Home made dessert: Kalakand (Indian Milk cake)

I am one of those home-cooks, who usually have no time left for making dessert when inviting guests over. So, I often serve store-bought dessert, and the reason is lack of time and/or energy. Since my cooking schedule and sanity ( a very important requirement for cooking anything decent) revolve around the whims and moods of a 2-year old, I realized nap-time or TV time ( a 30-minute window approximately) is what I would have to make any kind of dessert.

When we had plans to have some friends over for dinner last night, I saw this as an opportunity to fulfill my dessert-making wish. This time, I thought: "How about setting a smart goal (read easy) that I can achieve?" We picked up the following ingredients during our regular weekly grocery at Whole Foods:

Ricotta cheese - 2 boxes  (15 oz each)
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 can
Sugar - to taste
Pistachios - 0.5 cup (roughly crushed/chopped)
Ghee/unsalted butter (to grease dish)
Green cardamom powder (2tsp) or (grind 8-10 whole green cardamoms and throw the husk away)

On the way back from the grocery, my toddler napped in the car. Leaving her to nap there on the driveway, under the vigilant eyes of my husband, I quickly headed to the kitchen and mixed the ricotta cheese with condensed milk in  deep microwaveable dish. Then I microwaved this mixture on high for 5 minutes. After this, added the sugar for the desired level of sweetness and microwaved for another 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Point to remember: food tastes sweeter when cooler, so add the sugar accordingly. When the mixture was more like a soft dough, I added the cardamom powder and spread it in a pre-greased deep dish.  If you are greasing with butter instead of ghee, I would recommend melting and browning the butter a bit. The pistachios were sprinkled on top and the dish was put in the refrigerator to cool!

The toddler woke up just in time and it was time for the daily routine again... lunch, mess, clean, TV, play, nap... In 2-3 hours, the dessert was ready. I cut it into pieces and had some QAed by hubby dear :-) My rare home-made dessert was ready to be served and the 15-20 minutes of preparation time was worth the smile on our friends' face!