Mango Kesar Kalakand with Pistachios

Mango is a king of fruits and it can be used to make numerous dishes and one of them is Mango Kalakand. Kalakand is a popular sweet in North and North Eastern parts of India. It is soft and grainy in texture and not very sweet. Mango Kesar Kalakand is very delicious and can be prepared and served in any festival.So on the occasion of Friendship day, I decided to make some special and delicious sweet for you all so here is my experiment with Mango and Saffron. I named it Mango Kesar Kalakand with Pistachios. 

Happy Friendship Day Friends!  🙂

Preparation Time: 15 mins.
Cooking Time: 20mins.
Makes 12 Kalakand

Ingredients :
Mango Pulp : 1 cup
Ghee/butter/oil : 1 tbsp (To grease)
Chopped Pistachios : to garnish
Chopped Almonds: to garnish
Milk- 1 liter ( to make condensed milk from 1/2 liter and to make paneer from rest 1/2 liter)
Sugar – ½ cup
Butter : 1 tbsp
Vanilla Essence : 1/2 tsp (optional)
Lemon juice – 3 tbsp
Almonds – 4
Pistachio – 8
Yellow color a pinch of
Green cardamom – 4
Saffron soaked in warm milk

Method:

How to make Condensed Milk:
1. Take a heavy bottom pan, add milk and sugar to it, mix well and let it boil on high flame.
2. Once boiled, reduce the flame  to low and cook it for 15 minutes or unless it has started changing its colour and thickens a bit. Continuously stir it.
Once it achieves a little thick consistency , switch of the flame and don’t over thicken it.
3. Now add the butter, to give a nice shine and some vanilla essence.
Let it completely cool.

How to make Paneer:
1. Boil the semi –skimmed milk, add lemon juice slowly till the milk mass separates. This way you can make paneer at home.
2. Strain and wash the paneer thoroughly. Press it under a heavy weight for five minutes to get the whey out. The paneer that you get is crumbly in texture. This is the right kind of paneer to get the best kalakand

How to proceed for Kalakand:
1. In a heavy bottom pan heat mango pulp for a 3-4 minutes. Once the pulp starts to reduce in volume, add condensed milk , paneer and mix well.
2. Cook it till the water content reduces and it starts leaving sides of the pan.
3. Next add cardamom powder ,saffron strands soaked in warm milk and diluted yellow color.Mix well and take out the Kalakand on a greased plate or a board.

4. Garnish the Kalakand with diced pistachios and almonds. Refrigerate the mix for 30 mins to allow it to set

5. Once cooled, cut it into desired shape. Mango Kalakand is ready to serve.

Enjoy it with your family and have fun 🙂

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Variations:
To make basic kalakand, omit mango puree and saffron.

Tips:

1. Grating paneer instead of mashing gives a nice and even texture to kalakand.
2. If the mixture is sticky after cooling, transfer back to pan and reheat till thickened.
3. You can store condensed milk in some air tight glass container and keep it refrigerated.

 

Sizziling Momos with Red Hot Chilli Chutney

Sizziling Momos are dumplings filled with a choice of spiced minced meat or vegetables and then steamed or fried as per choice – a delicious healthy snack..!

Here I have a lovely recipe for you. Momos are originally the most sought after street food from Tibet or Nepal. It has its roots in China. It later became popular in other areas like Bhutan, Sikkim and other Himalayan states. Each region has their own variations of it. Some add tomatoes to the filling, while some use chicken or mutton mince abd some with vegetables. Some states do not add soy sauce and some add oyster sauce. Variations are in plenty.

The momo is similar to the dim-sums, won tons or the Chinese dumplings.  These momos are either steamed (the healthy version) or deep fried in oil. The deep fried ones are called kothey momos. Momos are usually served with a dipping sauce normally consisting of tomatoes as the base ingredient. The sauce is a very important part of eating momos as they build up the taste and gives it an added body. Always eat the momos hot, they do not taste that great when cold.  The perfect way to eat momos is to dunk it in spicy sauce and put it in your mouth whole, so that the first bite will be an explosion of flavors. I have adapted this recipe as the basis on my momos. So now  try this simple and delicious recipe for Sizziling Momos with Red Hot Chilli Chutney!! 🙂

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Makes 15 momos

Ingredients:

For The Momo Wrapper
1 1/2 cup plain flour (maida)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup warm water to knead

Mixture for Filling:

1 cup finely chopped onion
2 cup  finely chopped cabbage
1 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped Button mushroom
salt to taste
1/2 tsp pepper powder
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp dark soya sauce

Red Chilli Momos Chutney:
4-5 cloves
1 inch Ginget
4-5 red chilli ( you can add some more chilli as per your taste)
2 red tomatoes
3 tsp vinegar
1/4 cup cabbage finely chopped
1/4cup onion finely chopped.
5 tsp oil
1/4 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
1 tsp salt to taste
(Soak the above mentioned sauce ingredients in vinegar for about 2- 3 hr except cabbage, onion, kashmiri red chilli powder and oil.)

Method:

For the Momo Wrapper:
Sieve the flour and baking powder together.Add warm water gradually and knead well to make a soft dough.
Knead for a while till the dough is quite smooth and keep aside for 30 minutes, covered with a damp muslin cloth. Now  after 30min, roll out the dough into a thin sheet and cut from it circular discs using a circular cutter or a steel tumbler. Now dust the cut out discs with maida and keep them aside.

How to make the Filling:
Take a pan, put some oil into it then add all the chopped  vegetables  into it in a go and then add salt and pepper  into it. Now saute it for 3 min on low flame then add dark soya sauce and switch off the flame. Make sure that the moisture should be there  in  filling otherwise the mixture will be dry and you will not get the right flavour.

How to make the red Chilli Chutney:

Make a fine paste of all soaked ingredients with tomato in a grinder. Now heat a pan, put some oil into it. once the oil get heat up, add the finely chopped cabbage and onion into it. Saute for 1 min then add the grinned paste into it add salt and kashmiri red chilli powder.  Now saute it till the oil get separated.

Making the Momos:
Once again roll out each maida disc to make the dough more translucent. Remember that the key to making good momos is to ensure that the outer covering is thin and soft. Put some small quantity of mixture on each disc n seal it into any design of your liking.Keep aside, covered with a damp muslin cloth.

Steaming the Momos:
Arrange the momos in a steamer plate and steam for 10 minutes.
Serve hot with Red Hot Chilli Chutney and Enjoy!!

Hope you all will Enjoy my Recipe..  😉
Have a Great Day!!! 🙂 🙂

Tips:

1.Do not let the dough dry out, or it will be hard to work with.

2.Make sure you have a non-stick surface and a damp cloth or lid handy to keep the assembled momo from drying out while you are assembling more. You can lay the momos in the lightly-greased steamer and keep the lid on them, or you can lay them on wax paper and cover them with the damp cloth.

3. To get the lavish look and texture of your red chilli chutney, you should add good quantity of oil.

4. You can use cream or mayo as well along with the hot chutney.