Thandai

There is a Punjabi vegetarian restaurant called Grahmin at Koramanagla in Bangalore.We used to go there reularly and I absolutely love their variety of dishes with paneer. It was in this hotel where I first tasted thandai and well it was love at first sip :).I did not know what is thandai before that. I loved the drink so much that I had it every time we visited that place. Now with this background, I asked one of my North Indian friend about this and she gave me her mom's recipe. Since then I have made it many times and its our absolute favorite on these hot days. A very simple to make but exotic dish I should say...
Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
10- 12 Almonds 
6 cashews
1 Tbs poppy seeds
1 Tbs melon seeds
1/2 tsp pepper corns
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
2 green cardamom
Few Rose petals or 2 tsp gulkandh
4 Tbs sugar
Generous pinch of saffron
Method:
1.Blanch and peel almonds and cashews
2.Soak poppy seeds,melon seeds in warm water for 2 hours and grind to a smooth paste along with almonds , cashews,pepper corns,fennel seeds,rose petals or gulkandh and cardamom adding little warm milk
3.Boil the milk along with sugar,add the ground paste,simmer for five minutes and garnish with saffron.Serve chilled.
Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 3