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Recipe: A Cooling Shot Of Strength – Raisin Kalkand (Crystal Sugar) Syrup

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In my recent recipe for a barley lime drink, I mentioned how my sister and I were anaemic while growing up, and how we were subjected to a range of homemade remedies to improve our condition. When she and I reminisce about the good old days now, we often laugh about all those horrible tonics and preparations, and very fondly remember one we actually loved. In fact, many children would, because of its delicious sweetness. The “medicine” in question was the raisin kalkand (crystal sugar) syrup, a simple health-boosting tonic our mother often prepared for us.

We would be given this first thing in the morning during the summers because it’s a highly cooling drink, in addition to its strengthening properties. Dehydration is something we’ve all become mindful of given this heat. But it’s also important to consume foods and beverages which have a cooling effect on the body. The science of Ayurveda has helped us identify many of these. As I’ve said before, I don’t know how much of it was science and how much of it was intuition, but my mother had an amazing skill when it came to knowing the heating and cooling properties of various ingredients. So she made sure that the raisin kalkand syrup was a summertime drink for us. It’s cooling both in terms of what’s in it and how it’s made.

Life was so different back then, when we were growing up. We were all so dependent on natural remedies, avoiding pills, and were no less healthy for it. These are ways of life which are being forgotten. Do you remember growing up in that time, in which mothers and grandmothers always seemed to know what to reach for in the kitchen to not just treat but even cure all kinds of common ailments?

In retrospect, I appreciate those kinds of healing methodologies and natural sciences all the more. They followed traditional customs, had seasonal logic, and maintained health in the family and community. I have become a big believer in these remedies, and many trips down memory lane have helped me bring some of them back into my life. This health-boosting turmeric shot and this herbal tonic for sniffles are but two examples of how a handful of common ingredients can make you feel all better.

Still, I must admit that I struggle sometimes to maintain and share the old ways of healing, especially when it comes to my children and how fast-paced their lifestyles now are. But that’s partly why I feel it’s so important to revive and invest in these methods. They counter the demands of the world through their time-honoured and proven usage. They were not passed down through so many generations for nothing. For small complaints, they often work like a charm.

And as far as charms go, this raisin kalkand syrup is a particularly sweet one. Literally! You’d be hard-pressed to find a child who will reject a shot of it.

Like so many old recipes, the secret to this one lies in its simplicity. Fennel seeds are a source of iron, histidine and folic acid, zinc, magnesium, potassium, Vitamins C and K and essential minerals. Black raisins too are full of iron, thus increasing haemoglobin levels, and are also good for bone strength, immunity and a host of other needs of growing children.

Furthermore, there is a process of soaking which brings out the nutrients in the raisins and the fennel. This takes place in a terracotta pot, an ancient cooling method that continues to be a part of Indian kitchens. This amazing, energy-efficient refrigeration technique is also great for curd, water and so many items which are best served cooled in the hot summers. Adapted for both adults and children as a sort of raisin and fennel juice, this syrup that I liked to gulp in a shot from my childhood is an ideal drink to cool down in the heat.

You may be wondering how sugar, which so many nutrition-conscious people regard as a big no-no, could be such a major part of a home remedy. Its presence in this recipe is neither for reducing bitterness nor for making it more palatable for children, especially since delicious raisins don’t need to be (literally) sugar-coated like certain other nourishing ingredients. The use of kalkand here is only for a cooling effect, just like the terracotta pot. A substitute like jaggery would have a heating effect, and is better avoided.

This raisin kalkand syrup is best taken in the summer months, and joins an ever-growing list of heat-fighting drinks on this blog, including rose sherbet and spiced buttermilk.

Raisin Kalkand Syrup

(Yield: 1 cup)

¼ cup black raisins

1 lump crystal sugar (optional)

2 tablespoons fennel seeds

1 cup water

 

A terracotta pot was always considered a must by my mother when making this cooling syrup, so it’s still a part of my own method. Put all the ingredients in a small terracotta pot, including the water. Soak overnight or for a minimum of 6-8 hours.

