Fruit Cocktail: My Fond Nostalgic Childhood Memory of Mumbai

Long before the smoothies came in to this world and became popular amongst foodies, my first encounter with this  was in late 60s.   This was when I was just a child and whenever we used to go to Mumbai for our summer vacation,  Bharat M, a friend of our family always used to take us  to this small Juice stall called "Sukh Sagar" juice center.  I always used to look forward to this fruit cocktail amongst all the choices of fresh fruit juice that this vendor of this place used to sell.  This is one of the oldest juice center in the chow patty area off marine drive,,,have visited it very frequently since years as a kid,,it is open till very late and has a amazing list of all types of combination juices and shakes, the best being this one and then there is Ganga /Jamuna, pomegranate etc... Now it also has street food like Pav bhaji and other Indian street food snacks and  open veg sandwich next to it...it's not a fancy restaurant but has a open air sit out with enough chairs,always crowded,great place for snacks and juice.

I still remember the taste and whenever I go to Mumbai I always  make a point to go there to have this juice cocktail.  Of course as a child out of curiosity,  I would always watched them make it and now since many years,  whenever I get all these fruits from the market I make this at home.  Have been thinking about sharing this recipe for long time.  Finally here it is. It is so easy to make, all you need is all these fruits and a blender or Vitamix,   no sugar added, all naturally sweet and healthy refreshing cool and soothing snack.  You can omit or add any fruits, but this is the one like I used to have.

As I was writing this recipes on this blog, I became so curious about this joint and read up on it, very interesting story indeed, how owner of this well known restaurant chain started on Rs. 4 monthly salary and literally reached from rags to riches.  I posted the link to this at end, if you like you can read up on it.

Now back to my recipe, this recipe I have created from watching the vendor make this cocktail and from the memory of the taste and not given to me by anyone and is not and  may not be exact recipe of Juice Cocktail from Sukh Sagar,  but definitely inspired by this place. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of seedless black grapes
• 1 cup of  orange juice (I used juice with pulp not from concentrate, but you can squeeze fresh)
• 1 cup of Pomegranate juice  (I used the sugarless one)
  
• 1/4 cup of  fresh pomegranate seeds (you can omit this if you don't like gritty test, but I love it)
• 1 cup of water melon pieces
• 1 cup of ripe mango pieces
• 1 cup of pineapple pieces
• 1  pear peeled/cored  and chopped
• 1 gala apple peeled/cored and chopped
• Fresh lime juice from 2 limes
• 2 teaspoon of black salt (Kala Namak)
  
• 1 teaspoon of lava salt (optional)Fresh Mint leaves for garnish

• Just before serving blend all the fruits together in Vitamix or blender first at chop then at puree setting, until all the fruits are turned in to smoothie texture. 
• Then add Lime juice and black salt.
• Give it one more blend and wallah..it is ready to serve !
• You can garnish it with mint leaves and little sprinkle of Lava salt if available.
• Lava salt I just added as our son had brought this back from Iceland. Pinch of it gave a good twist to this and enhanced all the flavors.  This is totally optional.
  

 

Enjoy !!

I think the secret ingredient of this juice cocktail, that I later figured out after trying this recipe multiple time is "Kala Namak" or black salt. Here is little bit about this salt :Kala namak is a kiln-fired rock salt with a sulphurous, pungent smell used in the Indian subcontinent. It is also known as "Himalayan black salt", Sulemani namak, bire noon, bit loona, bit lobon, kala loon, sanchal, guma loon, or pada loon, and is manufactured from the salts mined in the regions surrounding the Himalayas.The condiment is composed largely of sodium chloride, with several other components lending the salt its colour and smell. The smell is mainly due to its sulfur content. Because of the presence of Greigite   (Fe₃S₄, Iron (II, III sulfide) in the mineral, it forms brownish-pink to dark violet translucent crystals when whole. When ground into a powder, its color ranges from purple to pink. Kala namak has been praised in Ayurveda and used for its perceived medical qualities.

This recipes is dedicated to Late Bharat Maru who was son of  dear friend of my papa. Bharat is the one  who always used to take us to this place and he is the one who got me hooked on this.  Here is to you Bharat bhai !! 

