Celebrating Two Years of Blogging with Kalakand

One fine Morning, a little sparrow was woken up by the soft, yellowish, sun-ray shining through its nest, her home. Her mother had gone out,to get food for her.
She was curious, her eyes blinking to the vast blue sky. She decided to explore the world all by herself. It was difficult to fly through those spiky branches of mango tree.She did spread her wings and tried to soar off from the branch, but couldn’t. Another try, she tried to run few steps and then glided her wings against the winds, but she again failed. She tried it for several times this way, but was unable to fly.
Next day, she asked her Mother, how she was able to fly and cover so long distances.
Her mother replied,” My child, it’s your sheer will power, that guides you to rise against the winds and of course a little practice also."
She asked in amusement,” Will you help me to fly.”
Her Mother replied,” I will be there for you always, and will definitely help you to fly.”
That day, after few hours of trial and error, some bruises and some hugs, the little sparrow took her first flight of fantasy. Her flight was very short lived from one branch of mango tree to another branch, little away, but that gave her immense pleasure and satisfaction, that she was able to fly finally.
Little steps now taken will help her to fly high many miles. A little assurance from her mother will make her strong and ready to face the wind.

We all need that much of inspiration and help in our difficult situations. I must thank my Mother also for helping me out whenever I was clueless about certain things in my life.
Her valuable feedback while I was trying out dishes in my kitchen, separated many miles away.

This Blog was started as a hobby first .Here is My First Post , just to keep records of what I was cooking at that time and also to recollect the tips and technique my Mother and Mother-in-law gave to me unconditionally. Slowly it took some serious turns; I started experimenting with new ingredients, techniques, and also was juggling around to retain the Traditional Bengali cooking.
I have found it only helped me to grow as a cook, as a person.

Over the period of time, I have also come to know many good blogger friends, and some good blogs with treasure of good recipes.
On completing two years in blogging, I must extend my heartfelt warm wishes to everybody who loves coming to here.Read my post, give valuable comments or suggestion, or just drop by to say a simple “Hi”, have subscribed and check my posts even by e-mails.Thanks to all of you for standing besides me and trying out recipes from here.

I am still learning and it says” learning is a continuous process, it never stops.”

So, let’s now move to the recipe,




Kalakand is a sweet, which is so fondly eaten by elders and young ones in our home.
This is made entirely of milk and its product Paneer (Cottage Cheese), the mixture is slowly cooked, stiring continuously on a deep bottomed pan/wok/kadhai to get a dry crumbly mixture which is then cooled and cut into cubes.The main point that should be noted while making this sweet is the thickening of milk called as Kheer in Bengali and Khoya in Hindi.Now For this method one has to be little patient, as this involves a little working up, stirring milk in Pan.The thickened milk is the key to a good kalakand.I have added condensed milk also ,which imparts a nice flavor and since the sugar is already high in condensed milk, the need to add extra sugar is very less.
I hope you all try making it once.

Kalakand
Serves 10-12 pieces

Ingredients 500 ml or 4 cups of milk
750 ml of milk to make paneer or 2 cups of home-made paneer
Half tin of condensed milk
3-4 heaped tbs of sugar
1tsp of cardamom powder

Method
Making of Paneer (home-made cottage cheese)

Bring the milk to boil, add some –leftover sour Curd/yogurt or lemon juice or citric acid.
Stir and let the milk curdle up.Let it cool.
Take out the paneer in a muslin cloth; hang in to discard the water/whey.
.
Making of kalakand

Tip-Use a deep bottomed pan/Kadhai
Bring to boil half liter of whole milk, now reduce the heat, let it simmer till it reduces to half.Stir in while the milk is thickening.
At this time add condensed milk, sugar TIP- as condensed milk is sweet itself, its better to add less sugar.Taste it and if you feel ,then only add more sugar.
Mix in well and stir it continuously.
In a separate bowl, crumble the Paneer with spoon or thoroughly washed hands.
Add crumbled paneer to the above mix and stir well so that it doesn't stick to base.
At this time the mixture in pan will be little watery, cook it at low to medium flame so that the paneer/milk mixture dries up.
Grease a plate with ghee/oil and gently take out the mixture over it.
Let it cool and then refrigerate till it gets firm.
Take out and cut into cubes.Serve with chopped pistachio or almonds or raisins which ever way you prefer.
This is going to meet fellow recipes at Happy Cook's home event ,please visit here for more details ~ ~ Home-Event .This is a nice event Happy has come up with to celebrate her Blog anniversary.

and to Yummy Food , visit here for more details ~~ FIC . Food-in-Color is a very well known food event started originally by Sunshinemom, now her baby is being adopted by Kitchen Flavors for this month....

Check out both the food events for more details.

Happy Cooking Friends