Panagam

It has been a long time since I posted anything food related so I will right that wrong right away :).

It is already very sunny here and it shudders to think how it would be as the days go on. To brave the summer afternoon, our go to remedy is the good old lemon juice. Quick and easy to make and you can make plenty and keep it in a pot and sip often.

Last week being Ram Navami, I decided to make Panagam a lemon based drink-specialty to South Indian cuisine. There are plenty of Panagam recipes online,I looked at few in detail and almost all of them were identical.The ingredient list too is very short.You only need very few things to make this drink (Jaggery,lemon,dry ginger powder,cardamom,pepper and water)and there is only one recipe instruction - mix all of them in the given proportions.I omitted some things like the dry ginger powder that I did not have but still the Panagam tasted awesome.

Do you know I hated Panagam until a year ago? Yes,I ardently hated this drink and those days during our C type ther festival  I would never go near the Panagam stall and beeline only in the buttermilk stalls. I was not able to pinpoint what made me hate the drink but it was almost 20 years after that I tasted it again last year. I liked it instantly and still wonder what made me hate it so much.

Now I like our homemade version still more and sure to make it often. It is very healthy too - said to balance the heat in the body and cool it.Colorful and aromatic too - the jaggery gives a wine like hue to the drink and lemon and cardamom amps up the aroma. It is so easy to make and one that I am sure to make often to quench these hot hot summer days.