Panakam is a traditional festive sweet drink and is best suited for summer. It is the main neivedyam at all the temples and houses on Sri Rama Navami in India. Panakam is prepared with jaggery, dry ginger, cardamom and pepper making it rich with medicinal value.
Ingredients:
Jaggery (grated) 1 cup
Water 3 cups
Dry ginger power (sunti) ¼ tsp
Cardamom powder ½ tsp
Lemon juice 1 tbsp
Pepper corn (crushed) 3 – 4
Procedure for preparing Panakam:
1. Dissolve the grated jaggery is water.
2. Filter the jaggery to remove impurities.
3. Add dry ginger power, pepper corn (crushed), cardamom power and lemon juice and filter it.
4. Mix well and offer panakam as neivedyam for God.
On Sri Rama Navami, in temples panakam is normally served chill, stored in earthen pots which make it cool naturally on this hot summer day.
