Last year when I was in Kolkata for my annual vacation time, I could spend prolonged time at my hometown. Because of the work from home policy, for the first time after I left home for my job, I could spend so much time back at home. And once you stay for so long you start understanding what you have been missing staying away from your home state. Like almost every weekends we would go and spend time at my relatives, there would be long adda sessions just like the old times when I was in my teens. It would be so good spending time talking with others instead of being glued to the phone or laptop. 

Then there would be the trips of the local produce markets. Kolkata has undoubtedly some of the best produce market in the whole country. The moment you step into one you will be bedazzled with the vast variety of fresh vegetables, fruits and fishes. The sheer variety of leafy vegetables itself is such a temptation, mainly because in Pune where I live, the variety is limited to maximum 3-4 varieties at a time. I think more than going out for sightseeing in Kolkata I love visiting the produce markets. For a foodie like me, they are literally a temptation central. 

The third thing is definitely the availability of infinite choices of street food. You would get the most exotic flatbreads and curries even in your neighborhood food shack. I would often get rumali rotis and chicken chaap packed from my nearest food shack and it was super delicious. You are really spoilt for choices I food when you are in Kolkata. I wonder how people manage to maintain their weights, because the moment I see all those street food I am tempted to eat them all! And best part, it is cheap. Street food in Kolkata would not burn a hole in your pocket but definitely make you full. 

And not only street foods, since you have so many relatives around whenever you visit their home you get treated to delicious home made food. Some of them which I had not had in like million years. Just like the dish called Muri ghonto - a signature dish in Bengali cuisine. Muri or Muro in Bengali means fishhead. So Muri ghonto literally translates to fish head medley. Traditionally there are a couple of ways to make it - either the crispy fried fish head is cooked with rice like a biryani or it is cooked with daal. Muri ghonto is typically considered to be a side dish and is had along with rice. So in yesteryears it was also made with chide or poha (flattened rice) instead of rice. I think the recipe originated to utilize the leftover fish heads in the household in older days. Our great grandmas and grandmas were really pro chefs who could think of making such amazing lip smacking dishes from even leftover ingredients. And Bengali cuisine is full of many such traditional recipes which were born out of the need to use leftover produce. 

To be honest, I had only head about muri ghonto before but never got the chance to taste it. Since the cooking process for this recipe is a little elaborated and many a times the fish heads are the most under rated things, gradually not many households used to make these old elaborate recipes on daily basis. So last year when I was visiting one of my masis home and she informed that my dida (grandma) was making muri ghonto for us that day I was really excited. And I was so ill informed about this dish that I had thought muri ghonto was like other ghontos where you would make a medley of some veggies and masalas and add the fish head to it. But at the lunch table when my dida served the muri ghonto, to my surprise it had rice in it.  I was a little flabbergasted for a few seconds, I was trying to understand how to eat a rice dish as a side with steamed rice. But then I decided what the heck, let me just try it on its own first. So i took the very first spoonful of it and was totally taken aback by the flavourful dish. Rich in spices, the flavour of the fried fish head was like the perfect match with the aromatic gobindobhog rice. To the uninitiated the combination of fish head in rice might sound a little weird but believe me it was really a match made in heaven and you wont understand how good it tastes unless you eat the version made by someone's grandma. Yes that's right, you just cannot bring the magic into this dish that your grandma would! 

But I was not gonna let that deter me from making this myself. So once I was back in Pune I asked my mom to get the recipe from grandma once again ( because I had forgotten when she had told me) and decided to go all in for it. How bad can it be was what I was thinking when I made it. And surprisingly it turned out amazing even at the first try. I was so overjoyed by it that I made it again a couple of times and each time loved it more. So I am now sharing this recipe with you all. While I would still say this definitely would not measure upto what your grandma would probably make but still it is worth the try - at least you will be able to keep a traditional recipe going and help it not get lost in the folds of time. I have added raisin and cashew in this recipe because I liked the taste. But traditionally they are not added so you can skip it. Also if you would have noticed from the title itself this is a pressure cooker method I have used just to make your lives easier and believe it the consistency turned out great. But if you have enough time at hand then go for a kadai method by all means. At the last step instead of pressure cooker use the kadai and cook it.

