The more I dig into our traditional foods, I’m amazed at how intelligently and seasonally our ancestors ate. Panakamand Cucumber Kosumallithat are offered as Neiveidyam on the occasion of Sri Rama Navami which falls in the summer season.
As a kid, I would happily glug the Panakam prepared by my granny on these occasions, but today I like it more as I drink it mindfully, realizing how good it is for us. This ayurvedic drink is naturally sweetened using jaggery, spiced with ginger, cardamom and black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice for that balance in taste. This sweet-spicy-tangy drink can be had all around summer. It’s nice if kids develop a taste for these kind of natural drinks instead of reaching out for the fizzy drinks. Having a sip of this after quite some years, I realised how much I have missed this taste!
Kosumalliis another very simple, cooling, no-cook dish except for the tempering of mustard seeds and asafoetida for a delicate yet distinct flavour. While it is a neiveidyam dish, it can be easily had on a regular basis in summers as a salad with a bowl of yogurt for a light lunch. In the salad version, you can toss finely chopped onions, peppers, carrots and tomatoes along with the soaked moong dal. However, the dish in it’s simplest version here is also a masterpiece and a great example as to how delicious, simple food can be.
How to make Panakam
For 4 cups or 6 small glasses
Cucumber Kosumalli
for 4 servings
Traditional cooling food - Panakam and Kosumalli for Sri Rama Navami
Ingredients
Method
- How to make Panakam
- In a large vessel or bowl, take 4- 5 tbsp of crushed or grated jaggery. This will vary depending on the sweetness of your jaggery. Stir in 3-4 cups of drinking water until completely dissolved. Filter through a muslin cloth or a fine mesh in case you see any impurities in the liquid.
- To this, add - dried ginger powder (sonth powder), black pepper powder, salt, Juice of lemon, seeds from cardamom pods shelled and pounded or cardamom powder, stir well and serve chilled.
- For Cucumber Kosumalli
- Wash and soak 1/2 cup yellow moong dal (husked and split moong) in 2-3 cups of water for 1 hour. Drain in a mesh strainer for 15 minutes or so.
- In a medium bowl, mix the chopped cucumber, lemon juice, salt, coriander leaves and toss well.
- In a small tempering ladle, heat 1 tsp ghee or oil - splutter the mustard seeds, add the asafoetida, stir for a few seconds and toss this on the kosumall.i
- Garnish with fresh coconut scrapings.
- Do check for bitterness in the cucumber before mixing with the other ingredients.
- The same recipe can be used to prepare Carrot kosumalli by substituting two grated carrots instead of chopped cucumber.
Panakam and neer moru is what my mother makes for navami. In our gramam, each house used to take turns distributing panakam and neer moru on all nine days of the navami utsavam. This post brought back all those memories.
love panakam…thx for the recipe
Very refreshing indeed!
thanks for sharin this,..:-)
i love kosumalli, even more if the cucumber is grated – the moong dal is just right and nutty for the preparation…
yum i love this dish. i call it kosambri so slightly different in pronunciation but same thing! i love all kinds of kosambri and cucumber is so refreshing.
Its been years and years since I had this and reading your post brought back memories of my paati’s panakam and kosumalli. Thanks for sharing!
made kosumalli a few weeks ago – had found the recipe in a book called the Turmeric Trail – this is one of the most delicious ways I have found to eat cucumber and now I like to make it at least once a week as a salad.
I must agree with you. Our traditional style of cooking and the food is really very healthy and perfectly suited not only to using seasonal fare but also perfect for the various season in themselves.And I love paanakam. We make it for Dasami and I would wait for it so eagerly as a kid! :)My rather belated congratulations on your blog birthday. Hope you continue blogging here for many more years to come.
Made the kosumalli – tasted great!
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