Kulfi Archives | Sindhi Rasoi |Sindhi Recipes

Zaefrani Kulfi~ AlifBe~ 26

Alka Keswani — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 20:02:08 +0000

Long post alert: If you are interested only in the recipe then kindly scroll down to reach the recipe! If you are curious to know about saffron, its varieties and some interesting theories about Kulfi, then please read on! The 26th Consonant in Sindhi AlifBe is ز i.e Z in Roman Sindhi and ज़ in Devanagari. As mentioned in the earlier post, there are 4 different types of ‘Z’ used in Sindhi AlifBe. ذ as in Zaro (Little ), (ज़/Z) ز as in Zanzeer (Chain/shackles) (ज़/Z) ض as in Zaeef (Feeble) (ज़/Z) ظ as in Zalim (cruel/merciless) (ज़/Z) Kindly note that all the above mentioned consonants are represented by ‘ ज़ ‘in Devanagari and by ‘Z’ in Roman Sindhi but will vary in Arabic Sindhi. For example if you need to write the word Zaheen (an Urdu word ) you will have to use ذ and if you need to write Zameen (a Hindi/Sindhi) in Sindhi you will use ز I am yet to figure out how to use ض and ظ appropriately! ذ as in Zaro is covered already and you can check it here! Today we are focusing on ز as in Zanzeer. Please note that though ذ and ز look similar but they both are different. And the dish of the day is Zaefrani Kulfi! In Sindhi Saffron is known as Kesar as well as Zaefran (also spelt as Zaeffran or Zaefaran)! Zaeffan or Saffron: Crocus sativus L. is a perennial herb and the plant yields purple colored flowers which are valued for their stigmas; one of the most expensive herbs sold in markets, commonly known as Saffron, Zaafran, Zaeffran, Kesar etc. The word Saffron comes from the Arabic word Zaefraan which in turn is supposed to be derived from the Persian word Zarparan where Zar means gold or valuables and Paran/faran refers to petals. Thus Zaefran means a flower with Gold petals or maybe ‘petals as valuable as gold’. The oldest documents about the use of saffron as a spice or herb are recorded in the court of the Persian Achaemenid dynasty (550-330 BC). Some sources suggest that under the Persian rule, Saffron was first cultivated in Kashmir from where it travelled to the Indian subcontinent. Some believe that the saffron originated in Greece. Many Kashmiri locals believe that Saffron came to India through two Sufi saints ; Khwaja Masood Wali and Hazrat Sheikh Shariffudin, who during their travel fell ill and were taken care of by the tribal chieftain. As a gesture of gratitude they gave bulbs of saffron plant to him and that’s how the cultivation of saffron began in Kashmir (Pampore). Spain was introduced to Saffron by the Arabs who invaded the place and from Spain it travelled to other European countries. Why so costly? Saffron strands are the stigmas of Saffron flowers. Each flower has three stigmas (thread-like structures). The flowers stay only for a few days and need to be plucked before the sun or wind affects the quality of the saffron strands. Once bloomed, the flowers are to be harvested before sunrise and before they start opening (or soon after). Once harvested, the stigmas are separated immediately. The strands are then dried to get rid of excess moisture. Post drying the color changes to dark red. Traditionally the process may take around a week as baskets of stigmas are hung on the ceiling and are left to dry away from harsh sunlight. From around 150 flowers, only a gram (1 gm) of Saffron threads is obtained. Saffron is valued for its medicinal properties and is a good source of vitamin C, potassium, manganese, Iron, vitamin B6 etc. As mentioned above, Saffron are the stigma of the flowers. Each stigma is 2-3 cm long.The deep red or maroon colored stigmas are attached to the flower by pale orange/yellow colored filaments called styles. In India, Kashmiri Saffron is marketed as Lacha, mongra and gucchha/Gucchi. Mongra Saffron: The pale style is separated and only the deep red colored stigma is used. Lachha : The red color stigma with a little of the yellow style (tail-like) attached, sold along with floral waste is called Lachha. Guchi (Guchha) saffron is the one where the yellow style is not separated from red stigma. The bunch of these are tied at the ends. This type of saffron is known as Dasteh in Iran. In Iran the top of the Saffron strands are categorised as Sargol, the saffron with the silky red stigma are called Super Negin/Negin while the one with red stigma along with yellow style are called Pushali. Obviously Pushali is cheaper than the