Day 60-Kiva's Desserts

THIS IS a pewter platter of handcrafted, one of a kind, 1:12 scale miniature Kalakand, a popular type of Indian sweet, made of Indian cheese and sweetened condensed milk, topped with chopped nuts, usually pistachios and/or almonds!

This is a platter of handcrafted, 1:12 scale miniature, Indian Khasta Kachori, yummy deep fried pastry with spicy filling! A little bowl of mint sauce is included.

I won these from Kiva's Kitchen (something I coined for Kiva Atkinson) on ebay early this month and they arrived today. Yes, I know, lucky me (trying not to smile smugly).

Seriously though, you know how important desserts/pastries are to the Indians when they spell them with capital letters! And as some of you know, I live very very close to where loads of Indian food is sold. So I can assure you Kiva's desserts in real life look just like the real thing in real sizes and that they are really real. See for yourself if you don't believe me. How? Well make some. Here's a bit of the facts and the recipes (from other websites, links provided)

KALAKAND
(Milk Cake)

Would you believe that Kalakand is actually one of the most popular traditional Indian sweet from Rajasthan? It originated from a place called ‘Alwar’. This sweet is so renowned for its excellent taste that there is even a street in Alwar named after this particular dish.

Apparently in the old days, name of a good sweet shop in India depended upon how good their Kalakand was.

There are so many ways to make this dessert from the 2 day version to the 17 minute one. Here's the 17 minute version from
Rediff Food:

Preparation time : 10 mins.
Cooking time : 7 mins.
Makes: 900 gms.

Ingredients
Milkmaid Sweetened Condensed Milk : 1 tin
Every Day Dairy Whitener : 30 g (2 heaped tb sp.)
Paneer : 500 g
Chopped Pistachio Nuts : 1 tb. sp.
Green Cardamom Powder : 1/2 tsp.
Ghee For greasing

Method
1. Grate Paneer and mash well to get a smooth paste. Transfer to a large bowl.
2. Add Milkmaid Sweetened Condensed Milk and Every Day Dairy Whitener. Mix well and microwave on high power for 7 minutes stirring twice (at 2 minutes and 5 minutes).
3. Remove from the oven. Spread on a greased flat tray.Garnish with cardamom powder and pistachio nuts. Allow to cool to room temperature.
4. Cut into 2" squares.

KHASTA KACHORI

(Fried Spicy Puffs)

Yet another common dish in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab especially in weddings! To all of you herbs lover (Rosanna, attention!), this one is for you.

This recipe is from Indian Food Forever:

Ingredients

3/4th cup skinless dried black beans (urad)
4 cups Flour (atta)
1 green chili chopped
1/2tsp Salt
Oil for deep frying
1tbsp anise seeds (Saunf)
1tsp coriander seeds
1tsp white cumin seeds
1/2tsp red chili powder
1/4th tsp asafoetida powder

Preparation:

• Soak the beans in water overnight then rinse and drain.
• Sift the flour and gradually add enough water to make soft dough. Cover the dough with damp cloth and leave for 30 minutes.
• Grind the drained beans with the chili powder, salt and spices to make stuffing. Mix well and divide it into 16 equal portions.
• Divide the dough into 16, using wet hands, and smear each portion with a little oil.
• Flatten and roll out into 2inch round.
• Wrap one portion of stuffing in each round and roll into a smooth ball, using greased hands.
• Flatten and roll into a 3-4 inch round.
• Heat plenty of oil in a deep frying pan or a kadhai.
• Now lift the rolled kachori and carefully slip it into the hot oil.
• Immediately start flickering hot oil over the top of it with a spatula so that it will swell up like a ball.
• This should take only a few seconds. Flip the kachori over and cook the other side until golden brown.Serve the dal kachori hot with chutney.