Aparita

Saturday Night Magazine

In India, where I grew up, we cooled off in the summer by heating things up.

SUMMERS IN DELHI WERE ALWAYS SCORCHING. BETWEEN NOONTIME AND dusk, temperatures soared above forty degrees. Air conditioners were a must in households that could afford them, while people with lesser means had to make do with water coolers - large, metal, computer-box-sized machines that sucked and pumped water over straw mats held inside, then sent air fanning out over the mats. These contraptions helped to chill rooms slightly for a few hours before turning them into tropical hotbeds of humidity. Other households still less fortunate had to make do with fans, which whirred constantly only to scoop and return gusts of the same warm air.

With the climate more or less out of everyone’s control, we had other means of surviving the heat. Some of the best ways were drinks called summer coolers, or sharbats in Hindi. Traditional blended fruit and spice beverages, they are prepared with fresh summer ingredients that, according to Ayurveda, the Hindu science of health and medicine, have antiseptic and diuretic properties besides being refreshing.

I have never seen summer coolers prepared in restaurants or sold in stores in Canada, despite the current trend for things South Asian. The fusion that now goes on in upscale eateries here often yields sumptuous results, but as with the most recent efforts to bring East and West together - such as the ubiquity in fashion last year of denim accessorized with zari thread, only one of a plethora of pretty South Asian textiles - no one seems to have clued in to the immense variety of flavours offered by Indian food. And most traditional Indian restaurants here still yield the usual beverage options - lassi, a yogurt drink, and pop.

It may be just as well that summer coolers remain in the domain of home cooking, however, because that is where the best flavours in Indian food are often found. In home cooking, the ingredients are simple, but used very fresh, and there is usually none of the extravagance restaurants often fall into, where dishes taste good but are too rich to finish. Innovation is usually a twist on an age-old recipe, and is informed by years of experience. The most important part of the cooking lies in the tradition - stories that accompany every recipe, subtleties of preparation that are picked out by watching someone prepare a dish, and banter that takes place in the kitchen.

The recipes here are from my grandmother, who used to whip up one of these for me nearly every summer afternoon in Delhi, when, overcome by the heat that practically knocked your breath out, I used to make my way through the lanes to her house. As I would step across her threshold, she often scolded me for being outside at all (`Don’t you know people can die of heatstroke? You should carry an umbrella. . . .’) before turning to create relief with the ingredients in her refrigerator. I had favourites: lassi, thandai (an almond-milk drink), spiced buttermilk, and Roohafza (a commercial rosepetal drink we mixed with water), as well as raw mango shakes, but on the hottest days, my grandmother especially relied on the cooling properties of panna, a cooked drink made from green mangoes.

I like panna the best of all for its tangy, minty taste. It is said that the sweet version is remedial forheat strokes, while salt used with raw mango replenishes the sodium chloride and iron lost through dehydration. And while it is not necessary to grind the condiments, as we did, on a sil-batta - a large, pock-marked slab of stone, with a smaller stone used to grind the spices - for me, adding each new ingredient this way brings out the best qualities of summer in small bursts: the luxury of cardamom, the sharp heat of a hint of pepper, the indolence of rose.

SALTY PANNA

Green mango and black salt (also known as rock salt) are available in Indian grocery stores. Black salt contributes a smoky flavour, but you can use white salt if necessary. o 3 medium-sized green mangoes

1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. black salt o 8 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. roasted and ground cumin seeds
1 1/2 tsp. dried mint powder or a few finely chopped mint leaves
4 cups water

Wash the mangoes and boil them in water until tender, then drain them and let them cool. Remove their skins and extract the pulp, mashing it with your hands until the flesh is still slightly pulpy. Add condiments and mix.

Add 4 cups of water to the mixture to get a slightly thick drink. Stir it well and ‘ chill it for an hour. The sourness of the mangoes may vary, so you can add salt and sugar to your taste.

SWEET PANNA
2 medium-sized green mangoes
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. freshly crushed cardamom seeds
1 1/2 tsp. saffron strands o pinch nutmeg

Prepare mangoes as described above, but blend the pulp to a fine paste and strain it through a sieve. Put the paste in a pan, add condiments, and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir continuously so that the paste does not stick to the pan. Take from the heat and allow to cool. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons of paste to each glass of water, chilled, as required. The paste can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week.

THANDAI

This almond and milk drink is mildly sweet. You can get ground cardamom in the store, but I prefer to use it fresh.

1 1/2 litres water
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
7-8 blanched almonds
1 tbsp dried watermelon or cantaloupe seeds (optional)
1 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds
1 1/2 tbsp aniseed
15 pods cardamom
1 1/2 tsp. rose water or a few drops of rose essence (available at Indian grocery stores)
1 tsp. peppercorns

Peel the cardamom pods, crush the seeds, and set them aside. Dissolve sugar in 1/2
litre of water and set aside. Soak the rest of the dry ingredients, except for the cardamom seeds, in two cups of water and let sit for at least two hours. Grind the soaked ingredients to a fine paste. Mix the paste in the rest of the plain water in a vessel. Place a muslin strainer or tie a muslin cloth over another vessel and strain the liquid. Pass this through the strainer 4 to 5 times, pressing the residue each time until it is dry and husky, then discard it. To the liquid mixture, add the sugar water, milk, cardamom, and rose water. Chill for an hour or two before serving.

ROSE-WATER TONIC (ROOHAFZA)

This drink carries the taste of rose, screwpine essence, poppy, and sandalwood. It also replaces lost electrolytes when the body is dehydrated.

1 1/2 cups freshly picked rose petals
3 1/4 cup boiling water
1 1/4 tsp. cardamom seeds o 1 112 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup lemon juice
2 /13 cup pomegranate juice o 5 cups cold water

Crush the rose petals with a mortar and pestle. Mix the petal paste, boiling water, and cardamom seeds in a large metal container and set aside for eight hours or overnight. Strain the mixture through a strainer, a muslin cloth, or cheesecloth. Dissolve sugar in the mixture. Add the lemon juice, pomegranate juice, and cold water, stirring well. Serve over crushed ice.

SPICED BUTTERMILK

This mild drink is a great thirst quencher when served chilled.

1 cup buttermilk diluted with 2 CUPS water (or vary according to the consistency desired)
7-8 curry leaves (available in Indian stores)
1 inch whole or chopped ginger o 1 green chili (optional)
Pinch asafetida (a spice available in Indian grocery stores)
1 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Grind the curry leaves, ginger, green chili, and asafetida together. In a small pan, heat the oil; when it is hot, add mustard seeds, and cook them until they pop. Then add the cumin and wait for a few seconds. Carefully add this mixture to the diluted buttermilk. It will sizzle briefly. Add ground spices and salt to taste. Chill for an hour in the refrigerator and serve.