The year is not even half over yet, and most parts of the country, especially Mumbai, are hot and humid. It is unbearable! The temperature is brutal and the humidity is sticky, muggy and envelops you like a warm moist blanket. As soon as I step out of the air-conditioned house, the brain shuts down and I don’t feel like eating, especially, heavy meals, which seem highly punishing in this weather. All I can do is let my mind wander to cold, sweet, crunchy salads and coolers. But this time, pure indigenous and Indian. By Indian salad I mean kachumber, koshimbir, poriyal, pachali and so on.
Another unique thing about Indian salads is that unlike in the West, we do not necessarily use oil in the dressing. For example, our most underrated salad – Kachumber – contains no oil at all. All you need is a very simple dressing, a combination of freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt and pepper, sometimes with tamarind paste, green chilies or often yogurt.
I start with what I make at home almost every other day – Khamang Kakdi, which is as Maharashtrian as Sachin Tendulkar. It is a traditional Maharashtrian salad made with cucumber. The word ‘khamang’ in Marathi means tadka and ‘kakdi’ means cucumber. The dish is made by tempering cucumbers with some spices and garnishing them with grated coconut and roasted peanuts. Basically, cut a cucumber into small pieces. Mix together chopped cucumber, grated coconut and roasted peanuts. Heat some oil and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida and one chopped green chilli. When done, mix everything with a mixture of cucumber, coconut and peanuts, and a good squeeze of lemon juice, half a teaspoon of sugar, and chopped coriander leaves. My advice. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours and you can actually eat a bowl without worry.
Since I have started with Maharashtrian salad, let me stick to my home made food. In summer, both sweet and unripe mangoes abound in the market. And there’s nothing cooler than a small bowl of sour ambe dal.
Ambe Dal is a famous Maharashtrian lentil salad made with chana dal and raw mango. Ambe dal is made by mixing coarsely ground soaked raw chana dal and fresh grated sour and raw mangoes. Wash and soak chana dal for three to four hours and then grind it coarsely. Add green chilies to it and blend a little more without adding water. Once the mixture settles there, soak it in the perfectly balanced flavor of sugar, lime juice, grated coconut, grated ginger and fresh coriander leaves, oil, a dry red chilli, mustard seeds, curry leaves and Apply tempering of asafoetida. You can keep it in the fridge to chill and then either have it as a chutney with your food, or just have a bowl and eat it alone.
Another salad, similar to ambe dal and koshimbir, mainly because they use a similar type of tempering, comes from Karnataka Moong Dal Carrot Salad is also known as ‘Hesru Bele Kosambari’. Soak moong dal in water for half an hour, and then mix with grated cucumber, coconut, finely chopped raw mango, coriander leaves, you can add pomegranate seeds, sprouts or any healthy vegetable you want to make, Can add and ready raw food.
Again apply a tempering of oil, one dry red chilli, mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. Remember to always add salt and lemon juice just before serving, else the salad will turn watery.
If these salads help you beat the heat, then these homemade traditional drinks will help you cool off on these sultry summer days. I have a huge list of my favorite Indian drinks for summers as I have a soft spot for sweet drinks over tons of ice. I’m starting with freshly squeezed, sugarcane juice with ginger and lemon as my number one go-to. Of course, the addition of ginger and lime makes its soul thoroughly Indian. Kala Khatta, originally made with fresh, tangy blackberries and spicy chaat masala, nowadays comes straight from concentrate. I don’t even want to guess about what goes into the concentrate, but I promise you, when there’s tons of black salt on the rocks, nothing cools you down better.
For beginners, Shikanji is sugar, black salt and fresh lemon juice with cold water and ice. What makes it different from plain old nimbu pani is the addition of roasted cumin powder or chaat masala. If you are in Pune, you must try their Mastani, which is named after Peshwa Bajirao’s famous lover. It was first made in Pune with fresh Ratnagiri mangoes, and is a thick milkshake topped with ice cream, dry fruits, a big scoop of syrup and today, with any fresh fruit of your choice. And finally, Mohabbat-ka-Sharbat, a street stall opposite Jama Masjid run by Nawab Qureshi became famous. Even ITC hotels have used it in some menus. We used to make a similar version at home, and call it ‘milk cold drink’.
It was a sorbet, made from half a glass of water, rose syrup, and half a glass of milk and tons of ice. The syrup of love is also like that. A concoction of fresh watermelon, rose syrup, milk, sugar, ice cubes and rose petals. Because it’s so light and not so creamy, you can actually easily consume a few glasses this summer. Maybe I should hurry to the kitchen and make myself a jug full of it.
Kunal Vijaykar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. The name of his YouTube channel is Khaane Mein Kya Hai. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the stand of this publication.