Sunday 27 June 2010

Kalakand Made Easy (Microwave Version)


Shab's Cuisine finally exceeded 1 lakh hits, yesterday and here is a decadent sweet to celebrate this small milestone- Kalakand. The counter was uploaded somewhere last year, so the count should be for an year or more. When it comes to Kalakand, it is a popular Indian sweet traditionally made from ‘Chenna’ and ‘Khoya’ and sweetened with sugar. ‘Chenna’ is typically ‘paneer’ (Indian cottage cheese) which is un-ripened cheese prepared by curdling milk either by adding lime juice or acetic acid. On the other hand, ‘Khoya’ is very thick milk reduced by heating milk over a prolonged time. Prepared ‘Paneer’ or ‘chenna’ is then cooked along with ‘Khoya’ until it reduces into doughy and lumpy texture. It is then sweetened with sugar, flavoured and garnished with nuts. The whole process takes a painful amount of time with lot of stirring and constant watching! Quite a time consuming affair, isn’t it? You can watch this traditional preparation of Kalakand at manjulaskitchen. She explains it beautifully there and I got the above information through her video. She has tempted me enough to try the traditional version at home, well, some time later.


Once I started blogging, I was astonished to see the recipes of so many Indian sweets on net and some of them were easy and pretty straight forward! I Had bookmarked some recipes and kalakand was one among top ‘to try’ list. Recently Kalakand appeared on few minute wonders which inspired me even more. So gathered all the ingredients, went ahead and made it without further thinking. For the amount of ingredients given here, it makes huge amount of kalakand, so you may try halving the recipe. I froze the leftovers for later use, which can be thawed just before eating.


Here is a quick version of the exquisite Sweet, easy to do and something that takes considerably less amount of time compared to the original one. Here, the recipe uses ricotta cheese which is an Italian cheese. Freshly prepared paneer may be used instead of ricotta, but you may need to adjust the cooking time accordingly depending on the moisture content. I would say this Kalakand preparation is really good in taste and texture, perfect to soothe your sugar cravings, but it is slightly different from the shop bought ones. It's taste was something like a cross between a Peda and Kalakand, which are both really good but texture was just perfect.


Kalakand (A Popular Indian Sweet made easy)
Serves 20

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups (650 g) Ricotta Cheese
2 * 397g Condensed milk
1/3 cup Cream of wheat/Rawa/semolina (5 Tbsp,sharp)
1/3 cup – ½ cup white granulated sugar
2 tsp Butter or ghee (Clarified butter)
¾ tsp cardamom powder
Chopped almonds to garnish
Chopped pista to garnish

Preparation:


1. In a large 2 litre microwave safe bowl, tip in ricotta, condensed milk, sugar, Cream of wheat and butter or ghee and stir until it is thoroughly combined.

2. Place this bowl in Microwave at cook it at high power for 3 minutes. Take it out, stir well and put it back in for another 3 more minutes. Take it out and stir well again. Do it few more times, but you can increase the time up to 5 minutes and stirring in between, for a total of fifty minutes. Here my Microwave oven is 800 Watts. Ovens with more or less power, cooking times may be changed accordingly. Make sure you keep an eye on it constantly as it may spill out if you are using a small pan. Cook the mixture until you get a slightly stiff mixture, which is something like a very soft dough. Add cardamom powder and mix very well.

3. Tip in the mixture in an oiled dish and spread evenly. Sprinkle some chopped pistachio and almonds on top and press gently. Let it come to room temperature and then chill it in the refrigerator until slightly firm and cut into squares of 2 ½ inches. Makes 16-20 pieces.

Notes:

1.You may replace ricotta with chenna or freshly prepared paneer. Adjust the cooking time depending on microwave oven. Cook until it all the liquid had evaporated and the mixture starts getting lumpy and doughy

2. You may also cook it on the hob using a heavy base saucepan, on a moderate heat if it is convenient, with constant stirring to avoid burning.

