Pistachio Kulfi (Eat around the World challenge)

I was planning on using my ice cream maker for this challenge, but I don’t think I have room for the bowl. My brother-in-law has been living with us for the past year and he loves to store far more food than he needs. He says it’s also for me and my husband, but we normally don’t eat that much meat throughout the week. Our fridge and our pantry is packed to the brim. I recalled when he first moved in, he asked if we could have a deep freezer and I go “for what? Where’s the room?” And then he asked if we could get a bigger fridge. I told him we’ll buy a fridge after we remodel the kitchen.

Our fridge is a standard size fridge. We’ve had a roommate before and she’s never had a problem with our fridge size. I don’t understand why he has a problem with our fridge size.

When I say “after the remodel” I don’t mean “it will never happen.” Kitchen remodels are expensive. If we don’t like what we’ve envisioned, then it’s an expensive mistake. A kitchen remodel will happen, it just won’t be tomorrow, this month, or even this year.

Anyways rant over. I came across kulfi, a traditional South Asian frozen dessert. The base is evaporated milk garnish with cardamom, pistachio, and saffron. Unlike regular ice cream, you don’t need an ice creamer maker. I can even use popsicle molds. One time I was making ice cream on a really hot day — the ice cream maker couldn’t make the ice cream properly because the bowl was condensing as soon as I took it out of the freezer.

Another reason why I wanted to learn how to make kulfi was that it was eggless recipe. Honestly, I prefer to avoid ice cream recipes that calls for eggs because I tend to accidently scramble them. Also, I get to make use of the leftover milk. My BIL for some reason like to buy a gallon of milk but he never drinks it. He says the milk is for us, but the thing is we don’t drink cow’s milk because of its short shelf life. That’s why we buy alternative milks. When the milk was about to go bad, I would make Japanese milk bread. I even kept a jar of tang zhong in the freezer because we had so much. Anyways, it’s good to know there’s another recipe where I can use leftover milk. I was starting to get burnt out on bread.

I bought a small tub kulfi at the Indian grocery store. I usually like to buy the final product to know what I should be looking for when making the dish. Though the technique does not require whipping, it is still creamy like ice cream. It’s not like a block of ice. I also observed it does not melt as fast ice cream either. Plus I love finding pistachio chunks!

Have you tried kulfi? Comment below!

Pistachio kulfi

There’s pistachio chunks!

“Eat around the World“ is a monthly writing/photography challenge where I invite people to share a dish around a theme, ingredient, or technique. July’s theme is ice cream. All themes are open to interpretation. Cooking skills are not required to participate. Deadline is July 31st.