Udupi cuisine turns the choicest of fruits into delicious drinks. This drink is called hesale, hershale in Konkani and are called rasayana in Kannada.
Bananas or cantaloupe/musk melon/honey dew melons are paired with beaten rice in jaggery sweetened coconut milk, which is then flavoured with cardamom, to make a delicious drink. You can also savour this drink as a dessert too. A healthy, cooling, summer drink.
If bananas are used then this drink is called kele heshale/hershale in Konkani. And if amazingly flavourful cantaloupe/musk melon/honey dew melons are used to make this drink then it’s called chibbda hashale in Konkani. These are delicious traditional summer drinks.
Konkani cuisine adores chibbad, the Konkani word for musk melon. A local variety of melon available in Udupi, Mangalore regions, which is white, elongated and is much more muskier :-) ;-) I mean flavourful, is used to make chibbda hesale. Not sure of the scientific name of this variety. It is used only after it fully ripens to make this drink. We let it fully ripen to the extent that it's skin comes off by itself when you try to peel it. That's when these melons are pillowy soft and they just melt in your mouth when you bite into them.
You can also use cantaloupe, honey dew melon, musk melon to make this drink. They'll taste great and are nutritious too. These melons are high in Vitamin A & C.
You can make this drink, enjoy it chilled and store it only for a day. They tend to get spoilt after that as it's made of coconut milk. Our ancestors have enjoyed this drink from ages during hot summers. Serve a chilled glass of chibbda harshale to anyone and I'm sure they'll love it! In Kannada this musk melon drink is called ebudla hannena rasayana.
Here's the recipe for you:
Ingredients:
Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 20-25 minutes
Preparation Method:
1. Peel the musk melon. Deseed it. Then chop it into tiny, bite sized cubes.
2. Grind grated coconut with a cup of water. Strain the coconut milk into a vessel.
3. Add another 1/2 cup of water to the ground, grated coconut and grind it again. Strain all of the coconut milk into the same vessel as above.
4. Add powdered jaggery to this coconut milk and mix well. Make sure jaggery dissolves in the coconut milk.
5. Add cubed musk melon, cardamom powder to the coconut milk.
6. Also, add in washed, strained beaten rice to the sweetned coconut milk and mix well.
7. Serve this drink chilled or as is and enjoy!
P.S: Adjust the amount of jaggery you add according to your palate.
Here are a few more traditional drinks: Poppy seeds juice, Sesame juice, Green gram juice, Hibiscus Juice, Finger millet juice.
Tags: Musk melon, cantaloupe, honey dew melon, chibbad, chibda hashale, hershale, hesale, summer drink, traditional juice, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani recipe, Konkani food, Konkani dish.
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