Almond Saffron Drink/Badam Kesar ka Sharbat

With Holi, the indian festival of colours just round the corner, I thought about making Thandai - but after pondering over it for a while, I thought I should do something different this year for Holi. So the next idea was to make this rich almond-saffron drink or badam-kesar ka sharbat.

As the name suggests, the star ingredients of this drink are almonds and saffron. I like to use saffron very generously (I am a bit of a Saffron afficionado), but of course you can reduce the quantity of saffron if you are not fond of an intense saffron aroma.

The shelf life of this syrup at room temperature is around a month, if you live in a warm country then I would suggest to put the syrup in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

100 grams - almonds, soaked overnight

1170 grams - sugar

1 1/2 cup - water + to make almond milk

3/4 tsp - cardamom powder

1/2 gram - saffron 

1 tsp + 1/2 tsp - rose water

Method

1. Blanch the almonds. Grind the blanched almonds using some water. Sieve/press through a muslin cloth and extract the liquid and keep aside. Do not throw the leftover/residue.
2. Put the residue back into the mixer and grind using little water and sieve/press again. Repeat this process one more time.
3. Soak the saffron in 1/2 tsp of rose water and keep for half an hour.
4. Add the suagr and 1 1/2 cup of water in a deep vessel and cook on high flame, until the sugar dissolves. Remove the dirt if any with the help of a spoon. 
5. Add the almond milk and let it come to a boil(be careful as it will splutter a lot) Reduce the heat to medium and cook for approx 3-4 minutes. Remove the vessel from the heat.
6. After 5-7 minutes, add the soaked saffron, cardamom powder and 1 tsp of rose water and mix. Cover the vessel and let it cool.
7. Store in glass jars when completely cool.
8. To serve: Add 2 tsp of sharbat or according to your taste (if you want it sweeter or less sweet), to 250 ml of chilled milk. Give it a whiz in the blender and serve. Alternately, whiz 2 tsp of sharbat, a little vanilla icecream and some soda in a blender and serve immediately. Tastes simply awesome.

Note

If you notice sugar crystals in the sugar syrup, first transfer the non crystallised part into another glass jar and than add a little hot water to the remaining syrup. Let it cool completely before storing in a glass jar.

Enjoy!