Mango Lassi/Loshi

Mango Lassi might be the world's most perfect summer drink. It's called Aam Loshi in Bengali (I was taught to make this by a certain Bengali gentleman). You can make lassi with pistachios, but I have yet to venture down that road, in no small part because of how much I like the mango variety.

This isn't a recipe, per se, because every single ingredient can basically be listed as "to taste." The important thing to remember is to taste the mango pulp before you use it, because the taste can be vastly different from batch to batch on the sweet-to-tart scale. But I promise you, all the tweaking will be worth it.

Recipe:

2 cups non-fat plain yogurt

1 cup mango pulp (Kesar brand is best)

2-3 tbsp. sugar

1-2 pinches cinnamon (optional)

1-2 pinches ground cardamom (optional)

a few crushed cashews (optional garnish)

Directions:

1) Combine the first 5 ingredients in a blender, and blend until everything is combined.

2) Taste and tweak if necessary

3) Serve in glasses with ice, garnish with crushed cashews

4) Enjoy and try not to hog it all

Until our next dinner,

ceh.