Add milk in a heavy bottom deep pot on medium heat. Bring the milk to a boil. Once the milk is boiled, stir in lemon juice in it. Stir a little bit, and you will see milk curdling. Sometimes, it happens quickly or sometimes it will be slightly slow to see cheese curds.

Turn off the heat. Let it cool down for 5 minutes.

Line a colander with a cheese cloth, remove the paneer/chena that we just made into it. Pour some cold water to cool it down. Squeeze out excess water and tie the cheesecloth, and hang it on higher level, so excess water can gets drained.

After 10 minutes, remove the chena/cheese curds/paneer in a plate. Do not leave longer than 8 minutes. We want it to be moist and soft, not dry. It will be difficult to work with it, if it gets dry.

Now, using the heel of your palm, start rubbing the chena in the plate until it becomes smooth. This step is the most crucial step. If it is crumbly, it will dis integrate in sugar syrup, messing up the syrup. It should 7-9 minute to do so.

Best time, to involve kids to do this step. I think it would be fun.

Once you have smooth dough, divide it into 1 tsp each. You should easily get 25-30 mini balls. Cover them with a wet paper towel, o they do not get dry.

Take sugar and water in deep pot, on high heat and let it boil. Once its boiling and sugar has melted completely, start dropping balls into them one by one.

I prefer to drop one chena ball and wait to see if it crumbles into the syrup. That way you know if the dough is not kneaded smooth. Stir as you drop more balls, and let it cook for 8-10 minutes or until you see they have doubled in size. They will look puffier and spongier and slightly doubled. Don’t over crowd the pot. They expand so they will need some space.

Once done, remove the pot form heat. Let it sit for few more minutes -10 minutes covered.

One it cools down, remove all the balls in a plate and gently very softly squeeze out syrup from the balls by pressing them between your palms. Do it gently so that you do not break the balls. You can use leftover sugar syrup for something else.

Immediately add squeezed out balls into the milk mixture. Garnish it with lots of chopped pistachios and almonds, and silver edible leaf if you wish. I like to add some dried rose petals too. The balls will soak up some of the saffron milk.

Add whole milk in deep pot on medium high heat and let it simmer for atleast ½ hour. Keep stirring in between. The milk should reduce in quantity, and it will become more thicker and creamier.

If you don’t stir continuously the milk will boil over and stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.

Take ¼ cup of milk in a small bowl from the boiled milk, take few strands of saffron 7-8 approximately and crush them either in mortar or pestle or between your palm and then add them to the warm milk. Let it rest and release its flavor.

Add sugar, freshly crushed cardamom powder in the boiled milk. Let the sugar melt. Add saffron milk too currently. Stir well. If the milk is thickened, you can turn off the heat. It should have pourable consistency.

Leave it in the fridge for atleast 1-2 hours before serving. They taste much better once they are chilled.