Kalakand is a Bengali Sweet dish with great taste, totally made out of Milk. The recipe involves very few ingredients. Though Kalakand is quite easy to prepare, the time taken to prepare is high. It may take almost one and half hours to prepare Kalakand.
Kalakand
- Thick milk – 1 ltr
- Milk powder – 200 gms
- Fine Sugar – 200 gms
- Cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp
- Spatika powder or Alum or Pitakari – 1/2 tsp
- Ghee / Clarifed Butter – 1/2 tsp
- Grated Badam – 1-2 tsp
- Silver foil – (optional)
How to Prepare:
1) Mix all the above ingredients properly with the help of whisk or with a mixer grinder, ensuring that no lumps are formed.
2) Grease the plate with Ghee / Clarified Butter and keep aside.
3) Transfer the mixture from Step 1 to a cooking vessel. Cook the ingredients while stirring continuously. The milk will break slowly and start boiling. Slowly the Kalakand mixture turns thick. Cook the mixture until the content starts separating/leaving the vessel.
4) Remove from the flame. Pour the Kalakand mixture to the Ghee greased plate. Garnish with Silver foil and grated Badam.
Kalakand spread on plate
With a knife, cut the Kalakand preparation on the plate to your favorite sized pieces. Keep aside to cool.
Kalakand
Once cooled, remove the pieces from the plate. Keep always in the refrigerator.
Hi,
What meant by PITAKARI which you have used in this kalakand.
Shilpa,
You can ask for Spatika or Pitakari is sold in the stores which sell pooja items. It is similar in looks to a Sugar Candy/Misri. Hope this helps. Let me know if you still have trouble and will try to find more information.
Hema
Hi Shilpa,
If you are not finding Pitakari or Alum in any of the shops, you can use Citric acid available in the retail stores. Just dissolve 1/2 tsp of Citric acid in 1/4 cup of warm water and mix it with Milk. Pitakari or Alum is used in Kalakand just to “break” the Milk.
Actually there is a long process of preparing Kalakand, but my recipe is a simple one. But this recipe too takes at least 1-1/2 hr to prepare. If you have any doubts, let me know. Thanks.
Hi Hema,
Thanks a lot for your reply. I’m from Andhra and the Spatika you are talking about is same we call as PATIKI BELLAM in telugu. It taste like sugar but look like crystal sugar(big size). Please let me know if both are same. Sorry for the trouble Hema.
I tried your Carrot Halwa and it’s a hitttttttt. It was superb. Thanks for a wonderful recipe.
Regards
Shilpa.
Hi Shilpa, You are welcome to post your doubts/questions. Spatika is tangy/sour in taste just like Citric acid does. In Telugu Spatika or Alum is called “patika OR patikaram OR lenta” as per the information I could get from this link from the web – http://www.ammas.com/ar/home.cfm?r=va&bid=1519&topicid=49&tid=90915.
Spatika looks close to a sugar candy but again since it tastes sour, I think PATIKI BELLAM is probably something different and not the same as Pitakari/Fitkari.
Try out the Citric Acid if you cannot find Alum/Spatika. If you have not used Citric Acid, it actually looks like sugar granules, but tastes tangy/sour too.
Happy to hear that Carrot Halwa turned out to be a real hit
Regards
Hema
i got phitkari..but it came in a block..can i break it and add to the milk? do i need to have it as fine powder?
Rathi – It is best to powder the Phitkari and add to the milk. Pls use the exact measurement mentioned in the post. Thanks. Let me know if you have more questions and if Kalakand comes out good…