A recipe my sister swears by, which helps with digestion and menstrual cramps.
I especially do not remember eating Gulkhand in my childhood days. But she claims that it is one of the ingredients used in sweet pan. Well, I have never dissected a sweet pan before to know if it was indeed included, but I certainly have eaten sweet pan on many occasions. The idea of my tongue changing to the color of deep red got me super excited as a kid. Although the ingredient that triggers the color change is not Gulkhand. I was glad, I have consumed it at some point in my life, because the name of the recipe was not ringing any bells for me!
Anyway, my sister is a health freak and always is in search of healthy recipes with seasonal ingredients. Roses happened to one of those key ingredients rarely used in dishes. She came across Gulkhand recipe and hasn’t rested until she tried it.
So, here is the recipe of Gulkhand. Home cooks do try and share your feedback.
Ingredients:
- 100 grams of pink/red roses (not hybrid)
- 50 grams of sugar
- 1 tsp of fennel seeds
- 5 cardamom
- 2 tsp of honey
Preparation:
- Separate the rose petals and wash the them thoroughly.
- First grind the fennel seeds and cardamom to fine powder. Use mortar and pestle, electric grinders will not give you the desired results for this recipe.
- To this powder add rose petals and sugar gradually in small portions. Grind it to a course paste.
- Add honey to the paste and mix well. Transfer it to a glass/ ceramic jar and leave it in sun for three days. Voila, Gulkhand is ready!
You can have this with warm milk before bed: 1 tsp of gulkhand for 100 ml of milk. It can also be consumed as sharbat: for one litre of water use 4 tsp of gulkhand and 4 tsp of sugar.
