 Kalakand from Koderma, India | |
| Course | Dessert |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | India |
| Region or state | Indian subcontinent |
| Main ingredients | Chhena , milk, water, sugar, ghee or butter, pistachios |
Kalakand is a sweet cheese confection from India. [1] It has been described as "akin to Italian cheesecake, firmer in texture than milk cake, but softer than burfis." [2]
The earliest mention of kalakand as a sweet appears in the 19th-century Urdu text Zīnat al-ʿarūs. [3] However, contemporary sources state that kalakand was invented in the Baba Thakur Das & Sons halwai (confectioner) shop in Alwar, Rajasthan in 1947, where it is still sold today. [4] [5] [6] [7]
To make kalakand, chhena (Indian cheese) is prepared and strained. Separately, whole milk and water are mixed, boiled, and stirred continuously until the mixture is reduced to half its original volume. The strained chhena is softened using a food processor or by hand kneading. It is then added to the reduced milk-water mixture and cooked until it becomes a thick paste. Then sugar is added, and the mixture is cooked on low heat and stirred continuously until it thickens to a fudge-like consistency. Then ghee (clarified butter) or butter is added, and the mixture is cooked and stirred another five minutes until it acquires a glossy appearance. The mixture is spread onto a buttered tray or platter in the form of a rectangle and garnished with pistachios. After cooling, it is cut into squares and served. [1]
Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce to the thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used in custard desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla; however, savory custards are also found, e.g., in quiche.
Paneer, is a fresh acid-set cheese, common in cuisine of South Asia, made from cow milk or buffalo milk. It is a non-aged, non-melting soft cheese made by curdling milk with a fruit- or vegetable-derived acid, such as lemon juice.
Gulab jamun is a sweet confectionary or dessert, originating in the Indian subcontinent, and a type of mithai popular in India, Pakistan, Nepal, the Maldives and Bangladesh, as well as Myanmar. It is also common in nations with substantial populations of people with South Asian heritage, such as Mauritius, Fiji, Gulf states, the Malay Peninsula, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, South Africa, and the Caribbean countries of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname.
Rasgulla is a syrupy dessert popular in the eastern part of South Asia. It is made from ball-shaped dumplings of chhena dough, cooked in light sugar syrup. This is done until the syrup permeates the dumplings.
Rajasthani cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Rajasthan state in north-west India. It was influenced by various factors like the warlike lifestyles of its inhabitants, the availability of ingredients in an arid region and by Hindu temple traditions of sampradayas like Pushtimarg and Ramanandi. Food that could last for several days and could be eaten without heating was preferred.
Iraqi cuisine is a Middle Eastern cuisine that has its origins in the ancient Near East culture of the fertile crescent. Tablets found in ancient ruins in Iraq show recipes prepared in the temples during religious festivals—the first cookbooks in the world. Ancient Iraq's cultural sophistication extended to the culinary arts.
Mithai (sweets) are the confectionery and desserts of the Indian subcontinent. Thousands of dedicated shops in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka sell nothing but sweets.
Ostkaka, ost meaning "cheese" and kaka meaning "cake" in Swedish, is known as Swedish cheesecake or Swedish curd cake, it is a Swedish dessert that has its roots in two different parts of Sweden, Hälsingland and Småland, though there are some differences between ostkaka from Hälsingland resembling halloumi in texture, and the soft-grained ostkaka from Småland. Originally, the food comes from Småland, ostkaka is made with raw milk and cheese rennet. However, these days most people simply use cottage cheese instead, which is much faster, and gives the same flavor and texture.
Khoa, khoya, khowa or mawa is a dairy food widely used in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent, encompassing India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Punjab, and Pakistan. It is made of either dried whole milk or milk thickened by heating in an open iron pan. It is lower in moisture than typical fresh cheeses such as ricotta. It is made up of whole milk instead of whey.
Ras malai, also known as rasamalei, or roshmalai, is a dessert that originated in the Bengal region of Indian subcontinent. The dessert is called roshmalai in Bengali, ras malai in Hindi, and rasa malei in Odia. It is popular in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Peda or Pera is an Indian sweet that originated in the city of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India. Traditionally prepared as thick, semi-soft round balls, its main ingredients are khoa, sugar and traditional flavourings including cardamom seeds. It is brown in colour. Variant spellings and names for the dessert include pedha, penda and pera.
Chhena poda is a cheese dessert from the Indian state of Odisha. Chhena poda literally means Baked Cheese in Odia. It is made of well-kneaded homemade fresh cheese chhena, sugar, semolina, and is baked for several hours until it browns. Chhena poda is known as one of the Indian dessert whose flavor is predominantly derived from the caramelisation of sugar.
A great variety of cassava-based dishes are consumed in the regions where cassava is cultivated. Manihot esculenta is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes.
Nun's puffs are a dessert pastry originally from France, where they were known as pets de nonne. They are now also produced in French Canada, the United States, England, and Spain.
Chhena or chhana is a kind of acid-set cheese originating in the Indian subcontinent that is made from water buffalo or cow milk by adding food acids such as lemon juice and calcium lactate instead of rennet and straining out the whey.
Romani cuisine is the cuisine of the ethnic Romani people. There is no specific "Roma cuisine"; it varies and is culinarily influenced by the respective countries where they have often lived for centuries. Hence, it is influenced by European cuisine even though the Romani people originated from the Indian subcontinent. Their cookery incorporates Indian and South Asian influences, but is also very similar to Hungarian cuisine. The many cultures that the Roma contacted are reflected in their cooking, resulting in many different cuisines. Some of these cultures are Middle European, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain. The cuisine of Muslim Romani people is also influenced by Balkan cuisine and Turkish cuisine. Many Roma do not eat food prepared by non-Roma.
...It was the Muslims who introduced intricate delights like halwa, balushahi, khurma, nukti, barfi, kalakand, gulab jamun, and dar-bahisht, as their names and preparation methods distinctly reflect their origins.
Baba Thakur Das & Sons: Alwar is known for its local version of a milk-cake sweet called kalakand, invented at this shop...