Please note that the sugar quantity is really a question of personal preference. If you have been advised to cut down on it, you may use less or omit it from the recipe.

Once the soaking process is complete, blend the soaked ingredients with more water.

The beauty of how this drink was made was that it was lovingly crushed by our mother’s hands, because we didn’t have a blender around yet. Now of course, I blend it but then strain it with a muslin cloth just as she did. She would use an old saree of hers which had been worn to tatters. Ever resourceful, she would cut pieces from used clothing and keep it for such purposes.

Using a fine muslin cloth, strain the blended mixture well. Squeeze the liquid into a glass. As children, we loved drinking it like a shot, although you may prefer to sip it. Enjoy at room temperature and preferably fresh. This recipe serves one. Increase quantities as desired to serve more.

With all the bitter remedies that we were forced to spoon down growing up, this raisin kalkand syrup was not only a tasty respite, but also a beautiful metaphor on balance. It served to teach us something important about life itself, and finding ways to make it sweeter. And that’s the lesson that comes to mind as I share it with you today.

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Recipe: A Bevy Of Benefits – Barley Lime Drink

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With the summer being as harsh as it is, keeping hydrated should be at the top of our list of nutrition priorities. While water goes a long way, imbibing different beverages with beneficial properties both gives us our required quota, and also keeps things creative in the kitchen! In my quest for new recipes, I often find myself turning to older ones, especially ones I took for granted while growing up. This barley lime drink is one such.

I’m a great believer in “grandmother’s remedies”, those old forms of healing that some people just have a great sense for. My mother always just knew what was good for us. She could simply look at an ingredient and know whether it was cooling or heating, or what its healing uses were. Her intuition was similar to the system of Ayurveda, which uses as one of its main principles the idea that some foods are cooling for the body, and some are heating.

During the summer months, we often drank barley lime. I later learned that one reason for this was because we used to run around climbing the neighbours’ trees, getting our knees scraped, plucking and eating the mangoes. Mangoes are famous for having a heating effect on the body, so barley lime was served to counter and balance this, since our mother knew we were having mangoes in excess every summer! You may be interested to know that raw mango, on the contrary, is cooling. Which is why it was the star of this post a couple of summers ago.

The goodness of barley was something I never thought about, except when I remembered how often our mother would feed my sister and I glasses of barley lime, even beyond the summers. The two of us were considered weaklings. Because she was worried that no one would marry us eventually, sometimes it was like our mother’s goal in life was to fatten us up. Interestingly, barley is actually good for weight loss. The intent behind this drink was good health, translated simply into putting on weight for scrawny kids, when in fact what it does is to provide a range of impressive benefits. These include: lowering cholesterol, balancing blood sugar and gut bacteria and helping to heal asthma and anaemia and numerous other common conditions (cue: “weaklings!”). Because I work so often with millets and organic produce, it was no surprise to learn about the bevy of benefits barley gives us. Barley is a cereal, and was one of the first domesticated grains, with a history that can be traced to the Nile region. North and Northwest India are huge producers of it, and it is known as “jau” in Hindi.

The other chief ingredient in this drink is the wonderfully versatile citrus fruit known as the lime. While a barley lemon drink is what you may be familiar with in many parts of the world, here in South India we usually reach for the ubiquitous lime as a substitute for all recipes that call for lemon. So much so that we often call the fruit itself “lemon”! Lime is a vital part of our cuisines, and also important in religious ceremonies. It has a powerful tangy flavour as well as a pleasing aroma, which influence any dish it’s used in. Lime is very good for digestion, thanks to its high acidity, and it complements barley’s beneficial properties such as improved respiratory function and weight management.

Both barley water and lime water are considered easily affordable, nutrient-rich beverages. So imagine what a super-boost combining the two provides. In these months of constant dehydration, a glass of barley lime makes me feel so thankful for my mother’s wisdom in the kitchen, which has kept my energy going to this day.