Ingredients :

• Catla Fish Head - 4 half pieces
• Gobindobhog/ Ambemohar Rice - 200 gm
• Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped
• Potato - 1 big, cubed
• Garlic Cloves - 8-9 or 1 tsp
• Ginger - 1 1/2 inch or 1 tsp
• Dried Red Chili - 3
• Bay Leaf - 2
• Kismis (Raisin) - 15-20 (Optional)
• Kaju (Cashew) - 8-10 (Optional)
• Cardamom - 3
• Cinnamon stick - 1 inch
• Cloves - 2-3
• Jeera Powder - 1 tsp
• Dhaniya (Coriander) powder - 1 tsp
• Kashmiri Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam Masala powder - 1 pinch (optional)
• Green Chili - 2-3 slitted
• Ghee - 1 1/2 tsp + 1 tsp
• Mustard Oil - 1/3 cup
• Salt - as per taste
• Sugar - as per taste
• Warm water - as needed

Procedure:

1. Take the fish head from a big Catla or a paka mach as we say in Bengali. For this recipe I had taken the head of a Catla fish which weighed around 1.5 to 2 Kg. Clean the head thoroughly. If you want to keep the gills you can clean it and keep them too. Marinate the clean fish heads with 1/2 tsp of turmeric, salt and 1/2 tsp of mustard oil. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

2. Now wash the rice till the water runs clear. Drain the water and place the washed rice in a sieve with small pores. Place a bowl below to collect any excess water. Let it air dry. Or put it under a fan. The sieve will help in better air circulation and dry the rice easily. It will take around 30 minutes for the rice to dry.

3. Make a paste of the ginger and garlic. Chop the onions finely. Keep aside.

4. To make the masala paste in a bowl take turmeric, red chili powder, jeera powder, dhaniya powder and garam masala powder. Add 2 tbsp of water, give it a good mix and let the masala paste rest for 10-15 minutes before using it.

5. Heat mustard oil in a Kadai. When the oil is hot fry the marinated fish heads in batches till it is a little browned on both sides. Keep it aside.

6. In the same oil fry the cubed potatoes till the sides start getting some color. We don't need to completely cook the potatoes at this stage. Keep aside. 

7. Now take mustard oil and 1 tsp ghee in a Kadai and heat it. Once the oil is hot, add the Kaju and Kismis. Fry on medium heat for about a minute. Now add the airdried rice. Fry for about 1-2 minutes on medium heat. Take out the fried rice with kaju and kismis in a separate bowl. 

Note: Please note Kaju & kismis is totally optional. It is not traditionally added to muri ghonto, but I like the sweetness from the kismis and the crunch of the kaju in the final version hence I added these.

8. Now top up the mustard oil and 1 tsp ghee in the same Kadai and heat it. Once the oil is hot, toss in the bay leaves, whole red chili (break the chili and add), cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. Give it a toss till fragrant. 

9. Add the chopped onions and a pinch of salt. Fry till the onions are slightly browned. 

10. Add the ginger garlic paste. Sauté till the raw smell is gone.

11. Now add the masala paste that you had made in Step 4. Give it a good stir. Cook the masalas till oil separates. 

12. Add the fried fish heads and fried potato cubes into the masala. Fold everything in so that the fish heads are coated in the masala. Fry for 2 minutes. 

13. Now add the fried rice you prepared in step 7. Fold everything in. If you like break the fish heads at this point. I liked to keep them fairly whole so that it is easy to fish them out while serving.

14. I made this recipe in a pressure cooker/pan so amount of water is very important here. We do not want a completely dry or a completely mushy texture at the end. Transfer the whole thing from the Kadai to the pressure cooker/pan. Add exactly 2 times the water of the amount of rice you had taken and then add about 1/4 cup of more water. For me this was the perfect water ratio. Throw 2-3 slitted green chili. Stir in 1 tsp of ghee and a pinch of garam masala powder. Close the lid and pressure cook it for two whistles. Let the rice sit for a while without any flame before you open the lid. 

Usually Muri ghonto is considered a side dish which is served with steamed rice. But I had added more rice to make this muri ghonto because I wanted to have it as is, somewhat like a pulao. I had it with fresh salad.

Happy 76th Independence Day to all my readers! Today we are celebrating 75 years of independence and that is such a remarkable thing. the first jubilee day I had witnessed in my lifetime was the 50th year of Independence - the golden jubilee year. Back then we didn't have all the hoopla around the celebrations on social media. The only faithful media that we had was the Doordarshan and newspapers delivered to us the various news and images of the celebration. I tried to recollect what I was doing on this day back then, mostly like every year I think we had gone to school for the flag hoisting. No clear memory of the day that I can recollect. But this year the multi faceted celebrations started much ahead of 15th August. There were so many events and activities organized across the country. Hopefully if I get to see the next jubilee year, I would be recollecting more memories from this day than the 50th year celebration. 

While this day is meant to remember the sacrifices of the freedom fighters and looking forward to the new India in coming years, still a holiday on Monday gives us one more reason to celebrate and appreciate this day. Beautiful weather coupled with a much needed long weekend was just the thing I was looking forward to. And after a longtime I thought let me also pen down a recipe that I recently tried out. 

You can understand from some of my recent blogs that I am still into the Kahsmir mode, capturing all my tour diaries day wise. It gives such an adrenaline rush to be able to edit the travel pictures while revisiting the memories captured in each frame. I also realized that editing nature photographs are much more challenging than food photographs at times. The subject and light conditions outdoor are so dynamic that to bring the right amount of drama to any travel picture means a lot of hardwork on the editing table, because they were captured spontaneously. While when it comes to food photography, all the activities starting from what to make, cooking, plating, setting up the scene and then post editing, everything is calculated, measured and at times a little monotonous. I think that is the reason of late my food blogs have taken a back seat. It doesn't mean I am not cooking new stuffs these days, it just means that I am trying to enjoy the cooking and eating experience more than trying to capture every second of it. 

So after coming back from Kahsmir I started trying out different Pahadi recipes - from Kahsmir, Himachal or eastern states. I found that people in the mountains cook much more healthy meals than we city dwellers. Their food most of the times had less oil, less frying and a whole lot of more flavors. It is so interesting to be able to cook some unique dishes from the hills. While the taste may not always be 100% authentic but it is giving me a refreshing change in the regular menu. One such thing that I had learnt from Harish Bali's (Visa to explore) vlogs is Bhatt daal or bhat dal. I think he was travelling to uttarakhand in one of the videos where he spoke highly about how delicious this dal was. These beans dominate kitchens in the Garhwal and Kumaon regions of the state. Kala bhat or black soybean belongs to the leguminosae family. Soybean has seeds of many colours; the black one is rich in iron and protein. They are cholesterol-free, but contain linolenic acid, which has been found to prevent heart disease. I had tried looking for this daal locally but I got a different variant of black daal. So the next best option was to look up in Amazon and I got what I needed. Most of the variants I found on Amazon were the organic variant as this daal is still not mass produced for the cities. 

Bhatt ki dal is an iconic dish and a traditional Kumaoni recipe from Uttarakhand. I tried to make this Bhatt ki daal in a very simple way with very less masala and it turned out to be super yummy. I feel it is much tastier than the normal Rajma you et in the cities. It pairs superbly with steamed rice, jeera rice, rotis and even bread or pavs. Check out this yummy recipe below:

Ingredients :

• Bhatt/Bhat/ black Soyabean Dal - 200 gm
• Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
• Garlic Cloves - 10 fat crushed/chopped
• Bay Leaf - 1
• Tomato - 1 medium chopped
• Black Pepper  - 1 tsp crushed
• Garam Masala powder - 1 pinch (optional)
• Green Chili - 2-3 chopped
• Butter - 1 1/2 tsp
• Refined Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - as per taste
• Sugar - as per taste
• Warm water - as needed

Garnish (optional):

• Chopped Onion 
• Chopped Coriander leaf Onion 
• Chopped green chili
• Lime wedge

Procedure:

1. Soak the Bhat dal overnight. Wash and drain the water. 

2. Switch on the heat. Place a pressure cooker on the stove and add butter. 

3. When the butter melts add the bay leaf, pepper powder, garlic, onion, tomato, green chili one by one. Fry for a minute till fragrant. 

4. Add soaked bhat daal and required amount of warm water. Add garam masala, salt and sugar. Note here sugar is just to balance the taste, the cooked beans should not taste sweet. Also note that this recipe does not need turmeric as it will clash with the natural flavors of Bhat daal.

5. Put the lid on and cook it for 10-15 whistles or enough time needed for the beans to get soft. Once done let it rest till the pressure dies and then open the lid. With a spatula give a nice stir or two and slightly mash a handful of the beans. This would help in increasing the consistency of the beans gravy.

Note: It took me quite a number of whistles to get this daal soft. If in a hurry there are two quick fixes for making the daal soft, either you can add a pinch of baking soda to the daal when you are cooking it, or place a steel spoon inside the daal. Both helps the daal getting cooked in fewer whistles. 

