Thandai

Ingredients

• 100 g almonds
• 40 g pistachios, plus extra to serve
• 5 dl water, for soaking
• 1 l milk, cold and full-fat
• 100 g white sugar
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 tsp rose water
• 8 ice cube

Method

1. 1.

   Soak the nuts and fennel — Put the almonds, pistachios and fennel seeds in a bowl, pour over the cold water and leave to soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. The nuts should swell and give slightly when pressed.

2. 2.

   Peel almonds, bloom saffron — Drain the nuts and slip the brown skins off the almonds — they should pop out with a light pinch. Stir the saffron into 2 tablespoons of the cold milk and set aside to bleed to a deep orange.

3. 3.

   Blend to a smooth paste — Blend the drained nuts and fennel with the cardamom, black pepper and about 200 ml of the milk until you have a smooth, pale paste with no gritty specks left — stop and scrape the sides twice.

4. 4.

   Sweeten and strain — Whisk the paste into the remaining milk along with the sugar, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved. Strain through a fine sieve set over a jug, pressing the pulp hard with the back of a ladle to squeeze out every drop.

5. 5.

   Perfume and chill — Stir in the saffron milk and the rose water, then chill for at least 2 hours. The spices keep opening up in the cold, so it tastes noticeably rounder after resting.

6. 6.

   Serve over ice — Stir well, as the nut solids settle, and pour over ice cubes into tall glasses. Finish each with a scattering of chopped pistachios and a few saffron threads.