AAM PORAR SHORBOT

Two of my young friends are getting married, and I know what not to give them: a sherbet set. Time was when a generation of newly-wed couples was given just this — a set of six engraved glasses on a tray, and an ornate jug with a spout and a curved handle. I shudder to think what would happen if I presented the young couple with one such set. They’d probably send it flying back to me. And I don’t mean in an aircraft.

In a way that’s a pity, for sherbets were once a veritable part of our lives. When colas were still to make their presence felt in India, sherbets — the word is originally from the Arabic shariba which became the Turkish sherbet — were the coolers that helped us battle summer. And while sherbets were almost a pan-Indian concept, the regions had their specialities. In parts of western Uttar Pradesh, for instance, sherbet meant a glass of raw milk mixed with cold water and unrefined sugar. In regions where the phaalsa berry grows, homemakers prepare a delicious sherbet with the berries that have been boiled, deseeded and turned into a pulp, mixed with sugar and water.

MISHTI DOI-ER GHOL

That Bengal has its own array of sherbets became clear to me when I heard that a new hotel in Calcutta called IndiSmart, located in Sector V, Salt Lake, the IT hub of the city, was all set to usher in summer with a choice of Bengali coolers. Executive chef Somnath Das seems to have decided that if you can’t beat summer — and you can’t, unless you plan to spend the next four months somewhere around the Alps) — you might as well make the best of it. And one way of doing so is by keeping yourself happily hydrated.

The Bengali sherbets, I find, are variations of those you get in other parts of the country. Take, for instance, the aam porar shorbot. In the north, the aam panna, which is a close relative of the aam pora, is made from raw mangoes that are mostly boiled and then mixed with sugar and water for a refreshing drink. There was a time when the mangoes were roasted in burning charcoal but that seems to have died out with the embers. In Bengal, however, the aam pora — the name itself means roasted mangoes — has to be prepared in the traditional way.

Another traditional sherbet is the ghol — light lassi prepared with sugar. There are many variations of this, such as the bel or bael shorbot, prepared with yoghurt and the pulp of the bael fruit (also known as wood apple or stone apple). The fruit has an overpowering smell so you need to get used to it. But the drink is one of the most refreshing and nutritious cold drinks you can ever get. It’s a great digestive, and helps you ward off the summer tummy germs.

BAELER SHORBOT

But what interests me is the way the chef has been tweaking old recipes to give them a contemporary touch. For instance, he turns the usual ghol into what he calls a mishti doi-er ghol (sweetened curd sherbet). And this has a punch in it for the ingredients include, apart from sweetened curd, some coriander leaves, chopped ginger, chopped green chillies and rock salt.

Or take the simple lime juice, which he twists and turns into something called Lebu Italian fizz. For this, he takes a half piece of lime and cuts it into small bits with the flesh and the skin. He takes a teaspoon of brown sugar and mixes it with the lime bits, and then puts them in a tall glass. He adds 15ml of cinnamon syrup to it, and then fills it up with chilled coke.

The pulp of ginger with sugar and lime always makes for a nice drink — it has a flavour and a light pink tint too, and is wonderfully invigorating to boot. But chef Das prepares a ginger mint sherbet (see recipe) with Sprite or 7UP, which gives a nice fizz to the traditional drink. Or he puts a bit of rock salt to the juice of ginger, flavoured with cinnamon syrup, and then tops it with soda.

When it comes to summer drinks, you can’t forget the yeoman’s service that the humble lime or lemon plays in cooling our heated up bodies. Take a lime, a glass of water, a pinch of salt and sugar — and you have the recipe for instant energy.

In Bengal, the gondhoraj lebu — a fruit with such a heavenly aroma that it can revolutionise anything from the masoor dal to fish fillets — makes an awesome cooler. And if you add to your drink a leaf from the shrub, whose scent is as refreshing as that of the fruit, it makes you feel as if you’ve been standing under a shower. Chef Das goes a step further by preparing a drink with lime leaves (see recipe).

Summer’s upon us but there’s no reason to fret. If life’s a cycle of seasons, just make the most of the summer with beverages that keep you happy. As my young friends getting married would say, “Chill!”

Lebu patar shorbot (Lime leaf sherbet)
Serves 1

Ingredients: • 5-6 lime leaves • 1 tbs sugarcane jaggery • 2 tbs tamarind pulp • 200ml chilled water • ice cubes as desired

Method:

Take the lime leaves, the sugarcane jaggery and the tamarind pulp and squeeze them hard with your hands into a bowl. Add chilled water to this and mix well. Pour into a tall glass. Top with ice cubes and serve.

Aada-pudinar shorbot (Ginger mint sherbet)
Serves 1

Ingredients: • 15ml ginger juice • 2 tsp mint paste • 15ml lime juice • rock salt to taste • 1 tsp chat masala • 300ml Sprite or 7UP • ice cubes

Method: Mix all the ingredients barring the last two and put in a tall glass. Add the ice cubes and top up with Sprite or 7UP. Serve chilled.

Photographs by Rashbehari Das