Start of spring season marks the arrival of many seasonal fruits into the market. You can find fruit vendors stacking their racks with Chibbad/Muskmelon. These have cooling properties and either eaten with sugar and milk flavoured with cardamom powder or as Rasaayan or Harshaale that is made with coconut milk and jaggery, again with a dash of cardamom powder.
There's nothing like mom's recipe to make this rasaayan. I am oriented in Bangalore and local markets are loaded with muskmelon. North Kannadigas call this fruit Banaspatri.
Muskmelon is available almost 6 months in a year. Sometimes we get imported ones in the market as well. We GSBs mix in plain poha and eat it with rasaayan. You can also make rasaayan with bananas or mangoes but chibbad/muskmelon is best suited for this.
Ingredients:
Muskmelon - 1
Coconut milk - 1 liter or little more
Powdered jaggery - 1/2 cup or to taste
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Method:
Remove the skin and deseed muskmelon. Cut into 1/2" cubes.
Mix jaggery powder in coconut milk to sweeten.
Add the muskmelon chunks and cardamom powder.
Serve chilled, along with plain thin poha.
Note: You may sweeten the coconut milk also with sugar as per taste but traditional way is to add jaggery for that unique taste.
The tropical fruit Birinda or Kokum grows abundantly in the coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Goa. Some people dry the kokum skin in the sun and use that in curries and cool drinks.
Yet, fresh kokum juice is unique in taste and flavour. Its cooling properties are instant and now is the season to relish fresh kokum Juice.
Got some kokum fruit from my mom's native place and prepared the juice which was liked by even small kids!
Ingredients:
Fresh Kokum - 25
Sugar - 250 Gms
Water - 2-3 Litres
Method:
Cut the kokum and collect the seeds in a bowl.
Add sugar to the seeds, mix and keep for 15 mins.
In a vessel, take a liter of water and rub the inside of the skin to obtain red tangy juice of kokum.
Repeat the process till maximum juice is extracted.
Squeeze out the pulp from the seeds and add that along with the melted sugar and the seeds to the tangy juice of kokum collected in the vessel.
Mix well and strain the juice and discard the seeds.
Add water sufficient to get a thin but sweet and tangy kokum juice.
Chill and serve garnished with mint leaves.
Note: Some people chop the Kokum skin and mix that with sugar to obtain thick syrup. That way, the juice may taste slightly bitter.
Gharayi is a traditional GSB dessert that is prepared with jack fruit and coconut milk sweetened with jaggery. It is typically a coastal sweet dish with strong influence of Kerala and is a delicacy relished by the GSBs sometimes during feasts. No artificial colouring or flavouring is added to this.
This is the season for weddings. It is also high season for jack fruit. Thus I thought of sharing this recipe which may guide those who are newly married or going to get married.
Ingredients:
Jack fruit segments - 1 cup cut into 1/2 inch square chunks
Jaggery - 1/2 cup powdered
Coconut milk - 1 cup
Rice rava - 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/2 Tsp
Salt - A pinch(Optional)
Water - 1 cup
Method:
Cook jack fruit chunks with water, adding jaggery and optional salt.
Once cooked and tender, add the coconut milk and bring to a boil and simmer for 5 mins.
Soak rice rava in little water for 30 mins, add this and mix.
Allow to simmer for a few minutes and allow gharayi to thicken.
If necessary add little water but let the gharayi be of pouring consistency.
Switch off the heat and mix in cardamom powder.
Serve hot.
Note: 1. You may add raisins and cashew bits fried with little ghee.
2. You may also add Bombay Rava instead of rice rava. In that case, roast the rava with little ghee before adding.
Spring season all over the world is the time to rejoice. You can see a rainbow of blooms all over and also some fruits that may or may not yield so copiously otherwise!
Ever since I occupied my present home in 1998, we planned to plant a few fruit bearing trees. The gardener we got then, was an non conventional one, and he misguided us grossly.
We had a lawn, many flowering plants and just two fruit plants then. The cost of laying the lawn and flowering plants cost us a fortune and maintenance was even more expensive. Ultimately we removed the lawn and also many flowering plants that stopped yielding!