And Here is the link to read up on how and when Sukh Sagar restaurant started in early sixties. https://www.theweekendleader.com/Success/1751/rags-to-riches.html

Information on Kala Namak source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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Easy Homemade Grenadine Syrup

As promised earlier in my  previous post of Brazilian Papaya Creme recipe, here is the recipe for Grenadine syrup. What is Grenadine : It is a syrup made with pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice.  It is  commonly used as nonalcoholic bar syrup characterized by its deep red color. It is a popular cocktail ingredient renowned for its flavor as well as ability to give a reddish or pink tint to mixed drinks and is traditionally made from Pomegranate. Unlike traditional Simple syrup,  this cocktail essential adds more than sweetness, it has a really delightful flavor too. The name "grenadine" originates from the French word grenade which means pomegranate from Latin  grānātum "seeded". Grenadine was originally prepared from pomegranate Juice, sugar, and water.  It is not related to the Grenadines archipelago, which takes its name from Grenada,  which is named for Granada, Spain.

It is easy and cheap to to make at home! Originally, this popular bar syrup included pomegranate juice, water, lemon juice and sugar.  In my version I substituted lime juice for lemon juice and traditionally all recipes instruct not to boil the syrup, but I did just for few minutes to give extra shelf life to this  syrup.  

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup water
  
• 2 cups cane sugar or granulated sugar (I used cane sugar) 
• 2 cups Pomegranate Juice I used POM (no sugar added)
• Juice from 2 fresh limes strained 
• One teaspoon  of orange flower water, I used elderberry syrup, or you can use rose water too.
  

Method: 

• Heat water and sugar on stove until sugar is melted, do not boil.
  
• Add Pomegranate Juice to this syrup, while still on stove and heat until  it forms a few bubbles.
• Add strained  lime juice.
• Keep stirring while still on stove.
  

• Here is what I did  different, I boiled it, just for few min until the liquid has  somewhat syrupy consistence. However word of caution :  don't leave it in the simmering syrup for too long.
• Lastly I added the elderberry syrup. (you can add rose water or orange flower water.
  
• Remove from heat and let it cool completely at room temp.
• Then transfer this syrup to bottles with airtight lids.
• Store in refrigerator and use as needed. 
  

The syrup usually lasts for about 1 month in an air-tight bottle in the refrigerator, but I was able to keep it in the fridge for over good  two months period.

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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Tropical Fruit Juice Cocktail for a Big Party with Kala Khatta

As promised in my earlier post, I am posting a bulk version of fruit cocktail drink for a big party.
To all my readers who are not from India and are not familiar with condiments and drinks in India:  I will be introducing all of  you to lot of new ingredients which I will give brief details about.Inspiration for this recipe was from two very delicious drinks that I used to love in Mumbai whenever we visited there.  First one was Kala Khatta which is basically a drink made from Indian Blueberries (Kala Jamun), sugar and black salt. This syrup is poured over the snow cones in India and sold by street vendors.  Since Jamun is not available all year round in India they use a ready made Kala Khatta mix that comes in packages with flavored concentrate and a separate package of salt mix.
You can get this package from local Indian grocers. I saw that Amazon sells it too. You have to add your own sugar to it.

The second drink that inspired to come up with this recipe is the fruit cocktail that you get in Mumbai at a local restaurant in Chaupati. It is smoothie blend of fresh fruit juices like pineapple, apples, watermelon, orange juice, and black grape juice with lot of lime juice and again black salt. ( I just posted this recipe before posting this one)

I had to make a alcohol free drink for our friend party. I had made this before for a party at my house and for another work party several years ago, and everyone had loved it, so I decided to make this again.  Since all the fresh fruits are not available all the time I came up with this recipe which was blend of two drinks that I love and never miss to have when I go to India: Kalakhatta and The fruit Cocktail. Since I had to make it in bulk using I opted to used frozen juice concentrates and canned fruit and keeping watermelon as base for fresh fruit.  I made this drink for about 90 -100 people, if you want to make small quantity you may use fresh fruits (as per previous recipe)  The main ingredients that give a different flavor to both of the drink are watermelon, pineapple, grapes, lime juice and  black salt, and let me tell you that everyone does not like the taste of Kala namak due to it pungent taste that comes from high sulfur content in this pink rock salt.

The black salt or Kala namak also Known as Sonchar in Gujarati. Here is some information I found on this on line
Kala Namak or Himalayan Black Salt is also known as Sulemani namak, black salt, or kala noon, is a type of rock salt, salty and pungent-smelling condiment  used in South Asia. The condiment is composed largely of  Sodium Chloride with several other components lending the salt its color and smell. The smell is mainly due to its sulphur content. Due to the presence of Greigite (Fe₃S₄, Iron sulphide)  in the mineral, it forms brownish pink to dark violet translucent crystals when whole, and, when ground into a powder, it is light purple to pink in color.

