Belgavi kunda

Belgavi kunda is an extremely popular sweet recipe from Belgaum. Belgaum is a town in north Karnataka. Belgaum kunda is a very tasty dessert recipe.

This recipe is very special and dear to my heart as this is one of the best recipes of my Grandma!! Well I have a very close bonding with my grandma since my mom and dad both were working and my brother was small so I used to live with my grandparents till my 2nd grade .. and being a first granddaughter of the family, I was very pampered and loved by my grandma ..
She is a very good cook, she is a very good singer most importantly she is a very good human being who just have kindness and love in her heart for everyone!!
all I can say I just Love you Ammamma to the moon and back you are my favorite always !!
This recipe is of my Belagavi Kunda is my grandmother’s the signature recipe she used to prepare this for me as it was my favorite dessert not only mine it was favorite of our family all my cousins would ask my granny to prepare this sweet whenever they used to come to my village.
I have made one change in this recipe that is adding jaggery!! Yes, I have replaced the sugar and added jaggery to make it bit healthier and guilt-free dessert.

The recipe of Belgavi Kunda I am sharing today is made with just 4 ingredients: milk, yogurt, jaggery, green cardamoms

It’s a simple and straight forward recipe, but it’s a bit time consuming and requires patience. So I suggest you dive into making it only when you have enough time and of course, patience.
When reducing the milk to 1/3rd of the original quantity, please do take care not to burn the milk by stirring periodically and mixing any milk solids stuck to the bottom of the pan or in the sides.
The burnt milk is not pleasant to taste, so be patient when making the Kunda.
Green cardamom powder is an optional ingredient and you can skip using it if you are not too fond of the flavor.
So shall we get cooking this delicacy that is sure to delight your taste buds!!

Ingredients:

·         1-liter Organic Full Fat or Whole Milk

·         1 cup Organic home set Yogurt

·         1 /2 cup Organic jaggery +1/4 cup (Adjust as per taste)

·         4 to 5 Green Cardamoms

Cooking Method:

1. Take milk in a heavy-bottomed pan and bring it to boil on a medium flame.       

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2. Crush the green cardamom pods in a pestle and mortar. Peel the pods and retain the seeds and discard the green skin. Crush the seeds to powder and keep it aside until needed.

3. Let the milk simmer and reduce to 1/3rd of the quantity. Keep stirring periodically to make sure that the milk solids do not stick to the pan and brown and make sure that you mix the cream formed on the surface while the milk simmers. It takes around 40-60 minutes for the milk to thicken and reduce to 1/3 rd. So be patient.

       

4 Once the milk is reduced, add yogurt, and keep stirring. The milk will curdle, and the whey will separate from the milk solids. Keep stirring for 10 minutes before adding1/2 cup of jaggery.

   

5. While you keep stirring the milk solids, heat the remaining 1:4 cup of jaggery in a pan on medium heat. You do not need to add any water when caramelizing the jaggery into liquid form Let the jaggery melts and it will become brown in color.

  

6. Transfer this jaggery liquid to the milk solids and keep stirring until liquid is completely evaporated and the milk solids are left.

       
7. Add ground cardamom powder and mix them well. Keep stirring for another 3-5 minutes until the Kunda resembles a solid mass.

      

8. Here comes secret ingredient to get that  perfect Kunda color add a 1/2 teaspoon of cocoa powder diluted in 1tablespoon milk .. this won’t change the taste of the kunda it enhance the taste. Serve this scrumptious dessert hot or chilled the way you like it.

   

9. serve as it is ... I like to serve it a little warm, but it tastes equally good when served at room temperature.