Jil Jil Jigarthanda recipe – I still couldn’t believe I made this world famous Madurai special cool drink at home and that too from scratch. Jigarthanda is an yummy super cool drink packed with all the benefits of badam pisin, Nannari sarbath and milk.
The term Jigarthanda refers to “a drink that cools the heart”. It is very popular among Muslim settlers in South India. I tasted this drink very recently once in Tirunelveli and twice in Salem at Madurai Vilakuthoon Hanifa’s Jigarthanda outlets. I made an instaclick and shared a picture of it in
Instagram too.
Last year when my fellow bloggers shared Jigarthanda recipe, I got tempted to try it at home. But I was not sure about the actual ingredients used in it. After tasting it once, I was able to guess the recipe and started browsing for the same. Few weeks back I got a request from a reader to try n share this recipe in my blog. So I decided to give this a shot and found
this recipe from sharmi’s blog &
this video very helpful to make the authentic Madurai Jigarthanda. So I followed them & made Jigarthanda from scratch except Nannari sarbath/Sarsaparilla syrup and Kadal paasi.
Original Jigarthanda recipe may use Kadal paasi or badam pisin. But I used badam pisin as suggested in the recipe. First I bought badam pisin/almond gum(Almond resin in English) and Nannari sarbath from Salem Nattu Marundhu kadai. Then I collected all the other ingredients and made it in my own pace. It took nearly 1.5 days for me to make Bhai ice cream, for soaking Badam pisin and to make reduced milk. So I have suggested an easy method of making Bhai ice cream using store bought vanilla ice cream. Hope it would work.
One thing I should admit here. I was not able to bring the orange color in ice cream and reduced milk following the original recipe. But somehow I wanted to recreate the shop ones. According to me, the color of milk turns orange only when we add caramelized sugar. So I added little caramelized sugar in reduced milk and a pinch of orange food color in ice cream. I am not sure whether food color is added in the authentic recipe, but I became very happy & satisfied when my Jigarthanda looked and tasted very similar to the ones I had. What do you say friends, Isn’t it looking similar to the Madurai ones ??
Even though jigarthanda’s base ingredients takes more time to prepare, its worthy because once you keep all of them ready in hand, you can make this drink in minutes for your family members and guests. Its after all a mixing job. I am giving a glass of this coolant almost everyday for Sendhil along with his breakfast to reduce his body heat.
Kadal paasi & nannari sarbath used in Jigarthanda is a very healthy body coolant just like sabja seeds/
falooda seeds. So its a must try coolant drink in this summer season to beat the scorching heat. Friends try this recipe and enjoy with your family. Check out my
Falooda recipe if you are interested ! Ok, enough of boring stories. Let me go to the making of JIL JIL Jigarthanda with pictures.
Picture of Badam pisin before & after soaking
Ingredients needed for making jigarthanda
Jil Jil Jigarthanda recipe
Madurai special cool drink for summer - Jil Jil Jigarthanda recipe from scratch
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Side dish
Serves: Serves 5-6 glass
Prep time: 1 day
Cook time: 5 Minutes
Total time: 1Day5Minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 cup – 250 ml
- 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)
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HOW TO MAKE JIGARTHANDA - METHOD
- 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 ! |
Note
- 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.
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Try this recipe & enjoy Madurai special JIL JIL JIGARTHANDA sitting at your home. Homemade is always the best, Right ??
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