Panagam

When I was reading an interesting book "Monsoon Diary" by Shoba Narayan , I came across the recipe for Panagam. It is a prasadam/drink served at the temples of Andhra Pradesh on Shri Ram Navmi day. It has dry ginger and jaggery. I do not know the significance of Shri Ram Navmi and dry ginger because I remember eating dry ginger powder mixed with sugar for Shri Ram Navmi prasad in Mumbai as well. We call it "Sunth Sakhar". Whether you make it dry sunth sakhar or panagam, that dry ginger is packed with a pungent punch!! I made this "Panagam" on the Ram Navmi day this year.

I also found an article written by Shoba Narayan with the following recipe here.

Panagam
Recipe by Shoba Narayan in Monsoon Diary
Ingredients
3 tbsp jaggery
1 pinch cardamom powder
1 small piece dried ginger
1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 cups water
Few strands of saffron (my addition!)

Method
1. Powder the jaggery and the dried ginger well.
2. Take water and add the above powders and the cardamom powder.
3. Add salt, and the lime or lemon juice.
4. Stir well and serve.

Note -
1. I added a few strands of saffron.
2. I halved the recipe.

This post is my contribution to RCI: Andhra Festival Foods at Vani's batasari.
Regional cuisines of India (RCI) event is started by Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine