Three weeks ago one fine day, yes, I mean it! I know you are wondering fine and English weather not a good combination, but a big YES! just like today :).  It was a  beautiful sunny day for almost a week and I was so thrilled to think that finally the spring is here, my tulips have all blossomed beautifully and my little cherry blossom tree is full of pink flowers and all the perennial shrubs are springing back to life.   I was literally dancing with joy! Ahem.., don't laugh if you are in this part of the world you would too!  I am a fanatic gardener, mean to say I am not an expert but love gardening I try my best to keep all my plants alive (most of the time).

Remember my post when  I told you about the wind which took off with my greenhouse and all the pots in it.   It destroyed few of my plants and pots, my garden was looking like somebody ransacked my garden with a vengence. Every day I used to stand in my conservatory and cry myself in my heart thinking when is all this going to be set right?  Sigh.

All these days I hadn't stepped out to clean up my garden, I hate to go out when it is cold and your hands go freezing. When the sun came up it was like a gold lining on every cloud visible.  My conservatory gets too hot when the sun is bright.  Anyways I was so excited at last I could clean up my garden did a lot of jobs cleaned out the whole garden got rid of all the weeds and made space for the sprouting plants.  Had to bin few pots and sorted out all compose and I have dumped them in a big bin so I can sort it out later, when doing all this I got really thirsty that was when I made this lemonade,  I make this  often because I love it!, If you taste it you would too.

It brings back memories, it's always going back to our memory lane! something to chew on when you are getting old. The good old memories bring joy, happiness, tenderness and all the sparkle in your eyes right? Just like spring.  Amma(mum) used to make this lemonade often made this for us to keep us hydrated.  Summer in India is unbearable we get our school holidays just for the kids to stay at home.  That's when we need lots and lots to drink, my parents never bought any aerated drinks for us it was always homemade and super healthy with  herbs and an Ayurvedic touch to it.  This is one such drink which we used to enjoy.

I don't make this lemonade just during summer, but whenever I feel I need some refreshing drink, As I don't drink any aerated drinks very rarely I take a sip or two of coco-cola or a fanta, I always love to drink fresh fruit juices.  This reminds me of Banglaore my home town, during summer we have all these shops spring up where they sell fresh fruit juices.  So,  when I went out I used to go looking for these kinds of shops where we would get fresh fruit juices. I don't get this  kind of happiness here, it's always bottled juices in our supermarkets!

Coming back to this recipe, it has a touch of Indian panakam (juice) recipe it's so delicious you will love it,  It has also turmeric and ginger which has anti-inflammatory properties, helps you in many ways good for joint pains, osteoporosis, digestion and has many health benefits.

LEMONADE WITH INDIAN SPICES

Recipe Author: Jayasri
Recipe type: Juices/Drinks/Mocktails
Prep time: 10minutes
Time: 20 minutes
Shelf life: 1 month
Serves: 8 to 10

Ingredients:

1 Cup Sugar/1/4 to 1/3 cup of grated Jaggery*
1/2 to 3/4 Cup Lemon/Lime Juice from 10 Lemons/Limes
3'' turmeric stick
2'' Ginger
3 cloves
3 to 4 cardamom pods
3 and 1/2 cups of water

Method:

Using a pestle and mortar or a mixie grind dried turmeric, ginger, cardamom  and cloves. (I used my pestle and mortar and crushed all of them).  In a vessel take 3 cups of water add the crushed spices and add it to the water and allow it to boil for 10 minutes in a low to medium flame.  Then add sugar or Jaggery and boil for another 3 to 4 minutes. Once the sugar dissolves filter everything into another bowl and then allow it cool down completely.

Once it cools down completely add the filtered lemon/lime juice and mix well and store it in an air tight clean bottle and store it in the fridge as it is like a squash you can add water and serve it.

NOTES:

*You can use sugar or Jaggery to make this I have given measurements to my liking you can increase or decrease the sweetness apt to the Lime/Lemons you use.

I have given the shelf life as a month, but I have used it before that.

C you soon with a cold soup stay tuned and enjoy the weather.

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Lemonade with a Indian Spices

A very refreshing drink which is not only delicious but is loaded with aniti-inflammatory properties and keeps fresh and hydrate in summer

Course Juices/Drinks/Mocktails

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Author Jayasri

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Sugar/1/4 to 1/3 cup of grated Jaggery*
• 1/2 to 3/4 Cup Lemon/Lime Juice from 10 Lemons/Limes
• 3 '' turmeric stick
• 2 '' Ginger
• 3 cloves
• 3 to 4 cardamom pods
• 3 and 1/2 cups of water

Instructions

• Using a pestle and mortar or a mixie grind dried turmeric, ginger, cardamom and cloves. (I used my pestle and mortar and crushed all of them). In a vessel take 3 cups of water add the crushed spices and add it to the water and allow it to boil for 10 minutes in a low to medium flame. Then add sugar or Jaggery and boil for another 3 to 4 minutes. Once the sugar dissolves filter everything into another bowl and then allow it cool down completely.
• Once it cools down completely add the filtered lemon/lime juice and mix well and store it in an air tight clean bottle and store it in the fridge as it is like a squash you can add water and serve it.

Notes

*You can use sugar or Jaggery to make this I have given measurements to my liking you can increase or decrease the sweetness apt to the Lime/Lemons you use.

I have given the shelf life as a month, but I have used it before that.

The post Lemonade with Indian Spices appeared first on My Veg Fare.

A very Happy New year to all my dear readers.  Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous start to the New Year.  How many of you have made resolutions? And how many of you are keeping it up!  I haven’t made any resolutions but as always like to make my cooking and eating healthier, I can guarantee you might definitely find something here that is going to inspire you and resonates with your taste buds, the key is finding the one which suits you.  Will try my best to bake with healthy ingredients and as always no processed foods from my kitchen.

Life has been very busy with me, had a really wonderful Christmas time, my sister visited me and my children came back home for holidays.  Time just swept away.., I had no time to notice it even. We had such fun time, we went around places, Showed most of the tourist spots, but couldn’t cover the beautiful country side spots.  She has to visit me again in summer if she wants to see the beauty of UK.  Before my sister arrived I was busy with my college work.   Had long nights past few months, I can call myself that I have become a night owl, so doesn’t see the rising sun anymore!  Had to complete my assignments and submit, got 3 more assignments to finish and I have my PDR and project to complete feels like a long way to tread.  Hope to finish it soon, so I can come back to blogging.

Did I tell something else happened?  Sometimes the beastly weather is a pain, we had some horrible winds during Christmas time.  Met office said the winds were coming at a speed of 80 to 90 miles per hour.  Whatever, it destroyed my garden.  First, it ripped of my fence completely, without the fence I wasn’t comfortable, two days later the same wind blew of my greenhouse can you believe?  Early in the morning around 5 O’clock I had a telephone call from my neighbour, I was dumbstruck to see my next door neighbour who is an old lady holding on to my greenhouse, she was telling me that she didn’t want it to fly and hit somebody’s window or fall somewhere.  I was pondering how this could have happened it was quite a big green house and was housing around 32 medium sized pots and there were around 8 pots in the base to hold it securely.  Anyways we had a busy morning couldn’t see anything around much my son and me we completely dismantled the greenhouse which had partly come off.  Some of my pots broken and I lost some plants because they are now exposed completely to the winter wonderland!  Spent a good money to build back our fence.  I have left my garden as it is waiting for the summer to arrive so I can sort them out.

Coming back to this recipe, during Christmas I made this spiced up cranberry sauce.  When I sat doing my work I keep drinking green tea 2 to 3 times and for a change I used this sauce with my green tea and I liked it.  So thought of sharing it with you all.  I felt it was a good combo with the goodness of green tea and the healthy berries.  What do you think? If you tried this recipe do share it with me.

Ingredients:

1 tsp of green tea leaves
1 Cup of hot water
1 or 2 tsp of Cranberry sauce

To make the Cranberry Sauce:

2 cups of fresh cranberries (around 450g)
2” Cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1 tsp mixed spice
¼ tsp of pepper
1/3 cup Demerara Brown Sugar
¼ cup Orange juice.

Method: In a sauce pan take sugar, Orange juice and cranberries allow it to simmer in a very low flame, cover it with a lid, few minutes later you will see the cranberries would have softened up and becomes soft, you can increase or decrease sugar as you like.  grind all the spices except mixed spice powder.  Now add all the spices to the sauce and allow it to cook for few more minutes, all in all it would take around 15 minutes.  Before pouring it on to the jar I filtred some liquid on to a little jar which I use for my Green tea, as I did not want the pulp in my green tea!

Method:

Take green tea in a glass jar or tea pot or a sauce pan pour the required amount of hot water and leave it for 5 minutes then filter it to the required amount of cranberry sauce.  Adjust to your preference and drink hot on  a cold winter evening.

Have a good weekend, Relax and drink this cup of tea, in the mystical silence savouring every single sip, gazing out of the window or browsing the net in your favourite furniture and enjoy the early morning before the silence is broken with truck loads of work hits you,  when every one is sleeping.  With this mystical green tea you are ready to take on the day.. Have a wonderful day ahead.

The post Cranberry Spiced Green Tea appeared first on My Veg Fare.

GREEN TEA MOUSSE

140 gms  Whipping cream
70 gms white chocolate
1 tbsp Green Tea Leaves
1 tbsp Dolce de Leche
1 tsp Agar powder
2 tbsp of warm water

CREAM-LESS STRAWBERRY MOUSSE
140 grms Strawberry Puree
140 grms Sugar
1 tsp Agar
3 tbsp Warm water

Whipping cream as required
Pistachio Nuts as required

METHOD
TO MAKE GREEN TEA MOUSSE
In a thick bowl heat cream and tea Leaves until boiling set aside for 30 minutes, strain the tea leaves from cream then whip to soft peak melt chocolate and mix into tea infused cream and set aside.

TO MAKE CREAM-LESS STRAWBERRY MOUSSE
Soak Agar powder in  warm water beat keep it aside for few minutes then beat again , Puree strawberry and sugar together heat them in a bowl, add this to the puree and boil for few minutes keep it aside.

Beat whipping cream until soft peaks are formed. chop pistachios and keep aside.

ASSEMBLE

In a glass bowl or any thing you wish to arrange, layer whipping cream, add chopped pistachios, then layer them with Strawberry mousse then layer it with Green tea Mousse then layer it with Whipping cream and pistachios again then top it with Green tea mousse and top it with pistachios again, leave it in the refrigerate an hour or two and serve it cold.
Recipe source from these two blogs with minimal changes from here and matchachocolate.com
It was very sweet said my kids, hope you like it...

The post Eggless Green Tea mousse with Pistachio and Strawberry Verrines appeared first on My Veg Fare.