Tank up this Holi: Thandai

There’s nothing that matches the cool, refreshing taste of the milky thandai, on a warm, sunny afternoon; More so, after a long, exhausting round of playing Holi with your folks. We suggest you make a batch well in advance and leave it in your refrigerator to chill.

Ingredients and Method:

This recipe is prepared with a combination of dry nuts, rose petal paste (gulkand), safforn strands, black peppercorns, fennel seeds, charmagaz (mixed melon seeds) and spices. The use of all these nuts and spices is what makes this drink so soothing and refreshing.

To make this drink, all the nuts, and seeds are grounded to their powdered form and later added to the boiled milk. Once the spice-mix is added to the milk, allow it to sit for a while (an hour or more) so that it can soak in all the flavours. Later sieve it through a strainer and enjoy!

Tips:

1.  Soaking saffron strands in hot milk releases its colour and flavour.
2. Pour in rose water, after the thandai is cooled. Pour it in bits so you can taste as you go along.
3. No rose spread/gulkand (sweet preserve of rose petals) on hand? No worries. Flavour the thandai recipe with double the quantity of rose water. Adding dried rose petals to thandai will also elevate its taste and boost its flavour.

Thandai tastes best when served chilled.