I think I am still swooning to the tunes of
Dholi taro dhol baaje…
Dhol baaje, dhol baaje dhol…
Ke dham dham baaje dhol…
Now music and beats like these are sure to put you in the right with your feet doing the heavy-lifting as you dance your way through the night and day on those ‘Navratri’ nights. So to keep up the stamina required for this celebration too, we had requested Chef Tandon (of Pride Hotels) to suggest a refreshing yet energetic drink for this festive season. And thus we came to know the recipe for “Raas Peela”, a refreshing saffron flavored milk shake, sweetly blended with khurchan malai, gulkand, sugar candy, and cardamoms. It is a perfect combination for high-on-energy dandiya-garba raas revelers like me.
However, I liked the drink so much that I decided to also serve it to my American friends who coincidentally are going to be with me on this Christmas. As it is a blend of traditional yet lip-smacking flavors and with energy quotients of select dry fruits from the East, I thought it to be an ideal choice to go with one of the most important celebrations of the West and East.
Christmas Drink Preparing time – 20 minutes- serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 cups milk (use full cream milk)
- 250 gms sugar candy or artificial sweetener to taste
- 80 gms almonds, blanched and peeled (you can use ready blanched ones)
- 50 gms pistachios, blanched and peeled
- 1/2 tsp. green cardamom powder
- 1 tsp. GULKAND / rose water
- Few saffron strands crushed and blended with warm milk / if unavailable then it can be substituted with proprietary saffron syrup
- Few ice cubes
- 150 gms rabadi ( readymade )
Instructions
– Boil the milk and add crushed saffron extracts on a slow flame to extract the natural color and essence of fresh natural saffron.
-Add sugar to this rose water and refrigerate to cool.
– Place remaining all ingredients, except ice, in a blender and grind until smooth. It takes only a few seconds.
– Add the dry fruits paste to the milk
To serve:
Place a couple of ice-cubes in each glass and pour over the milk shake.
– Garnish with a few rose petals in each glass
– Traditionally this fantastic rejuvenating drink should be poured in an earthenware pot/ glass and set overnight to impart the classy porous tastes.
– Serves cold and can be garnished with a heart shaped rose and flakes of almonds to give the crunch of a taste, laced with the creamy rabadi.
Notes
- It can be made in advance and kept in the fridge. Don’t add ice and rose petal beforehand. Garnish it just before serving.
