Thandai

Indian Cooking Recipe : Thandai

Ingredients :

1 kg sugar
½ kg water
40-50 almonds
½ katori saunf
30 cardamom pods
¼ katori black peppercorns whole
1 tbsp khuskhus
½ tsp rose water
1 tbsp kharbooj / tarbooj seeds skinned

Method :

Bring Sugar and water to boil.
After making sure all the sugar is dissolved remove from heat and cool completely.
Clean all other dry ingredients.
Soak each in water separately for 3-4 hours.
Drain all soaked ingredients.
Peel the almonds.
Blend all the ingredients to a very fine paste.
Place a strainer over a vessel and strain the blended liquid, pressing with back of a spoon, extracting the liquid into vessel.
Add more syrup, a little at a time to extract more.
Pour back husk with some more syrup and blend again, strain and repeat till all the syrup is gone and residue becomes dry and husk like.
Your thandai concentrate is now ready to be stored in clean airtight glass bottles. It has a shelf life (refrigerated) of 6 months.
Ready to serve.
Blend milk, thandai and few ice cubes and serve chilled in tall glasses.