Kesar Kalakand is one of the yummiest, desserts, enjoyed best when it’s made fresh. The texture is just too good to resist eating multiple servings. Kalakand is a popular Indian dessert, a rich milk cake, generally made by reducing milk and sugar by boiling it. It’s a long process. I have made this very quick version by using ricotta cheese and have flavored it with kesar/saffron. It is one of the easiest and yummiest dessert ever when made using ricotta cheese, and cooked in Microwave oven. Don’t believe me? Try it out for yourself 🙂 It is generally a well-loved recipe by all and a super-hit whenever I make it for gatherings/parties.
I am very fortunate that every year, I get the privilege to offer a food item prepared by me for the Diwali Govardhan Puja Annakut, at the Bay Area Vaishnav Parivar Temple. Thanks to Mom and BayVP for the opportunity each year (: Bay Area Vaishnav Parivaar comes up with beautiful themes for the Diwali Annakut celebrations each year. This year, the theme was Dwarka Sheesh Mahal. Sheesh Mahal traslates to mirrored palace. Over 183,000 mirrors were used by the volunteers in putting together this Sheesh Mahal theme. It was a sight to behold.
Making food for an offering to God and God’s devotees is an incredible experience. I look forward to it each year. This year, I made Kesar Kalakand. It is a well-loved dessert by all. I make it over a dozen times each year. This time, I made it with Kesar (saffron) and rose water. It looked great and from the aroma I could tell that it must taste good too 🙂 When preparing food for the temple, one is not supposed to taste the food, so I haven’t tried it yet, though I did have some leftover from what I sent to the temple. The Annakut was today and so my Mom rightfully suggested that we try the leftover after the Annakut is over.
I did get to see the glance (I think) of the dessert I had prepared, among hundreds of beautifully decorated, yummy desserts offered by devotees. You can read all about what an Annakut is, over here:
Since this recipe is very easy and prepared completely using microwave. So you can also multitask while the microwave does the work for you 🙂
Please note, I doubled the following recipe as I had to make it in big quantity. I also used some additional microwave cooking time at each step in the recipe. Here I have listed the usual recipe that I use.
Kesar Kalakand
Kalakand is a popular Indian dessert, generally made by reducing milk and sugar by boiling it. I have made this version by using Ricotta Cheese and have flavored it with Kesar/Saffron. It is one of the easiest and yummiest dessert ever when made using Ricotta cheese, and cooked in Microwave oven. Don't believe me? Try it out for yourself 🙂
Print Pin RecipeServings (slide to adjust): 20
Ingredients
- 16 oz. Ricotta Cheese
- 14 oz. Sweetened condensed milk
- ½ - 1 teaspoon Saffron / Kesar
- 1-1 ½ teaspoon Rose water (per taste)
- ¾ teaspoon Green cardamom powder
- a handful Pistachios, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons Milk
- 2 sheets Edible silver foil (optional)
- 1 teaspoon Dried rose petals (optional)
Instructions
- Soak the saffron in 2 teaspoons of warm milk. Keep it aside
- Take a microwave safe glass utensil (preferably square or rectangle) and add the ricotta cheese and condensed milk to it. Whisk well. Put it in microwave and cook uncovered for 5 minutes. Sing & dance while the microwave is doing all the work.
- After 5 minutes, take it out from microwave, mix well with a whisk, especially the sides, put it back in the microwave, uncovered, for 3 minutes. Continue on with the dance!
- Take out and mix well, microwave for another 3 minutes, this time covered. Dance.
- Take out and mix well, microwave for another 2 minutes, covered. You can take a break from the dancing this time, and do all the pistachio chopping etc. Gotcha there.
- Remove from microwave, mix well. Add the soaked saffron with milk which was soaked earlier. The mixture needs to be microwaved 6 minutes, uncovered this time, but this time at an interval of 2 minutes each. That is, microwave for 2 minutes, remove, mix well, microwave another 2 minutes, remove, mix well and microwave for the last 2 minutes.. phewwwww! Add cardamom powder, rose water and give it a nice mix.
- Press it down and smoothen the surface. Garnish it with the edible silver foil. Add chopped pistachios, dried rose petals (optional). Let it set in a refrigerator for about an hour (optional), and cut into square pieces. Voilaaa Kesar Kalakand is ready! Finish it up with a happy dance!!
Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Follow me on Instagram @eatmoreart
Summary of microwave steps:
Just in case you missed the total microwave timings, and the covered/uncovered bit, here it is summarized for you (see, told ya it’s gonna be easy for ya!). This is only a repeat of part of the steps described above:
5 minutes uncovered
3 minutes uncovered
3 minutes covered
2 minutes covered
6 minutes, uncovered – at an interval of 2 minutes each
And that is a wrap for Diwali celebrations for the year!
Leave a Reply