6. Once the daal has reached its desired thick consistency, add a knob of butter and give it a good stir. 

Garnish and serve it with rice or rotis and enjoy. 

18 June

Its been such a long long gap since I posted. So much has happened in the last couple of months. Work has increased by almost ten folds, I have started going to office a couple of days a week, travelling for various customer visits across India has again resumed and in the middle of all this I even took a week long break for summer vacation. So basically I am back to my old routine in the pre covid times and life has again become hectic. Even if cooking is a love affair to me, but I think given a choice I love travelling more any day. Thus once a trip ends I start looking for the next destination almost immediately. And very naturally Instagram, or blogging has taken a hit. After a long week now I don't feel like burning my midnight oil scrolling food posts on Instagram. Rather keeping up late to watch and read about places I want to visit seems more interesting. 

So my travel last month was to very remote and offbeat places of Kashmir. I hope that I can start penning down that travelogue soon. This was my first time in Kashmir and I simply fell in love with the place. No wonder it is known as the Jannat on earth. I found the cuisine of Kashmir quite interesting. Since we were travelling remote, I got to taste some authentic local cuisine ( not part of wazwan ) which Kashmiris have as their regular food. I kind of collected all the recipes from the chefs and cooks we met at various guest houses where we stayed. And these were not just recipes but there was a lot of stories accompanying them. I am raring to try them out and write more about these foods slowly on my blog.

But for now I thought of sharing a quick and easy recipe from the Kitchens of Bengal or Bangladesh. I have written about different bhorta recipes in my blog earlier also. You can check them out in the recipe list. Bhorta is basically any kind of a vegetable mash. But it can be non vegetarian also or a combo of both. The one that I made today was with kochu or taro. 

I had to do a impromptu travel to Hyderabad for 2 days which left me completely drained today. I didn't feel like making anything special even if it was a Saturday. A homely warm meal was all that the heart craved for and some good long sleep. So made this really quick taro mash and paired it with steamed rice and a light radhuni foroner mushur daal with raw papaya.

Check out the other bhorta recipes on my blog:

1. Dim Aloor Bhorta
2. Narkol Chingri Bhorta
3. Macher Bhorta

Ingredients for garnish:

• Mustard Oil - 1 tsp

Equipment:

• Pressure Cooker
• Mixing bowl

Procedure: 

1.  Wash the kochu thoroughly to remove any dirt on the surface. 

Tip : The dirt clings to the skin to you can keep it immersed in water for sometime to loosen them and then gently scrub them off using your fingers.

2. Transfer the washed kochu to a pressure cooker filled with 2 cups of water. Steam it for 2 whistles or as needed. Drain the water. 

3. The kochu needs to be peeled while they are still hot/warm. If its too hot to hold dip the boiled kochu in some water and then peel off the skin. 

4. Take mustard oil in a kadai and heat it. Once the oil is hot add the peeled garlic pods and fry till golden. keep aside.

5. In the same oil fry the dry red chilli, keep aside.

6. Now fry the sliced onion with a pinch of salt. Keep aside.

7. Now break the red chilli with your finders. In a mixing bowl take the boiled kochu, fried garlic, onion, red chilli and the oil left in the kadai. Add salt, chopped green chili, grated fresh coconut and mustard powder. Using your fingers mash everything nicely and mix together. 

8. Add some more mustard oil before serving.

Best served hot with steamed rice and daal.

This year has been going super slow in terms of food blogging it seems. I just noticed today that I only have posted 9 blogs in the year so far and already we are at the end of a quarter. Last year this time I had already 20 posts. I have not even done half of it so far and hence this quick post. The workload is frankly quite high and hence the time for social activities has gone down drastically. Plus this summer heat doesn't help either. The more hot and sunny it gets the more I feel my creative juices get into hibernation mode. The light is just too harsh even at early morning to get some good shot even indoors. 

