Saunf Ka Pani/Fennel Seeds Water

Fennel seeds are most fragnant and flavourful seeds with many culinary and medicinal uses. Fennel seeds carry with them a bundle of home remedies for curing many diseases. In ancient times, fennel was regarded as a food of the Gods and eating it allowed a person to achieve knowledge of the Gods.

HOME REMEDIES:
Roasted fennel is a tried and tested remedy for relieving gas and stomach acid, and other painful stomach disorders related to digestion. Regular chewing of fennel seeds after meal helps in curing the problems like indigestion, dyspepsia, constipation, foul breath and vomiting. Soak a tbsp of fennel seeds in a cup of water overnight and cleaning eyes with that water helps to cure puffy eyes and sore eyes. Fennel water also helps in curing pain and cramps during menstruation.

MEDICINAL USES:
Consumption of fennel seeds with figs help in curing the problem of cough, lung abscesses and bronchitis. Fennel seeds are also considered as great herbal tonic for eyes.

CULINARY USES:
The seeds give a distinctive flavor to baked goodies like bread, cakes and cookies. Fennel Seed added to meatballs or meat loaf gives an authentic Italian flavor. Sauté fennel Seed with sliced peppers, onion, and sausage for a quick pasta sauce. It is an essential ingredient of the Assamese/Bengali cuisine/Oriya spice mixture panch phoron and in Chinese five-spice powders.

INGREDIENTS:

• ½ cup Fennel seeds/Saunf
• 3-4 tbsp Sugar crystals/Sugar/Misri
• 1 lit Water

PREPERATION:

• Clean and wash fennel seeds. In a cooking vessel, add water and fennel seeds. Cook till water turns aromatic (nearly 5-6 min). Strain and leave it to cool under room temperature.
• Stir in sugar, till it dissolves and consume.

This fennel water is going to participate in JFI-Fennel hosted by Siri of Siri's Corner, event by Indira of Mahanandi.

BEAUTY TIP:
Fennel is a cleansing and medicating herb, and can be used for a steam facial for opening pores and rejuvenating facial skin.

MOUTH FRESHENER:

Fennel seeds are served with sugar as an after-meal mouth freshener. (Dry roast fennel seeds, leave it to cool. Once cooled, add sugar (optional) and store in an air tight jar)

Flavoured Saunf/Colored Saunf/Paan Supari/Mouth Freshner/Mithi Supari/Sweet Saunf is a mixture of fennel seeds with betel nut powder and other flavourful and aromatic ingredients. This mixture is commonly used as mouth freshener and also in making flavourful paan (flavoured betel leaf wrap).

Fresh Fruit(s) Salad With Fond Childhood Memories

If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older. ~Tom Stoppard

It’s always a true pleasure to grow with younger siblings in the house. I am blessed with very pretty younger sister whose mind is always flooded with ten thousand doubts when she was a kid. Some doubts use to twist my brain at times, but I always enjoyed teaching her new things and helping her with her doubts….when she was in her second class (me and my sister share a huge age gap of 7 years), her teacher was nine months pregnant. And the bulge always raised many questions in the little mind of my sis….Being a bright and smart kid she was always pampered by the teachers. One fine day my sister asked her teacher, why her belly is bulging like balloon….and as she felt little difficult to answer a 5 ½ year old kid…she said…she is suffering from a sickness called pregnant, where the stomach bulges like balloon and that too it is very painful, so she can’t stand and teach…This went very straight into my sister’s head…and one day when my father was dropping us at school, suddenly my sister started shouting….go slow…go slow daddy….road is pregnant…road is pregnant….my father who was driving got shocked…surprised and slowed down…..he asked my sis, Why was she shouting like that? Actually there was a speed breaker on the road…and by seeing that my sister thought, the road is ill and it is pregnant and if we go on it, it will be painful for the road….that’s the mind of a kid…pure, natural and free of worldly things….Whenever we walk and go by that lane, she never use to walk on the speed breaker till she came to know what is it actually….Now sometimes we tease her by showing speed breakers and telling her how she used to behave being a kid….incidents like this always make a perfect childhood memory….a memory which may become dull by time but never forgotten….

Some days back I won DORSET CEREALS – Berries & Cherries Bars as giveaway conducted by My Cooking Hut. Thank you for Leemei for sending down these yummy bars…These bars gave me the idea of making fresh fruit salad tossed with cereals…..So here is something really very simple, colorful, nutritious, healthy, juicy and with full of vitamins and minerals - a bowl of goodness as I call it....

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Banana peeled and sliced
• 1 Apple, cubed
• 1 Orange, peeled and filleted
• ½ cup Pomegranate seeds
• ½ cup green Grapes
• ½ cup Watermelon, deseeded and cubed
• ½ cup Star fruit, sliced
• ½ cup Guava, cubed
• 1 Berries & Cherries Bar

PREPERATION:

• Gently mix all the fruits in a large bowl and serve in small serving bowls tossed with chopped Dorset Cereal –Berries & Cherries Bar.
• Last but not least add your 'love' to make the dish 'YUMMY'.

VARIATIONS:
Chatpata Fruit Salad: To give little spicy and tangy taste to fruit salad add, 1 tbsp of chat masala, pepper powder and salt to mixed fruits.

Honey Fruit Salad: To give little sweetness to the fruit salad, add 1-2 tbsp of honey and mix well.

Creamy Fruit Salad: Add a gorgeous spoon of thick cream to the bowl of mixed fruits, to give a creamy texture to the salad

Fruit Salad With Ice cream: A generous scoop of plain Vanilla or your choice of ice cream when topped on mixed fruits….royal indulgence is all what I can say….

This gorgeous bowl of fresh fruit(s) salad is going to participate in Show Me Your Salad event by Divya of Dil Se, Carnival of Salads event by Cook Like A Bong and also to No Cook Event by PJ of Seduce Your Tastebuds.