1/4cupgranulated white sugar50 grams, or adjust to taste
1/4teaspooncardamom powder
1/2teaspoonrose wateror adjust to taste
Instructions
Add whole milk (we are using 1.5 liters/6 cups milk here) to a heavy bottom pot on medium heat.
Once it becomes little warm, take 1-2 tablespoons of milk from the pot and add it to a separate bowl/container. Now take a pinch of saffron strands, crush between you palm and add it to the warm milk. Set aside.Meanwhile add nuts to a pan of water and let it heat up. Let the nuts remain in hot water for 15 minutes while you are working on the recipe. And once 15 minutes are up, then remove the skin and chop or slice the nuts. I have used only almonds here, you can use cashews, pistachios etc.
Back to the milk now, let the milk come to a gentle boil. And once it has come to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low.Let the milk simmer on low heat, do not stir and after 5 minutes or so you will notice that layer of cream starts forming on top of the milk. With a spatula or spoon, pick this cream top and stick it to the sides of the pan. You can then give a gentle stir to the milk and then let it simmer again.
Keep doing this process of collecting the cream top and sticking it to the sides as the milk simmers. Do this every 10 minutes or so when the cream forms, and do not stir it in between. Because if you stir then the cream top won't form.On another note- if you want a smooth rabdi, then keep stirring the milk often and don't do this step of sticking the cream on the sides.
After around 35 minutes (from the time it came to a boil), the milk has reduced to half (3 cups). At this point add in the sugar and mix.
Also add the prepared saffron milk that we had prepared earlier. Stir and continue to simmer the milk and collect the cream top on the sides.
After additional 30-40 minutes, the milk has now reduced to 1/3rd of it's original volume (total time taken from the point it started boiling to reach this stage was 1 hour 20 minutes). At this point add chopped nuts.Also add cardamom powder and rose water and stir.
Now scrape all the malai (cream) from the sides using a spatula that you had collected all this while and mix it with the reduced milk.
Remove pot from heat and rabdi is now ready. As you can see the final volume of the rabdi was 2 cups (we started with 6 cups). If you want, you can even reduce it further to 1/4th of it's original volume which will be 1.5 cups. Chill the rabdi and garnish with more nuts before serving!
Notes
Calories calculated is for 1 cup of rabdi.
Sweetness can be adjusted to taste. This rabdi is lightly sweetened, add additional 1-2 tablespoons of sugar if you prefer sweeter rabdi.
You can also flavor the rabdi with kewra water.
The milk should be simmered on medium low to low heat throughout.