We always give equal importance to plants, animals and humans as long as co-existence matters. Thus we nourished the two Chikku plants well for initial Five years, without finding any yield!
Then we found another gardener who said Chikku plant needs good sunlight to grow. Thus we moved one plant to a small patch where sunlight was available in abundance. The Chikku plant that was moved to a sunny place started yielding within Two years and we got many, not big ones but almost the size of Hog Plums(Ambade/Amte Kaayi).
Its cousin grew almost as tall as the coconut tree standing nearby, and bears fruit as big as an apple! However, it gives us just half a dozen Chikkus in the season, while its cousin happily shows Hundreds all through the year!
Much before we we occupied the house, the previous owners had planted a Mango tree that looked like Kalappadi Mango Tree. That tree started yielding fruits Seven years later, that too a dozen at the most! Half of the crop was bitten by worms then and we felt happy with whatever we got then. Two years, that tree yielded heavy crop and died suddenly!
Dr Soans said "There is a pest that eats the mother root of the tree, mostly grafted ones, and you can't do anything about that!" The mangoes we got from that tree resembled Kalappadi but tasted like Alphonso! Here are the pics:
The Kalappadi Mangoes we get from local market sometimes summed up for that tree which yielded low before a slow death!
There were two more Mango trees, one that grew big but never flowered even. All it produced was red ants that some tribal may relish making chutney, the breed that's known in local Tulu dialect as 'Taburu'. That tree was hampering the growth of the Chikku plant that was growing tall but still refusing to yield! We had to ask the gardener to hack that down.
The other big mango tree has 'Sakkar Gutli' or Sakkare Potli' mangoes that are very sweet. That tree yields fruit once in two years.
There were three Jack Fruit trees. One had grown taller than a coconut tree and produced only three fruits in two years before dieing a slow death due to some pest attack. I guess the same pest caused its neighbour the grafted mango tree to collapse.
Another was a tree that bore hundreds of Jack Fruits but the fruits never ripened, in fact they were rock solid and turned black, yet not rotten! We had to remove that tree for all good reasons.
The only jack fruit tree that yields, is slim and tall, but yields at least a Hundred Jack Fruit every year! This year and an year before, there seems to be some environmental damage to the fruit. The yield looks double or three folds but the fruits are smaller and they keep falling before growing fully mature. The fruit tastes very succulent and sweet. A dash of honey enhances the taste and makes the hungry stomach happy. They say 'You must eat Jack Fruit when you are hungry and eat mangoes after a meal'!
Then there was this Karambola(Star Fruit) Tree that was looking like in its last legs but that tree yielded fruit for two years before collapsing.
A Bimbli tree was there, is there and will survive as per my assumptions. That tree bears loads of bimblis but also attracts pests that build muddy nests on it. Bimbli is a pungent sour fruit that can be used in curries and pickles. Even today, we find thousands of bimblis growing and half of that goes wasted as there are no takers!
Red Anona is a tropical fruit. Some call it 'Ram Phal' but I know that as 'Seeta Phal'. It is nothing but Custard Apple looking reddish Pink, with a smooth skin. We have one tree here since we moved in, but that is attacked by red ants again, and we get just 4-6 fruits a year! We don't feel so cruel to spray pesticides and kill those red ants that are harmless.
Dr Soans is our inspiration for many things. He educated us how to improve the garden and how to facilitate a few plants while sacrificing a few that are not productive! Thus we got rid of a few coconut trees. We planted Green Malay Rose Apple that started yielding thousands of sweet fruit within two years! Chikku plants also yielded better after that!
Some of our friends offer fruits from their gardens to share their happiness! Udma Saidath Nayak and Saigeetha S Pai, two of my good friends who hail from the Manohar Radio House family have offered us Red Water Apples and Mundappa Mangoes from their garden. Kumble Srinivas Nayak has shared Cashew Fruit from his property in Vamanjoor. Uma and Premnath Shenoi from Mannagudda have shared Neelam Mangoes from their garden.
