Bangladeshi Food

Shumon came over and cooked a fantastic Bangladeshi dinner for us. The food was all wonderful. Potatoes, Shrimp, Rice all delicious, plus we got to be guests in our own kitchen! It was great drinking and watching him cook.

For dessert Cathy and I made a wonderful easy version of Cardamon and Saffron Kulfi. Kulfi is an Indian ice-cream like dessert. This recipe is excellent and easy.

Accents are funny, often in India at the end of a meal, Cathy and I request Kulfi. The waiters often reply: "With milk or sugar?". We always laugh and say: "No not Coffee, Kulfi". They then usually bring us the dessert and not the beverage!

nam's quick and easy kulfi

Indian Home Cooking

Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness

SERVES   6   TO   8

During the summers in the north of India, there is no dessert more popular than kulfi. This Indian version of ice cream is made just like the puddings in the recipes that follow, by reducing cream until it thickens naturally, then flavoring and freezing it. Kulfi is traditionally molded and frozen in special conical molds. You can buy these in Indian grocery stores or freeze the mixture in a loaf pan to be sliced, or in Popsicle molds.

My maternal grandmother, who has lived in San Francisco for about twenty years, has, in that time, developed or borrowed many a "convenient trick and shortcut," as she says, in her cooking. This kulfi recipe is one of these shortcuts. It requires no cooking and gives you such a near-perfect rendering of an authentic kulfi that I'm including it instead of an authentic recipe in this book.

You can add your own favorite mix of nuts and dried fruits to the recipe or flavor it with rose water or screwpine essence (kewra). For a richer kulfi, use full-fat evaporated milk and condensed milk.

¼   teaspoon saffron strands

10   green cardamom pods, peeled, seeded, and ground to a fine powder

1   (12-ounce) can fat-free evaporated milk

1   (14-ounce) can low-fat condensed milk

1   cup heavy cream

1   cup assorted nuts and fruits (I like a mixture of almonds, pistachios, and raisins)

Warm the saffron strands in a small frying pan over very low heat until they turn deep maroon, 30 seconds to a minute. Grind to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle, or crush in a bowl with the back of a spoon.

Place the saffron in a blender with the remaining ingredients. Process to mix well, 3 to 4 minutes. (The nuts will get coarsely chopped.) Pour into kulfi molds, a loaf pan, or Popsicle molds and freeze until solid.