other types of Saffron. Then there is a type called Zard (White or Konj) with only pale parts of stigma present. The ‘colorless’ saffron is commonly used for medicinal purposes as well as in tobacco industries. The Spanish Saffron could be categorised into Coupe, LaMancha, Rio and Sierra. Coupe: The best of all, with only red stigma and no pale styles. Comparable to the Persian Sargol. La Mancha: A less potent but very expensive Saffron, La Mancha is cultivated in a small region of Spain and its origin is protected. This kind of Saffron imparts faint smokey flavors as instead of traditional sun-drying, it is toast dried before packaging Rio: Of lesser grade than Coupe and Rio! Sierra : Mostly consists of pale orange/yellow styles and is cheapest of all! Kulfi: A Kulfi is a frozen dairy product made by freezing sweetened and flavored reduced milk. It is not churned and hence it is not as airy as an ice cream. I was intrigued by the word Kulfi and would often discuss it with the people related to making or selling Kulfi; be it the Faluda sellers, ice cream makers, halwais and even the street vendors . Google says that the word Kulfi was derived from the Persian ‘Qufli’ meaning ‘covered up’ and since the reduced milk is set in cones covered with a lid, hence the name Kulfi! Another theory suggests that the cones are kept inside a matka which is covered with a cloth and that is the reason the dessert is called Kulfi. Baba, the elderly uncle in our old neighbourhood (some of his recipes have graced my blog) believed that the word Kulfi came from Arabic Qufl or may be from the Turki (I guess he meant Uzbek) Qulf a synonym of Qurf /Qarf in Sindhi, all being the local names for ‘padlock’! According to Baba if you observe the Kulfi waala/waali, you would notice that he/she inserts a stick in the centre of the frozen kulfi inside the cone and twists the stick the way we use the key to open the lock, to un mould the kulfi. I don’t know if I can consider it to be a valid reason or whether I should assume it to be a case of an elderly person cooking up interesting stories. I wouldn’t know because he is no more with us. When I discussed this ‘Lock’ theory with some Kulfi vendors, few of them agreed to it. While some said that maybe the kulfi is set in cones that are locked/sealed and hence it is called kulfi. The Recipe: Traditionally Kulfi is made by reducing full cream milk to half or 1/3rd of its volume. It is then sweetened and flavored with varying ingredients like cardamoms, Saffron, mango, berries, chocolate etc thereby creating a range of delectable flavors. Print Zaeffrani Kulfi~ AlifBe~ 26 Saffron flavored Kulfi i.e frozen Indian 'Ice cream'! Ingredients 500 ml Milk ( full cream) 200 ml sweetened condensed milk 1 tsp cornflour dissolved in 2 tbsp of milk 6-7 saffron strands soaked in 2 tsp of milk 3 green cardamoms (only seeds) 12-15 unsalted pistachios Method Boil the milk, along with condensed milk, stirring frequently to avoid scalding of milk. In the meantime, powder the pistachios and cardamom seeds together, using a grinder. We need coarse mix and not a fine powder. Add this powder to the milk and let it simmer for a while. Add the cornflour dissolved in milk. Stir well. Add the soaked saffron and simmer further till the milk reduces to half of its original volume. Let the reduced milk cool down a touch. Pour in moulds (Aluminum or plastic), or in earthen pots (Kullhar). Always soak the earthen ware in cold water for at least 30-60 minutes before using them. Once the milk mix cools down to room temperature and secure the lids of the cones or cover the mouth of matka/kullhar with aluminum foil. Transfer the moulds to the freezer and let the Kulfi set for minimum 5-6 hours. For un-moulding, just place the moulds (with secured lids) under running water for few seconds or 'rub' them between your palms and then insert a clean ice cream stick or toothpick and pull out the Kulfi. Serve immediately. 3.5.3251 I recently made Rabri and reserved some to make the Kulfi. I soaked some saffron (courtesy my Brother in law, SK) and powdered green cardamom seeds in few tbsp of milk and mixed it with the rabri. Poured it in the aluminium cones and left in the freezer for 8 hours. It was served with a splash of rose syrup! The weather was so hot that the Kulfi melted before I could click some decent pictures! The below picture is of the Kulfi prepared from Rabri. And here is the video about how to write ز in Sindhi script!