My suggestion to those who buy a big plot and build house that occupies the full site - "Please develop a small patch of garden with fruit bearing trees. You can have one extra floor built vertically and leave that extra land for your future generation to enjoy playing and eating fresh fruit. Share that with your friends and relatives and share your happiness!"
This article was first published on April 1, 2007 in a Mangalorean web portal as ‘Herbal Coolers For Scorching Summer’
It is 11.30 A.M. The place is ever busy - Car Street in Mangalore. A man in his early sixties carefully crosses the street near Gokarn Mutt and climbs the two steps that lead into a small shop. He gazes at a display board hanging by the fridge, turns around and announces - "One Hingashtaka with sugar and salt!" and occupies the wooden bench by the side wall.
The man at the sparkling clean stainless steel machine asks his assistant to pass on the tumbler with lime-sugar syrup. Then he opens a plastic container, fills a heaped spoonful of a powder mixture into the tumbler, fills the glass with fizzy fresh soda from the machine, adds little salt, mixes the contents with a spoon and hands it over the tired man on the bench, who is busy wiping the sweat off his face.
The man hurriedly sips the contents. "Glug..glug..glug...aah!"
All the exhaustion that showed on his face earlier has vanished now! He pays the owner of the shop and walks away zealously into the scorching sun!
It is not a wonder; these incredible 'pick-me-ups' are so good at quenching thirst that many people from different parts of the city swarm this place at Car Street not only in the summer, but all round the year.
M. Narasimha Bhat and K. Sumanth Joishy, two youngsters started this unique concept of Herbal (Ayurvedic) Soda in Mangalore, in the year 2001. Bhat was inspired by Bholenath Soda Shop in Dwarka back in year 2000 where they were selling over 40 different kinds of sodas. Rajaram Bhat a relative who had similar enterprise in Karkala guided them in setting up their first establishment. Joishy had the experience of working in his grand father’s Ayurvedic Medicine shop, M/s M. Ganapayya and Sons for 5 years. He also had his own Ayurvedic Medicine shop before venturing into Herbal Soda business.
In the initial months, Bhat and Joishy had a tough time, arriving at the right formula. After many trials and errors, they could succeed in stabilizing a standard unmatched by other four or five who are in the business.
These instant sodas are sold in at least 12 different varieties such as – Lime, Ginger, Hingashtak, Pepper, Jaljeera, Chaat, Paanak, Nannari, Madiphal, Buttermilk, Buttermilk Hingashtak and Kokum. While most of these are coolants, some have restorative properties in the case of gastric disorders. Hingashtak is a known digestive and appetizer.
Madiphal has antacid action. It also induces sleep or regulates sleep. Kokum, Nannari and Jaljira are good thirst quenchers. All these products are pure and natural. No artificial flavouring or colouring is used in making these sodas. Water is purified using modern methods and care is taken to control flies especially during deep summer when they swarm in big numbers. Disposable food grade plastic tumblers are used for serving the soda. Most of the ingredients are readily available in the market.
This idea has clicked and their product has become so popular that they were inspired to open two more outlets, one near Mangaladevi Temple called 'Sharbath Katte' and another opposite Canara High School Urva in Gandhinagar called 'Rasadhara'. Rasadhara also has fresh fruit juices and assorted fresh fruits for the youngsters who crave for cool treats after play at school.
5 persons are employed by Bhat and Joishy in their business. They are all hard working boys with concern for quality and hygiene.
Their daily sales range from 400 to 600 glasses. Prices are affordable. These drinks are safer, compared to artificially flavoured aerated bottled drinks. Those who have relished these sodas have only praises for the quality and purity of these drinks.
"It is customer satisfaction that is most important for us in maintaining our standards", says Bhat. "Health is wealth" says Joishy. "Our customers range from 8 month's baby to 80 year old senior citizen!"
"Spread the news among our Mangaloreans abroad. Visit us and we will not let you down." They both say with confidence!
I fully agree with them, for I normally wouldn't leave the place before guzzling down one Hingashtak and one Jaljira myself!
One must experience it to believe it! After all, it's herbal, natural and fresh!
Pics courtesy: Prakash Kamath Kanthavar
