Kalakand is an indian dessert, made with milk. It is favourite and popular sweet dish of india yet very easy to prepare. Usually it is prepared with milk where milk needs to boil continuously on medium flame till it thickens and reduced to 1/3 of original size. But I prepared with ricotta cheese and achieved same texture and taste. Advantages of using ricotta cheese is that it saves time requires to thicken the milk. So lets see my version of Kalakand…..

Ingredients:

200 gms Ricotta cheese

1&1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp clarified butter or ghee

1 tsp cardamom powder

few strands of saffron

dry fruits

pinch of salt (just to enhance the taste)

Method:

Turn on the gas to heat the pan on medium flame. Add milk and cheese to it and keep stirring.Keep stirring continuously, and milk will start boiling. As milk starts boiling, the mixture will thicken slowly.Now add dry fruits, sugar, ghee, salt and continue stirring. We don’t want to add to much salt, just add pinch of it to enhance the taste.As mixture thickens, add cardamom powder to it and mix well. Keep rolling the mixture till it thicken sufficiently. Now turn off the gas and keep pan aside. Let it cool to room temperature. Take a box and grease it with ghee from inside. Add kalakand mixture to it. Ensure mixture is at room temperature. Refrigerate the box for 5-6 hrs to set the kalakand. After 5-6 hrs remove from the fridge and cut it into pieces. Kalakand is ready, you can garnish it with dry fruits….