Strawberry Milk Shake with Homemade Strawberry Syrup.And a POMWonderful contest Entry.

"Most people associate vitamin C with oranges, but if you look at oranges versus strawberries, ounce per ounce, strawberries actually contain more vitamin C than oranges." A Doc at Center for Human Nutrition
In fact Strawberries have 58mg of Vitamin C verses 50 mg in Oranges.

Not an exciting fact, for folks living were Strawberries are not readily available as Oranges.Growing up in bustling city of Hyderabad(south India) with 365 days of sunshine,strawberries were considered exotic rare fruit and too pricey for daily consumption ,unless you live around the spectacular hill station of Mahabaleshwar(in Western Central Indian province), the hub of Indian Strawberries.

picture courtesy Wikipedia and Sydney alvares at Sulekha.com

In this Indian Grand canyon,known for the scenic hill side drives and misty romantic boat rides,the juicy strawberry farms flourish more than any other region in India.I remember tasting my first strawberry during my memorable visit to this beautiful place few years back.The farm fresh strawberry milk shakes and ice creams sold at the fruit stalls have the unbeatable succulent flavor.The region is also famous for purest honey , tastiest fresh jams and the huge variety of chikkis(Jaggery and nuts candy).

Fast forward 6 years to were I live now in the frozen north(it literally is at this time of the year),thankfully strawberries are available throughout the season,little more in abundance and a few cents cheaper during summer .

Next only to chocolate ,I love to flavor my plain milk with strawberries.But mind you unlike hot cocoa,the strawberry milk shake has to be made cold.Even slight heating can easily curdle the milk shake,and tastes best when chilled.With strawberry syrup the milk shake is smoother cause the seeds have been filtered and not to mention the tasty berry flavor is sure to get the 'ICK' out of picky eaters who dislike milk.

Ingredients
For syrup
12-15 fresh strawberries,washed and sliced
1 cup of water
2 tablespoon sugar(optional,I excluded it)

For Milk Shake
3 tablespoon strawberry syrup
2 cups of Reduced fat Organic Milk or Soy milk or Almond Milk or Oat milk

Method
To make the syrup
Combine the syrup ingredients in a saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil,stir occasionally,cook for about 20 minutes. Allow mixture to cool slightly, then process in a blender or food processor ,pour through a strainer in to a storage container,this removes the strawberries seeds from the syrup. Can be stored in a sterilized container for about 2 weeks.Drizzle on toast,ice-creams or use it to flavor the cold milk.
To make the milk shake
Stir in the desired amount(about 2 tablespoon for 1 cup) of prepared strawberry syrup(completely cooled) in to the cold or room temperature milk.Enjoy!


For more kid friendly recipes join in the Cooking for kids food event,featured ingredient this month is milk\cheese ,hosted Preety's Kitchen.

POMWonderful contest

Remember this irresistibly delicious pie I baked last fall with divine POM pomegranates.On Judy's request I'm sending this to the POMWonderful contest at Judy's Kitchen.