Though I do have a basic studio lighting setup but still I don't feel like dragging all my equipment out when I am already feeling lethargic due to to the weather. So most f the times if you have noticed I prefer shooting in natural light unless there is a deadline to shoot at unholy hours. The point is managing the exposure with this strong sun, is a task in itself. But then lazy people like me still find jugadu ways to navigate the situation. From the time lockdown started I had been shooting with a professional camera and  I tried out shooting in the various light situations across all the rooms in my house. I had read about this suggestion from a professional photographer who had given this important tip to beginners who are starting out on food photography to explore the light in all the available spaces in the house to get a fair enough idea which light at which time of the day works best for which kind of food shots. Like my guest bedroom has a window where I can get the best backlight. Whereas the living room is best to shoot everything with a sidelight. And most of the times I have seen I like the outcomes when I use sidelight. They really accentuate the textures and bring out the colors. 

When I started off, flatlays were my favorite photography angle. One of the main reason was when I had a lot of food in the scene I could accommodate all of them easily in a flatlay and number two reason was I was shooting mainly gravies which most of the time didn't have much of a height element to emphasize. There was a point I felt that I am only food in flatlays and other angles like straight on angle or 25-75 was not meant for me. And I had concluded that without even trying to learn the other angles or composition styles. That is what happens to most beginners, we struggle to find a niche and then don't want to come out of that comfort zone. We give up even before we try and keep repeating the same thing for years instead of exploring new things in which we might even be better. 

After a point I was bored with the same kind of setup. Plus flatlays at times leaves very little to imagination as you expose all the cards or the elements of your composition in the frame. Everything is right there in the frame, very little is hidden away from the sight. Also to fill a frame you need a lot of elements - that was taxing. I had to cook at least 2 sides with a main dish to fill in the gaps in the frame. Too much time went for cooking and very little time left to setup the frame and think about a good composition. When I say good composition - I mean a frame which might tell a story, which my give you some fodder for thoughts, or have a technicality which might pique the interest of the audience. At that time I was just shooting flat frames with just the food. 

So I started spending some time on Instagram to look for inspirations. I found that Indonesian and Middle eastern food photographers did wonderful creative food frame which left you looking at the frame for long thinking who did they manage to get a certain effect. I am not saying the European or American food photographers are bad, but the aesthetics brought on the table (literally) by the Indonesian photographers appealed to my taste. The way they used the light, the way they brought in traditional utensils or local produces and created a rustic looking frame was simply mind blowing for me. I did notice they give a lot of importance to tiny nuances in the frame like a speck of chilli or a pod of garlic etc. and it was definitely not a minimalist frame. But the main takeaway was, creating moody frames aesthetically. 

I keep looking for such kind of inspiration everyday and anytime anything catches my fancy I save it or bookmark it. While I cannot say I am an expert photographer now, I have certainly come a long way from 2020. I can confidently say, now I understand a few things better than what I did when I started off and it definitely makes me happy. Even if its a delta growth I feel happy. Checkout for behind the scene for this particular frame on my Instagram feed to see how this shot was setup.

Today morning as I was making my breakfast I thought of shooting it as well. I think I had mentioned in a previous blog that I was turning to healthy food options slowly. Most of the days my morning breakfast is different king of smoothies. They are so easy to make that you don't even need to put your mind into making one. Just throw in the ingredients and blend. Some days I add nuts or chia seeds to make things a little interesting. I feel smoothies get a robust texture and and nice body when you add banana to it along with any other fruit of your choice. Moreover bananas add a natural sweetness to the smoothies as well. More than a pure Mango smoothie I like the taste of the combination of mango and banana. Try it once if you haven't yet. 

And if you think smoothies are the most boring things to start your day with, nothing can be far form truth. I know because I was also one of those people who didn't get excited at the thought of smoothies first thing in the morning. The first small step was to convince myself to start my day with something healthy and have controlled portion of food throughout the day. Having smoothies for breakfast is a great way to portion control and yet have a filling breakfast. The banana in the smoothie helps keep you full for a long time till lunch so that you don't feel any mid morning hunger pangs. Also a small tip is to replace sugar with honey, it helps loose weight over a period of time. This is a really really simple recipe and I will put some other smoothie recipe soon. 

Ingredients for garnish:

• Chia Seeds - 1 tsp

Equipment:

• Blender

Procedure: 

1.  Soak the chia seeds in 3 tbsp of water for about 10 minutes.

2. Add all the ingredients - milk, banana, mango and honey in high-powered blender.

Note: I prefer to have cold smoothie hence I use chilled milk but you can use room temperature milk too.

