Fresh Rose petal milkshake

Though Rose is a beautiful, ornamental garden flower, it is not new using them in cooking. There are varieties of them, in which fragrant ones are used in culinary activities. Many age old recipes, which either used rose as main ingredient or as flavouring agent. To name a few, Gulkand mainly used for its medicinal benefits, Gulab jamun, Rose milk, Ice cream & of course in baking! Rose Gulkand is well known for its cooling & digestive system cleansing properties.

Usually kids love the flavour of rose in either milkshake or flavoured yogurt (lassi). Here in this post, I am sharing a recipe of rose petal milkshake which is 100% natural. It is with pure fresh fragrant rose petals direct from the garden and there is no store bought essence used! You need to have pesticide free fragrant roses. You are going to love it with the mild flavour of roses.

Preparation time: 2 hour

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves - 2

Ingredients:

Rose petals – 1 cup (tightly packed/ of 3-4 fresh roses), Use fragrant variety

Milk – 1 glass

Water – 1 glass

Arrowroot/ Corn flour – 1 heaped tsp

Sugar – 4 tsp

Rose milk essence – ½ tsp (optional), I haven’t used any!

Method:

• Mix arrowroot powder/ corn starch with ¼ cup of milk without lumps. Boil it by stirring continuously until it thickens. Stirring helps to avoid formation of lumps. Add sugar and mix well to dissolve in the mix. Allow to cool.
• When cooled refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until it is chilled. Refrigerate remaining milk too.
• Select fresh fragrant roses (Paneer or rani gulabi), which are free of pesticides. Wash them thoroughly in running water, so that any hidden bugs or impurities removed. Remove petals from the stem and rinse well 1-2 times in fresh water.
• Here is the variety that I have used.

• Keep 15 rose petals separately for garnishing.
• Take all other cleaned petals in a vessel and add 1 glass of water and heat it up. Switch off the stove when it just starts boiling. Cover with a lid and keep aside for an hour.

• By now, the rose petals in water will be decoloured. Strain the petals using a strainer and discard them. The collected rose water will be of dark pink color and having rose fragrance. Refrigerate this water too.
• Once milk, rose water & arrowroot mix becomes chilled, add all of them in a blender/ Mixer jar. Add 10 rose petals kept for garnishing. Add rose essence if using (it will give the colour & strong rose flavour). Blend well until smooth. Few rose petal pieces will remain.
• Garnish with remaining rose petals, serve chilled milkshake. Add ice cubes if you like.