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A short, slightly tender dough made with maida, ghee and milk is rolled thin and cut into rounds. Each round is filled with a warmed mixture of khoya (or thickened condensed milk), desiccated coconut, semolina, chopped nuts and cardamom. The edges are sealed with a fluted crimp and the parcels are deep-fried low and slow until pale gold. Dusted with icing sugar while warm.
A loose batter of plain flour, gram flour, yoghurt and water ferments 8-12 hours at room temperature (or 24 hours in the fridge), the slight tang from the yoghurt and the bubbles from the fermentation give the characteristic crisp-shattering bite. A 1-thread sugar syrup is scented with saffron, cardamom and a squeeze of lemon. The batter goes into a piping bag (or squeezy bottle); piped into hot oil in spirals from the centre outwards; fried for 30-40 seconds per side; lifted out and dropped straight into warm syrup for 30 seconds; lifted again. Eaten immediately while still hot and crisp.
Whole milk boils, then curdles with lemon juice; the curds drain to chhana (fresh paneer). The chhana kneads for 8-10 minutes until smooth and lump-free, this is what gives the dumpling its sponge. Small flattened discs poach gently in sugar syrup; they double in size. A separate pan reduces a second batch of milk by half with cardamom, saffron, almonds and sugar to a rich rabri. The squeezed dumplings float in the cool rabri to absorb the spiced milk overnight.
A nut-and-spice paste is the soul of thandai: almonds and cashews soaked soft, ground with green cardamom, fennel, white peppercorns, poppy seeds, dried rose petals and saffron, then whisked into cold sweetened milk. Strained, chilled, poured over ice. The drink reads cool and complex: sweet from the sugar and saffron, perfumed from the rose and cardamom, with a faint warmth from the fennel and pepper.