Raw Mango Juice / Aam Panna

This year the heat is getting unbearable. I think I say that every year! But this summer Mumbai is turning to a furnace. In my endeavor of avoiding bottled juices and any kind of aerated drinks, I had to stick to Nimbu paani. Other juices like water melon,mausambi etc need time prepare. Lazy me , peeling, cutting, swicthing on the juicer every time I want to have a glass of Water Melon juice seem too much. I would prefer something which can be stored for atleast 4 - 5 days. So oneday I decided to try Aam Panna or raw mango juice. This one is one of my favourite summer drinks too.

I checked with one of my colleague how she makes Aam Panna at home. She shared the recipe of her mother. I tried the same. Trust me it is easy to prepare and tastes super.

Here's the recipe :

One kilo Raw Mango - I got 2 big sized Mangoes weighing a kilo.

2 Cups of Sugar or same amount of jaggery.

One table spoon of salt.

50 gm black pepper

20 gm cumin seeds

Few mint leaves.

Wash the mangoes thoroughly. Put them in the pressure cooker and cook till 2 whistles. Let them cool.

Dry roast the cumin seeds and black pepper for 3-5 mins.Crush them in a mortar using the pestle or you can give a quick whirl in the mixer too.

Now back to the cooled and boiled mangoes. Scrape the mango pulp completely. Mix the sugar or jaggery and salt into this and mix well with a spoon.

Put this mixture into the blender, pour a cup of water, put the mint leaves and whirl into a smooth paste. Mix the spice mixture of cumin seeds and black pepper in this and give another quick whirl making it even a finer paste. Taadaa..your aam panna is ready.

Dissolve 3-4 tea spoon of aam panna with into a glass of water and enjoy the cool drink completely chilled.

The Chilled Glass of Aam Panna

Alternatively , if there is anyone in the family with sugar and jaggery restrictions, dont add either. Later while preparing one glass, a tea spoon of sugar can be added into the water always.

 


The Dove Play Date

The time was set for 3.30pm; the venue JW Marriott; the date 11th May and The Event - A play date with Dove for the bloggers. Organised by Dove and Indiblogger. Fun part - Its ONLY for girls!!

So there I was along with 100+ other beautiful women bloggers, all in whites; different shades of it!! Few of the bloggers were flown in to Mumbai by indiblogger team from other cities like Kolkata, Indore, Delhi too. That's so cool. I even got to tweet from the Dove official handle too.

The event started with registration and we were handed over the itinerary and a ribbon mentioning team numbers. I along with 2 of the lovely ladies whom I had just met there got the same Green coloured ribbon with Team 1 mentioned.At least we knew 3 of the members of Team 1. The activites began with the emcee on stage dividing the teams officially. We had to name our groups in hairstyles and we named our Team 1 as Waves. And the fun evening began.

The stage is set

2 Zoomba instructors took the stage and urged all of us to join when they swayed to perfection. What energy.... what moves. Most of us were doing Zoomba for the first time and we all managed Oppa Gangam Style. The mood was set; everybody was geared for some fun. The first game was Hoola Hoop; which I failed miserably but had absolute fun trying. We found and threw white Dove balls among pools of colourful balls;tried our hands at hair styling each other; race against time to complete the pieces of a puzzle. We laughed, giggled , behaved like little school girls out on picnic.

After all these, we got our hairs pampered by the Dove hair stylists. Sipping into a glass of White Wine I got my hair done. Bliss.

The Team 1 -- Waves



Then there was an announcement of another fun activity by the poolside. The poolside At JW Marriott is the place to be during evening. One member of each the teams had to make a drink and name it. The in house Bartender gave us tips on mixology. Full on Mixology gyaan, we all enjoyed the fun contest to the core.
Now again back in the main hall. Dinner was served. JW Marriott put a wonderful buffet with a live pasta counter. The Bar was open too. It was the time to enjoy food, drink and wait for the announcement of the winning team. The prize vouchers of Rs. 5000 for each of the 10 team members. Team 2 won as we all cheered on. Well deserved I must say.

As we all were sitting back just sipping our glasses of cocktail or with the dessert plates; there was a flash mob. Whoa..few girls went to the middle of the hall and started dancing to Pharrel Williams' "Happy"..Girls..Weren't we happy to clap along like a room without a roof.

Clap Along Happy

Kudos to team Dove and team Indiblogger for such a wonder event. They even took care of the transportation back home too. Thats not all; while leaving we were handed over a lovely goodie bag with Dove products, a hair straightener, Indiblogger Tee shirt and a cute Dove pin. Thank you so much for this lovely Play Date.

The Goodies :D

I reached home happily singing. Husband loved my hair style and I loved the look on his face.
I declared " Yes it is Dove !"