Instant Kalakand is a popular and traditional Indian sweet .The traditional way of making Kalakand is very time consuming, but using paneer/cottage cheese make it easy and quick. If you are lucky enough to have paneer available handily – you can make this recipe a lot faster by using the ready made paneer. Malai paneer works best for Kalakand.
Kalakand sweet is soft and grainy in texture. For making kalakand crumbled cottage cheese and condensed milk is cooked together, few nuts and cardamom are added at the final stage and a delicious sweet is ready to serve. To add some more texture – you can easily get creative with this recipe. You can add ‘feeka sev’ (unsalted sev) to make it a sev burfi, or add a lot of coconut flakes to it to make it a coconut flavoured kalakand.
Ingredients2 liter Full fat Milk
400 ml Milkmaid /condensed milk
3 tbsp Milk Powder / Doodh Ka Powder
1/2 tsp Citric Acid/nimbu phool/taatri
1/2 tsp Cardamom Powder / Elaichi Powder
15 Pistachio / Pista
3 Silvar leaf/ Chaandi ka vark
Method
* In a heavy bottom pan add milk and let it come to a boil.Mix citric acid in 1.5 tbsp of water and mix well and keep aside.
* When milk start boiling add the dissolved citric acid in it.
* Cook on low flame till the milk curdle completely.
* Put a muslin cloth over a strainer and strain the curdled milk in it.
* Wash it well with fresh water to remove all the traces of citric acid .
* Tightly tie the cloth and put some weight over it to strain the whey.wait for around 15 minutes.
* In a nonstick pan or heavy bottom pan add the condensed milk and heat it for a minute.
* Add crumbled paneer(no need to mash the paneer,just crumble it) in it and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes .
* Keep stirring the mixture otherwise it may stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.
* Now add milk powder and cook till the mixture started to thicken and started leaving the pan and looks lumpy like a dough.
* Add chopped pistachio and cardamom powder.
* Spread the mixture in a greased plate and level it with a greased spatula.
* The thickness of kalakand should be around 1/2 inch .
* Apply silvar vark or sprinkle some chopped nuts over it.
* Let it set for minimum 25- 30 minutes.
* Cut into pieces and serve.