Traditionally, the salt was transformed from its raw natural forms into commercially sold kala namak through a reductive chemical process that transforms some of the naturally occurring sodium sulphate of the raw salt into pungent hydrogen sulfide and sodium sulfide. This involves firing the raw salts in a furnace for 24 hours while sealed in a ceramic jar with charcoal along with small quantities of Harad seeds, aamla bahera, babul bark and Sajji.  The fired salt is then cooled, stored, and aged prior to sale. Kala namak is prepared in this manner in Northern India ^. The salt crystals appear black in color, and are usually ground to a fine powder which is pink in color.
Although the kala namak can be produced from natural salts with the required compounds, it is common to now manufacture it synthetically. This is done through combining ordinary sodium chloride admixed with smaller quantities of Sodium sulphate, sodium bisulphate and ferric sulphate   which is then chemically reduced with charcoal in a furnace. Reportedly, it is also possible to create similar products through reductive heat treatment of sodium chloride, 5-10 percent of sodium carbonate, sodium sulphate, and some sugar.  That is why before adding to any recipe I always dissolve it in little water and strain it through fine strainer, in case it has small pieces of rock contamination.

So that is enough info about black salt. Now let's come back to the recipe. In 2006 when I first made it three times I wrote down the recipes and lost it, this was before this blog.  Recently I wanted to make it again for another party for one of my best friend. Again since I had to make it in bulk, I chose to make it out of canned and frozen fruit with blend of Kala khatta  vs fresh fruits. This time I decided to post the recipe so it does not get lost in my pile of recipes.

Here are the ingredients I used this time:

• 1 small water melon cut in small pieces
• 2 packets of Kala Khatta
• 1 large can of pineapple juice (48  oz)
• 1 can of crushed pineapple (20 oz)
• 1 can of  Lychees (20 ox)
• Juice from 10 fresh limes
• 1 small jar of apple sauce unsweetened
• 1 can of frozen pink or regular lemonade or limeade
• 1 can of frozen orange juice
• 1 can of frozen concord grape juice
• 1 can of frozen apple-raspberry juice
• 1 can of frozen cranberry juice
• 1 can of cranberry sauce with cranberries in it (this is readily available during Fall season and  during Thanksgiving)
• 2 cans of sliced ripe mangoes (you may use fresh mango if in season) You may used canned peaches if mangoes not available.
• Juice from 2-3 fresh lemons
• 3 tablespoon of black salt
• 1 and half tables spoon of ground cumin powder (or to taste, can omit this too if not available)
• 1/4 cup of sugar (or to taste)
• 1/2 cup of instant ice tea powder with lemon

Method:
* Thaw all the canned frozen juices.
* Make the Kala Katta with sugar and water, with 2 cups of water, don't use amount of water as per instructions, those instuctions are if you are making just kala khatta drink.
* Cut watermelon in cubes.
* Using a hand blender in a large deep vessel blend all the fruit with its juices to fine pulp.
* Add all the thawed frozen juices to it, blend until smooth.
* Add watermelon and Kala khatta and again with hand blender blend all of the fruit until smooth pulpy liquid.
* Dissolve the black salt in some water and strain it with fine strainer or cloth.
* Add salt and lime and lemon juice to the drink.
* Add ice tea powder.
* Add cumin powder
* You may strain the juice if don't want pulpy consistency,  I like it little thick and pulpy therefore I don't like my strained.
* Transfer them in large empty jars, and refrigerate.
* Serve chilled over crushed ice.

* This drink freezes well. You may make it ahead of time and  freeze it in small containers or freeze  the left over to serve for another party.
* This sweet and savory drink is not for everyone's  palate, but I love it and so did all my guests and that is why I wanted to add this to My Favorite Recipes Collection :)

Hints and Suggestions:
* It is versatile recipe and you can add or delete any ingredient you like except the black salt  and lime and lemon juices.
* You can modify the amount of sugar you like, and consistency of it thick vs dilute to your taste and liking.
* You can use as many fresh fruits as you like, I like it a little pulpier version better than the dilute one, so in past I have used fresh berries in it too.
*Remember this is a bulk recipe for 90-100 people.

* There are no rules, just go with your taste buds and trust your palate and enjoy :)

Kala Namak Info source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_Namak

Photograph of Kala namak source :  https://wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Black_salt.jpg/220px-Black_salt.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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