Mint is my favorite herb and until recently I didn’t know that I can grow it myself. I usually buy mint from the grocery store. When my mother in law visited us last winter she took few thick mint stems (after using the leaves for cooking) and potted it. Both my husband and myself couldn’t believe our eyes when it started growing small leaves. Initially it took sometime to grow but later it started leafing rapidly. One week I completely forgot about watering it. Because it was winter we had the pot indoors and we got the bulb which is available for indoor plants and we forgot to switch it on also. When one of our friends were visiting my husband was boasting about our mint plant and then only I really remembered about it and when we checked, the plant had dried out completely. I was so upset, but without losing heart I started watering it again and to our surprise it started growing.

Ingredients
Water – 2 cups
Tea powder - 2 teaspoons
Ginger, grated – 1 small piece
Sugar – 3 teaspoons or as per your taste
Lemon juice – 2 tablespoons
Mint, finely chopped – 10 leaves

Step-by-Step Procedure with Images

(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)

1. Boil water in a saucepan.
2. Add the tea powder.
3. Grate the ginger root and let it boil for another 5 minutes.

4. Add the sugar for your taste.
5. Let it simmer for another 2 minutes.
6. Filter the tea.

7. Let it cool at room temperature. Add the lemon juice.
8, Then add the mint leaves and chill it in the refrigerator.
9. Serve it cold.

My Notes
1. Above I have reproduced the recipe as it is in the magazine. I followed the recipe and found that the tea was little bitter to my taste. So I added a couple more teaspoons of sugar.
2. The tea tastes good even when it is hot, but is excellent when it’s cold.
3. Check out the health benefits of mint here

I had a lot of mint at home and wanted to use it in a different way other than preparing chutney and pulav.  Earlier I have made parathas too, grinding pudina, coriander and green chillies.  So I wanted to try something new and came up with this idea of mixing it with the potato stuffing for the aloo paratha.  The result was amazing.  Not only did it taste good but the fragrance of the mint took it to another level.

Ingredients for the Paratha Dough:
All Purpose Flour (Maida) – 1 cup
Whole Wheat Flour – 1/2 cup
Salt – as per taste
Oil – 2 teaspoons

Ingredients for the stuffing:
Oil – 1 teaspoon
Mint (Pudina) leaves – 1 cup, coarsely chopped
Potatoes, medium size – 3, boiled and mashed
Garam Masala Powder -  as per taste
Salt – as per taste
Juice of half a lemon

Procedure:
1.  Combine the ingredients to prepare the dough.  Add enough water to form a ball of dough, knead a couple of times and keep it covered for an hour.

2.  To prepare the stuffing, add the teaspoon of oil in a frying pan and let it heat for a minute.  Now add the mint leaves and sautee it for a while until it is wilted.  Remove the pan from the stove and keep it aside.

3.  Now to the mashed potato add the mint leaves, the remaining ingredients for the stuffing and combine together thoroughly.

4.  Divide the paratha dough into lemon size balls and the stuffing into smaller size balls.  I got 5 balls of dough for the above measurement.

5.  Now roll each ball of dough into a small circle and place one ball of the stuffing and cover it with the dough and roll it back again.

6.  Meanwhile pre heat the griddle (tava) and once the tava is hot, cook the parathas on both the sides, by adding little oil.

7.  Enjoy it with yogurt and/or your favorite pickle.

My Notes:
1.  I usually use only whole wheat flour for preparing parathas.  Recently I saw this combination of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour, in a magazine.  So I wanted to try it. 

2.  I grind coriander and green chilles and mix it with the the mashed potato to prepare potato paratha.  This time I changed that too.   The combination of mint, garam masala and the lemon juice was heavenly. 

This is my entry to Srivalli’s Roti Mela.

Hetal of Isha’s Kitchen has passed me the Good Chat Blog Award.  Thank you very much Hetal.  Earlier she had also tagged me for a meme, 10 things I hate.  I’m tagging my dear friend Dee for the same. 

If you like my Finger Millet Sweet Dumplings, please vote for me here.

My friend Dee made the announcement for the event she is hosting for AFAM (A Fruit A Month), started by Maheshwari on 1st of May and I can’t believe it’s the 24th already.  She has chosen Raspberries as this month’s fruit.  I did spend a lot of time searching the net for interesting recipes and bookmarked a lot of them, but somehow it got delayed.  Finally here I am, with a recipe for a simple lemonade with raspberries.  Hope I will able to send another one too.

Before going to the recipe, a small trivia I found about Raspberry.  According to legend, raspberries were originally white. The nymph Ida pricked her finger while picking berries for the crying infant Jupiter, and raspberries have since been tinged red with her blood. (The botanical name of the raspberry is Rubus idaeus. Rubus means “red”, and idaeus means “belonging to Ida”).

Ingredients:
Frozen or Fresh Raspberries – 2 cups
Juice of 1 big Lemon
Water – 5 cups
Sugar – ½ cup

Procedure:
1.  If using frozen raspberries, thaw them as per the instructions in the package.
2.  Blend it using approximately 2 cups of water.
3.  Strain the raspberry juice using a fine sieve repeatedly to get rid of the seeds. (that’s what it’s called right?)
4.  In order to dissolve the sugar, I added the sugar, lemon juice and a little bit of the raspberry juice in a blender and blended it thoroughly.  To this add the remaining 3 cups of water, raspberry puree and mix it well.  That’s it, Raspberry Lemonade is ready now.  Serve it in a glass with ice cubes and garnish it with mint leaves.

Alternatively you can also pour the lemonade in ice pop moulds and freeze it, for a cool popsicle.  My son loved this version.

And this will be a lovely treat for summer.  Enjoy!

Sangeeth has passed me the “You Make My Day Award”.  Thank you very much Sangeeth.  You also make my day with your lovely comments in my blog.