By Ranita Ray
Aam pora sharbat is traditionally made by roasting unripe mangoes over hot charcoal until the pulps soften. After cooling, the pulp is recovered from roasted mangoes. Sharbat preparation follows. It was thought that the fruit's natural heat would be unleashed when mangoes were roasted over a fire. Here's the recipe!
4 medium unripe green mangoes ¾ cup sugar 2½ teaspoons black salt 2½ teaspoons bhaja masala (cumin, fenugreek, chilli, fennel seeds and coriander seeds, dry-roasted and grounded to a powder) 6 cups chilled water Ice cubes
Each unripe mango should be washed, pat dried and roasted over medium heat until the skin is browned and the flesh is tender. It might take around 8 minutes.
Roast each of them one by one and then allowed to cool thoroughly. Remove the peel from each roasted mango.
Use a spoon or your hands to scrape out the pulp. Put the pulp in one bowl and the seeds in another.
Fill a blender jar with mango pulp. In the jar, add 3/4 cup sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoons black salt, 2 1/2 teaspoons bhaja masala, and 1 cup cooled water.
Close the blender's cover and blend the ingredients until they are completely smooth.
Transfer everything to a big dish and stir it up. Mix in 5 more cooled glasses of water.
Fill glasses with aam pora shorbot. Sprinkle some bhaja masala and ice cubes on top of each glass.