Papaya Smoothie

Lots of nutrients and fiber in papayas.


Ingredients (about 4 or 5 servings):

4 cups papaya chunks
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 cup yogurt (you can use vanilla yogurt and then leave out the vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups low fat buttermilk

Put all ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. It can be served as is, or over ice cubes or chilled in the refrigerator until ready for use. 

WORD HISTORY:
Orient-This word is closely related to "origin," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English. It goes back to Indo European "her(i)," which had the notion, "to move upward, to rise." This gave Latin the verb "oriri," meaning, "to rise, to come into view." The participle form of the verb was "oriens," and it came to be used as a noun to mean, "the rising sun, sunrise;" thus also, "region of the sunrise;" thus, "the east," but because of this general meaning, the word meant different "specifics" to different people, like: (what is now) the Middle East (including parts of North Africa, to some), Asia, Persia, southeastern Europe. This passed to Latin-based Old French as "orient," meaning, "east, Asia." The word was taken to England by the Normans and their descendants, but it was not borrowed by English until about 1400. The verb, originally meaning, "to have something face eastward," was borrowed from the French verb "orienter" (which was derived from the noun) in the first half of the 1700s. A secondary meaning in French, "to get a fix in one's mind about location or direction," has come to be the main meaning in English.  

Pistachio Smoothie

Smoothies have become quite popular in many countries during the last couple of decades. This is a great one, especially if you like pistachio nuts and it's super easy to make.


Ingredients (3 to 5 servings, depending upon glass size):

1 cup roasted pistachio nuts (I buy the already shelled pistachios)
3 1/2 cups cold water
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 cup ice cubes or about 3/4 cup crushed ice

Put the pistachios into your blender and grind them until they finely ground. Make sure to stop the blender a couple of times and scrape the sides down to make sure all of the pistachios are ground. Add the yogurt and the turmeric, then add the water (I rinsed the measuring cup I'd used for the yogurt with the water). Add the ice and blend until everything is well mixed and there is some froth.  

WORD HISTORY:
Froth-This word has a shaky distant history, as it presumably is of Germanic origin, but its relatives are all from just North Germanic, not the broader Germanic languages, nor even more specifically West Germanic, as English is a West Germanic language. Old English had "afreoðan" ('ð' essentially equals, 'th'), which meant, "to froth," and also, Old English "freoðan." If other West Germanic languages had a form of the word, I would likely say that this Old English form was taken by the Anglo-Saxons when they left the Continent on their way to founding England, but I've not found such West Germanic forms, nor even one such form. It could be a North Germanic creation, which then was taken to England by Old Norse speakers who periodically raided along the English coast, and who then began to even settle in parts of England. Anyway, the Old English verb, with reinforcement from the Old Norse form "froða," likely spawned the modern English noun "froth" (once also spelled "frooth" and "frothe," with the ending "e" pronounced "eh/ah") by the late 1200s, which also became a verb ("frothen") by the second half of the 1300s. The word is often also used as an adjective as "frothy." Other related forms are only in North Germanic: Danish "fraade," Swedish "fradga," Icelandic "froða" ("foam").

Yogurt Drinks of the Indian Subcontinent, Part 4 of 4

Here are two more sweet lassis, including the very popular "mango lassi." 

Mango Lassi-This is a very popular sweet lassi, also called a "smoothie" in restaurants or specialty beverage shops in the U.S. There are also commercially bottled versions of mango lassi. How many brands are there? I have no idea, as I "tend" to prefer freshly made foods, but I did buy a bottled mango lassi recently at a South Asian shop. I guess it was maybe ten ounces, but it was far too sweet for me.

Ingredients for 4 servings or 2 large servings:

1 cup plain thick yogurt
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon or more honey (see below)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 cup milk
2/3 cup mango (fresh chopped or canned)
ice cubes

If you want to use fresh mangoes, you need well ripened mangoes. In this case too, you will likely want to add more honey, probably at least 1 tablespoon, but that's a matter of personal taste. Lately, I must admit that I've cheated... I mean, I've chosen a streamlined way; that is, canned mangoes, which usually come in a sweet syrup. If you use canned mangoes, you can reduce the amount of honey, but instead, use a little of the syrup, according to how sweet you want the lassi. You can add a little sprinkle of ground cardamom on top. Put all ingredients in a blender and blend for about 30 to 45 seconds, or until smooth.

Turmeric Lassi

Ingredients per large serving:

2/3 cup plain thick yogurt
1 banana (chilled, lightly frozen)
2/3 cup cold water
3 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
2 tablespoons honey
couple of ice cubes

The banana should be peeled and put into the freezer for about 10-12 minutes. Put all ingredients, including ice cubes, into a blender and blend for about 45 to 60 seconds, or until the banana and ice cubes are broken up and mixed in. You can sprinkle a little turmeric on top, as I've done in the photo.

WORD HISTORY: 
Mango-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain, although it goes back to Tamil, a Dravidian language of southern Asia, especially from parts of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. The transliterated Tamil form, "mankay" (like, "main-kay"), meaning, "fruit of the mango tree."This was borrowed into Malay, a language of the Austronesian language family (which includes Tagalog/Filipino, one of the major languages of the Philippines), as "mangga," meaning, "mango." This was then borrowed by Portuguese^ as "manga," and English borrowed the word from Portuguese in the late 1500s, although its use became more common somewhat later, as the English planted mango trees in some of their tropical possessions in the New World.

^ The Portuguese were great explorers long ago, a fact sometimes forgotten, and they controlled East Timor, then called "Portuguese Timor," from the 1500s until 1975. It then became part of Indonesia, before gaining independence in 2002.  

Yogurt Drinks of the Indian Subcontinent, Part 3 of 4

This is what some term "a sweet lassi."  It is not quite as thick as some other lassi drinks.

Mint Lassi (Borhani), for 2 large servings or 3 or 4 smaller servings

2 cups thick yogurt
2 cups water
1/4 cup fresh mint
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon chopped green chili pepper (serrano or jalapeño, is fine)
2 tablespoons ground black salt (see note below)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Blend all ingredients for about 45 seconds. You can always put a couple of ice cubes in the blender to chill the drink. NOTE: About the black salt called for in the one recipe, there are a couple types of black salt you might find in large supermarkets, spice stores or, certainly, in Indian or Pakistani grocery stores: one is truly black in color, which often comes from Hawaii. The Hawaiian black salt I have is in small pieces that are about half the size of caraway seeds. I put whatever amount I want on a completely dry paper towel or napkin, then I fold the towel over and smack it with a meat mallet. I also have the type from the Indian subcontinent, which is already in powdered form, with some larger pieces of salt mixed in. It is like a pink or light purple color. Black salt has a sulfur smell to it.

Butter Lassi (Makhaniya lassi)

This is a rich drink, although you can always thin it out by reducing the yogurt amount somewhat and replacing it with milk.

2/3 cup thick yogurt
1/3 cup milk
several saffron threads in 2 tablespoons warm water
2/3 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter (technically should be unsalted butter, but I won't tell if you use salted butter)
ice cubes

Blend all ingredients, except butter, for 30 seconds. Pour into a glass, add butter on top. The ice cubes should be blended with the ingredients too, to chill the drink.

WORD HISTORY: 
Blend-This word, related to other Germanic words "blind" and "blond," goes back to Indo European "bhel," with the idea of, "to shine, to be bright, to be light in color." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "blandanan," which meant, "to make light in color, to make cloudy/murky;" thus also, "to mix (to make something light or cloudy)." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "blandan" (also the prefixed form, "geblandan"), which meant, "to mix, to blend;" thus also, "to mingle." Further, Old Norse, another Germanic language, was brought to eastern and northern areas of England by people collectively called "Danes" by the English, although they were not all from Denmark, and they brought their form of the same word (with the same general meaning), as "blanda." Together these became "blenden," before the modern version. The noun came from the verb in the mid 1800s. Several related forms in the other Germanic languages have died out, but German has "Blendling" (noun meaning, "mongrel," but now a bit outdated); Danish and Norwegian have "blande" (verb) and "blanding" (noun); Icelandic "blanda" (same form for both verb and noun ), but also "blendingr" (meaning "mixture, hybrid"); Swedish "blanda" (verb) and "blandning" (noun). 

The Kitchen Sink Veggie Drink

For non English speakers, the title refers to a common expression, "everything, but (or some say, except) the kitchen sink," which means, "EVERYTHING," or, "a bit of everything."

Ingredients (4 servings):

32 ounces of plain low fat yogurt
5 radishes
1 carrot
1/2 red bell pepper
1 stalk celery (cut so you can take the strings out)
1 tomato (I actually used about 8 to 10 grape tomatoes)
1 chili pepper (if you like a little heat, I used a serrano chili and it did not overwhelm with heat)
5 garlic cloves
3 green onions (use the green, unless it is dried out)
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 handful kale or baby kale
1 handful spinach leaves
1 handful beet greens *
3 inch piece seedless cucumber
2 stems of fresh mint, stems and leaves
1 handful fresh parsley, stems and leaves
1 inch piece of ginger, aka, ginger root, peeled 

Rinse the veggies and herbs well. No need to chop, chop, chop; just put them into a blender whole, or cut into pieces so they will fit. Add all of the ingredients to the blender and blend until you have a smooth mixture, although you will likely still have to chew the veggie bits. Of course, it might just be my cheap ass... ah... my cost efficient blender.   

* For my article on roasted beets, here is the link, they are excellent:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/06/roasted-beets.html 

WORD HISTORY: 
Vegetable-This word, distantly related to "vigor" (British spelling: vigour), "watch," and "wake,"^ goes back to Indo European "weg/wek," which had the notion, "to be active, to be lively." This gave Latin "vegere," with the same general meaning; thus also, "to excite, to cause to move about." This produced the adjective "vegetus," meaning, "active, lively." This then produced the verb "vegetare," meaning, "to invigorate, to stimulate, to enliven." This produced the Latin adjective "vegetabilis," meaning, "having the capability to grow, be growing (that is, 'be alive')." This carried into Old French, a Latin-based language, as "vegetable," meaning, "growing, living," gradually with this applying to plants in general. English borrowed the adjective circa 1400, and from this developed the noun of the same spelling, but also applying to plants of any type. It took until about the mid 1700s for the noun to gradually be used for "certain plants bearing edible produce (thus also, that edible produce of certain plants)."  

^ "Vigor" (vigour) is not a native English word, but rather it is a Latin derived word borrowed by English from French, but both "watch" and "wake" are English words, going back to Old Germanic. The reason I say the words are distantly related, is that the original relationship goes back to Indo European.