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Kesar Pista Kulfi

Alka Keswani — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:11:05 +0000

Oops it already started melting….. To begin with, it’s my Better Half’s Birthday today , So Happy Birthday Dear Hubby (Even though you dislike publicly displaying affection and all those mushy sentiments..still….). Then comes the rantings (Ahh that’s my favorite part of blogging..lol). It is a long Weekend here in India and me and kiddie were really looking forward to celebrate this day, since from past many months we hardly had got some FAMILY TIME to relax and enjoy just being together, chilling out with our kid, having fun roaming around, going on vacation…the desires are innumerable, the wishes, unending. But its hard for me to understand why the corporate world need to be so ruthless and insensitive . Instead of enjoying this day with his family, parents, friends etc, he is working (though it being a National Holiday..Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday ). Worse still…. rest of weekend and maybe next weekend too, for whatever reasons office people give. I can understand the issues they have at workplace, still I am furious . I just can’t stand all this and wish I could do something about this.But helpless as I am, I am doing what I am capable of….Rant at my blog, take out all the frustrations , breathe in and breathe out and head on towards the recipe of the day…Kesar pista Kulfi (Saffron Pistachio Ice cream) ! But something more to share before that 🙂 I longed to bake a cake, but since I am yet to decide upon Oven Vs Microwave, I hunted for a recipe to make a Cake using pressure cooker. I finally found one recipe, but it called for eggs. Nothing for Veg. option. So without having any other option(I was desperate to make one at home) I opted for Pillsbury Cooker cake mix and made the chocolate cake.It was good, came out well, tasted nice, but I really do not like to use such mixes for cooking anything.I love my food freshly made and not with anything having preservatives. But now that I am through with Baking ?(Huh?) , I guess I should wait till I got some Oven or find some good recipe for COOKER CAKES from scratch before baking another one. Ok, I know you just want me to switch over to the recipe, so without annoying you anymore here is the Kesar Pista Kulfi , pure , fresh and pleasantly sweet. The recipe is adapted from here and I hardly made any changes, except that I had less pistachios in my pantry , so used whatever I had instead of 1/4 cup as mentioned in the original recipe.Also I guess I added more than required saffron, since the colour looked pale while cooking.But after setting, it turned out to be Deep Yellow, but Who is complaining ? It tasted just perfect.The texture was smooth and creamy and the taste….Yummm. Also I didn’t had any Popsicle so I went ahead and freezed the mixture in a plastic airtight container. Thanks Ramya for a lovely recipe ! So Enjoy the spread of Chocolate cake, Kesar pista kulfi and Rasberry Jelly, while I wait here for Hubby dear to come back home.

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Falooda Icecream

Alka Keswani — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:54:59 +0000

Falooda Icecream: Pic. Updated The gloomy situation at south Mumbai is the most scariest of News that we had heard till this date. The terror pangs are surely felt by each and every common man, who can’t think beyond Roti, kapda aur makaan (food, clothing and shelter). Yet it is always that same common man who is targeted again and again for no fault of his/her. How long will we be vulnerable to such attacks? The debate could go on and on, but I want to, sort of run away from all this, cause I don’t want to feel drained out discussing things, which I am unable to fix. So keeping my rants for myself I wish to move ahead and rather concentrate on those few good things that are happening in my life. Selfish, indifferent, mean ??? Well call me whatever you feel like , but I need a break from all this maddening stuff ! I made this falooda icecream few days back to celebrate few sweet moments in our lives. Without much talks, I am sharing its recipe with you all. Print Falooda Icecream The famous Falooda icecream, made from milk, falooda sev and jelly crystals, topped with some rose syrup. Ingredients 1 Falooda pack(easily available at general stores) 1pack of Raspberry jelly crystals (Rex or kings are favored brands) Milk 1 lit Sugar 150 gms or more depends on your sweet tooth Few strands of kesar(optional) Green cardamoms 4 Rose syrup few spoons Crushed ice Method Follow the instructions given on pack of falooda and let it cool (Boil falooda sev in water for a min., drain the water and add cold water, then soak them in sugar syrup of thin consistency) Similarly prepare jelly as per instructions on pack and refrigerate for few hours. Chopped nuts like walnuts and cashew nuts can be added if preferred For kulfi, pour the milk in a heavy bottom pan and add cardamom and boil it, on medium flame, till milk reaches less than half of original volume. Do not forget to keep stirring it occasionally so as to avoid burning of milk. Add sugar and kesar (optional) Let it cool,then pour this kulfi mixture into molds of your choice, but an easy option is to freeze the mixture in Ice trays, since it will be easy to scoop out kulfi with help of knife and spoon. You can also freeze it in plastic airtight containers. Remember always set kulfi in aluminum or plastic containers Garnish it with almonds flakes and chaaroli (chiraunji) and let the kulfi set properly in freezer for about 6 hours or more. For serving, take a fancy glass bowl or ice cream cup, put two cubes (scoops) of kulfi, about two spoons of jelly, some falooda, pour one spoon of Rose syrup (sherbet) and some crushed ice and enjoy before it melts away. 3.3.3077

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