Indian: Almond Sharbat by Recipe Cottage

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	Almond Sharbat

		Sharbat Badam (Almond Sharbat) 2 oz (57 grams) almonds; shelled 2 oz melon, cucumber, or pumpkin seeds 8 green cardamoms (illaichi) 1/4 tsp almond essence 1 1/2 lb sugar; yes, 1 1/2 pounds! 1 1/4 pint water; divided use 1 Tbsp ruh kewra or 4 drops of kewra essence 3 small potassium metabisulphite granules Soak the almonds and seeds overnight in cold water sufficient to cover them. Peel the skins and grind (use a stone slab or a mortar and pestle that does not smell of spices) into a smooth paste whilst adding 4 ounces of water every now and then. Strain the paste through muslin. Reserve juice. Grind the leftover paste with 3 ounces water, strain and repeat this process a second time. Add this juice to reserved juice. Then grind the leftover pulp using 3/4 pint water. Strain; mix in sugar, stir and cook on slow fire til the syrup thickens to one-thread consistency. Add 1/2 pint of the reserved juice and the extract of the cardamoms prepared by grinding them along with their skins and a little water. Simmer and remove the scum over the boiling syrup. Boil for a minute or two; remove from the fire. Strain through muslin and cool. Add ruh kewra or essence, the almond essence and potassium metabisulphite dissolved in a small quantity of syrup. Pour into sterilised bottles and cork with cleaned and boiled tops and seal with paraffin wax. Notes: You can leave out melon seeds and double the quantity of almonds. Potassium metabisulphite is a chemical preservative. This recipe doesn't mention refrigeration as a means of storing this syrup; a western adaptation would be to leave out the chemical and store the syrup in the refrigerator. While neither this recipe nor the cookbook mentions diluting this, I assume this is a syrup concentrate meant to be diluted before serving.