Friday, January 17, 2014

Paal Kova

100 days with my little  "U".   Calls for a celebration !

"U" can now give a brilliant smile; hold things on her own ; observe moving objects; recognize my voice; respond to us by making a cooing sound ..............Something new happens every single day :-)

I decided to celebrate the 100th day with a simple dessert.  My mom use to prepare this dessert very often.Either as pal kova or just the home-made condensed milk with sugar (w/o adding curd) is frozen which tastes like ice-cream!




Lot of things have changed in the last 100 days...Time management is the foremost thing. I am trying to become more organized,efficient and focused. To be precise, turning into a real mommy!

On to the dessert,
Many blogs suggested that Pal Kova can be cooked under 10 minutes if microwaved. However on the flip side, it had few problems too. So I decided to go the traditional-stovetop way. And this was the only dessert I could think of with the ingredients available at home. 

So the main ingredient for this recipe is  PATIENCE  PATIENCE & PATIENCE :-)


Source : My Mom
Cooking Time: 2 hours
No Prep Time :-)

Ingredients:
1 liter milk
2 teaspoon cardamom powder
3 tablespoon sugar
Few saffron strands
3-4 teaspoon curd
1 tablespoon ghee


Method:

1. Take a heavy bottomed vessel and boil the milk in a low to medium flame.
2. Wait until the milk reduces by half and then add 1tea spoon of curd.
3. Keep stirring occasionally and add another teaspoon of curd after 20minutes.
4. The milk will get a curdled texture after a while ; well don't stop keep stirring for another 20 minutes and add another teaspoon of curd.
5. Repeat step 3 until you get a thick curdled consistency.
6. Towards the end, the milk changes into a pale yellow color. At this stage add cardamom powder, saffron and sugar. The water content in the milk evaporates rapidly ; it requires frequent stirring so that the bottom doesn't get burnt.
7. I decided to retain some moisture (didn't want it to become very dry) because it gets harder when refrigerated.
8. Sprinkle some ghee on top; soft,hot pal kova is ready to be served.

Tidbits:


 
                                                      Picture and information courtesy : The Internet

Did you know Saffron

1. inhibits the growth of tumours
2. reduces insomnia
3. alleviates gastric problems

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