Jil-Jil Jigarthanda [or, the Madurai-famous drink that cools your heart]

I’ve been spotting a few shops around Pondicherry serving up this Madurai-street-vendor-famous drink: the jil-jil jigarthanda. Literally, this means cold-cold, heart of cold–which at once describes the drink and its effect on you. Which means, in turn, that it’s both chilled and cooling, right down to your icy heart. Perfect for hot Madurai summers.

Foods in India, much like people, are associated with their places of origin, and although I’m not sure the Pondy vendors are serving up authentic fare, the idea of the “recipe” is also a bit of a misnomer in this land where certain basic ingredients and processes are set, but all else just depends on.. well, all else.

Wait, what? Never heard of the jil-jil jigarthanda before? Well, you’ve not been to Madurai then, and there are two mistakes to correct pronto-pronto. And yes, you have to say it with the double-jil for emphasis each and every time. If you’re wondering what a drink with a distinctly Hindi sounding name is doing “In Madurai, /city of temples and poets, /who sang of cities and temples” [“A River,” by A.K. Ramanujan], some say the idea for this was a Mughal introduction. Who knows what happened next? It went to our streets and to our hearts, and then, like Dindigul biriyani or Agra ka petha, to so many other towns.

What gives the jil-jil jigarthanda its distinction is, in this order:

• badam pisini or badam pisin (which is either the gum of the sweet almond or more likely gum tragacanth from Astragalus gummifer shrubs, depending on whose research you consult),
• nannari syrup (Indian sarsaparilla syrup),
• thickened milk, and
• the deep caramel taste of “bhai ice cream”–so named after one P.S. Sheikj Meeran Bhai, originally from Tirunelveli, whose ice cream became so popular, customers fondly dubbed it “Bhai.”
• Optionally: kadal paasi (aka China grass, aka agar agar) cubes, and
• maybe sabja (chia or basil) seeds.

Badam pisini and nannari are known to have cooling properties; milk and ice cream are, of course, chilled. (Now you understand why you have to say the jil-jil twice.)

The rest is up to you. Bhai ice cream calls for the use of vanilla. I used kewra or screw pine flower essence instead, because those are the tastes of the Indian palate. Some fancy-pants places offer a rose variant over nannari, which I think is an abomination because this dessert-drink belongs in a palette of deep, rich, earthy browns, not the delicate pinks which are the domain of the falooda. For that reason, I threw on some panang kalkandu (or panam kallkandu, rock sugar from the palmyra tree) for its crunch (it doesn’t dissolve easily) and flavor. And I just layer everything and let you do the mixing since half the fun lies in exploring layers of tastes and textures — so this jil jil jigarthanda is like our version of the Filippino halo-halo, which literally means mix-mix. How much you do, of course, is entirely up to you.

Nannari Syrup

If you choose to make jil-jil jigarthanda fully from scratch, you’ll have to start with making the nannari syrup. You can buy this readily in India, but I prefer the home-made versions where you control both quantity and sweetness.

January 2023 update: Note that what is available readily in India is more than likely not nannari at all, but dry mahali kizhangu, which is going extinct from the Indian wildernesses thanks to commercial over-exploitation. Actual dry nannari is impossible to find, no matter what the internet or your local country medicine shop tells you. The only real alternative is to forage your own roots and make your own nannari syrup, as indicated below or in this post on making real nannari sharbat.

The “nannari pattai” or root-sticks are available at vaidyar or “naattu marundu” or local medicine shops will look like the image above, but they are mahali roots. You’ll need about 100g or a cupful of either these or actual nannari. Now you can simply smash these with a stone or metal mortar and pestle, though this takes some doing because the root interiors are tough and unyielding. Or you can smash the outsides to remove the woody root interiors which are visible in the image above (retaining the exterior “bark”) and then whizz these in a mixie jar to get a coarse powder.

Don’t put the dried root pieces directly into your mixie unless you’re planning on buying a new one any time soon :). Then:

• Soak the powder and any remaining pieces in 2 cups of hot water — or just enough water to cover the root powder + 1 cup — overnight (or for 8 hours).
• The next morning, filter the nannari root powder out and place the now-dark-and-flavored liquid into a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
• Add 2 cups of sugar (sugar: flavored liquid in a 1:1 ratio) and bring to a boil until you reach the sticky stage — go no further than 1-string consistency.
• Bottle this: it’s your nannari syrup.

Palkova or Thirattu paal

Next: palkova, (aka thirattu paal, or khoya or mawa). This is a beautiful reduction of milk into its essential fat-protein-nutrients, a warm pudding and a sweet so pure, it has a special place at many Indian ceremonies and pujas. “Therataradu” means to gather and collect–so this is about gathering and collecting the suspended constituents of milk, which is otherwise 90% just water. Palkova is also used in many other desserts, from carrot halvas to barfis and more. So while making palkova is a bit of work, it opens out the possibilities of making so many other Indian mithai with far greater ease.

Note: this recipe for palkova or theratti paal is in the highlights of my Instagram page, in case you prefer to see it in video snippets there.

For this, you’ll need a liter of whole fat milk + 1/2 cup of sugar.

• Set 1 litre of whole fat milk to boil, then mix it down and reduce the heat. Set a wooden spoon in the simmering milk to keep it from boiling over. Careful not to let the milk catch at the bottom of the pan, so keep the heat low.
• Check on this periodically, mixing down and re-incorporating the cream that forms each time, until the milk has reduced by a bit more than 1/2 and is doing what I call a “mud pot boil” — a bit like bubbling volcanic mud, if you’ve ever seen that.
• Add the 1/2 cup sugar. The mixture will appear to liquefy, but you’ll need to keep at the mixing or else the sugars will caramelize, the fats will separate (and form ghee) and the proteins in the milk will curdle. Making theratti paal is all about gathering and collecting these essential constituents of milk, so what we need is not a mixture–but a coalescence.
• Continue mixing until the mixture is semi-solid, but still on the liquidy side. It hardens and reduces further as it cools, so you definitely don’t want to dry it out.
• I got 350g palkova from 1 liter of milk; you might get less or more, depending on your milk quality and fat content. You will need just 100g for the bhai ice cream, and you should get at least that. Save any remainders for another use, or just have this in spoonfuls as your first dessert.
• NOTE: the milk-sugar ratio is traditionally 1 litre milk to maadi padi sugar, where a whole “padi” is 1.5kgs, and “maadi padi” is 1/16th or approximately 100g. That’s 1/2 cup by today’s measures. Use this to adjust the quantities of milk-sugar if you’re using more (or less).

Madurai Bhai Ice Cream

Next, make the bhai ice cream. You’ll need:

• 1 liter of whole fat milk,
• 1/2 cup sugar + 2 tablespoons water (to caramelize)
• 100g palkova or khoya
• a few drops of kewra essence (or pure vanilla)
• 1/2 cup cold whipping cream/fresh cream
• an ice cream maker OR a whole lot of patience in hand-churning your bhai ice cream at 2-3 hour intervals for a whole day.

Note: this recipe for Bhai Ice cream is also in the highlights of my Instagram page, in case you prefer to see it in video snippets there.

Making Bhai ice cream is easy enough, but the freezing-churning takes about a day or longer if you haven’t an ice cream maker. You’ll want to plan ahead therefore and make this in advance. Here’s the process:

• Set 1 liter of milk to boil, reducing it to half its original volume scraping down the sides and reincorporating the cream as you go. Turn the flame down, leave a wooden spoon in to keep it from boiling over.
• With the milk reduced and on simmer, prepare the caramel: Heat 1/2 cup sugar with 2 tablespoons of water. Bring this to a boil, mixing lightly to help the sugar heat evenly. Then allow the mixture to boil undisturbed until it forms an even amber.
• Remember that sugar goes from light to dark and then burnt in a matter of moments, and the cooking continues even after you lift it from the flame–and you’ll need a bit of time to pour it into your simmering milk, which will be enough time to allow it to caramelize a little further. So, lift it off the heat when it’s just turning amber, and start pouring it gently and a very little into the simmering milk. The caramel is hotter by far than the simmering milk, so it will splash and boil furiously; be careful and go slow.
• Pour with one hand and mix with the other. The caramel will also crystallize briefly before it dissolves.
• Once you’ve incorporated all the caramel into the milk, add in the palkova, crumbling it as you go and mixing well to incorporate it well without any lumps remaining.
• Now remove the milk mixture from the heat, add in 1/2 cup whipping cream or fresh cream (I used Amul) and a few drops of kewra essence (or vanilla, if you must). This is the base “custard” for bhai ice cream.
• Cool the bhai mix completely, and then chill it overnight. If you have an ice cream maker, you can use that at this stage to produce a soft scoop–which you can freeze again until it is firm enough to scoop out.
• If not, freeze the bhai mixture 2 hours, then remove and beat it well. Repeat this process 4-5 times, which will bring you to a soft scoop stage. Freeze again until it is firm enough to scoop, overnight.

Badam Pisini

Thankfully there’s no preparation here! Just soaking. Badam pisini or badam pisin (also called gond katira) expands to about 10 times its dry volume, so for 4 large servings of jil-jil jigarthanda, you’ll need just about 2 tablespoons and no more.

Here’s what badam pisini looks like dry:

And soaked:

Optional additions

Kadal paasi cubes: Place about 1/2 a packet of agar agar in just about enough water to cover it + a little more (1-1.5 cups), heat, dissolve, and bring to a rolling boil. Pour this into a square or rectangular pan to set. No sugar or added flavor is required, since these cubes will get all the taste they need from other ingredients. They’re there for texture more than taste. Once set, use a sharp knife to cut them into squares & then invert into a storage dabba.

Sabja/Chia/Basil seeds: soak a half teaspoon-full per serving. Set aside.

Sweeten (to taste) 1/2 cup fresh cream or cold whole milk with either powdered panang kalkandu (palmyra rock candy) or just regular sugar. This should be kept chilled.

Assembling the Jil-Jil Jigarthanda

Now that you have it all ready, here’s the assembly. Make sure you have all these handy:

• Ice
• Soaked badam pisini
• Soaked sabja/chia/basil seeds (if using)
• Kadal paasi cubes (if using)
• Nannari syrup
• 1/2 cup of sweetened light cream or whole fat milk (to go “lite”)
• Scoops of Madurai special bhai ice cream
• Panan-kalkandu (palmyra rock candy), if available

Use a medium-to-tall glass. Start with ice cubes. If your glass is taller–use more. If your glass is shorter, use less. Simple.

Follow with 2 tablespoons of the soaked (and drained) badam pisini, like so:

Add on some of the kadal paasi cubes, and soaked sabja seeds, if using. Then pour on some nannari syrup. I used about 2 Tablespoons for a large glass.

Next, add about 1/2 cup of the sweetened milk or fresh cream, depending on how rich you like your ice cold heart.

Follow with a generous scoop of bhai ice cream and finish with just a few panang kalkandu (palmyra sugar rock candy) on top.

Serve immediately. Live happily.

Maybe pour some extra nannari syrup on. Aahhhhhhhhhh…….