Snow Cones

Snow,

Such a beautiful feeling. Everywhere and everything will be covered in white blanket. Cool breeze (more like freezer). Christmas eve, decorations, gifts, get to together, quality time with family members, making snow man, snow angel these are the things i have seen in hollywood movies as i have never had a personal snow fall experience in my life (But i would love to), by seeing those movies i fell in love with snow . I belong to India that too south, here in December it will be cold more like 20 to 22 degree, minimum cold temperature we feel here. so there is no chance of snow here. anyway enough about me..

I would like to present snow cones more like snow cups in Indian version of flavours

Step 1: Ingredients

I decide to make fruit syrup and then thought about it , why not vegetable syrup also ?!? right

1) Pineapple - 3-4 slices

2) Black Grapes - 100 grams

3) Beetroot - 2 Nos

4) Mint leaves - small bunch

5) Tamarind - 20 g

6) Brown Sugar - For Each concentrate 1tsp as they have natural sweet in them, for mint leaves i added 2tsp and a personal favourite, you'll come to know the special ingredient in the specific step of mint leaves down below

You can add white sugar if you prefer

Here quantity is not a big deal since its as per requirement and

6) Last but not least ICE cubes - A bucket ... Kidding !! .. 2 cup of Ice cubes

Step 2: Pine Apple Juice

1. Cut the pineapples slices into small pieces

2. Put in the tawa , add sugar

3. Saute it for a minute or so

4. Add little amount of water, let's say 20 ml and sugar will dissolve let the pineapple boil in it for 5 mins

5. After boiling you'll sense a exotic aroma of pineapple..hmmmmm what a smell.. switch it off and let it cool down to room temperature

6. Once cooled put it in mixie, i added little bit water and grinded it as fine puree.

7. Pour the puree in filter and remove the coarse particles. you'll end up with pineapple juice...

Step 3: Grapes Puree

1. Add Grapes, water and sugar and let it boil

2. Keep stirring for the sugar to dissolve

3. Grapes will bulge and dissolved sugar will create bubbles , when grapes started bulging, i was little bit scared fearing that grapes might burst.. crazy isn't it ... as this was my first time.. i stayed far away for few minutes stirred once in while and stood back. Lucky for me no bursting happened :P

4. Slowly the grapes starts loosing colours

5. Give it nice boil for 15 to 20 mins

6. Grapes will become mushy, remove from heat and set it aside for cooling down.

7. Once cooled remove the seeds and grind it and filter out the grape puree

Tip: I think jams are also made in this way, because once its cooled down it was little but spongy.. i added water and made it consistency less

Step 4: Beet Root Extract

1. Peel the skin, cut in small pieces add sugar

2. Add water, saute it, let the bubbling begin

3. Water will turn into super cute pink, let it boil, once boiled remove from heat

4. Grind into smooth paste, filter the actual veggie and extract the juice

Step 5: Mint Leaves

1. same blah blah blah...

2. Add mint, water and sugar, start boiling... as mentioned earlier in the ingredient list. I mentioned about special ingredient i.e., chilli .. yup its gonna be combo of sweet & spicy..

3. Grind it, add little more water, filter out the residue and keep the extract aside

Step 6: Tamarind Pulp

Here comes my personal favourite tasty tangy yet sweet flavoured tamarind

1. Soak the tamarind ball in water (1 : 3) ratio for 30 mins

2. Extract the pulp manually by squeezing inside water

3. Pour in tawa, add sugar (if its a sweet tamarind cut down the sugar part)

4. Let it boil nicely for 15 to 20 mins

5. It will turn from watery form to paste form, let it cool down

6. It was tasting really good , i had tingling feeling in my mouth.. hmmm yumm

Step 7: Juice, Extract, Puree and Paste Is Ready

Step 8: Piping

I had lot of ideas in my mind for decorating, unfortunately all my syrup so to say become juice since i added water.. So i decided to add them it piping cake decorator, and give it a go.

Step 9: Snow Cones / Cups

Crush your ice using ice crusher or grind in mixer grinder, worked fine for me... I didn't have any cones readily available in home, all i had was cup cakes cups.. so that's the story of snow cones becoming snow cups.

Thank you for coming this far, if you are searching for pineapple extract in the picture, its along with grapes in the middle left... i have to send a search party to find it :P it was pale yellow as juice, i think i should have brought more ripened fruit... since added in ice it reduced the contrast of colour more

let me know your thoughts in the comment box