3. Blend for 1-2 minutes until you get a smooth and creamy texture.

Note: Color will depend on the quality of the Mango used

4. Pour into serving glasses. Top it off with soaked chia seeds. Enjoy!

29 March

Pune is already sweltering at 40 degrees outside. And it is like 37 degrees in shade today and uncomfortably humid by Pune standards. But I am still thankful it is not as bad as Mumbai or Kolkata at this time of the year. I can still brave the whole summer season without an AC or a cooler. But still the fact remains that every year the summer is a little more harsh than the year before and the impact of rapid urbanization is very much visible on our fragile environment. 

For the uninitiated, Solkadi or Solkadhi or Kokum Curry is a refreshing summer drink from Maharashtra's Konkan region. It cools down your body and helps in digestion in addition to working as an appetizer. Though I am in Maharashtra for more than a decade, I had the first taste of this amazing drink after coming to Pune. The first thing that catches your fancy is the light pink color of the drink which makes it look like a strawberry milkshake and you might be deceived in believing that you are about to taste something sweet. But then the aroma of coconut and tempered spices make you curious about what this drink is all about. Eventually when you taste it you find a very interesting savory concoction of the tangy Kokum, sweet coconut milk and a hint of spiciness from chilly and ginger. Solkadi is almost a mandatory part of any fish thali you have at typical thali restaurants here in the city. And it acts as an excellent palate cleanser before you indulge yourself in the spicy fish curry rice. I think the first ever solkadi I had in Pune was at this famous restaurant called Masemari and absolutely loved it at the first sip. I think even more than the seafood I loved the drink.

There is also a  funny incident that happened once related to Solkadi. This was like 5-6 years ago. We used to frequently go out on team lunches from office and explore new eating joints. So one of our Marathi colleagues had suggested this small thali restaurant which served lovely seafood near the Peth area of Pune. Once we placed our orders the first thing we were served was this pink solkadi in small steel glasses. One of our colleagues was a south Indian guy who was a junior and didn't have much experience in Maharashtrian food. So when he was about to take a sip of this drink, the guy beside him tells, "don't drink that" and he obviously asks why so. The guy tells him, "it is a pink drink and it is only meant for ladies, guys cant drink it". He said it with such a serious face that this south Indian colleague believed him without a question and he didn't drink it! We all laughed at this but he didn't budge from his decision and actually we could not make him even taste the drink no matter how much we convinced! I think till date he believes that solkadi is only meant for ladies :D.

But my love for this drink continues and grows stronger. I actually like my solkadi a little sweet which most of the time comes form the natural sweetness of coconut milk itself. But if not, I like to add a little sweetener to balance the overall savory taste. So this time I tried converting them into these delicious popsicles which I could have instead of the store bought ice cream. You can also convert your leftover solkadis into popsicles and enjoy.

Please note that there are many ways to enhance the flavour of this coastal drink, sometimes people temper it with curry leaves or spices as well. But here I have used the very basic recipe of Solkadi for the popsicles.

Checkout other Summer Coolers from my blog:

• Mojito Popsicle
• Beetroot Rose Sorbet
• Persian Saffron Rose Milkshake
• Kokum Juice
• Beetroot Rose Granita
• Spicy Strawberry Ghol

Ingredients for garnish:

• Roasted cumin Powder

Equipment:

• Popsicle Mold
• Mixing Bowl
• Mixer
• Strainer 

Procedure: 

1.  Start by rinsing the dried kokum pods. Then soak them in a cup of hot warm water for about 30 to 45 minutes. 

2. Using your fingers mash the kokum pods in the water to extract the pulp from them. Now pass this mixture through a strainer and preserve the extracted water. Discard the remaining solids in the strainer.

Note: Color will depend on the quality of the Kokum used. It may vary from brownish to pink.

3. Take a blender jar and add chopped ginger, grated fresh coconut, chopped green chili and 1 cup of water. Blitz it to a smooth paste. 

4. Strain this mixture using a fine mesh strainer to get a thick liquid. 

5. Return the leftover pulp in the strainer back to the blender and add another cup of water. Blitz it again to get a smooth paste. Now strain this in the same bowl to get a thinner liquid this time. 

6. Add the kokum water into the bowl and mix everything well

7. Add salt and sugar as per taste.

Note: Coconut milk is already a little sweet, so if you don't want to add more sweetener you can skip the sugar. I like mine a little sweet.

8. Add water if you want a thinner consistency. Your solkadi is ready.

9. Now take the popsicle molds and pour the solkadi. Freeze it for at least 10-12 hours or overnight.

Serve the popsicles with a sprinkle of roasted cumin powder or have it as is.