“केशर-पुदीना युक्त लिंबू सरबत” (Saffron-Mint Lime Juice)

Its Diwali Time and guests are certainly going to pour in more often than ever! Instead of the Tropicana & Real Juices ,lets make something home-made.

In India, my grand-mother and Aai made “aambyache panhe”(raw mango cold drink-अम्ब्याचे पन्हे) ,"kokam sarbat” (कोकम सरबत ) and “limbu sarbat” (lime juice-लिंबू सरबत) to serve as a welcome drink to the visitors during festivals or otherwise.

Kamala Aji has a wonderful recipe for “Limbu Sarbat” (lime juice) that we would be gladly sipping while watching “Aga bai arrecha” (“अग बाई अरेच्चा”-Marathi flick made on lines of Mel Gibson & Helen Hunt starrer What women want).

Total Time=Cooking Time +Preparation Time=7 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 glass of cold water
• salt and sugar to taste
• Sieved lemon juice of 2 lemons
• few strands of saffron/keshar-It gives a very nice colour and add to the taste too.
• 1/2 tsp of cardamom powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg powder (my addition)
• 1/2 tsp of dried mint leaves (my addition)
• 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder (my addition)
• 1/2 tsp of ginger juice (my addition)
• some ice cubes

Stir It Up In Style

I added salt,sugar,dried mint leaves,nutmeg powder,black pepper powder,ginger juice and water to the lemon juice.I tasted a bit of the juice to check if the salt,sugar and water were in the right proportion.Depending on that one might add few ingredients.

I sieved it through the regular tea-sieve.I added few strands of Saffron to it and stirred again.The colour was beautiful and the scent was exceptional.I poured it into a serving glass and garnished it with 2-3 strands of saffron.Tucked an old stirrer from Maggiano’s Little Italy ,Santana Row.

The keshar-pudina yukta limbu sarbat (saffron flavoured minty lemon juice)was ready!