Saturday, April 28, 2018

Paneer Soda | Rose Soda | Summer Drinks

Paneer Soda, a refreshing aerated drink with rose flavor. "Paneer" in tamil means rose flavored water, i guess the word "paneer" comes from the rose name(paneer rose) and the water made from that paneer rose(we call it as simply "Paneer") is used extensively for abishekam in the temples and also in marriages and other ceremonies where it is sprinkled on people's head to welcome them.

Nowadays, you can see the small fan in the entrance of many marriage hall, that sprinkle paneer over the people while entering the marriage hall. Yeah, it's totally different from the paneer, the Indian cottage cheese and no way related to that.

While grew up, i had this belief in my mind that the paneer flavor(aka rose flavor) is only for abhisekam and welcoming people and it's not edible. I don't know how i got this idea, may be because elders in our family warned many times "don't put it in your mouth" when they asked us to buy paneer for abhisekam or any temple festival.

Related: How to make Nannari Lemon Sarbath

They may warned us because it's artificially flavored and has lot of chemicals in it, but in my mind, it was craved like "rose flavor is not edible", how weird is that?? So for very long time, i had hard time to enjoy anything with rose flavor, still i do some times. Even today i prefer cardamon flavored gulab jamun over the rose flavored ones.

Ok, enough with my stories, let's move on to today's recipe. This paneer soda is the most popular aerated drink that you can see in many road side shops in South Tamilnadu. Now it's available in ready to use bottle also, last time, during my india visit, i had one such bottle near Tiruchendur Murugan temple, don't know whether it's available all over Tamilnadu or not.

But, If you like rose flavor, then i'm sure that you would go crazy for this drink, one time, i made this drink for one of my friends who loves rose flavor like anything and she keep on praising me for introducing this drink to her till today

Related: How to make Rose Milk

Before check out the recipe,if you want to know what i have prepared for past 5 days under "Street food" theme, here they are
Day 1 - Dahi Papdi Chaat
Day 2 - Bhel Puri
Day 3 - Jalebi
Day 4 - Nannari Paal Sharbath
Day 5 - Spinach Masala Dosa

Paneer Soda

Preparation Time : 2 mins | Cooking Time : 5 mins | Serves : 4
Recipe Category: Summer Drinks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Rose essence - 1/4 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Soda - as needed
Ice cubes - few

Procedure

First let's make sugar syrup, take the sugar in a sauce water and add the water into it. Turn the heat on and bring to boil.Once the sugar dissolves completely, switch off the flame and let it cool completely.

Then add the rose essence into the sugar syrup and stir it well. Tada, your rose syrup is ready. Take a serving glass, pour 1/4 of the glass with rose syrup.

For the remaining, fill it up with soda and finally add few ice cubes.

Simple & aromatic Paneer soda is ready. Serve it immediately.For more summer drink and popsicle recipe, check out here

Related: How to make Panagam

Notes:

Pour the soda just before serving. Otherwise the soda would be flat.
Depends on how flavorful you want the soda, you can add more or less of rose essence in the sugar syrup.
Sugar syrup is enough for making 4 small servings.

Friday, March 23, 2018

Lemon Soda | Sweet Lemon Soda | Summer Drinks

Lemon Soda, a perfect thirst quencher on the hot summer days. I personally don't like any kind of soda like pepsi or coke except this one and always prefer to make lemon soda at home than the store bought ones, that way I can control the amount of sugar that gets into my drink.

Lemon Soda is so simple and easy to make and also gives you an instant refreshing feeling that can't be beat by any other soda drink.

Here in this post, I have shared the basic sweet lemon soda recipe, but you can make tons of variations into it like adding mint, replacing sugar with salt ,combination of sweet and salt , adding a hint of pepper & cumin and I can go on with the options. So it's really up to you, how you like the lemon soda and feel free to try out all the combinations.

Related: How to make Paneer Soda

Not only does it taste great on hot summer days, it tastes best with pizzas too. My personal favorite !!! Whenever we order pizza instead of buying any soda, i prefer lemon soda with my pizzas!!! Trust me, if you haven't tried this combo, give it a try, surely you will love this.

Sweet Lemon Soda

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 5 mins | Serves : 4
Recipe Category: Drinks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Lemon - 2
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Soda - as needed
Ice cubes - few