FOOD : Sweet Bites : Rabdi

This is like one of those sweets that is sooo sooo North Indian.

There is something that I hate about Milk, and something more about all the Milk Derivatives which I love, Be it Paneer, Cheese or any sweet. Milk reduced, delicately sweetened and flavored with the king and queen of all spices - Saffron and Cardamom - Sounds like a bit of heaven in your own kitchen right!? Rabdi or Basundi is a sweet that I simply love when combined with Puri's or Chapathi's and so does my husband. My husband has a sweet tooth anyways, and for sometime now, I have developed one too. And there are lots of times when i Love to surprise him with food. So this Diwali, after living in Germany for long, I thought I'll treat him to this rich and exotic sweet dish, which we hadn't savored for long. So I made this and refrigerated it before he got home and Voila!! He loved it!! The Rabdi was thick, rich and luscious.

I bought 2 liters of milk, with 3.5% fat content for this.

Procedure:

• In a non-stick pan, begin to boil the milk.
• Add a few strands of saffron at this stage.
• Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat, and keep stirring it.
• It will take atleast 30 minutes for it to give you a feeling that the milk has really started to reduce.
• You need to constantly keep stirring this, not continuously but every 5 minutes at least.
• Once it starts reducing, add Sugar - depends on how sweet you want it to be. You will notice at this stage, the rabdi will get a slightly loose consistency, cause the sugar will dissolve.
• Add cardamom Powder at this stage, and a few more strands of Saffron to it.
• Remove from heat and give it a slight whisk with your handblender, and the entire thing will come together beautifully.
• Add sliced Blanched Almonds and Pistachios and refrigerate.

Now head right to your kitchen and get some Rabdi for yourself... Trust me, Puri's are an excellent combo with this!!!