When you think about ‘sherbets’, we bet your childhood comes to mind – long, sultry summer afternoons where the only way to beat the incessant heat was by drinking a tall glass of an iced, homemade drink made by a mother or a grandmother. Whether it smelled of roses or was tangy with the zing of citrus, if something could be turned into a cooler, our families invariably did it during the unbearable Indian summer. Long before there were colas in the market, there were sherbets at home.

For a month or so, every summer, before the pre-monsoon hits North India, the early morning calm is eerily shattered by sharp calls of “Kaaley kaaley phaalsey! Khattey meethey phaalsey!” We rush to our balconies and haggle over the seemingly astronomical price of these tiny bombs of tangy flavor. And then we get the small paper bag of berries, add in some rock salt and proceed to demolish the entire hoard in one sitting – that’s how addictive their taste is. The salt complements the intriguing taste of the berries – and that’s exactly what we’ve replicated in this khatta-meetha Phaalsa Sherbet from Ammiji’s.

Cooked over slow flame for a minimum of 10 hours, this sherbet has the distinctive taste of phaalsa, sweetened with sugar and then amplified by the addition of black salt, ginger and cumin. All you have to do is to pour out a generous amount in a glass, add cold water and ice, and drink up and taste the summer.

This sherbet contains no preservatives and no additives. It is available for a limited time only.

The king of all pickles, they say. We agree. Or at least, the non-vegetarian in us agrees! Boneless chicken chunks and mince, pickled with the choicest spices.

A couple of us - Ammiji’s grandchildren - were in boarding school. When we returned home in the long winter break, it was as skinny, malnutritioned shadows of our robust Punjabi selves. Ammiji did her best to fatten us up during the vacations – paranthas laden with butter, lassi, halwas and thick, nutritious gravies were a daily treat. And then when it was time to go back to the boarding school, she sent us off with love, admonishments, instructions and a humungous jar of her classic chicken pickle. “If you don’t like what they serve in the dining room, just eat this pickle with roti or rice,” she’d tell us. We never told her that her huge jar of pickle was wiped clean in under a week – our friends loved it as much as we did! (Some people befriended us just to lay hands on that pickle, but that’s another story…)

So, of course, we just had to do Ammiji’s Punjabi Chicken Pickle! When we asked Ammiji to give us her recipe, she feigned amnesia. And then she was affronted when we called her out on it. “I’ve NEVER shared this recipe with anyone; I didn’t even tell my sisters when they asked for it. And now you want me to tell you all my secrets?” But then we reminded her of the joy she’d be bringing to so many people, and she relented with a sniff and a gruff “Theek hai pher!”

Ammiji’s secret was in making the pickle like you would a curry. The oil was turned into a thick gravy with the addition of ground spices and chicken mince. And we’ve followed the same process. There are boneless bite-sized chicken pieces, chicken mince and spices, all preserved in cold-pressed mustard oil. Balancing the flavours in this pickle took us a few months, but it was worth the wait! (And truth to tell, we loved sampling all the various samples during these months :D)

This pickle acts as a side to your meals or you can take a leaf out of our book – turn it into the main meal itself! It’s also perfect road trip material. Cold, thin paranthas with Ammiji’s Punjabi Chicken Pickle….mmm, heaven!

If you’re a non-vegetarian, then this pickle is what you need in your life to make it complete. That might sound dramatic, but trust us, we speak from years of eating this pickle! ;)

Please note: There are no preservatives in this pickle.

Ingredients: Boneless chicken, Salt, Turmeric, Green Chilli, Red Chilli, Black Pepper, Cinnamom, Clove, Mustard seeds, Nigella seeds, Fenugreek seeds, Fennel, Aniseed, Pipli, Corainder, Cumin, Dried mango powder, Cold-pressed Mustard oil.

Weight: 275 gms

Price: Rs 800 700

Good for: 3 months

Refrigerate after opening.

Ammiji’s Rasbhari Chutney

 Big, fat, golden rasbharis, made into a sweet-sour-spicy chutney. Because jams are passé and chutneys are here to stay.

 Spring was the season that Ammiji’s garden burst into bloom. It was also the season that big cane baskets of ripe Cape Gooseberries arrived in Ammiji’s verandah. Before neat bunches of peeled Rasbhari appeared on fruit carts, the fruit was delivered with the peels on. And wouldn’t you guess it – it was the job of us kids to peel them. Ammiji’s strict instructions about not bruising them while peeling fell to deaf ears. And there was no question of bruising – we ate all the rasbharis that were even slightly marked during the peeling. (We also ate a lot that were perfectly fine, but we don’t tell that to Ammiji.)

 Once the rasbharis were peeled, Ammiji placed them in small bowls around the house – to be eaten as is. But she reserved a large amount of them to make one of her favourite chutneys. Ammiji’s Rasbhari Chutney lasted us throughout the early summer. We would sit in front of the cooler, and eat the chutney with thin, cold ajwain paranthas and the season’s first melons.

 For us, the Rasbhari Chutney is not just another chutney – it is nostalgia and emotion and memory in a jar. It is a grandmother’s passion for giving her children and grandchildren the best that she could, with whatever resources she laid her hands on. And we hope to replicate her passion with this chutney.

 Ammiji’s recipe for her Rasbhari Chutney not only has the super nutritious cape gooseberries, but also incorporates raw turmeric, bolstered by cumin and black pepper. Each spoon of this chutney will not only provide you with deliciousness, but with the good intentions of a grandmother’s heart.

Pair this chutney with anything that your heart desires. We promise that it will taste good on any plate that you want to put it on!

Ingredients: Cape gooseberries, Salt, Jaggery, Sugar, Lemon, Cumin, Cinnamon, Fenugreek seeds, Bay leaves, Raw turmeric, Black pepper, Mustard Oil

 Weight: 200 gm

 Price: Rs 500 400

 Good for: 3 months

Keep this chutney refrigerated. Use only a clean, dry spoon to scoop out Ammiji’s deliciousness.

Take a trip down any Punjab highway in the winters and you’ll see swathes of tiny yellow flowers waving happily in the sun. This image of mustard fields that a movie made famous is synonymous with romance now, but it has meant much, much more to us Punjabis. It’s meant renewal, prosperity, hope and faith in the circle of life.

Bright afternoon sunlight, gently undulating mustard fields set against eucalyptus groves, the smell of the earth – we’ve tried to capture the very essence of a Punjabi winter in this small jar.

At the close of every winter, Ammiji used to buy a huge quantity of Sarson ka Saag. She used to make half of it into the now famous saag recipe and the rest was reserved for this pickle. The pickle was made slowly, lovingly, and was put away till she started missing her favorite greens in the summer months. We’ve used her recipe and we’ve attempted to replicate her love with this pickle. 

Mustard stalks and leaves and coarsely torn and pickled in mustard oil and a unique blend of spices. The pickle turns sour in a few weeks and after that, it’s sheer bliss. 

Ingredients: Mustard greens, Salt, Turmeric, Red Chilli, Pipli, Mustard seeds, Nigella seeds, Coriander, Cumin, Fenugreek, Garam Masala, Mustard Oil.

Weight: 175 gm

Good for 6 months

Refrigerate for longer shelf life

Please note: This is a limited edition seasonal item, and we only have a few jars available. The next batch of this pickle will only be made in the winters. Get your jar now!