Coconut And Chai Ice-Cream —

I’ll be honest here, it’s been a rough week. I’ve lost my appetite and shed my weight in tears. I already mentioned in the earlier post that I was working over my limits and having a tough time. Fortunately, it will all be over (my final deadlines and some extremely important errands) by 23rd i.e. the next weekend and I’m hoping to take a long break after that which will surely lift my spirits. In the meantime, I thought I’d share this chai ice cream recipe that I’ve been tinkering with over the past month. Chai is like a staple in India and playing around with spices and using them to create delicious food is what I like. As a frozen treat with warming spices, it seems like an appropriate dessert for this in-between weather.

Coconut & Chai Ice Cream

Dairy-free, egg-free Chai ice cream made with coconut milk, honey, and spices. It is perfectly scoopable from the freezer, but the texture is better if you let it rest at room temperature for five minutes before serving.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 bags Assam black tea or regular black tea
• 2 cans (28 ounces=0.8 litres=3.5 cups) full fat coconut milk
• ¾ cup honey (use ⅔ cup for slightly less sweet ice cream)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¾ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom
• ¼ teaspoon cloves
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• pinch fine grain sea salt
• 1 ½ teaspoon arrowroot starch whisked with a few tablespoons of the coconut milk mixture (optional, see note)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a liquid measuring cup, pour one cup boiling water over the tea bags. Let steep for 4 minutes, then remove the bags (squeeze out some of the water they have absorbed).
2. Shake up your cans of coconut milk before opening in case the coconut cream has separated from the coconut water. In a Dutch oven or a big, heavy-bottomed pot, whisk together the coconut milk, tea, honey, vanilla, spices and salt until thoroughly blended.
3. If you are NOT adding arrowroot starch, you can go ahead and chill the mixture (if the coconut milk cream is still floating around in bits, first heat the mixture over medium heat for a few minutes while whisking until it the cream is incorporated, then cool).
4. If you ARE adding arrowroot starch, heat the mixture over medium heat. In a small bowl, whisk the arrowroot starch with a few tablespoons of the coconut milk mixture until thoroughly blended. Pour the arrowroot mixture into the warm coconut milk mixture and bring it to a gentle boil, stirring frequently for one minute.
5. Remove from heat, let cool to room temperature, then place the bowl in the refrigerator until the mixture is completely and thoroughly chilled. While you’re at it, place your future ice cream container in the freezer to chill.
6. If you used arrowroot starch, scoop off the thickened top layer with a spoon and discard it. Whisk together the chilled mixture one last time, then pour it into your ice cream maker. Freeze according to your manufacturer’s instructions, then transfer it to your chilled container and freeze for several hours in the freezer (let it defrost for five minutes before serving). Or eat immediately for soft serve texture.

NOTES

.This recipe yields a little over 1.5 quarts, which is about as much as my ice cream maker will hold.
MAKE IT VEGAN: Substitute maple syrup or agave nectar for the honey. You’re going to end up with ice cream that freezes harder than ice cream made with honey—let it sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
ARROWROOT STARCH is a natural root starch that helps absorb the ice crystals. It’s optional here; you can also help the ice crystals go away if you let the ice cream sit for five minutes before serving. Look for arrowroot in the baking section of well-stocked grocery stores.
CHANGE IT UP: I added a few chocolate chips to my bowl of ice cream. I think finely chopped dark chocolate incorporated near the end of the freezing cycle would be a very good idea.
A NOTE ON ICE CREAM MAKERS: I love-love-love my 2-quart Cuisinart. If you don’t have an ice cream maker and don’t want to buy one, here are a couple of methods that might work for this ice cream (I haven’t tried them): how to make ice cream with a food processor (tips from Jeni Britton) and how to make ice cream without a machine (by David Lebovitz).

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Instant Kalakand Recipe – Indian Festive Sweet Recipe

Kalakand is a delicious milk fudge cake that is popularly made in India during the festive season. Kalakand is a popular Indian sweet made out of solidified, sweetened milk and cottage cheese. It is a rich sweet made from concentrated milk called “Khoya” and homemade Paneer or cottage cheese called “Chena”. Note that you can use evaporated milk instead of khoya.

This is a quick and instant recipe of Kalakand that you can make for the festivities or any other special occasion in the family. You just cannot resist this freshly made sweet Instant Kalakand. One of the popular Indian desserts, make this Instant Kalakand recipe for your festivities and wow your family and friends.

Ingredients

• 400 grams Condensed Milk
• 500 grams Paneer (Homemade Cottage Cheese), crumbled
• 1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
• Rose water, few drops
• unsalted butter, to grease the pan
• handful Mixed nuts or dry fruits, chopped

Instructions

1. To begin making the Instant Kalakand, place the paneer and condensed milk in a non-stick pan. Place the pan on low heat and cook. We have to keep stirring this mixture continuously until it becomes thick.
2. Once you notice the kalakand mixture is beginning to turn thick, add the cardamom powder and a few drops of rose water. Keep stirring until you notice the mixture begins to leave the sides of the pan.
3. Once the kalakand mixture leaves the sides of the pan, turn off the heat.
4. Grease a square pan with unsalted butter. Add this hot kalakand mixture and spread it evenly with your fingers or with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle some chopped nuts or dry fruits like almonds or pistachios or any sun-dried piece of fruit.
5. Set the Instant Kalakand and cool completely. Once it cools down, refrigerate the Kalakand for 30 minutes just before cutting them into desired shape.
6. Once fully set cut them into desired shapes and serve. You can refrigerate the Kalakand for up to 2-3 days. 
7. Kalakand as a dessert goes best after having curry-based recipes and other rich recipes such as biryani or pilaf.

NOTES

1. Make sure that the butter is unsalted. Only unsalted butter goes well with the texture of this recipe.
2. Kalakand in reality has a slight golden brownish color. Make sure to keep an eye when stirring the mixture in pan.

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Feel free to ask any questions or share your ideas in the comment section below. Alternately, I’d really appreciate for you to share this content on your social media platform if you found it useful so that others can benefit from it too. If you have any doubts or want a personal clarification, send me an email on eclipsedwords@gmail.com. For more inspiration, fun, and smiles, follow me on Instagram

Happy Blogging! ♥♥♥

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Thank you for reading. Love you for that! ♥

—–Have Hope. Keep Faith—–

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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ECLIPSEDWORDS BY AISHWARYA SHAH | MARCH’2019 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©