(Top) A scene from Mangal Pandey in which Rani Mukherjee and Aamir Khan live it up on Holi ; a festive spread of mithai and thandai

A day to chill out to your fullest and a day to break rules ? Holi is about all this and more. Be it hours of fun with colours under the bright spring sun or hanging out with friends, the right platter of mithai and masti is what you need to keep the spirit of the festival rolling till late into the evening.

To make this Holi a little more special, GoodLife provides you with some quick and easy recipes to stir up your favourite drinks and serve with some lip-smacking sweet treats.

Sweet special

Almond Kulfi

Ingredients: A litre milk, one cup cream, one-and-a-half cups sugar, 30 pieces soaked almonds, two pinches saffron, two pinches elaichi powder, five kulfi cones and two tablespoons custard powder.

Method: Boil the milk in a pan till it becomes half. Take a bowl to mix sugar and custard powder properly. Stir it with the milk. When it becomes thicker keep it aside. Take soaked almonds, peel them and cut them into finely chopped pieces. When milk becomes cold, add one cup cream and the almonds in it, and churn it. For embellishment, mix saffron and elaichi powder in it. Pour this preparation into the kulfi cones and refrigerate.

Almond Date Rolls

Ingredients: One cup almond, one cup dates, one tablespoon ghee, a quarter cup cashewnuts, one tablespoon dry coconut powder.

Method: Wash the dates and wipe dry with a cloth. Remove seeds and grind the dates to a coarse paste. Heat one tablespoon ghee in a non-stick pan. Saut? the dates in ghee for three minutes. Remove from heat. Cool.

Chop the cashewnuts. Grind half-cup almonds to a coarse powder. Chop the other half-cup. Mix the dates, almond powder, chopped almonds and cashews and make tight rolls. Roll them in dry coconut powder and cool. Cut them in round thick rings. Store in a dry container.

Badam Chikki

Ingredients: One cup sliced almonds, two tablespoon khus khus, two tablespoon elaichi powder, one pinch saffron, rosewater, half-cup sugar, one tablespoon ghee.

Method: Mix the chopped almonds, khus khus and elaichi powder in a bowl. Heat ghee in a pan and add sugar. Cook on low flame till it melts and turns a light brown. Add the above mixture along with saffron and rosewater and mix it well. Grease a flat dish and put out the mixture. Cut it with a greased knife in any desired shape. Allow to cool at room temperature. Serve.

Peg picks

Badam Ki Thandai

Ingredients: Badam giri 200 gms, khus khus 100 gm, paanch magaz 100 gm, sugar 1.25 kg, small elaichi 50 gm, saffron half gm, white pepper 25 gm, black pepper 15 gm.

Method: Soak badam, khus khus and paanch magaz overnight in separate glasses of water. In the morning, drain out the water and crush them separately in fresh water. Sieve the milk. Repeat the process two more times to drain the milk. Peel almonds and crush in a mixer. Mix the milk and finely crushed almonds in a vessel. Add sugar and put the vessel on a low flame. Crush the small elaichi finely and add it to the mixture. Then put in finely-crushed white pepper, black pepper and saffron.

Put the flame on high and boil for five minutes. Cool it. Stir well and store in bottles.

Holi Hai

Ingredients: 60 ml Smirnoff, 60 ml thandai syrup, 15 ml kesar syrup, 15 ml almond syrup, 100 gm dahi, 30 ml malai, a cup vanilla ice-cream.

Method: Half fill the shaker with crushed or cracked ice. Pour in the ingredients. Blend using a hand blender and pour into a wine glass of your choice. Sprinkle with milk masala powder. Serve.

Rang Barse

Ingredients: 60 ml Smirnoff of the vanilla/citrus (flavour), a few mint leaves, 15 ml lime juice, 30 ml rose syrup, three lime wedges.

Method: Pour all ingredients along with mint leaves. Squeeze wedges and drop into glass. Top with soda and lemonade. Then stir.

Tropical Cream

Ingredients: 60 ml Smirnoff Orange, 30 ml Manama Peach and Apricot Crush, 30 ml Mango Crush, two scoops vanilla ice cream, 120 ml milk, crushed ice.

Method: Half fill shaker with crushed or cracked ice. Pour in ingredients. Blend and pour into glass. Sprinkle with chopped mint, almond slices.

Recipe courtesy: Diageo India Pvt Ltd.