Barley Lime Drink

(Yield: 4-5 glasses)

 

½ cup barley

2 teaspoons sugar or honey

A pinch of salt

2 tablespoons lime juice

A few sprigs mint leaves

 

Pick and rinse the barley. Place it in a pot and add 6 cups of water. Allow to boil for about 12 minutes. Strain the water and discard the barley.

Allow the barley water to cool, and simply add the remaining ingredients. You may adjust the quantity of the ingredients to suit your taste. If you prefer it to be sweeter, you may add more sugar or increase the quantity of honey.

Keep the barley lime drink in the refrigerator. Serve chilled, garnished with mint leaves, and with extra ice if you prefer.

This anti-weakness, health-boosting beverage from my childhood has now become an elegant refreshment which I serve to my guests during this hot summer. I also frequently make a range of other chilled drinks, such as spiced buttermilk with homemade yoghurt, rose sherbet, and of course, my curry leaf and raw mango cooler. How are you keeping cool? I’d love to know in the comments.

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Recipe: Health, Home, Happiness – Turmeric Shot

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When we were young, our mother used to give us a bitter herbal drink, made of a powder called sudarshan churna, which was effective in deworming and improving immunity. Every Sunday, we would have to stand in a row, and would be made to gulp down that horrible liquid. But it worked. Later on, I tried to make my own kids do the same but I could not convince them. Perhaps one day they too will learn the value of these healing home remedies, just as I eventually did. I was thinking about some of them from my childhood as I prepared some herbal medicines for a chest congestion I’m recovering from. There’s the sniffle season drink, of course, which you may remember. But of equal importance is a shot of turmeric that I have daily, which has been coming to my rescue.

There are so many reasons why I so lovingly made this essential ingredient the logo for re:store (the bright stamp you see in the header above is it, and you’ll see it on the packaging when you put in orders as well). Turmeric is a powerhouse, which is why it is a vital ingredient in many traditional healing systems. Siddha, Ayurveda and Unani medicine treat it as crucial. Surprisingly, it is not believed to be native to India. But its usage here is so extensive that it can be said to be ubiquitously Indian. Not only are the edible variants used widely in cooking and healing, but the “kasturi manjal”, as it is known in Tamil, is prized as a beauty enhancer. In South Indian aesthetics, applying it on the face and leaving it on the skin is appreciated. You still see women everywhere with positively yellow, glowing faces. It’s very much a part of our landscape and sense of beauty. Turmeric is also auspicious in Indian culture. You see the stalks being used in the Pongal rituals in Tamil Nadu (which is the time during which it is harvested; Pongal was in mid-January, and turmeric is currently in season. And you also see it being given as a blessing gift by Gujaratis.

Turmeric is best-known for its antioxidant, antibiotic and antiseptic properties. To boost immunity, and assist in recovering from infections, there’s nothing like turmeric. Its usage is so simple – for instance, if we had a cough when we were kids, our mother would just give us a tablespoon or even a finger of turmeric power mixed with honey before bedtime. It would ease the severity of the cough as we slept. Even today, when I cut myself in the kitchen, which I do often, I just take a pinch of turmeric and place it over the cut. It always heals quickly.

This recipe would literally be a single-ingredient one if it wasn’t for one more addition. Ghee, also known as clarified butter. Ghee is fat-soluble, and I use a small drop of it here so that the body can absorb the turmeric better. It’s often used in Ayurvedic medicines for the same reason. It’s optional (vegans may avoid it), but I also feel it slightly improves the taste.

But the turmeric is really the main thing, a star among ingredients for healing remedies. And that’s why I keep talking about it, and why it’s the symbol of re:store. To me, it is the epitome of good health and represents it in every shape and form. Wherever it originally came from, it belongs to India now, and you can grow it in your own backyard. I’m all for ingredients that can be homegrown, so you know just what goes into your body, and even my turmeric powder is homemade. Whether it goes into a drink like this or into a curry, it’s wonderful to know exactly where our food comes from.

