The milk delivery system in our house works thus. We have prepaid coupons that we buy before hand from the doodhwala. Every night (or early morning) we hang a bag outside the door with the milk coupons. Jitni zaroorat utne coupons! And poof! the milk bags appear magically in the morning.
The system works fine and the husband and I squabble over who’s turn it is to put the coupons tonight. Yes, we are two very cheap and lazy people. Thank you. So one day, we both happen to be in a nice mood and TADA!!! The next morning we are stuck with double the milk. We could have refrigerated it and used it the next day blah blah, but I went ahead and made this very simple and gratifying dessert – Basundi!
So here goes, for Basundi (Gujarati style), you need:
- 1 litre of milk (any milk other than the skimmed, low fat one)
- 7-8 tsps of sugar
- A handful of almonds (badam)
- A smaller handful of pistachios
- 10-12 elaichis (cardamoms)
- 1 tsp charoli (chironji)
Warm a little water and soak the almonds for about half an hour. While the almonds soak and their peels soften, take the milk in a large thick kadhai or any thick bottomed pan. Heat the milk till it boils and then keep stirring it continuously on minimum till it reduces to about half its volume.*
Add the sugar and simmer it for a couple more minutes. Peel and cut the soaked almonds and pistachios into slivers. Crush the elaichi into a fine powder.**
Add the elaichi powder, the chopped nuts and charoli into the milk and you’re done! For a kesar variation, you can add 5-6 strands of saffron, soaked in a tbsp of lukewarm milk for 5 minutes, to the basundi.
I prefer my Basundi to be a little warm, while the husband likes it cold. Whichever way you like to have it, this is one easy to make yet very gratifying dessert.
*The key to a sure shot perfect basundi is not to run any other parallel errands while the milk is getting reduced. Keep stirring the milk continuously. A lapse second can and will give your hard earned basundi that nasty burnt milk smell and ruin your experience.
**You can crush the elaichi in the stone mortar with hand, but it takes both time and patience. A short cut way is to mix a little sugar with the peeled elaichi to increase the volume and then grind it in the chutney attachment of the mixie.
Edited to add: There is this porcelain disc sort of thing available, especially to make basundi. It is about 2 cms thick and 7-8 cms in diameter. Strange as it may sound, it is NOT a dish to serve the basundi. This basundi disc is added into the milk while reducing it, so that you do not need to stir it continously. I don’t know how, but it prevents the milk from sticking to the vessel. It makes the cooking such a breeze. Now only if I could find one in Bangalore.
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