Kulfi-Sharing a recipe and an award passed by Sadhana & muskaan

we get one of the best kulfis in a small shop off MG road. When we go to that part of the city(which is very rare), we make it a point to relish those kulfis that come in different flavours..kesar-badam, kesar-pista, pista-badam and so on..I guess kulfi is a north indian dessert though it is avialbe in south too. Some years back, I remember people in my native place referring to it as "gulfi". However one calls it, it tastes divine....just divine..So, when I saw the recipe for kulfi at Sadhana and muskaan's, I had to bookmark it.

Along with sharing the award that they passed on, I thought it would be apt to make something from their blog and post it too as a way of thanking them for both sharing the award as well as such wonderful, healthy vegetarian recipes..

I remembered that the recipe uses evaporated milk which the duo had suggested can be prepared at home by reducing the milk to half the quantity. Plus it uses some nuts and cardomom all of which I had. So, I was mentally prepared to make them this weekend. Switched on the PC to go through the recipe and alas..the first 2 ingredients are cream and condensed milk both of which I did not have..It was raining and there was no way I could go and buy them..Then I realised that the kulfis taste much like the paal payasam(reduced milk kheer) sans the rice. So I went ahead and prepared the kulfi with just the reduced milk. I was very confident that it would taste good, for that matter anything with milk and sugar tastes good..

The kulfis came out well as expected. I made two different flavours..kesar-badam and cashew, adding cardomom in both..It was liked by everybody at home. The only problem was, it was melting away too very fast which is very unusual of the kulfis..May be the culprit was the errant electricity because of which the kulfis did not freeze properly..

For the original recipe please have a look at kulfi at a2zvegetariancuisine

Ingredients

Milk: 1 1/2 litres
Sugar: 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup
Nuts: 1/4 cup(I used cashew and badam/almond)
Saffron/Kesar: 4 to 5 strands
Cardomom/Elaichi: 5 to 6 powdered

Procedure

1. Soak saffron in 2 tbsp of warm milk and keep aside.
2. Bring milk to boil and then simmer.
3. Add sugar to the milk and allow it to boil. Keep a vigil on the milk if increasing the flame as it might overflow. Keeping a ladle in the milk pan avoids overflowing in medium flame. But its better to keep checking.
4. Let the milk reduce to 500 ml. (it took almost 1 1/2 hours)
5. Remove from heat and allow it to cool.
6. Once the milk is cooled down, divide the milk into half.
7. Add the soaked saffron, badam and half the cardomom powder in one half and mix to combine.
8. Add the cashew and rest of the cardomom powder in the other half and mix.
9. Pour the mixture in kulfi moulds if availble or in small cups with lid.
10. Freeze over night.
11. Remove the mould from the refrigerator before serving, immerse in slighlty hot water for 10 seconds for the mould to loosen.(Immerse for more time if the mould is too hard..If over immersed, it might melt.)
12. Release the kulfis from the mould by inverting them into serving plates and garnish with nuts.

Note: As I had mentioned earlier,the kulfis melted very fast and that shows in the picture. :-) Melted or frozen, it tasted awesome. As I did not have pistachios, I did not use it. Otherwise, I guess, its one of the integral parts of the kulfi along with cardomom.

Thank You Sadhana and muskaan for both the award and the recipe. Both are a treasure. :-)

I would like to pass on the award to

Supriya, Lubna, Raks: Their food photographs are among the best.
Hari Chandana: She is a very young talented blogger and an artist too
Aparna: I have the most number of bookmarked recipes from her blog.

I know all these wonderful people would have recieved many awards in the past, but I too would like to share my maiden award with them..