie in case you forget the overnight thing. Just make sure the fruit is completely frozen.
Add all the ingredients to a blender and puree until smooth. Add more liquid if you want it to be thinner. Pour in a tall glass and drink cold.
Can’t live without writing this post on Thursday + Strawberry slushy
I’m going to tell you something. I’d like to ask you to brace yourself but the only part you actually need to prepare for is for what I’ll say after. If you think it’s complicated now then you need to stop reading right now.
No don’t. I’m a complicated person.
I’m a complicated person with little idea of what the world wants from me. I know. Who isn’t, right? We’re all more or less in the same boat unless you have some great plans lined up, which in that case, congratulations! I’m happy for you. For the rest of us, it’s a lot of this and that. Why and who and how and where and I don’t know. We’re a confused generation with so much potential and so many expectations. Expectations we put on ourselves to do it all and see it all before this one life slips away. I wish we had more luxuries (of time and more time) but that’s another chat for a another day.
We can be great if we only redefine what great really is. I kind of like it to be something revolving around the words happiness, living well and laughing out loud. How that’s going to happen, I’m not sure but everyday we must inspire ourselves enough that the signs appear. Like that money you find in a pocket when you know you have to begin a day early and realised you didn’t have enough for the bus and pre-interview/book-reads coffee. Somebody just hands you that extra life; the power-up.
What I’d like to say is: Take a chance.
*take a chance take a chance take a chance take a chance*
I just quoted my very first ABBA lyrics. Colour me Swedish and give me the keys to the city.
You carbon-based life-form; you go human!
I think I managed to stay away from the summer cliches long enough to pull this one right out of my hat. I didn’t mean to. Again, I was just looking for post-running is evil fuel and the strawberries in the fridge just had to win. It’s okay. I can’t complain. I made this in less than five minutes and drank it straight from the blender with a straw. These pictures lie. They are so full of it.
Ingredients
- 1 cup strawberries, cut into half
- 2 cups ice cubes
- 1 cup chilled soda water/seltzer
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 1 tbsp honey
In a blender, crush the ice until it’s pea-sized. It can be slightly bigger but more than slight and that just ruin the slushy fun i.e. drinking it from a straw and instantly freezing your brain. Who needs drugs, right!? Pretend I didn’t say that. Do the ice thing and on to the next step.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the ice in the blender and pulse the blades some more until the strawberry turns to a puree and the drink still had the icy-slush consistency. If you need a little more chiller to yer filler, pop it in the freezer for a bit and you’re ready to drink.
Add alcohol if you want to make it a party.
P.S. It’s 11.55 pm. Five minutes before it’s no longer Thursday. What do you think I should do?
A) Hit publish
B) Wait for 23:59 to hit publish
C) Stop taking polls that make absolutely no sense
I’m thinking B.
P.P.S You can make this drink with any berry you like. Also, mint. It’s amazing.