Papaya Juice

This is a no-brainer & I am sure most of you have tried this at least once.

Warning
"It is speculated that unripe papayas may cause miscarriage due to its latex content that may cause uterine contractions which may lead to a miscarriage, though this has never been proven. Papaya seed extracts in large doses showed to have a contraceptive effect on rats and monkeys, but in small doses were shown to have no effect on the unborn animals - Allergies and side-effects - wikipedia for Papaya"

Ingredients(for three)

• 500g of Papaya (I used one half shown in the picture)
• 3 table spoons of sugar
• 3 glasses of water
  

Steps

1. Completely remove the part attached to the stem(if not, this can introduce some bitterness)
2. Remove seeds, peel off the skin & put the remainder to blender
3. Add sugar, one glass of water & blend until all pieces disappear
   
4. Add more water & blend for 15 seconds
   

Things to try

• Deep freeze the fruit before starting. This will bring-in cooling effect which is neither too much nor too little.
• Instead of adding water, you can try ice cubes. Just make sure your blender can deal with ice before doing so ;-)

Keep in mind

• Do not add too much sugar. Papaya already has sugar & you should only add sugar to match the amount of water you add in.
• Papaya juice has this tendency to get melted once it's open to air, which can be an unpleasant experience to some. So fill in the glasses when your about to serve.
• Do not keep the juice in open air. It gets staled very quickly.
  

Here's how it came out ..

Wood-Apple juice

Wood-apple (elephant-apple) is a seasonal fruit in Sri Lanka. It's rich with Calcium & Protein.

Ingredients(for three)

1. one wood-apple (medium size)
2. 5 - 6 table spoons of sugar
3. 3 - 4 glasses of water

Steps

1. Scrape the wood-apple content to the blender
2. Add 1 glass of water (so that blender blade can rotate freely) & sugar
   
3. Blend until you see all the big pieces no more
4. Add rest of the water & blend for 10 seconds

Things to try

1. Some add coconut milk instead of water. But I hate it for two reasons. One, coconut takes away the natural taste of wood-apple. Two, I am not good @ making coconut milk. :-)
   

Strawberry juice

Wify has been asking for strawberry juice for sometime. But I had a hard time finding fresh strawberry on super markets I visit regularly. Finally managed to buy some & here's how the drink came up. Since this is my first time with strawberry, had to be careful with not adding too much water or sugar. I was particularly amazed @ the amount of red colour one piece of strawberry could add in.




Ingredients (2 persons)

1. 6 pieces of strawberry (medium size)
2. 3 - 4 table spoons of sugar

Things to try

1. You can try adding some ripe guava. This will add a nice smoothie taste to the drink.
2. Mix with yoghurt
3. Do not add too much sugar or water. Strawberry has some water inside & it's ideal if you blend it first with very little amount of water as possible, taste it & add more water as needed.
   

Here's how it came up....

Star Fruit (Kamaranka) Juice

(preparation details pending)

About Star Fruit (Kamaranka - in Sinhalese)

Papaya + Mango juice

(preparation details pending ;-))

Cold tea

Ingredients (for one person)

1. 1/4 cup of boiling water
2. 1 tea bag
3. 1 table spoon of sugar
4. 1 drop of vanilla
5. 1/2 table spoon of lime juice
6. 1/2 cup of ice water
7. 3-4 ice cubs
   

Steps

1. Prepare tea using boiling water as usual
2. Add vanilla & let it season for 1-2 minutes
3. Add tea, cold water, lime & ice cubes together
4. Blend a bit (to crush ice cubes into small pieces - do not make them too small)
   

Things to try (or avoid)

• Do not add lime to hot water, it will kill the taste & nourishment
• I find Green tea unsuitable for this.
• You might want to add few drops of ginger
  

Finally,

• Clean up the mess

Carrot Drink

Ingredients

1. 2 Medium size(5 inches) Carrots
2. 4 table spoons of lime
3. 5 table spoons of Sugar
   

Steps

1. Slice off top part of the carrot (section where leaves fit in - it tastes bad)
2. Cut the carrots into pieces & put them to blender jug
3. Add lime
4. Add sugar and one glass of water
5. Blend until you see carrot pieces no more
6. Add two more glasses, blend for some more time & serve
   

Things to try

• If you do not like the taste of Carrot, add more lime.
  

Finally,

• Clean up the mess