Aam Panna Recipe

Aam Panna

Aam Panna

Aam Panna is a popular summer drink In India especially in northern and western parts. ‘Aam’ means mango in Hindi. This drink is renowned for its heat resistant properties. It is made from raw mangoes and has a sweet, sour and tangy taste. This summer refresher is a tasty and healthy beverage to fight against the intense Indian summer heat.

I remember my mother used to make it almost every day in summer. I would stand next to her in the kitchen and taste the drink till it had the right amount of sugar and salt in it. As, raw mangoes can be very tart (khatta in Hindi) or slightly sour you must taste the drink while making to get the balance right.

Sometimes, I would freeze the drink and eat it as an ice lolly the next day. Raw mangoes are quite easy to buy from any Indian Grocery shop, especially in summer. I would highly recommend making this drink at least once and it will surely become your family favourite.   

Ingredients

500 gram raw mangoes
3 tablespoons caster sugar (any fine powdered sugar)
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon black rock salt (kala namak)
1 teaspoon roasted cumin powder(jeera)

 

Directions

Step-1

Cut the raw mangoes into big pieces and boil the mangoes till they become soft and mushy inside and skin gets discoloured in 2 cups of water.

Blend the pulp with a blender and strain the mango pulp.

Step-2

Add the sugar and mix till it dissolves. Next add the black salt, cumin powder and mix well. You can adjust the amount of water here and add more water if it is too thick. Taste to adjust the seasoning. Keep it in the refrigerator for about an hour to chill.

Serve it cold with a few ice cubes.

Tips & Variations

  1. You can also add jaggery (cane sugar) instead of sugar.
  2. Try and use raw green and tart mangoes. The mangoes must be sour for this recipe.
  3. It is advisable to add powdered sugar so that it dissolves quickly.
  4. If the mango is not very fibrous then you do not need to strain the pulp.
  5. In this recipe, I have boiled the mangoes as that is how my mother used to make. You can also steam  the mangoes if you want.
  6. Always steam, boil, pressure cook the mangoes with the skin to extract all the flavour of the mango in the pulp.
  7. You can store the raw mango boiled concentrate in the fridge. Whenever you want to prepare aam panna, remove the concentrate and add water, sugar and spices.
  8. If you want, you can add sugar in double quantity of the mango pulp and boil them and store this concentrate also in the fridge. Whenever required, add water and spices in it.
  9. You can  grind some mint/coriander leaves with the pulp to give it more refreshing taste.
  10. If you plan to make lolly then add a touch of extra spices as it will taste better when frozen.
  11. Taste the drink to adjust the sugar ratio as sometimes the raw mango’s can be sweeter too.
  12. Before serving you can rub a lime around the rim of the glass and then use either salt/sugar to coat the rim of the glass.
  13. You can use any type of salt like Himalayan Pink salt, rock salt, cooking salt. However, I would recommend rock salt.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *