Kulfi is a very popular Indian ice cream. Kulfi comes in a variety of different flavors. Traditional kulfi is flavored with cardamom; this recipe is flavored with cardamom and pistachios.

Serves 6.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups whole milk
• 1 slice of white bread
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup sugar, adjust to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground cardamom (ilachi)
• 10 pistachios sliced

Method

1. Remove the crust from all sides of the bread and cut the bread in small pieces.
2. Blend bread pieces, cornstarch, and a 1/2 cup of milk, making smooth paste and set aside.
3. Boil remaining milk (3.5 cups) in nonstick frying pan on medium high heat.
4. Stir milk as needed to keep milk from burning on the bottom of the frying pan. Stir the sides of the pan to avoid scalding.
5. After milk comes to boil, let the milk boil for another 12 minutes. The goal is to boil the milk from 3 1/2 cups to 2 1/2 cups.
6. Add the bread mixture to the milk in frying the pan and cook for another 4 minutes, reducing the heat to medium. Bread and cornstarch are added to reduce the water crystallizing in kulfi during freezing.
7. Next add sugar and pistachios and cook for 2 more minutes.
8. Turn off the heat and add cardamom powder.
9. Cool the milk to room temperature and pour into a bowl,
10. Take cellophane wrap and place it right over the milk covering it completely. Note: It is important that the cellophane wrap touches the milk.
11. Put it in freezer. It will take about 7 hours for the kulfi to be ready to serve.

Variations

1. Replace pistachios with almond or coconut powder.
2. Replace pistachios with finally chopped fruits like mangos or strawberries. Add fruits in the end after turning off the heat.
3. Many people enjoy eating kulfi like a Popsicle.  Before freezing, pour the milk mixture in to a Popsicle mold.  If you don’t have Popsicle mold use small paper cups and place cellophane wrap on top of the milk and place a Popsicle stick in center of cup and freeze.