Mango Barfi

Second day of Ganesh festival and inspired by Kalakand recipe from GKK; a wonderful Facebook community, I experimented with mango pulp to make Mango Barfi/milk cake. Soft milk cake flavored with Mango, ultimate combination! I have tried this recipe earlier with store bought Paneer/cottage cheese and Mawa/ reduced milk. But, this time everything was homemade from scratch. It surely is time consuming, but super easy and definitely worth it!

To make Paneer or Cottage cheese. Heat 4 cups whole milk in a heavy bottom pan. When milk comes to boil, add few drops of lemon juice for milk to curdle and separate protein from milk whey.

Strain, slightly rinse and keep it aside.

To make Mawa or reduced milk: Heat 4 cups of whole milk in a wide heavy bottom pan. Bring it to boil and simmer on low heat. You will have to stir it occasionally to prevent it from sticking at the bottom. Do not turn up the heat. This will take around an hour.

When milk has reduced to a cup add 1 1/2 cup mango pulp. (you could add 2 cups too). Mix and stir till it thickens and reduces.

Add freshly made paneer/ cottage cheese. Whisk to avoid lumps but do not make it too smooth.

Stir continuously till it forma a dough and leaves the sides of the pan.

Add 1/2 tsp. ghee and mix well.

Spread on greased thali/plate

Apply some ghee on your fingers and slightly pat to spread the mixture evenly.

Garnish with pistachios.

Cool, cut into pieces and serve!

Ganpati Bappa... Morya!

Updated on 11/11/2015 Diwali 2015

Last weekend we celebrated our first Diwali in our New Home. My parents are here and they have brought with them more than 100 years old Bal Gopal Idol that my great grand mother had carried from Karachi to India. I have seen my great grand mother performing a grand Thanksgiving or Annakut which my mom does now, and I got an opportunity to perform Annakut in my new house. 

My chocolate Barfi was very popular. Kids as well as adults loved it and I was super happy :)

Click here to view Annakut pictures on my FaceBook page.

While I like to make mawa by boiling milk and reducing it, the process does take quite some time and specially when most sweets are made using mawa I used Milk Mawa Powder, dehydrated mawa powder to make the process quick. Of coarse 1 made paneer at home by curdling milk. Here is the recipe.

2 cups milk mawa powder
4 cups mango pulp
4 cups milk
1 tsp. citric acid dissolved in 4 tbsp. water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. ghee

Boil 4 cups of milk. Add a tsp. of citric acid and water solution for milk to curdle. When milk totally curdles, strain the paneer/cheese to separate the whey. Wash paneer with regular water and keep it aside.
Milk 2 cups of milk mawa powder  with mango pulp and sugar. Stir occasionally till the mixture reduces and forms a lump.
Add prepared paneer into the mixture. Add ghee and mix well till it leaves the sides of the container.
Spread it evenly on greased tray or thali.
Garnish with pistachios.
Cool and cut into pieces.

A Very Happy Diwali 

Happy New Year!!!