Traditional Indian Frozen treat – similar to icecream but is denser and creamier. A sweet treat to beat the heat!
It is getting hot here in Montreal. I am sure this is a street vendor food. I still remember the kulfi wallah – a vendor selling kulfi carrying the earthen pot on his head or in a vehicle and selling kulfi door to door. But never had a chance to try it there and I had it once or twice in beach i love it! They had a lot of varieties of kulfi and i would always get confused which one to order. I had the same problem even when i prepared this, i thought of mango or pista. Some add vermicelli and make lot of additions and even taste like kulfi. I like the classic taste so did not ant to do all that.The usual icecreams are whipped but kulfi is not whipped and it is solid, dense frozen dessert.
Kulfi is traditionally done by evaporating full fat milk by slow cooking and stirring it. And when it is reduced by half, add sugar and condensed milk, saffron, rose water and nuts. And this mix is then frozen in tight sealed molds for 6 hours or more. You can even store them in earthen pots and that kulfi is called ‘Matka Kulfi’. I made this last Friday for my Brother in law and friends who came for watching Grand Prix. And everyone loved it, I was very happy 🙂 I have already made coconut pistachio Kulfi. It was great too. But this time I wanted to do the classic kulfi.
You can make kulfi in different ways. You can make by just using regular milk and some evaporated milk. Or just using milk with by evaporating and becomes thick. Kulfi and icecream is different. Kulfi is something you can bite into and icecream just melts in your mouth. You can even skip the thickening agent. In my case, I used rice flour. You can just make evaporate and make it real thick and freeze it. But I find this perfect by using rice flour.
My other favourite dessert Recipes : Coconut Pistachio Kulfi, Carrot Coconut truffles/Ladoo, kala Gulab jamun, Gulab jamun, 5 minute nutella mug cake, thaen mittai/sugar candy, rasgulla, Coconut Burfi, Coconut Ladoo, Beetroot Halwa.
- • Milk - 3 and ½ cups or Almond Milk – 3.5 cups (If vegan)
- • Sweetened condensed milk - 1 cup (Skip if vegan)
- • Sugar - ½ cup
- • Rice flour - 1 tsp
- • Mango – 2 or Mango puree – 2 cups.
- • Badam - 10 nos, crushed or make it a smooth paste
- • Pista - 10 nos, crushed
- • Cardamom powder - ½ tsp
- • Saffron - 3 strands
- • Pista - 2 tsp , crushed coarsely
- Heat the milk to a boil with saffron strands and then simmer for 15 - 25 minutes till thickens.
- When it thickens, add the sweetened condensed milk and mango puree and heat for 2- 4 minutes. (If you have mango, just blend into a very smooth paste and add)
- Add badam, pista, sugar, cardamom powder, cinnamon powder and heat for two minutes.
- Dissolve 1 tsp of rice flour in 2 tsp of water. Add that in the mixture. It helps in thickening.
- When you think , it is totally thick and it is not liquidy, switch off and cool completely.
- When it is cooled completely, now blend it once more. This gives a perfect creamy texture.
- Set in any containers you want, cover and freeze it. But traditionally kulfis are served in this special mould where the ice-cream is set.
- Pour the ice-cream into individual kulfi mould and freeze till set. (for 6- 8 hrs)
- Unmold the kulfi by placing it under running water for few seconds. Remove on a plate, slice the kulfi, garnish with pistachios and serve immediately.
2. I recommend using full fat full milk, don’t use low fat milk.
3. If you don’t have the mould i have, you can use Popsicle mould if not you can use disposable plastic cups. Or even thick paper cups.
