Sonia Chopra recently said it does not feel like spring until it’s Holi. While that was true for me back in India, the concept of Holi slowly faded away when I migrated to the states. It does not feel like holi or spring in North East.
Those memories came back when I started blogging, as almost all bloggers I knew did something for Holi. That too stopped as I stopped blogging.
Since last year, I started celebrating again as I want Anouk to learn about these Indian holidays and their stories. While she is very young to learn anything or taste Thandai, I want her to know a simple recipe for this fantastic drink (recipe at the blog) if she is ever curious.
For my non-Indian origin followers – Thandai is an Indian cold drink prepared with a mixture of almonds, fennel seeds, watermelon kernels, rose petals, pepper, poppy seeds, cardamom, saffron, milk, and sugar. While there are probably 1000 recipes out there you can find just by googling, we share a simple recipe on our blog (link in bio and stories for 24 hours).
For the last few weeks, whenever I opened my Instagram, I saw a few holi posts with Thandai. So far, I have witnessed Thandai spiced sweets, brownies, cake, cookies, and many more. If you search Thandai at Google, you will get 888,000 results.
Although there are many variants to this drink, my parents grew up with Thandai spiked with Cannabis. Despite Massachusetts’s legalized drug usage, Cannabis is still not legal in this state. So we spiked Matthew’s Thandai with Gin and Vodka, and we drank without it.
May this festival of colors fill colors in your life. Happy Holi
I am including a simple recipe we used.
Thandai Recipe
Disclaimer: There are many ways to prepare Thandai. This is neither original, nor authentic. But we have done this recipe a few times and we absolutely love it.
- 2 liter whole milk (not skimmed or 2%)
- a pinch of saffron soaked in a cup of milk (from above)20 – 25 whole cashew, soaked 8 hours to overnight
- 2 ½ tablespoon poppy seeds, soaked 8 hours to overnight
- 2 ½ tablespoon melon seeds(mogoz seeds), soaked 8 hours to overnight
- 20 – 25 whole almond, soaked 8 hours to overnight and peeled
- 20 – 25 whole pistachio, soaked 8 hours to overnight and peeled
- 1 ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 15 – 20 whole peppercorn seeds
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 8- 10 green cardamom pods
- 10 – 12 dried rose petal
- 1 cup or more sugar (to taste)
- Heat milk with saffron. Refrigerate and chill 8 hours to overnight.
- With a food processor or mortar pestle(in our case), make a fine paste of cashew, poppy seeds, melon seeds, almond, pistachio with a bit of water. Mum highly recommends soaking everything the night before for a better taste. I also recommend using a traditional mortar pestle over a grinder.
- In a coffee or spice grinder, add fennel seeds, peppercorn, cinnamon, cardamom, and rose petals. Pulse it a few times to create a smooth powder.
- The next day, add chilled milk, nut mixture, spice blend, sugar into a blender. Pulse it a few times. You might have to adjust the sugar quantity based on your preference.
- I checked many recipes before publishing this. Many other bloggers cooked everything (milk, sugar, saffron, nut paste, and spice mix) and then chilled it. I spoke with a chef, and she mentions both methods work great!
- Some recommended straining this, which you absolutely can, but we loved it the way it is. Chill the Thandai in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.
- There is no right or wrong way to serve Thandai. We have dipped our glasses in simple rose syrup and rolled them into crushed dried rose petals. Some garnish the drink with rose petals, chopped almond, and pistachio. It’s a very delicious drink with or without any garnish.
