Badam-Carrot Milk

Circa 2002.

Every weekend,we had a regular routine.By evening,we'd start from home on our two-wheeler,stop at Sree Krishna sweets Adyar,get two glasses of take-away badam milk and head straight to Besant nagar beach.We'd find a cozy spot for ourselves and sip on our badam milk as we'd discuss our future plans.During one such outing,we got a shock when we sipped curdled Badam milk,no kidding!There ended our badam milk fiesta along with the beach outing[okay,not the last part!]

Come 2011-We hardly go to the beach these days and even if we do,we get one Jughead special from Fruit shop and sit in the car and discuss which restaurant we should have dinner from!



This post has got nothing to do with our future plans or dinner plans but a very simple recipe for homemade badam milk which got over before I could spell a-l-m-o-n-d.Anything to beat Chennai heat!











Badam-Carrot Milk

Recipe adapted from Bharathy's blog





Ingredients





Fat free milk - 1/2 litre

Sugar - 4-5 tsp[or to taste]

Almonds - 20,blanched

Carrot - 1 small,cubed

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Saffron strands - a few

Almonds chopped-a handful[optional]





Method





Make a paste of blanched almonds with 2-3 tbsp milk until it becomes a smooth paste,keep aside.

Cook the carrots in a pressure cooker till soft.Add a few tsp of milk and blend into a smooth paste.

Boil the milk with sugar and add the nut and carrot pastes.Let it cook for 5-7 minutes on slow heat to let the nuts cook.

Mix in the cardamom powder and chopped nuts.

Garnish with saffron strands and serve chilled.





Notes

Fat free milk is preferred for this milk since full fat milk suppresses the taste of almonds.
I microwaved the carrots on full power for 3 minutes and used it.






How did we like it -As soon as we took the first sip,we got transported back to our beach outings and hence the introduction.Perfect drink during summer season[and otherwise too].We liked the chilled version best though Bharathy says it could be served hot too.