Photograph: Kind courtesy: Charles Haynes/ Wikimedia Commons
While fasting for Mahashivratri, you need a range of liquids to sustain yourself. In the South, the drink of choice is Ginger Coffee.
It’s a simple beverage that is plenty fortifying. Incidentally, though it is called a coffee, it has no coffee powder in it
South Indian Ginger Coffee
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 100 gm sunth or sukku or whole dried ginger
- 1 cup hot milk
- 1 cup boiling water
- Jaggery to taste, about 2 tsp
- Pinch green elaichi or cardamom powder, optional
Method
- Roast the whole dry ginger in a frying pan over low to medium heat
Powder finely after it cools. - In a saucepan add 1 tsp of sukku powder (don’t add more or it will be too strong).
Then add the boiling water and give it 2 minutes to settle.
Then add the hot milk.
Tthen add the jaggery and cardamom.
Serve in 2 steel cups piping hot. - Store the excess sukku powder in the fridge.
Editor’s Note: Kerala sukku is of the best quality. Adding milk is also optional. The quanity of sukku powder you add to you drink depends on taste. You can try out the flavour initially by adding slightly less sukku powder and see how it suits you.
You could consider adding sukku powder to regular coffee, distill and drink.