Health-Boosting Turmeric Shot

(Yield: 1 cup / 2 shots)

Ingredients

Turmeric (fresh or powdered)

A drop of ghee

 

This might be the simplest recipe I have ever shared on this blog. But believe me, it is also one of the most effective. Once you see how much it helps you fight off small infections, allowing you to not have to resort to antibiotics, I have no doubt you will make it for yourself and your family frequently.

You can make it with either fresh or powdered turmeric, depending on what’s on hand. If using the former: wash, cut and remove the skin from the fresh turmeric root. You will get about a ½ cup’s worth. Now, finely chop it, then grind it in a blender, adding a tablespoon of water to help it blend properly. Once the turmeric root has been well crushed, sieve the juice through a fine muslin cloth or cheese cloth. Pour into a glass and add a drop of ghee or melted butter.

When I do not have fresh turmeric available, I do use powdered turmeric. For this recipe, blend a ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder with 1 cup of water. Once blended, add a drop of ghee.

You require no more than a ½ cup of the drink for each dosage. Have it once a day, in addition to any other remedies you may be taking. You will find that it boosts your immunity, and helps clear any infection more quickly.

And finally, even though it’s a herbal medicine – it’s also such a beautiful drink to look at! That vivid colour is so uplifting. Simply put, it stands for health, home and happiness to me.

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Recipe: Keep Your Cool – Spiced Buttermilk & Homemade Yoghurt

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I must have yoghurt with every single meal – a meal is never complete without it, and I am never full! I have tried over the years to go vegan and all that jazz but my love for yoghurt makes this impossible. I can give up milk, but yoghurt? Never. In fact, I loved it so much as a child that my mother had to ration it – she restricted me to a single cup per meal. But how I loved that one cup!

In South India, we take our yoghurt seriously. It has to be perfect – it should not be too sour, it should not have a thin film on top, and it should be smooth not broken. This is how it must be served at the table – and you can be assured that it is served at every table.

I have a friend in Barcelona who visits me each year and takes back a little bit of the yoghurt culture as a starter to make her own. The temperature, quantity of culture and the quality of the milk are very important. Yet, somehow, yoghurt is also very simple to make, which is why it is made in households every single day without fail. I wish sourdough was as easy to make. If you follow me on Instagram, you’d have seen my attempts and adventures at sourdough on my Instastories!

Traditionally, in my home, we set the yoghurt in an earthenware or stoneware pot. I set it both in the mornings and in the evenings, so that we have it fresh at both lunch and dinner. Yoghurt usually sours within a day, so it is one of the ingredients that is often used in leftover-based dishes. Refrigeration can prolong this slightly.

It sets faster in the summers, within 5 to 6 hours. In cooler months, if you set it just before bed, you will certainly be able to have it first thing in the morning. But be warned that these standards are for my climate, here in India. When I visited my son in New York last winter, he had a craving for homemade yoghurt. In the depths of icy November, it took two whole days to set!

So many of my summer stories revolve around my grandparents’ home in Vijayawada. If you went down memory lane with me and my aunt’s rose sherbet or their vetiver-scented curtains which inspired my chia pudding, here is one more from my childhood memories to enjoy: spiced buttermilk. It is a flavour I remember from those summers with my cousins, when we would each be given 25 paisa to go buy ourselves a treat. Someone would get soda, someone would get raw mango slices… My favourite was guava, but buttermilk was what we were always encouraged to have, for its health benefits. What I’ll share with you today is my friend Anandhi’s recipe, made with her guidance. Its core ingredient is homemade yoghurt.

Both yoghurt and buttermilk are great for digestion, and have a cooling effect on the body, which is why they are summer essentials. If you love your dairy like I do – with apologies to my vegan and lactose-intolerant friends! – you’ll absolutely love being able to switch from store-bought yoghurt. After a while, setting it becomes a habit, and it’s always so delicious when it’s fresh.

 

Spiced Buttermilk

(Yield: Approximately 5 glasses)

 

Ingredients

1 cup yoghurt

1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1 tablespoon finely chopped coriander leaves

1 finely chopped green chilli

Salt to taste

3 cups water

A dash of lemon

1 pinch asafoetida (optional)

In a blender, add all the ingredients, except the water, and whir until everything is well blended. Now add the 3 cups of water. You can adjust the consistency by increasing or reducing the quantity of water to your preference. The dash of lemon gives you a little spring of energy, and the spices add such delicious flavours to the drink. Serve immediately.

Known for its probiotic properties, buttermilk acts as a coolant in the summer months, especially when eating heat-inducing mangoes is a full time pleasure!

 

 

Homemade Yoghurt

As I said earlier, setting yoghurt is both very delicate and very easy. To set the yoghurt, the temperature of the room, the temperature of the milk and the quantity of the starter are all very important in order for the yoghurt to be plain and not sour.

In India, where summers are very hot, I add a ¼ teaspoon of starter yoghurt to a bowl and pour room temperature milk into it. I then cover it with a lid and set it aside for 5-6 hours. Do the same if you are working in a similar climate. After the stated time, open the lid and see that the milk is set and rather tight when moved a little. Now refrigerate. Serve whenever you please.

During the winters, warm the milk and increase the quantity of the starter to ½ or even 1 teaspoon. Cover, and keep in a warm place for 10-12 hours or until set.

I am not a fan of sour yoghurt so refrigerating it once set is key, so it stays fresh for longer.

I’d much rather make my own yoghurt at home, where I know what exactly goes into it, as I’m always cautious about my food as far as possible.

This is the yoghurt I use when making buttermilk, as well as my regular accompaniment to my major meals. Yoghurt with rice, yoghurt with rotli, and of course, yoghurt with re:store’s bestselling muesli. It goes so well with everything, in my opinion!

I’d love to hear in the comments about how you’re keeping cool this summer!

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Recipe: Summer Sweetness – Rose Sherbet

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My childhood summers were almost always spent in Vijayawada, where my maternal grandparents lived. If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you may remember when I mentioned their huge fridge or the vetiver-scented curtains in their rooms. So many precious memories were made there as we grew up. Maybe one reason why the scent and flavour of roses are such a vital element in the re:store kitchen is because they always evoke for me one very special taste from those long-ago days:  rose sherbet.

This is my aunt’s recipe, and she made it almost ceremonially every summer in Vijayawada. Or so it felt to me, at least, because the luscious colours and fragrance – and that wonderful, cool taste at the end of it all – were so grand. The household had a very traditional kitchen, despite the ultra-modern fridge, and there was no dining table. In one corner was a puja area, where the gods were always served first, which is why our custom is to never taste food as it is being cooked. Followed by the offering to the gods, the kids would be served. Leaves would be laid on the floor in rows, and my siblings, cousins and I would sit down cross-legged and eat. Banana leaves are popular in South India, but we also used sal or banyan leaves, known as patravali (and locally as istrakku). Leaves are not only a traditional form of crockery, they are also environmentally-friendly. They are biodegradable and are a single-use item, thus requiring no water wastage during cleaning.

Sitting on the floor expectantly, the leaf before me, I would glance up and look at the amazing array of glass bottles on the shelves. My aunt collected these in every colour and shape, and this beautiful mismatched display was used to store her luscious rose sherbet. We would each be treated to a single glass of it after lunch, so I always looked forward to the end of the meal. The sherbet would be mixed with either water or milk. The latter was a healthy concession (because this is a sugary beverage), as well as a way to get us kids excited about drinking milk.

