Nolen gur sandesh

A trip to Delhi is never complete without having gur sandesh from Annapoorna. I am sure the ones in Kolkata must be too good but I have never had the opportunity to taste those.
I love the brown gur sandesh and tried many a times to make them but would always fail in my attempts.
Either, I would over cook paneer or under cook the paneer. Gradually after few trials, I was able to place the exact time I need to remove paneer from heat.

Palm sugar is added to make this sandesh.  The jaggery not only gives it a brown color but also imparts a very different taste.

Ingredients:
full fat paneer from 1 liter milk
3 tbsp palm jaggery or according to taste

For garnishing:
few raisins
cardamom powder
crushed pistachios
palm jaggery

Method:
Put the milk to boil .
Mix water and vinegar and keep it ready.
As soon as the milk starts to boil, turn off the heat, give milk a swirl and add the water-vinegar solution.
Wait for a second, stir it lightly.
You will now see the milk solids separating and a greenish clear water.

Strain the milk solids (paneer) using a fine cloth.
Press to remove water, do not make it too dry.

Break paneer into small pieces and start kneading....

Apply a little pressure and slide your palm in front, taking and mashing paneer along.

You can also use a blender to mash paneer. The paneer would become a soft dough.
Now, it is the time to sweeten paneer.

date palm jaggery

Khejur gur or date palm jaggery is used as a sweetner in this variety of sandesh.  I like less sweet so I have added 3 tbsp of sweetner.
Mix and make it into a homogenous mass. You can increase or decrease the amount of sugar.

Put a pan, preferably a non-stick one on low flame. Put sweetened paneer and start stirring.

The paneer will lose some water and start becoming runny.

Continue stirring, do not increase the heat or the paneer would become crumbly in no time.

Soon, it will start leaving the sides of the pan. Test by taking a little dough out and rolling it, if it does not stick to the surface, it is done. If, it feels grainy, mash again to make a soft dough.

My sandesh molds which Anna Majumdar got for me from Kolkata. Thanks Anna.

My garnishes are all ready.

Put a little garnish on the mold, cover with dough , press lightly and remove.

tried filling with jaggery.....

all ready to be served...

Enjoy the soft melt in the mouth sandesh.


My Notes:
Do not remove all water from paneer, it should be soft and not crumbly.
Stir sugar and paneer continuously over low heat.
If, you do not have palm sugar, use plain white sugar.

Pista-elaichi Kulfi

Kulfi is an Indian sub-continent frozen milk dessert made by reducing full fat milk till it is thick and creamy. It is then sweetened and flavored usually with pistachios and cardamom or saffron, almonds and pistachios or rose water. The flavors are endless. I happened to eat jackfruit and coconut kulfi some time back. It was a different flavor but not something which I would like to make.

There are a few differences which I find between an ice cream and kulfi. Since, kulfi is made with full fat milk, there is no need to add cream.  The milk is thick and dense, it freezes into a smooth soft texture. Ice creams not only need to be aired but some thickening agent needs to be added.  Lastly, one advantage I find kulfi has over ice cream is that I can re-freeze melted kulfi and it gives me the same outcome, both in taste and consistency.  Ice creams once melted go waste, you cannot freeze them again.

The recipe which I am writing below uses both evaporated and condensed milk.  Since, my evaporated milk is not full fat, I need to add whipping cream but sadly I did not have whipping cream at home so made use of malai.

Ingredients for basic mixture:
1 can (12 fl.oz) evaporated milk
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1- 1 1/2 cup of whipping cream or malai

for flavoring:
15 pistachios
3/4 tsp cardamom powder

Method:

Take a pan and empty the evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.  Sweetness depends on your taste. I usually go with not more than 3/4 of the can but I have also added the whole can depending on how sweet my guests might like it. 

Mix both types of milk well.

I did not have whipping cream so, substituted cream malai which is the cream removed from top of boiled raw milk.  I decided to sieve it so that the kulfi does not have lumps of cream.  I also added the left over milk solids to milk mixture. This way, it became a homogeneous mass and gave an impression of reducing the milk by boiling :)
If, you are using cream, then whip it lightly and fold in the milk mixture. Do not over beat or it would turn into butter!
Cream gives a smooth texture to kulfi. You can put 1/2 cup more for a creamier kulfi but do not exceed or else the kulfi tastes only of cream.
This is the basic kulfi mixture.

To the basic kulfi mixture, add flavorings of your choice and enjoy a large variety.

For pista-elaichi, I would suggest, not adding pistachio powder but adding pounded ones. The kulfi looks pretty with green specks in between.

Add cardamom powder and pistachios to the pan. Give it a good stir.

Kulfi molds given by my MIL, I treasure them.  The material is so good and the caps fit in perfectly !  I bought a few some time back and either the caps would not fit in properly mess up the whole work.

Fill in the molds, just leaving enough space for the kulfi to expand on freezing.
Put them in the freezer to set.
For removing the kulfi from molds:

Dip the mold in water to losen the sides and remove with a butter knife.

Slide on to a serving dish.....

garnish with chopped pistachios.
Enjoy before it melts :)

My Notes:
If you do not have kulfi molds, dont worry. Put the mixture into a glass ware, cover it tightly with an aluminium foil and freeze. The purpose is to freeze kulfi quickly without giving it time to develop crystals.
You can use any aluminium container also but make sure to cover it.
Chill the cream and also the beater before beating.