I have a confess that when I was living in India, I was never a big fan of Kulfi. It might have been because; as a child I disliked the taste of milk. I even hated Basundi, which is basically sweetened and thickened, reduced milk. Since the base of the Kulfi is reduced milk, I was never really fond of it. Over the years as my tastes evolved, I got over my dislike for milk and I gave Kulfi another shot and this time I loved it. Since I didn’t have access to the authentic Mewad Kulfi, I started my research to find an authentic recipe.
I soon realised that a lot of the recipes are using evaporated milk and condensed milk instead of reducing the milk by boiling it down. I wasn’t completely happy with the end product using any of these recipes. This time around I wanted to make a pistachio Kulfi and my search widened. I wanted full flavour of real pistachios instead of just adding some chopped nuts. Didn’t find any recipe that I liked so I decided to take the best bits of Kulfi & Pistachio Gelato recipes and to combine them. I came up with something, that had the full flavour and colour of real pistachios and had the texture of a Kulfi. I just went with my instinct and noted down the quantities later. Kulfi is not traditionally churned but I did use my ice-cream machine to churn it before freezing it in moulds. So call it pistachio gelato, pistachio ice-cream or call it pistachio Kulfi; either way the recipe below will give you an absolutely delicious, thick, creamy frozen dessert with full flavour of pistachios and a hint of honey.
Full fat milk 1 litre
Double cream 250 ml
75 gm pistachios
2 tbsp sugar (More if you prefer)
2 tbsp honey
¼ tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp corn flour
1) Soak 50 grams of pistachios in some hot water.Chop the rest of the pistachios & reserve them for later.
2) In a large, heavy bottomed pot, start heating the milk on a medium-low heat, stirring continuously. Stirring is absolutely critical as its very easy to scorch the milk at the bottom. When the volume of milk is reduced to half its original quantity, add the double cream to it. Let the mixture simmer for 5 more minutes and then take it of the heat. The whole process can take up to 40-50 mins. I know….it’s too long! But let me assure you that it will all be worth it in the end! You can do this on the side while you are cooking your dinner. Keeping one eye on the milk to not let it boil over & a gentle stir every few minutes to ensure that it doesn’t scorch, is whats required.
3) Cool down ¼ cup of the reduced milk. When it is completely cold, add the corn flour to it and mix until well incorporated.
4) Peel the skins of the soaked pistachios and put them in a blender with the honey and a half cup of reduced milk and blend them until smooth.
5) Put the reduced milk back on a medium-low heat and add sugar to it. Then slowly add the ground pistachios and the corn flour mixture to it and kept stirring it with a hand whisk. When the milk is thickened to the consistency of a slightly runny custard, take it off the heat. Stir in the chopped nuts and the cardamom powder and let the custard cool down.
6) When cold, put the cold custard into the ice cream machine and churn it until thickened and then spoon it into the ice-lolly moulds and place them in the freezer. If you don’t have an ice cream machine you can skip this step & just spoon the custard in the ice lolly moulds and freeze.
7) When the Kulfi is completely set, gently dip the moulds in warm water for a few seconds & then slowly pull out the kulfi and serve with chopped pistachios as a garnish.
never made kulfi,but this looks tempting and promising,will give it a try soon! i don’t have ice-cream maker so will try making this without ice-cream maker
Hi Farida, thanks for dropping by. Do give it a try and I hope you like the results.
Thanks a lot! I made it without ice cream maker. There were ice crystals in kulfi. Did you get ice crystals in kulfi when you made it? Maybe I need to buy ice cream maker.
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