Saturday, September 11, 2010

Pistachio Kulfi

If this has been your best weekend of 2010 so far, I can understand why! Eid, Teej and Ganesh Puja. I am in heaven already. And I am told this is just the beginning…

Somehow all festivals all over the world are never quite complete sans something sweet, purely as a tradition. If not a treat! And who am I to flout norms. Not me. I don’t want to end up in Hell. By the way, read some bumper sticker the other day – Heaven is a punishment for good deeds!

IMG_0870 Busy festive days need ridiculously easy dessert recipes, you’d agree! I am sharing with you your Mom’s star recipe of Pistachio Kulfis. Yes, your Mom and my Mum all make it the same way back home in India. Its these modern spice goddesses (pun most definitely intended!) who mix and mash milk, banana and bread (apparently for texture and thickness) and then call it Kulfi!

But be warned this recipe and the reason (to make it) may give sharp rise in desire to get all the ingredients together and make it just this weekend!

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Ingredients for Pistachio Kulfi are:

1 liter half and half cream (or you can use full cream milk in India)
1 can of sweetened condense milk (Mum always uses Milkmaid in India)
Handful of unshelled Pistachios + some for garnish
7-8 almonds, skin off
Seeds from 5-6 green cardamoms

Start with a heavy bottom pan from your kitchen. Heat the cream on medium heat and keep an eye on it.

In a blender, add the pistachios and almonds and “pulse” it, not more than 10-15 seconds. Stop. Shake all the coarsely crushed and powdered nuts into the milk along with the cardamom seeds. Stir again. I remember a Bengali Home Science teacher from school always said – Staar the milk!

IMG_0816 Slowly add the condense milk and mix well. I do not add any sugar, as the sweetened condense milk I use here balances the sweetness. At this point, you can do your own taste test and see if your mixture needs any more sugar. Then add some.

Keep cooking the milk on low heat and see it change color. Just like the rabri you make for Ras Malai. It works if you keep a ladle dipped in the work-in-progress milk, that way the milk doesn't quickly boil over.

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When the milk and cream are reduced to about less than half the original quantity, cut the heat off. By now it would have attained the coveted texture of raw silk and a color of ivory-brown! The ground pistachio and almonds give you the perfect texture, exactly what a Pistachio Kulfi should have.

Let it cool. You will notice a thick skin on the milk when it cools down, stir that in too. That’s where all the important taste lies.

IMG_0819 Pour the mixture in Kulfi moulds, seal cap and freeze overnight. If you don’t have Kulfi moulds, use popsicle moulds or tall shot glasses. You can also stick in a bamboo stirrer/popsicle stick after about 30 minutes into freezing time in the shot glasses. That way you will have a Kulfi on a stick for grown ups who are still children at heart!

IMG_0865 Run warm/tap water for a few seconds on the Kulfi moulds to cleanly get the set Kulfis out. Chop some pistachios up and garnish the Pistachio Kulfis with them.

IMG_0869We had our Kulfis listening to this music and watching some creamy candles flicker in the darkness. Sometimes sweet memories are made of no words…

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15 comments:

Rahul said...

Hi Pree...the pista kulfi looks absolutely delicious! You are right about this weekend...yesterday we were invited to an Eid lunch and I had some amazing Malay, Vietnamese and Indionesion dishes.

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

perfect kulfis Pree. have a great weekend.

Kalyan Karmakar said...

Hey Pree the Kulfis look amazing and remind me of the much looked forward to, and rare treat of, coolfis from Indramahal. Esplanade. Once again, what wonderfully framed photos

Gouri Guha said...

You are there again with my favorite Kulfi. Been more than a month I had a bite of it...from the kulfi vendor of course.
Pictures - PREFECT.

Home Cooked Oriya Food said...

'Your Mom's kulfi' - loved it...
You have a way with words... Amazing...

GB said...

Deelish!

Can't get over bananas and bread in kulfi? really? to use my kids fav phrase...ewww!

Glad you two had a nice evening together! :)

Satya said...

the kulfi looks sooo delicious ...perfectly made ..soooo tempting
happy vinayaka chathurthy to u n ur family

Satya
http://www.superyummyrecipes.com

Sushma Mallya said...

lovely pics, kulfi looks too tempting and very yum...

Christine said...

Wow! The photos looks good, I bet it taste even better. If you wont mind I'd love to guide Foodista readers to your post. Just add the foodista widget to the end of this post so it will appear in the Foodista pages and it's all set, Thanks!

Jaya M said...

Love Kulfi , and amra O seyi Milkmaid diye kulfi banatam India te..all the pics are so beautifully and aesthetically taken Pree..
hugs and smiles

notyet100 said...

ur right,..this is moms recipe,..

Shivani Negi said...

Hi Pree, the kulfi recipe looks amazing and I m gonna try it for sure. But a little doubt.. is it fine to boil the milk after adding milkmaid. As of I know milkmaid is already condensed and needs to be added at the last.
Shivani

PreeOccupied said...

@Shivani, go ahead and add the condense milk after the milk has warmed a bit. Its perfectly okay to do it. The idea is to thicken them together. Adding later could result in lumps. Hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

Bread? Banana? KULFI????

What lobotomised moron does that? Please don´t tell me it´s an Indian? Surely this must be grounds for revoking Indian passports and generally disnheriting any of our coutrymen who so disrespct their cultural inheritence?

PreeOccupied said...

Actually some "moron" I have seen on TV. I would have understood, if she wasn't an Indian. But what Indian makes Kulfi with banana in it? And another someone who I thought was a stickler for tradition spoiled it all by adding bread to her Kulfi. I thought it was my culinary obligation to do at least something right. Hence this post. :-)