Kokum sherbet Granita
Kokum…This is a sweet, tart fruit of Mangosteen family. It is little light than the mangosteens we eat. This is grown in many parts of Maharashtra and Goa specially the coastal..’ Kokan.’ It might not be familiar to south and North folks of India.But in every Marathi household you will find kokum in two three different forms. Interesting fact is all the parts of kokum are used to make something interesting and can be saved for whole year.
First form is juice and agal… the pulp of kokum fruit is extracted and thickened with or without sugar. The lighter one is juice whereas one which is more dense and thicker is agal which is prepared to stay loner rather for whole years supply. These both are used to make drink.
Other form being the dried kokum which is also called ‘aamsul’ ..these are actually dried kokum fruit shells. After removing the pulp, the shells of kokum are sun dried and later sprinkled with some salt . Salt is a preservative here than adding to taste. Aamsul are used in making ‘solkadhi’, aamsul kadhi, to give tartness to daal (lentils), varan, kadhi or even for adding in curries like bhendi (okra).
The third form is aamsul tel..oil extracted from the seeds of aamsul. It is more of a butter as it hardens and used as the moisturiser by local people. I have this ritual to make winter moisturiser by combining aamsul oil, coconut oil, almond oil etc. And believe me it heals the cracked skin, keep it baby soft throughout the winter.
Health benefits of kokum:
Thanks to some famous and familiar faces and nutritionist in India that the kokum has found its place in a superfood category. Many people are becoming aware of this fruit magic. There are many health benefits of eating kokum in any form you can…
- antioxidant
- immunity booster
- weight loss aider (vitamin C)
- anti-inflammatory
- anti-ageing
- cooling effect on body –great drink for summers
- anti carcinogenic properties.
Coming back to recipe..
Kokum sherbet is commonly made in Maharashtra in summers. Either fresh fruits or the concentrated syrup- agal is used along with some sugar, salt and ice cubes. Not only it refreshes you on hot summer day but also helps in enhancing taste of mouth and helps in digestion.
What I’ve done is just combined both ideas ..kokum sherbet and granita and made a cool dessert for summer which can be made kept in freezer for later use.
: Recipe Card :
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Passive Time | 06 hours |
| Servings |
people
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- 1 cups kokum syrup without sugar
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Roasted cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp Black salt
- 2 tsp chat masala to sprinkle (optional)
- few sprigs of mint
Ingredients
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- In a saucepan, heat the water and add in sugar. Mix well and keep stirring till sugar dissolves. refrigerate till it's cold.
- When the sugar syrup is cold, add the kokum syrup, cumin powder, black salt and give a good mix till liquid becomes uniform.
- Pour liquid in freezer proof container and freeze for 2 hours. Slowly the ice starts forming. Take container out and scrape the ice with help of a fork. Put it back to freeze.
- Repeat the procedure of scraping with fork and again putting back to freezer two more times after a gap of 2 hours.
- At the end of 6-7 hours whole mixture must have become fluffy ice. Granita is ready.
- Spoon granita into a bowl and serve cold with sprinkle of chat masala or fresh mint leaves.
- Chat masala and mint are completely optional and added just for beautifying. Granita tastes delicious without any of garnishes.
- Readymade kokum syrup sometimes comes with added sugar. Do check before making granita.
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