Festivals – Dating Flavors

Thandai

Extremely refreshing, cooling and a delicious drink!!
Packed with nutty flavor and fragrant spices. A perfect drink for Holi

Ingredients

1/4 cup whole almond
1/4 cup whole cashew
2 tablespoon whole pistachios
12 whole black peppercorn
10 whole green cardamoms
1 tablespoon dry rose petals
1 tablespoon white poppy seeds
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon melon seeds
8 to 10 saffron

Instructions

Grind all the above ingredients together into a fine powder.
(Do not over grind the nuts as it will release their oil and get into lumps)
Add about 2 spoons in a cup of milk and stir in some sugar to make it sweet. Have it chilled. You can also add this powder to boiling milk, refrigerate and serve it chilled

Custard Apple Rabdi (Sitaphal Rabdi)

An Indian sweet which is creamy and extremely delicious. Rabdi has a rich texture. Flavored with cardamom, saffron and rose water, makes this dish a must try for any festival.

Ingredients
750 ml milk
2 custard apple pulp ( ripe and sweet, mashed well)
Handful pistachios and almonds chopped
A pinch of cardamom powder
Few drops of rose water
Saffron few strands

Instructions
In a thick pan , add milk, bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let the milk reduce to 1/4 of its quantity. Make sure you keep stirring in between. Once the milk is thickened, add the cardamom powder, rose water, saffron and chopped nuts. Cook it for 5 mins.

Add the pulp, stir it in for 1 min and mash it, so its well blended.. put the fire off. Let it cool completely and serve.

Note: Incase the pulp is not sweet enough , you can add 1 or 2 tbsp of powdered sugar after you add the pulp mixture to the milk.