Solkadhi

It is a drink, and the pink comes from kokum skins.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 ml thick coconut milk
• 12 dried kokum skins, agal
• 300 ml warm water, for the kokum
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 green chillies
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar, optional
• 20 g coriander leaves, chopped

Method

1. IT IS A DRINK, AND THE PINK COMES FROM KOKUM SKINS. Its article is specific about both: solkadhi is a type of PROBIOTIC DRINK, an appetizer usually consumed with rice or sometimes after a meal, made from coconut milk and DRIED KOKUM SKINS, WHOSE ANTHOCYANIN PIGMENTS PROVIDE A DEEP PURPLE-PINK COLOUR. So the colour is a fruit pigment and nothing is added for it, and the dish is poured rather than spooned. It is also the only Indian dish here with no cooking in it at all.
2. THE KOKUM IS SOAKED, NOT BOILED. Twelve skins in warm water for half an hour, then squeezed and the liquid strained. Boiling dulls both the colour and the sourness.
3. THE WATER MUST BE WARM AND NOT HOT. Anthocyanins are the pigments in red cabbage and blackcurrant, and heat turns them brown.
4. THE COCONUT MILK IS THICK AND GOES IN COLD. Five hundred millilitres. Thin coconut milk gives a watery drink with no body to carry the sourness.
5. THE GARLIC AND CHILLI ARE CRUSHED TO A PASTE, NOT CHOPPED. Its article names a CHILI-GARLIC PASTE for taste. Chopped, they sit at the bottom of the glass.
6. IT IS MIXED AND NOT HEATED AT ANY POINT. Coconut milk and kokum extract both split or dull with heat, and the dish depends on neither happening.
7. IT IS SERVED CHILLED, WHICH ITS ARTICLE SAYS. And stirred again just before pouring, because the coconut separates as it stands.
8. THE SUGAR IS OPTIONAL AND SMALL. A teaspoon rounds off the kokum; more makes it a cordial.
9. ITS ARTICLE SAYS WHEN IT IS DRUNK AND WHY. As a digestive AFTER SPICY MEALS, particularly fish-based ones.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes