A Yemeniyah's Recipes

This cold drink brings fond memories of summer days in Aden, especially extremely hot Ramadans. I also remember that our first floor neighbor used to distribute bottles of it annually to the whole neighborhood. It was her an annual sadaqa (charity) –may Allah rest her soul. There were a lot of smiley faces when the chilled bottle would arrive at everyone’s doorstep.

I still make it often during Ramadan, and it still as my Uncle Iqbal would say, “Go down a dry throat and cool the heart.”

Ingredients:

1) 3 cups of water

2) 1/2 cup of powdered milk (I use Nido)–but you can use any milk.

3) 1/4 cup of sugar–more if you like it sweeter

4) few drops of red food coloring

5) 1/2 tsp of powdered vanilla

Whisk the water, powdered milk and sugar in a pot. Boil until it comes to rolling boiling. Turn off. Add the rest of the ingredients–vanilla and red food coloring–and mix well. When it has cooled, chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Serve with ice cubes.