33 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks fantastic

Simplyfood said...

This mithai looks wonderful, I love the mouth watering clicks.

Rachana said...

Wow! These kalakands look mouthwatering...delicious.
And I loved your photos :-)

divya said...

Oh wow..shab..what a wonderful presentation! looks so delicious and tempting.

FewMinute Wonders said...

Thank you so much for trying my recipe and getting back to me with your review of it. Ya it does make a huge batch but I must confess I make them when I have guests and they always ask for a to go bag of it. I have a suggestion, slightly warm after you thaw it. The longer it sits in our fridge the better it tastes. Enjoy and your photos look awesome.

Manju said...

Wow! this really is super easy. I love kalakand but never found the patience to make it the regular way...must have to try this! thanks shabs :)

Suji said...

Kalakhand looks very very very yummy Shabs. satyam paranjal kannedukane thonunilla ketto, Love it..

Love
Kairali sisters

Cool Lassi(e) said...

Congrats on hitting a wonderful milestone. Lovely kalakand recipe. But the procedure does sound arduous and I would love it if someone made it for me. hehe.

Unknown said...

Looks super yummy !!!

Pavithra Elangovan said...

Shabs the kalakhand looks extraordinarly beautiful.. and very tempting dear.. WOnderful clicks as well..

Nasi said...

Hi Shabs, I really wanna try this soon... But tell me if I can use store bot paneer? The clicks r way too good!!

Indian Khana said...

Looks yummy ..lovely pic ....looks fab

Lidia said...

never tried ricotta and semolino......it looks a perfect mix, great recipe Shab!!

Anonymous said...

Amazing pics!! seems yummy...

Priya Suresh said...

Slurppp, tempting kalakand squares, i do the same way too..

Srivalli said...

Looks lovely!..I too had made this recently in microwave and was surprised how quick this gets done..:)

PranisKitchen said...

thats so delicious. i used to do the milk halwa this way..this is very good one.. the noraml its so difficult. nice pics too
wish to get one million hits

Padhu Sankar said...

Wow! That's a superb recipe and your step by step pics looks fabulous!!

Sarah Naveen said...

adipoli clicks...looks so perfect and yummy too...

Unknown said...

Congrats, Shabs!! Kalakand looks fabulous..Beautiful presentation and pics..

Deborah said...

This looks delicious!

Sunitha said...

Yum! Looks fabulous

MyExperimentsWithFood said...

Looks wonderful.

Guna's kitchen said...

first time here.. kalakand luks very tempting and veery beautiful... happy to follow ur blog

Afsal_ Alif said...

Hi Shabz,
Thnx a lott 4 ur Comment.....
Plzz post Raz malai or Shahi Thukda,nxt time. Hope u know that as u seems tu be a Confectionary Specialist.

Swapna said...

Congrats Shabs!! Wonderful clicks & presentation!!!

Unknown said...

Congrats dear!

The sweet looks fab!Though I have had this, I didnt know the name ;)I love milk based sweets..

Shabs.. said...

Thank you all for stopping by and your encouraging comments.

Parita said...

WOW! Gorgeous pictures! simple awesome dear!

Anu Nandu said...

Wow - How did I ever miss you? I'm so glad you commented on the FB page - glad glad to be here - you have a wonderful space here. I want to take time and go through - in a rush now - but will be back.

This kalakand is heavenly!! Love it!

Unknown said...

what is cream of wheat, where can u buy it. i live in london many thanks prali

Shabs.. said...

cream of wheat is semolia or rava, or sooji or even called farina...you can find in asian shops or asian sections in asda or tesco....but mostly in indian shops...

Swapna said...

I made kalakand over the weekend and it came out AWESOME. Even my husband who is a hard one to please, liked it very much :). It was a little dense and did not have the texture of kalakand; maybe I over-cooded it. It only took me 15 mins in my microwave though. Will definitely be making this again. Thank you for a delicious and easy recipe.

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