Sherbet is a drink brought to India from the Middle East, as its name indicates, coming from the Turkish “şerbet”, Persian “sharbat” and Arabic “sharba”. Naturally cooling, it is a concentrate made of either flowers or fruits, which is diluted. It is sometimes spiced but always sweetened.

I had the good fortune of having my aunt visit recently. She is in her 80s now and as we reminisced about the good times, we ended up making a fresh batch of rose sherbet in my home. Now it’s my shelves that are lined with those gleaming pink bottles.

The roses we used are the pretty local ones known as “paneer roja”, which may be familiar to you as damask rose or country rose. They grow well in the tough weather conditions of Chennai, and they are so fragrant. Prepare for your entire kitchen to smell like heaven as you make this recipe. And why not? You deserve it. On those long summer days, like the ones we’ve started to have in Chennai now, it’s the perfect cheat day beverage. So cooling and so decadent!

 

Rose Sherbet

(Yield: Approximately 2 litres)

Ingredients

2 litres water

150 grams rose petals

1½  kilograms sugar

1 teaspoon citric acid

1 teaspoon rose extract

2 pinches of raspberry colour

Pick and clean the rose petals. Place them in a vessel, cover with a lid, and let them soak in water overnight.

The following morning, crush the petals well using your hands or a hand blender. The water will now change colour.

Squeeze the petals using your hands and strain and pour the rose water into a big steel pot and place it over a medium flame. Discard the petals. Add the sugar and stir constantly. Be careful not to allow the sugar to crystallise – this is a precise art.

Boil and stir until the water turns sticky when touched between your fingers. Then, turn off the flame and add the citric acid. Make sure you stir the pot well and the citric acid blends completely. Cover the pot with a net and allow to cool.

After a few hours, add some rose extract and the raspberry red colour to the sherbet. The latter is optional, but look at how delightful the drink looks when you do it! Kids will especially get a thrill from that rich colour.

Strain the sherbet, then use a funnel to pour the syrup into glass bottles. Store in a cool place. This beverage does not require refrigeration.

To serve, add 2 tablespoons of the syrup into a glass. Pour cold water until it fills the glass and mix lightly.

In my home, the favourite finishing touch is always a topping of ice cubes and a squeeze of lemon. Rose sherbet is so very refreshing, as well as so lovely to look at. You’ll have to do what my aunt did when we were kids and restrict yourself – just one sugary-sweet glass a day!

 

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Recipe: A Sip Of Warmth – Homemade Masala Chai Powder

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Standing at that quaint tea shop in Kolkata that early November morning, I realised that the city had been awake for hours. We were on a guided tour, and as we found ourselves there for our first cup of the day, I noticed how around us were people who had taken a pause during their work. All of us – locals and tourists, at leisure or on the job – were treating ourselves to a small terracotta or glass cup of warm chai. In just five minutes, I saw not only a classic street-style chai-making procedure, but faces from everywhere – each of them enjoying a rejuvenating sip of this quintessential beverage.

I couldn’t resist picking up my camera. I was so pleased that these men, for whom this particular stall is a routine, were happy not just to be photographed but also to chat! They say a cup of tea brings people together – and for a few minutes on a morning in Kolkata, that’s exactly what happened.

 

 

It was this man’s mashk – a goat-skin bag – that caught my eye. He sells water from it, at ₹10 a serving. He proudly told us that the neighbourhood we were in is colloquially known as Bheeshti Para, an homage to the traditional occupation of the water-carrier (known as “bheeshti”). He also shared that the etymology of “bheeshti” comes from the Persian word “bihisht”, which means “paradise”). How poetic – the water-bearer from paradise, bringing succour to the thirsty.

 

 

We also met this money-lender whose family is from Afghanistan – one of the many communities who settled in Kolkata, who have carried the trade on for generations. In fact, Afghani money-lenders were popularised in Rabindranath Tagore’s short story “Kabuliwala” (literally, “the man from Kabul”), which was also made into a number of films.

