Berry Medley with Gooseberries,Raspberries and Strawberries

             With the last pick of gooseberries and strawberries from my garden and the first pick of fresh raspberries , it's a perfect opportunity for me to make this berry medley packed with antioxidants.

Ingredients:
Strawberries - a few
Gooseberries - 4 or 5
Raspberries - 10
Sugar - 1/4 cup
water - 1 cup

Preparation method:

        Wash ,hull the berries, add sugar and blend everything by adding a cup of water. I have added gooseberries as they were super sweet. Don't add gooseberries if they are sour.

Strawberry Juice with Tender coconut water

Until i moved to the UK, i used to start off my day with tender coconut water. It helped to reboot  my digestional system every morning ,refreshingly. I miss the fresh tender coconuts very much as we don't get it  here except selected areas. I stock up the tinned tender coconut water but not happy with the taste. My better half surprised me with the whole tender coconut, whenever he spots it he buys it without hesitation.

 In India it is so easily available that it's widely used for medicinal purposes apart from being just a health drink.  I need a huge space to write about the goodness of tender coconut water . To cut the long story short, tender coconut is the best gift provided by mother nature to reduce body heat. My experiment of making a sugar free strawberry juice with tender coconut is a big success.

 Ingredients:
Whole tender coconut - 1
Strawberry juice extract (sugarfree) - 1 tbsp

Pre-Requisites:
    Extract the tender cocnut water from the whole tender coconut

 Preparation Method:

               In a pint glass pour the tender coconut water ,add a tbsp of strawberry juice extract and stir well. Silly me to write a post on mixing strawberry juice extract with tender cocnout water but the point here is to explain how to make juices with naturally occuring sugar and i felt this is a great combination.

My plan was to make a sugar free  strawberry smoothie with tender coconut water but i changed my plan as i prefer to drink tender coconut water in  watery form. British strawberries with an Indian tender coconut, a perfect drink for an Indian Summer in Britain!

Strawberry and Lychee Pudding

 My favourite dessert is Lychee icecream , i used to order it from icecream parlours,restaurants and they mostly serve the tinned ones. The tinned ones are pitted , peeled and you don't get an opportunity to see the whole fruit. I was clueless how fresh lychee looks, until  i bought fresh lychees in commercial street , Bangalore. Lychee is a perfect fruit for any pudding and my experiment of coupling it with strawberries didn't fail to please me.

Ingredients:

 Lychees -  1 punnet

Strawberries - 1 punnet

Granulated sugar - 1/2 cup

Semolina - 1 dsp (please note dsp is larger than a teaspoon and smaller than a tablespoon)

Pre-Requisites:

 Pit ,peel and slice the lychees into small pieces.Skip this step if you use the tinned ones. Wash , hull and mash  the strawberries

Preparation Method:

 In a saucepan add the  mashed strawberries and  sliced lychees and bring it to a boil for a couple of minutes. Now scatter the fine semolina over it and keep stirring continuously until the semolina is cooked . This process takes about 5 minutes.Semolina tends to form lumps if unchecked and hence the stirring part plays a key role . Add the sugar and bring it to a boil until the sugar dissolves.

 Make sure that the total cooking time does not exceed 10 minutes as overcooking spoils the consistency and taste. Can be served hot or cold.

    

Strawberry Tangy Minty Punch

What do i do with my bowl of  strawberries today?

Pack some salad for my hubby's lunch box and then......do some strawberry icecream which i bookmarked. Why not surprise him by making an unusual combination for the salad. He loves the mango flavour. why not some mint ?
Seasonal fruit/veg tastes at its best. We strongly believe in growing organic food. We didn't use any pesticides to grow these berries and mint.Seasonal foods are super foods!

Ingredients:
Mango - 1
Strawberries - 1 punnet
Mint - few leaves

Pre-requisites:
1.Slice in the strawberries

2. Peel the skin of mangoes , remove the seed and dice into small cubes

3. Chop the mint leaves and reserve some for the decoration

Preparation Method:

Use  the sliced mangoes for making the pulp and reserve some chunks to add to the salad

Blend the mangoes into a pulp using the blender

Add the pulp to the sliced strawberries

Pop in the surprise flavour of chopped mint

Mix well by adding in the remaining mango slices

I just loved it. Especially , the minty flavour went on well with this combo. I made it sugar free as the fruits were sweet enough.

How to name it ?
   Strawberry Tangy Minty Punch

Strawberries are very much in season at the moment in the UK , we are getting plenty of these berries from my garden and hence sending this entry to this month's No Croutons Required hosted by Jacqueline



Linking it to Eat Seasonal Food,Fresh

Facts abt Dates

Dates are very rich in Iron and daily consumption helps us to
avoid iron deficiencies and anemia. Itz very low in fat and is a
perfect snack if u plan to go on a diet.It also reduces risk of heart
diseases.It is soaked in sugar syrup for commercial purposes but
it tastes sweet naturally.