Monday 22 June 2009

Cardamom, Rosewater and Saffron Kulfi

About 10 years ago, a friend of the family was visiting family in India, and she very kindly bought me some kulfi moulds. So the other week when I made Dharm's lovely wife's curry, I thought it was about time I used them... and of course, by the time we'd eaten curry, aubergine, lentils, rice and pineapple, we really didn't have enough room for dessert!

Still, it never hurt anyone to have some icecream stowed away in the freezer.

The really special thing about the kulfi moulds is that they are handmade, so the thread on each lid only fits its own mould. Hence the purple nailpolish numbering so that I can keep them matched up.

This is a cheating version of kulfi that I made up after reading lots and lots of other recipes - it uses condensed and evaporated milk, instead of carefully cooking down fresh milk the way you are supposed to. Still, it tastes good; sweet and perfumed. I used reduced fat versions of all the dairy products in it, and it worked OK - but feel free to use full-fat.

Easy Kulfi

1 can reduced fat evaporated milk
1 can reduced fat sweetened condensed milk
300ml reduced fat thickened cream
The seeds of 3 green cardamom pods
Rosewater to taste
Pinch of saffron threads

In a mortar and pestle, crush the cardamom seeds and saffron to a powder and mix with the other ingredients. The specks of saffron will start to bleed beautiful patches of gold into the mix, and you can either wait until they have infused thoroughly, and the mixture is a fairly uniform colour, but I like the almost marbled look.

Pour the mixture into your kulfi moulds (or a loaf tin lined with cling film) and freeze. Kulfi freezes hard, so there is a balance to be struck between being too hard to eat and melting. Some passionfruit or other tangy fruit would be good with it, too moderate the sweetness a bit, but Indian desserts do tend to be very sweet! If I'd had a bit of edible gold leaf I think I would have had to use it.

11 comments:

kat said...

What a cool looking dessert

HH said...

I love Kulfi! That does sound easy, I shall have to give it a go! Yum!

Alicia Foodycat said...

Kat - thanks! The moulds are so cute

HH - it is a good one. The cardamom flavour is quite strong, so you need to like that.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Great post! I love the molds and like the easier sounding Kulfi recipe too.What a fun dessert--love the combo of flavors.

Teresa Cordero Cordell said...

Sounds delicious and refreshing.
One question. I normally use my food processor to grind herbs and seeds. Does it make a difference in the taste when you use a mortar and pestle? I've always wanted one.

Heather said...

i've never had/heard of kulfi, but it sounds so good! i love rosewater :)

hungryandfrozen said...

These look and sound beautiful. I have SO many cardamom pods and so am always on the lookout for ways to use them. Gorgeous kulfi moulds :D

Alicia Foodycat said...

Deb - thanks!

Teresa - my food processor won't do spices!

Heather - the rosewater is pretty subtle in this.

Laura - this is a pretty good way to use a couple.

mscrankypants said...

I love the nail polish labels :-).

Is there a way of incorporating a recent pic of Urchin into an upcoming post??? :-)

Esi said...

I have never had this dessert, but the flavor combination sounds delicious. I would probably use your suggestion of adding some tangy fruit though.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Cranky - just for you, there will be an Urchin feature.

Esi - I had it with some mixed berries, and it was a good thing!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...