Jigarthanda Recipe | Madurai Jil Jil Jigarthanda Cool Drink

• Milk – 1/2 litre
• Almond resin/Badam pisin – 1 tbsp ( you can get in Nattu marundhu kadai/Native stores)
• Bhai ice cream or vanilla ice cream – as needed ( procedure shared below)
• Nannari sarbath / Sarsaparilla root extract- as needed
• Sugar – 2 tbsp + 1/2 tbsp ( Use more if you like sweet sambar)
• Plain boiled milk – as needed

To make ice cream

• Milk – 1/2 ltr ( 500 ml, I used low fat milk)
• Fresh cream – 1/3 cup ( I used Amul )
• Unsweetened khoya – 2 tbsp ( I used milky mist khova)
• Sugar – 1/4 cup 
• Vanilla essence – few drops
• Orange food color-a pinch(optional)

• Soak badam pisin/Almond resin in large volume of water overnight. I used 4 cups of water for just a tbsp of badam pisin. It will increase in volume hugely.

• Boil 1/2 liter of milk in a wide kadai till it reduces into 1/2 the volume. Keep stirring every now & then.Collect the skin that falls on sides and mix with the milk. Milk will thicken. Add 2 tbsp of sugar and let it boil.In the mean time,caramalize 1/2 tbsp of sugar in a mini kadai and add it to the boiling milk.
• Please click this post to know how to caramalize sugar. Mix well and switch off the flame. This is called as reduced milk which is one of the most important ingredients for making jigarthanda. Refrigerate till use.

• For making ice cream,boil milk in a pan and reduce it slightly. Add sugar and mix well.Let the milk come to room temperature. Add fresh cream, unsweetened khoya, food color and vanilla essence to it. Mix well without lumps and transfer it to a bowl. Freeze it for 45 minutes and remove it. Grind it smoothly in a mixie and again freeze the mixture for another 45 minutes to 1 hour. 
• Again remove the half set ice cream and beat it well.Repeat this procedure for 5-6 times. The more you do, the more creamy your ice cream would be. But this is really a tiresome job. I felt very bored of doing this and sometimes forgot to beat the ice cream for 4-5 hours too ;P. So develop some patience and do this activity. Don’t forget to lick the left overs in the mixie jar. It tastes yumm and you will get the interest of beating the ice cream again and again ;P.

• If you don’t want to go for the above process, I will suggest u an easy way. Just go and get a box of vanilla ice cream and allow it to melt completely. Add food color and khoya to it. Beat in the mixie and mix well without lumps. Freeze it for 4-5 hours. Easy Bhai ice cream is ready. Though I have not tried this method, I am confident this would work. Please let me know if you try this way.
• Boil some milk and let it cool. Take this milk in a bowl. Take some nannari sarbath, soaked badam pisin, reduced milk in small bowls separately. Take out the ice cream and keep aside.

• In a glass tumbler, take 1-2 tbsp of soaked badam pisin or kadal paasi. Add 1.5 tbsp of Nannari sarbath. Add 2 tbsp of plain milk. Above this add 2 tbsp of reduced milk. Beat them well using a spoon. Lastly add a scoop of ice cream and mix well. Now the glass would be 3/4 th filled. Top with another scoop of ice cream if desired and serve chilled.

Enjoy !

• Never replace badam pisin with china grass/Agar agar. Taste would vary. Also never skip ice cream because you won’t get the original jigarthanda taste. 
• Adding food color to the ice cream and caramelized sugar to the reduced milk is purely my idea. Authentic recipe may not use this.
• You can adjust the quantity of nannari sarbath and badam pisin as per your liking. If you want to make this drink even more cool and healthy, add some soaked sabja seeds.