Microwave Kalakand

I just never liked sweets.  I know people who cannot resist having one, or two, or more servings of dessert, but I am the kind of person, that if someone forces me to have dessert, then I have to have something spicy to get the taste of the sweet out – weird right?

But then, I am weird.

My husband, on the other hand, loves sweets.  He grew up eating Bengali sweets and I feel sad for him because I don’t make enough desserts at home.

So this year for deepavali, I made this super easy, and healthy (because there is no ghee) kalakand.  It has 3 ingredients – 4 if you count the nuts, and takes less than 15 minutes to make.  I found the recipe online.  It is on several blogs – so I don’t know who to give credit for this, but it is a fool proof recipe and if you have the ingredients on hand, a quick dessert

  

Here is what you need:

• 15 oz. ricotta cheese
• 1 can condensed milk
• ¼ tsp. powdered elaichi (cardamom)
• few chopped pistachios or almonds for garnish

Here is how I made it:

1. In a microwave safe bowl, mix the condensed milk and ricotta cheese.  I add a little less than one can of condensed milk, because I don’t like it to be too sweet.
2. Set the microwave to cook for 13 minutes.
3. Put this mixture in and cook on high.  Keep stirring this about every three minutes.  This tends to spatter, so I put a cover on so that my microwave does not get messy.
4. Start monitoring the consistency after about 10 minutes.  Add the powdered elaichi at around the 10 minute mark.  At this point I start checking every minute.  By around 12 minutes, the consistency should be thick and kind of grainy.  It should not be very smooth and wet,
5. Put it back in for about a minute at a time till the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl and has turned very slightly brown.  It should still be moist, and not totally hard and dry.
6. Pour this out onto a greased plate and smooth it out.
7. Top with the crushed pistachios or almond.
8. Wait for it to cool a bit and then cut into desired shape and size.

 

 

Stays well in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.