Kalakand with condensed milk
A delicious, melt-in-the-mouth Indian sweet that is easy to make and an absolute joy to have!
Equipment
- Thick bottomed cooking pot
Ingredients
- 1 l whole milk
- 250 g condensed milk
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- 4-5 tbsp lemon juice or 1:1 vinegar and water mixture
For garnishing (optional)
- 3 tbsp pistachios chopped
- 3 tbsp almonds chopped
- 1 tbsp dried rose petals
Instructions
- In a thick bottomed pan, over medium heat set the milk to boil. Do not stir
- Once it comes to a rapid boil, turn off the flame and add the lemon juice (or vinegar and water mixture) and stir gently. At this point, the chaena/paneer will separate from the whey
- Place a soft cotton towel over a colander and place this then, over a large bowl. Drain the cottage cheese (chaena) over this. Do not discard the whey, you can use it to make your curries and/or knead your flatbread dough
- Give the towel a good squeeze to remove any remaining whey and rinse to rid the taste of the lemon/vinegar. Using a fork, break the chaena lumps to make smaller crumbs. However, do not mash it completely, the crumbs will give a gorgeous texture to the kalakand
- In the same cooking pot, add the condensed milk and the chaena. Over a low to medium flame, cook this while stirring continuously until all the liquid dries up
- Keep an eye on this mixture and keep stirring to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Otherwise it will brown and discolour the sweet
- Once the condensed milk in the mixture has dried up, switch the flame off and add the cardamom powder. Mix in well
- Grease a small tray with ghee and transfer the kalakand mixture on it. Level it using a spatula and leave it to set in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes
- Garnish with the chopped nuts and rose petals (if using) and cut using a sharp knife into squares
- Serve this delicious, moist and crumbly kalakand with condensed milk slightly chilled. Enjoy!
Notes
- These quantities make about 600 grams of the kalakand
- This kalakand will stay good in the refrigerator for about a week. However, it is best consumed fresh
- If condensed milk is not available to you, cook another litre of whole milk until thickened and reduced to half. You can then use this in step 5
- Taste the sweet mixture in step 7. If you need to add extra sugar, do so here and keep cooking until any excess moisture evaporates
- l - litre
- g - grams
- tsp - teaspoon
- tbsp - tablespoon