BASUNDI

This recipe is especially for Announcing Hearts for St Valentines Day a beautiful event conducted by Priya. When I said to my hubby that I am planning to prepare a sweet for the event, the request was for basundi. This is our favorite sweet, though a little bit time consuming but the taste is worth all the trouble…so rich and creamy with chopped nuts. This is the basic recipe for basundi. This can be changed according to taste. There are many versions of this sweet available like adding saffron, mango pulp, condensed milk etc.

INGREDIENTS:

1. Full fat milk, 1-1/2 liter.

2. Sugar, 1/2 cup or more according to taste.

3. Ghee, 2 tablespoons.

4. Nuts like cashews, almonds, pistachios and even some dry fruits like raisins or apricots.

5. Cardamom, 2 pods.

PREPARATION:

Chop the dry fruits and nuts and fry them in ghee until the turn golden brown and keep aside. Crush the cardamom coarsely. Boil the milk in a deep-bottomed pot along with the crushed cardamom and once the milk comes to a boil reduce the flame to medium and let it simmer. Keep collecting the creamy layer, which is formed on simmering, on to a separate bowl. After sometime (around an hour later), once the milk starts to thicken, add the sugar and let it dissolve. Then add the collected cream, and fried nuts to the milk and let it simmer for 5 more minutes and switch off. Let is cool, garnish with chopped nuts and enjoy.

Another reason to celebrate with the sweet is that I recently won a contest with Foodie Blogroll for updating my profile. They sent me this cute coffee mug yesterday. I love this mug and right now it is sitting proudly on my refrigerator top :)