Thursday, April 14, 2011

Kalakand using Xylitol and Wishes for a Happy New Year



Happy New Year to all my readers and friends. Today is the first day, first month of the Tamil Solar calendar. The day is celebrated by making sweet and savory dishes and the most important dish of the day is Neem Flower pachidi, which has the sweet, sour, spicy, bitter and salty taste signifying that life is a combination of different tastes. While my pachidi is simmering in the stove and will take some time to get captured in my camera, I thought will post the recipe for this delicious Kalakand. Kalakand is a traditional Indian Sweet made with sweetened milk and cottage cheese. The fresh cottage cheese is made by curdling milk with lemon juice and then cooked in thickened milk along with the addition of sugar. Instead of sugar, I have used Xylitol to celebrate the occasion.



Preparation Time - 30 Minutes

Cooking Time - 30 Minutes

Serves





Ingredients



For the Paneer



Organic Raw milk - 4 Cups

Lemon Juice - 2 Tablespoon

Warm water - 1/ 4 Cup



For Kalakand



Organic Raw milk - 4 Cups

Xylitol - 1/3 to 1/2 Cup depending on your sweet preference

Powdered Cardamom powder - 1/2 Tsp

Saffron few strands

Sliced almonds for garnishing



To make Paneer(Cottage Cheese)





1) Mix the lemon juice with warm water and keep it aside, boil the 4 cups of milk in a thick bottomed pan and once it comes to the boiling point add the lemon juice and stir gradually till the milk curdles.



2) Once the milk fat has separated, drain the whey from the cheese by pouring this through a colander lined with a cheesecloth.



3) On the separated cheese pour generous amount of cold water to remove the sourness of the lemon. Squeeze out the excess water and set this aside in a colander to drain any excess liquid.



To make the Kalakand.



1) Boil the rest of the 4 cups of milk with few strands of saffron till it reduces into one third its quantity in a thick bottomed pan on slow to medium heat stirring frequently not to burn the bottom of the vessel.



2) Once the milk is reduced to one third of the original quantity, add the paneer(drained cheese) and cook for few minutes till the mixture thickens and becomes like a soft dough and starts leaving the pan from the sides.



3) Now add the xylitol and cardamom powder cook for few minutes so that the xylitol melts and is mixed evenly and pour this mixture to a greased plate (10 inches plate greased with little bit of ghee(clarified butter). Spread the sliced nuts on the top with a spoon.



4) Let this cool for an hour and then cut into squares.

Interestingly in most parts of India New year is celebrated in March - April which also signifies the beginning of the beautiful spring. Please enjoy few spring blossoms in my back yard.







  

29 comments:

Nandini said...

The kalakands are very appetizing! Nice substitute for sugar.

simply.food said...

Beautiful clicks and lovely recipe.My 1st visit here, following your blog , you have a nice set of recipes.Do drop by simply.food sometime.

SravsCulinaryConcepts said...

wow excellent recipe !! kalakands looks so tempting !!

GEETHA ACHAL said...

வாவ்...à®°ொà®®்ப நல்லா இருக்கு...

பூக்களுà®®் சூப்பர்ப்...

Priya said...

Guilt free kalakands looks super prefect and inviting...

Sobha Shyam said...

Very tempting kalakands..looks yummy..!!

Mehjabeen Arif said...

Happy new year.. kalakand is super..

Vidhya said...

Wish you and your family a wonderful New year!Kalakand look so tempting.

Swathi said...

wish you and your family and happy new year. Love your xylitol kalakand.

Now Serving said...

those kalakand look very authentic and totally delicious - we used to buy these from an Ashram store in Pondicherry and it was probably one of our most fav. sweets to buy :)Love the almond touch!

miri goes phishing! said...

wish you a very happy new year.... thank you for dropping by at my blog....:)i have never heard of this neem flower dish u mentioned here...that's a nice trivia for me...:)...i will look fwd to that blog post. i will share this link with 2 of my frnds whose husbands are diabetic...they would love it...:)

Satya Chaitanya said...

very verry yummy and tempting ....
www.rajafood.blogspot.com

Satya Chaitanya said...

Happy new year and where do we get the Xylitol ?
www.rajafood.blogspot.com

Lizy said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a commment... I also made kalakand a few months back.. it was posted on my blog also... don't you love it for the simplicity of making it?? no fuss, no mess and yummy result every single time! BTW, love your flowers!

Raji said...

This is such a appetising sweet. One of my favourite.

Sonia said...

Hi There, This is looking absolutely delightful. Very nicely made and presented. I wud love to give it a shot on the coming weekend... Have a great day !

Sensible Vegetarian said...

Thanks all for your lovely comments, really appreciate it.

The Yogi Vegetarian said...

I love your blog! I'm working on cutting out sugar from my diet and your recipes are going to be so useful, thank you :)

DEESHA said...

Kalakand looks yummy. Happy new year to you

Sound said...

Looks yummy..wishing you a Happy new year..thanks for visiting my blog..

Eat Hearty said...

Kalakand looks perfect! Wis you a very happy new year.

You have some awards awaiting in my blog. Pls collect them. :)

Ankita
http://eat-hearty.blogspot.com

hemalata said...

Happy New Year to you.Very good presentation.Thanks for this delicious Kalakand.

Sukanya Ramkumar said...

My favorite sweet. Looks so good. nice recipe... YUM!

Xiaolu @ 6 Bittersweets said...

Happy New Year to you as well! This looks great.

saffronstreaks said...

Happy new year to you. I was searching for the kalakand recipe and you have posted it. very appetizing and xylitol is a good substitue for sugar. bookmarked it.

pls do check the new event at my site : summer coolers

Plateful said...

I have a sweet tooth and thought I've never tried kalkand I'm sure I'll love it- your recipe and pics tell me so!

Happy New Year!

Jay said...

looks so delicious n yummy...hope you had a great time..
Tasty Appetite

aipi said...

A classic sweet- beautifully recreated! Loved your garden pics, gorgeous flowers..
US Masala

women-wisdom.com said...

Delicious Kalakand. Its perfect and organic. So tempting. Thanks for visiting my place. Happy to follow you.

Hamsamalini Chandrasekaran,
http://indianyummykitchen.blogspot.com

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