Thandai

Ingredients:

• Milk - 1 cup.
• Sugar - 1½ cups.
• Rose petals (gulkand variety) - 1/4 cup, dried or fresh.
• Water - 1½ litres.
• Almonds - 1 tbsp.
• Kharbooj/Tarbooj seeds - 1 tbsp, skinned(skinned dried seeds of watermelon and cantaloupes).
• Peppercorns - 1 tsp, whole.
• Khuskhus (poppy seeds) - ½ tbsp.
• Saunf (aniseed) - ½ tbsp. 10) Cardamom powder/15 whole pods - ½ tsp.
• Rose Water (optional) - ½ tsp.

Method:
1) In a middle sized bowl, pour the ½ litre water and soak the sugar. Keep aside.
2) Wash clean all other dry ingredients, except cardamom if using powder. Soak these in 2 cups of remaining water for two hours. Keep to a side.
3) Except sugar, grind all soaked ingredients to a very fine paste. Mix with remaining water.
4) Tie a strong muslin cloth over the rim of a large deep vessel and use this to strain the liquid.
5) Pour the water, little by little, over the cloth to get the residue. Press through muslin with back of palms to extract the liquid into the vessel. Continue till you get a residue dry and husk-like.
6) Add milk, sugar and rosewater to the extracted liquid.
7) In case you are using cardamom powder, add it to the milk. Mix well.
8) Refrigerate for an hour or two before serving.