Falooda

Falooda

Ingredients: 

 Milk  - 3 Glasses

Rose Syrup  - 3 tbsp

Sugar  - 6 tsp

Vermicelli  - 3 tbsp

Sago  - 3 tbsp

Basil seeds / Sabja / Chia seeds  - 2 tsp

Almonds & Pistachios  - few each

Strawberry puree or essence - 1 tsp

Sweetened Milk koya / Ice cream  - 4 scoops.

                                        

On the right is dry sabja seeds , on the left is soaked in water for 15min.

Steps:

Soak the sabja seeds in water. It will swell to more than double its volume. 

Boil milk, dissolve sugar in it. When lukewarm, add the rose syrup and chill the milk.

Boil vermicelli in milk  with a spoon of sugar added to it. Add  food colour. Refrigerate.

Boil the sago , add strawberry pulp ( alternatively, can use strawberry essence and red food colour). Mix well.Refrigerate this also separately. 

Thin slice almonds lengthwise and fine slice pistachios.

To arrange the serving, take a tall glass.

Add a spoonful of strawberry flavoured sago, vermicilli, sabja and then followed by the milk koya. Pour in the flavoured milk. Garnish with chopped nuts and serve.

My Notes:

In the excitement to serve the guests, forgot to take the picture of the drink completely arranged to serve.

I pureed 3 fresh strawberries and added a few drops of strawberry essence to add to boiled sago.

Vermicelli can be cooked in water and run under cold water so that they don't stick together and form lumps. I have also used the cendol ( green coloured) available from the chilled section at the supermarket. It is a vermicilli made of tapioca n rice flour combination.

 I have used sweetened koya as I had it at home. Mostly vanilla ice cream is used.

The combination of ingredients is a personal choice. Easy to prepare but a very rich fulfilling dessert. The ingredients can be prepared and chilled earlier. Arrange in the glass before serving.

Falooda, a drink dessert, is quite popular with North Indians as well as in major Metropolitan cities like Chennai, Bangalore in the South. Deep South, in Madurai, they have their own version of this drink called Jigirthanda.

My Mother' favourite drink. I remember, she always go for onion rava dosai and falooda for dinner at Hotel Palimar, Chennai. Being a native of Madurai, may be she was looking at the falooda as a substitute for Madurai Makals' popular drink Jigirthanda.

I learnt to make this drink only after moving to Singapore and feel nostalgic that I didn't get to serve my mom her favourite drink as she is no more.