WATERMELON ICED TEA

I love iced tea...specially with lemon flavour.It is a perfect summer drink for me. Today I wanted to relax with a glass of iced tea...but not  with regular iced lemon tea..wanted to make it some innovative by adding some flavour....but which flavour?

Last April, I went to my native place, Calcutta..One day me and my best freind went for shopping...there we had watermelon iced tea from famous tea shop, Dolly's Tea House...the taste was really awesome.

 I love eating watermelon in the summer, so I always keep watermelon in fridge...so decided to make this chilled refreshing Watermelon Iced Tea.It is very easy to make at home  be using few simple ingredients. .If you are iced tea lover, then you will give this one a try because I promise you, this will be the only iced tea you will ended up loving it.

INGREDIENTS



Water -3 cups

tea bags-4

 watermelon cut into small cubes (6cups)

Honey -2tbsp

Lemon Juice-1

METHOD 

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the tea bags, remove from the heat, and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags and stir in the  honey. Pour the tea into a heat-resistant  pitcher and chill until cold, at least 1 hour.


Meanwhile, puree the watermelon  in a blender or food processor. Run the puree through a strainer, pressing on the pulp to extract the juice. Discard the pulp.


Stir the watermelon juice and lime juice into the chilled tea mixture and stir well.

Take serving  glasses, fill almost half the glass with ice cubes(iced tea brungs out the true flavour when it is chilled,so add loads of ice cubes to your glass before serving)...then pour the watermelon  tea.

Garnish with a piece of watermelon..and enjoy  this chilled refreshing Watermelon Iced Tea.

Karela Dal or Tito Dal or Moong Dal Cooked with Karela or Bitter Gour

                                  

Karela Dal or tetor dal  is a simple bengali cuisine, This recipe belongs to the first course of a Bengali lunch.
It is also called tetor dal because the taste of  Bitter gourd  is bitter by taste, and bitter is called teto in bengali language . It is best  with white steamed rice, specially  for a hot afternoon  in summer.

 Tito Dal or Karela Dal or Moong Dal Cooked  with Karela or Bitter gourd 


Ingredients :-

• Moong Dal-1cup
• Karela -1 (cut into thin  ring pieces )
• Mustard seeds -1/2tsp
• Dry Red Chilli -2 
• Gingere or Adrak (paste )-1tsp
• Ghee-1/2tsp
• Salt to taste 
• Oil-2tbsp
• Turmeric powder -1tsp 
• Jeera or Cumin powder -1tsp

Method 

Take a bowl,add moong dal ...wash it with water very well...then soak in the water for 15 minutes.

Take a pan...add  moong  dal and water and boil till the moong dal  is boiled .you can boil dal in pressure cooker also...inthat case switch off the gas after 1 whistle...

Now take another pan,add oil, add red chilli, mustard seeds.

Add bitter gourd and fry till golden brown.

Now add the boiled moong dal ,add salt,turmeric powder, cumin or jeera powder....

If required add some water and cover for 2-3 minutes..cook on medium flame 

Remove lid... add ghee and ginger paste...cover and cook for 2 minutes and switch off the flame.