Watermelon Aguas Frescas

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BM# 100: Week 3, Day 2
Theme : Let’s have a toast!

Summer means watermelons and mangoes in India. Drinking Watermelon juice is very common to help cool the body down. It’s a straightforward no fuss recipe of blending watermelon with sugar.

Now coming to the recipe here, it’s the Mexican version of watermelon juice. Agua means water and fresco means cool in Spanish. Agua frescas means cool water and are not limited to just watermelons. It can made with a whole bunch of fruits and sometimes even cereals. Water and fruits are blended with sugar or sweetener of your choice and served with ice. I have seen some interesting recipes like tamarind agua Fresca and cinnamon rice water. You can read more about it here.

Read on for the recipe and prepare it this summer please :-)!

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups diced watermelon
  • 4 cups water
  • 1/4 cup sugar, or per taste
  • Ice cubes

Method:

  1. Blend the fruit with 2 cups water and sugar.
  2. Pour it into a pitcher and add the remaining 2 cups of water. Taste test and add more sugar if needed.
  3. Serve immediately with ice cubes.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#100

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Strawberry lemonade Mocktail

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BM# 100: Week 3, Day 1
Theme : Let’s have a toast!

It’s time for a toast.

Raise your glasses please.

It’s time to celebrate.

But what are we celebrating?

Well, a milestone…and a wonderful one at that. This is the reason why my blog is alive after all these years. A reason why I have a group of friends to whom I can ask about anything and everything and will get a reliable answer in a few minutes!

It’s time to celebrate being a part of the Blogging Marathon and to celebrate its 100th edition :-). Let’s raise our glasses and join in a toast.

Congratulations on the 100th edition, Valli! May this be the first of the many more to come!

Serves two

Ingredients:

  • 6 strawberries
  • 4 tablespoons (brown) sugar
  • 1/2 lemon, cut into 4 pieces
  • 2 cups water
  • Ice cubes
  • Lemon wedges for serving

Method:

  1. Blend the strawberries coarsely with the sugar, leave some chunks on. Set aside.
  2. In a steel glass, add the lemon wedges. Using a fork (I used my pestle) or a wooden spoon, crush the lemon wedges so that it releases the juice as well as some of the citrus oil from the peel.
  3. In a pitcher or a bowl, add the crushed strawberries and the muddled lemon together. Add two cups of water.
  4. Refrigerate until the time of serving. Serve in a glass filled with ice and some lemon wedges for decoration.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#100

Strawberry shrikhand

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BM# 100: Week 2, Day 3
Theme : 3 ingredient Dishes

For Day 3, here is another yogurt based recipe. Strawberry Flavored shrikhand. We had been to a friend’s place for dinner recently. They served us a very generous thali, but it was the shrikhand – puri combination that all of us relished a lot. Surprisingly, my husband who is not a fan of anything sweet, loved it as well.

I decided to make it at home as it’s been ages since I prepared it. I have made plain shrikhand and mango shrikhand before, so this time I decided to make strawberry flavored one. I followed Usha’s recipe here and with just three ingredients to make this fantastic dish, it was perfect for this week’s theme. I love how Usha’s pictures have highlighted the pale pink color of shrikhand, not an easy task to accomplish.

Both my husband and son loved this. I would suggest tasting the shrikhand and making some adjustments while preparing it as the sourness of yogurt and sweetness of strawberries vary vastly. So use this recipe as a guide and tweak it to your taste.

Serves : 3

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups hung yogurt /Greek yogurt
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 cup of strawberry purée

Method:

  1. If using regular yogurt, it needs to be drained well to remove excess water. Layer a clean cotton cloth over a fine mesh strainer. Place the strainer over a large bowl. Pour yogurt into the lined strainer and refrigerate overnight covered with a plate or plastic wrap. An Easier way is to use Greek yogurt.
  2. Purée strawberries to get about a cup of purée. Once the yogurt has drained, add it to a bowl. Add the sugar and the fruit purée in 2-3 batches to the drained yogurt. Mix well using a hand blender or a whisk. Taste test and add more sugar if needed. Refrigerate until the time of serving. If you prefer, you can mix in some chopped strawberries as well. Serve garnished with strawberries or chopped nuts.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#100

Blackberry Parfait

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BM# 100: Week 2, Day 2
Theme : 3 ingredient Dishes

Breakfast is not an elaborate meal at my place. It’s almost always a bowl of cereal or oatmeal. I like something with a bit of liquid in it than having to chew before you are completely awake (even if it’s 10 in the morning). The idea is I will close my eyes, drink it down and then wake up later when I have to deal with the day.

You can see why a yogurt based parfait would work well here. It ticks off all the boxes for me. There is smoothness from the yogurt, a bit of crunch from muesli or granola, bit of sweetness from the berries, there is color, there is contrast and most importantly, it is ridiculously easy to make. Any jam would work instead of real fruit too. A spoon of sugar or salt is allowed for this theme, so I decided to add it to the berries. It’s optional and if you are using a jam, you won’t need it anyway.

Scroll down for the recipe.

Ingredients:

    1/2 cup yogurt*
    3 tablespoons granola/muesli
    8-10 blackberries
    1 teaspoon sugar, optional

Method:

  1. Mix sugar with the berries and microwave for 20-30 seconds. Cool slightly and mash it down with the back of a spoon.
  2. Spoon some of this on the bottom of a glass. Top with a tablespoon of muesli or granola. Add some of the yogurt. Repeat the layers until it reaches the top. Mine was a small glass so it took only two layers of each.
  3. Top with muesli and serve cold.

Note:

*You can sweeten the yogurt as well with a spoon or two of sugar. I didn’t do it.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#100