On a scorching summer day in India, when I wanted some thing cool and delicious to make me feel happy, I would land at the cart of “Kulfiwala” (a vendor who sells Kulfi ), and relish this nutty, creamy dessert.
Traditionally, Kulfi was a labor intensive dessert or sweet treat, where milk would be flavored, sweetened and boiled for hours to evaporate and condense it. Now it need not be – labor intensive that is. Here is a recipe that makes the process easy and quick. To make this Kesar Pista Kulfi with hints of cardamom, you can eliminate the hours long process of evaporating milk. and no one can tell that you made it using shortcuts.
Kesar Elaichi Pista Kulfi
Ingredients
- 1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk [It’s usually a 14 oz can]
- 1 Can Evaporated Milk [it’s usually a 12 oz can]
- Heavy Whipping cream [22 oz]
- Saffron A couple of pinches
- 1/3 C Pistachios sliced thin or chopped
- 1 tbs warm Milk
- 1/4 Tsp cardamom powder
Instructions
- Add the Saffron to the milk and soak.
- Take the whipping cream in a bowl and whisk it until soft peaks form
- In another bowl, take the condensed milk and the evaporated milk and blend with a whisk.
- Now add the cardamom powder, half of the pistachios, the saffron and mix well.
- Add the whipped cream and fold in to make a homogeneous mixture.
- Pour into plastic wine glasses, garnish with remaining Pistachios and cover with a cling wrap and freeze for at least 5 hours. Serve as is.
Recipe Notes
Note:
1)For all the alternate presentation options, immerse the base of the container in warm water for a minute to ensure smooth transfer of kulfi from the container.
2) Soaking the saffron leaves some strands of saffron whole, thus creating pockets of deep yellow kulfi, which really adds to the presentation.
Alternate presentation options:
You can pour it into a bundt cake pan, cover it completely and serve on a platter ; Pour this mixture into Popsicle molds for children to enjoy holding it in their hands; or do what I usually do : Pour this mixture into air tight plastic containers to freeze and cut thick slices to serve.