Green Tea Summer cooler with Sweet Basil and Lemon

Summer is here. And so are the coolers. The temperature is already hovering around 30C in Bangalore and 'working from home' is not making it any easier to deal with the onset of summer. If I could, I would drink beer for lunch and dinner but I want my lungs to go on for at least 20 more years. That rules out the possibility of dousing the summer heat but there are always these coolers. Just a little quick thinking and innovation can bring to table a variety of coolers.

When I was in Varanasi  recently, I drank a green tea, mint cooler and quite liked it. I did not waste time to try it out at home as soon as I came back. I brewed some green tea and infused some herbs and made this cooler. I used the green tea leaves to make a pickle but that story can wait for another post!

Here is a very simple recipe of a green tea cooler. It is healthy, refreshing and a thirst quencher like no other. Again, if I could, I would use it to make cocktails by adding a dash of gin or vodka to it. I haven't tried that but you could. And let me know how that went.

Green Tea Cooler

Ingredients: (makes 4 glasses)
Green Tea - 2 bags
Water - 4 glasses
Lime - 1
Honey - 2 teaspoons
Sweet basil leaves - a bunch

Summer Cooler

Here is how you make it:

Boil water and brew green tea
Drain the tea leaves and refrigerate the brewed tea after it has cooled down sufficiently for a few hours and after adding the bunch of sweet basil leaves and squeezing the lemon
Take it out, pour it into serving glasses and enjoy!

Green Tea Cooler

Note: If sweet basil is hard to come by, just replace it with mint. You can also add / reduce the sweetness by stepping up / down honey.

Millet patties with tomato coulis

The millet mania continues... Did you know that the word "rice" is actually a generic term, which has come to mean paddy rice by default. Paddy is the grass and the seeds harvested as food is rice. Similarly seeds harvested from millet grasses are referred to as millet rice. It can be substituted in meals for rice as a healthier less starchy option.

We have been doing so recently and feeling good about it. It can be eaten just like regular rice with vegetable curries, daal etc. Naturally, as with most staples there is some left over at the end of the meal and this is what was used in this recipe. Of course you can make it fresh for these patties if you don't have left overs. The patties make for a good breakfast or snack idea.

For eight patties you will need:
- 1 cup cooked millet rice (Kodo or any other of your choice)
- 1 finely chopped onion
- 2 medium or 1 large potato cooked and mashed
- 2-3 table spoons of whole wheat flour
- 2-3 cloves garlic chopped
- Crushed black pepper corns
- Salt to taste
- Oil for shallow frying

Mix all the ingredients for patties to a firm dough and make 2 inch balls. Apply some oil on the palm of your hand and flatten the balls to 1/2 inch thick patties. If you don't apply oil on your palms you will end up wasting more of the dough as it will stick to your palm. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the patties till brown on both sides. Take out on to a kitchen towel to let oil drain off. Serve with tomato coulis explained below.

For the tomato coulis you need:
- 3 medium ripe tomatoes
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 6-8 leaves of lemon basil
- Salt to taste
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil.

Make a smooth puree of the tomatoes with the sugar added. In a heavy bottom wok or pot add the butter and turn up the heat to high flame. Once the butter just begins to brown and smoke, add the tomato puree. It will sizzle and turn a deep red. Do not reduce the flame. Stir lightly and keep covered for 2 mins. Open and add the vinegar and salt. Keep the flame high and stir only occasionally. At the end of 5 minutes the tomatoes should have reduced to a thick deep red paste. Add finely chopped lemon basil and turn off the heat immediately. Stir in the olive oil.