Versatile Strawberry Topping

Strawberries are nature's candy. Summer brings an abundance of Strawberries aka "Nature's Candy". They have such a versatile use, but very short shelf life. Here is one way to preserve  those yummy red juicy strawberries   to use in Lemonades, waffles, pancakes, one ice-creams and list goes on and  on.

So next time, you have an overload of these red gems,  here is one recipe to pull out, roll up your sleeves and  then enjoy your "fruits" of labor year long.

Ingredients
Strawberries 
(washed,hulled and chopped small pieces) : 4 cups
Sugar: 5 cups
Lemon juice: 1/4 cup

Method: 
 Combine  the strawberries  and sugar. Let stand overnight. Bring to a boil for 10 minutes - add lemon juice and boil 2-4 minutes. Stir occasionally while cooling. Store in the deep freeze. It will not freeze so is ready to use on whatever you fancy. Keeps indefinitely.

Five fun facts of Strawberries:
1) Strawberries are the only fruit that wears their seeds on the outside. The average berry is adorned with some 200 of them. No wonder it only takes one bite to get seeds stuck in your teeth.

2).Strawberries are members of the rose family. Should you come upon a bush of them growing, you’ll see: they smell as sweet as they taste.

3).The strawberry plant is a perennial. This means if you plant one now, it will come back next year and the following and the year after that. It may not bear fruit immediately, but once it does, it will remain productive for about five years.

4).Belgium has a museum dedicated to strawberries. In the gift shop at Le Musée de la Fraise (The Strawberry Museum), you can buy everything from strawberry jam to strawberry beer.

5).California produces some 80% of the strawberries in the U.S. They grow about 2 billion pounds of the heart-shaped fruits per year. Every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada grows their own.

Plum Panna( Plum summer drink with Indian spices)

 

 Plums are one of my favorite stone fruits. Me and my kiddos can eat a whole bunch of them  at a time.No matter how many you eat, there  is always a bowl full of plums in my kitchen.That's what happens when you have  a huge Plum tree in the backyard.How do you use them after eating a lot, making goodies, giving bag fulls to friends, neighbors.So I created this signature drink.My inspiration is  the Indian Raw mango drink(called Panna(Panna). But I have substituted plums with raw mango. For this drink, I normally don't use exact measurements, just eyeball everything and you can always adjust it according to your taste buds.


Serving size: 3-4

Ingredients :
8-10 med Plums (if they are of small size take around 12 )
1/2 tsp :Jeera(Cumin Powder)
1 tsp Rock salt
A pinch of  regular white salt(if needed)
A pinch of fresh black pepper powder
1/2 tsp-1 tsp :chaat Masala* *
3-4 Tbsp Sugar
5-6  Mint leaves
Sparkling water (Plain or lemon Flavored) 8-10 oz
Crushed ice for garnishing


Directions: Chop the plums in small pieces or if they are soft, just mash them with bare hands. Put a rest of the ingredients except sparkling water in a blender and blend it until it's smooth.
Sieve the  blended plum mix   in  a pitcher and let it cool until ready to use.  Taste to adjust the flavors according to your taste  buds. When ready to serve, fill the plum mix in a glass until 3/4 and add sparkling water and some crushed ice. Enjoy and chillax.
The drink transports you to the blissful state of mind.

Quote to ponder: Don't chase anything but drinks and dreams.

**: Chaat Masala is blend of  spices .You can find it easily in any Indian grocery store.