Kolkata is home to many such communities of foreign origin, who have enriched it. For instance, it is the only South Asian city with a Chinatown, thanks to several generations of people originally from China who have made it their home. There are also Anglo-Indians, Parsis and numerous other uniquely Indian cultures. And there I was, a Tamil Nadu-raised Gujarati, sipping from my terracotta cup too.

 

 

It’s always a pleasure for me to watch another culinary expert at work. Look at the precision of this chai-maker’s tea-pouring technique!

 

 

The street was abuzz with life that morning, as the fogginess gave way to bright sunlight. A recycling truck was passing by. Right next door to the tea stall was a food stall selling breakfast: pooris, pickles and savouries. Somewhere nearby, I am sure that the famed Bengali milk sweets were being made and sold too.

And how amazing is it that one morning I was drinking Bengali tea at a street-side stall in Kolkata, and the next morning I was back here in Coffeeland aka Chennai, a land famous for its filter coffee? I love my coffee anywhere in the world, but the moody monsoonal rain and my recent trip inspired me to recreate that hot, spiced tea here at home.

 

 

Masala Chai Powder

(Yield – approximately 100 grams)

Ingredients
¾ cup black pepper

½ cup cloves

3 tablespoons peeled cardamom

½ cup cinnamon sticks

1 tablespoon ginger powder

1 tablespoon pipramul powder

 

Tea is so quintessentially Indian that it’s easy to forget that it was actually introduced to India by the British. Originally from China, the tea shrub was found to grow well in hilly regions like Darjeeling and Assam, and closer to my home, in the Nilgiris. In fact, the word “chai” is from the Mandarin word “cha”.

I grew up watching masala chai powder batches being made for a year at a time during the hot summers.  This is what is now known as a Macrobiotic approach, making use of the logic of the seasons, in this case the heat. I have found that sun-drying makes the flavours bloom. But masala chai was originally had in the winters, as the herbs and spices had a warming effect – even roasting in the winter sun was sufficient, provided there was no rain.

If you’re trying this method on a warm day, roast all the ingredients except the ginger and pipramul powders in the sun. If you’re in a rainy or wintry season like I am right now, simply roast the ingredients (except the ginger and pipramul powders) on an iron pan for less than five minutes.

If you’re a fan of spices, the other ingredients will all be familiar to you, but if you’re wondering, pipramul is also known as Indian long pepper or ganthoda, and is a rhizoid similar to ginger. It aids digestion and helps with any kind of gastric trouble.

Once the ingredients have cooled, blend them into a powder. Add the ginger and pipramul powders and mix thoroughly. Store in an air-tight container.

If kept dry, you can use this powder for months at a time. It’s used only for chai and added into the boiling process of tea making, as is the Indian way.

My few minutes at that chai stall in Kolkata that morning made me ponder what a privilege it is to have tea at home, and not on the go while on the job. Tea is said to be a contemplative beverage, and is such a wonderful companion to both conversations with others and moments of musing alone. I’m contemplating the people I met that morning as I savour this cuppa. What’s on your mind today?

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Recipe: The Curry Leaf & Raw Mango Cooler (aka “Madras Summer”)

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What does summer look and feel like in your city? Here in Chennai, temperatures have been crossing 40 °C (104 °F) – and we’re bracing for May, usually the hottest month of the year! The streets are at their sunniest and most scorching, but pleasantly lined by flowering trees and stalls selling fruit. A few weeks ago, on a short road trip, water mirages accompanied me all along the highway. As for what the season feels like: sweat, thirst and the longing for a cool breeze and a chilled beverage are our primary sensations at present. Come visit, I say – just not today!

Fortunately, there’s a method to the madness of every season. Traditional wisdom and the science of macrobiotics make the best culinary use of fruits, vegetables and grains that thrive at different times of the year. Here in the subcontinent, if there is one kind of produce that is ubiquitous with the sweltering, sultry days of summer, it’s the mango.

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