Panha Stands For The Advent Of Summer Truly...

Cheers to Ratan Tata for giving us the Nano !!

Cool Panha and bowls of steaming hot boiled corn
with pepper and a drizzle of ghee

I think most women start making pickles when they are just about turning 35yrs. If that is a standard then I must say I started making at a young age of 20 may be. Devaki Kaki was an expert pickle maker and I guess that's why Bal became a expert pickle nibbler. He needs pickle with every single meal.

Devaki Kaki made loads of pickle in summer. Now you must be wondering when this is a post about Panha why am I talking about pickles. Well the amount of pickle we made specifically mango pickle yielded lots of mango seeds which we never really scraped clean when cubing it for the pickle. The seeds with some pulp on would go into a large pressure cooker get boiled and then juiced and pureed to get the raw mango juice for Panha making.

In Tata colony in Mothe Baba's home there was a mango tree in the backyard that gave fruit once in two years. The fruit was small and sour. It could not be used for pickles so we made Panha or Kairichi Amti.

It is end of March and the advent of summer is marked by the appearance of the mangoes on the grocery stacks. I bought two medium sized Rajapuri Mangoes for Rs. 54 but was worth every penny. It yielded nice thick smooth pulp on boiling and the other one was used to make Kejyarcha Kairi Lonche so you see a new picture there.

Let me warn you this Panha should be made just for tradition's sake it is loaded with sugar even though I used jaggery I had a lot of guilt while consuming it. Even after that I know you do want to try it.

Ingredients

1 raw mango
1.5 cup crushed jaggery
10-15 cardamons

First dice the mango into large chunks. Boil them so it is ready to pulp out. Peel the skins and puree the pulp in the juicer or by passing through a juice strainer. I like Panha made from hand mashed pulp and with little pieces floating in the glass. My dad likes a smooth sip. So we make batches of both.

After pulping dissolve crushed jaggery in the pulp and add crushed cardamom powder to it. Mix well. This concentrate is generally frozen and diluted while serving with chilled water. Adjust the jaggery and dilution to your liking. Traditionally Panha is syrupy sweet.

There is nothing better than sipping on Panha in the backyard of your home under the huge mango tree in an arm chair on a sultry late afternoon. Tata colony is that place in Chembur where we lived with Mothe Baba for a part of our life. The little cottage with a garden of fruit trees and ornamental plants which was home to sweet singing birds was provide by Tata Electric Company to my Uncle who was the captain of the speed boat first for JRD and then for Ratan Tata. My family loves the Tatas. They took very good care of all the employees to the point of pampering them.

So its time to rejoice when Tata Nano has just been launched. Cheers to Ratan Tata for making the average Indian's dream come true!!

You watched Ratan Tata talk about it a year ago and now it is reality.



Tata Nano Launch Event - Part II
Tata Nano Launch Event - Part III