Thandai Powder

Today is the festival of colors also called 'Holi' in India. It is a festival to welcome spring and all its colors. People color each other with different colors and use water to play around. Significance of water is actually to cool down. 

As always food plays a vital role in any festival and Holi is not far behind either. My mother used to make Puran Polis (I need to update the picture here). But there are so many other sweets and snacks that form part of the festival.
Thandai is a drink that is served during this festival. Its a milk beverage infused with mild aromatic spices and dried fruits and rose petals.
People do add bhang (marijuana) to make it an intoxicating adult beverage too. 

We visited friends who had arranged a Holi party at their beautiful home. I volunteered to make thandai along with something else. It was an amazing feeling to see how much everyone loved the drink. 

Ingredients

1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup pistachios
1/4 cup almonds
2 tablespoons poppy seeds/khuskhus
2 tablespoons melon seeds
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper
10 green cardamoms
2 tablespoons dried rose petals (optional)
a few strands of saffron
1 cup sugar

Method

Take all the ingredients and using a very dry grinder, grind it to a powder. Sieve and grind the coarse leftover powder again. Repeat this process till its fully done.
The above ingredients should yield roughly about 2 cups of thandai powder.

I use whole milk to make thandai. For one cup whole milk (boiled and completely cooled), use about 5 to 6 ice cubes and 2 tablespoons of 'Khus Sherbat' and 1 tablespoon of thandai powder. Blend it all together in a blender/mixer. You can serve it in tall glasses. Straining it is optional.

Notes

• Using the Khus Sherbat  is optional - I like it as this adds a nice green hue and some extra sweetness.
• When you are blending the thandai, you can adjust the amount of sugar as per your like - more or less does not matter.  

Mango & Date Milkshake

Milkshakes and smoothies have become a regular at our home since the arrival of the Blendtec. Oh! I love that machine. It purees everything so smooth and in a matter of minutes. Smoothies and Milkshakes have become fun to make and have. And the beauty is - cleaning that pot takes minimal effort. Who would not like that right?

Last year I was a bit down healthwise and my blood levels were at its lowest. At one time my hemoglobin level was at an alarming rate of "5" - I had to be hospitalized and had to have a blood transfusion. I was advised to bring my levels up before my surgery and was asked to go the natural way. So it was spinach, beets, dates and all other things that would boost my blood count which had become a staple at home.

This milkshake became a regular at home during those days. Dates added sweetness and hence we did not add sugar.

Ingredients

2 cups milk (I used 1%)
1 cup frozen mango slices (I used deep Alphonso mango slices)
8 to 10 pitted dates
4 to 5 cubes of ice

Method

Combine everything in the Blendtec and blend it together using the smoothie function. If you are using a normal blender, chop the dates a bit to make the blending process easy and then combine and mix everything together till a smooth shake forms.
Makes about 2 tall glasses - a filling drink.