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Kalakand

whole milk

We recommend using whole milk for this kalakand recipe. It results is more chena, fat-free milk will not give you this much chena. If you live in western countries, try using milk from local dairy, that gives the best results.

It is believed that Kalakand was invented in the city of Alwar in Rajasthan. Baba Thakur Das is the person who gave us the famous Kalakand. Kalakand is also popularly known as Alwar Kalakand by the people of Rajasthan. However as people from Rajasthan migrated to West Bengal, they brought this delicacy to the land of sweets. Here Kalakand got a twist with new ingredients and became part of the cuisine.

LEMON JUICE

We suggest you use either lemon juice or yogurt to curdle the milk. We would not recommend using vinegar here. In our experience, vinegar results in a firmer/harder chaana. So we use it when making paneer but for making chaana for sweets, we always use either lemon juice or yogurt to curdle the milk.

CONDENSED MILK

The sweetened condensed milk cannot be replaced in this recipe. It is available in all major grocery stores in Sweden.

Flavouring

Kalakand is flavored with cardamom powder and little bit of rose water. We recommend using cardamom powder, you can skip the rose water if you like. You can even flavor this with some saffron strands.

Ingredients for FOUR persons

person holding bottle of oil at gas stove

Delicious Kalakand Recipe

SHELL PREPARATION

To a heavy bottom pan, add 6 cups (1.4 liters) of whole milk
Set heat to medium-high. 2- Stir often and let the milk come to a boil. Then turn off the heat
Now, start adding lemon juice, 1 tablespoon at a time stirring gently after each addition. 4- At one point, the milk will curdle completely and whey will separate
Line a strainer with muslin cloth and pour the curdled milk over it. Wash the fresh chaana that you just prepared under running water. This is important to get rid of that lemon flavour
Bring the ends of the muslin cloth together and tie them in the center. Squeeze water from the chaana. You need to squeeze the water
Tie the muslin cloth to your sink tap
To a pan add the prepared chaana. To that add 3/4th of a 100gm can of condensed milk. You can use the entire can for a sweeter kalakand
Mix the chena and sweetened condensed milk together well using a spatula. Set heat to low
Start cooking the mixture on low heat, stirring often. At first the mixture will be very thin
But as you keep cooking, the mixture will start to thicken and start leaving the sides of the pan
Transfer mixture to a greased pan or a pan lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper
Sprinkle chopped nuts on top, I sprinkled some pistachios. Let it set for 2 to 3 hours at room temperature
Once set, cut kalakand into pieces. I got 16 pieces of kalakand from this mixture. Keep it refrigerated