It’s been really hot these days here in Singapore and the week before last, when the festival of Ram Navami came around, I was really happy to make this traditional cooler as an offering to the Lord. This along with another summer drink called Neer Mor is traditionally offered as neividhyam or offering.

As I’ve previously mentioned, Ram Navami almost always came during the fag end of our annual exams back in India and was never really celebrated with pomp in our home, but my mum always used to make these coolers, which as a child, I rarely appreciated. As an adult, I love this drink and look for opportunities to make it.

The ingredients in this no cook drink probably are there for a reason. In the summer months, it is excessively hot in South India and each of these ingredients are meant to reintroduce sugar and hydrate you. Panakam brings down body heat and helps in preventing the human body from chicken pox in the summer. Jaggery purifies the blood, and is rich in iron, magnesium and anti-oxidants. Cardamom and ginger aid digestion, while lemon is rich in Vitamin-C and B-complex.

Panakam

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped jaggery
• 4 cups cold water
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• 2-3 cardamom pods
• 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder (saunth)
• 1/2 tsp julienned ginger (optional)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp rock or pink Himalayan salt

Method:

• Finely chop the jaggery and keep it in a large pan. Pour around 1 cup of medium warm water into the jaggery and let the jaggery melt.
• If you feel that the jaggery has impurities, then strain the melted jaggery into a jug.
• To the strained jaggery, add the remaining ingredients and then pour in the cold water.
• You can play around with the ingredients, adding more or less, depending on your taste.
• Serve cold. This really hits the spot on a warm summer day.

Notes:

• Do not substitute jaggery for sugar. At a pinch, perhaps palm sugar may work, but the taste would not be the same as the panakam made with jaggery.
• Use the darkest coloured jaggery you can find, because the colour of the drink is completely dependent on the colour of the jaggery used.