Khoya

[RupenRao]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if any of you knew what we could use as a substitute to Khoya?

Ricotta cheese and paneer mix is what I was thinking...but aint sure.

Rupen

[anzu]

Have you tried any of the suggestions here in Bawarchi?

[RupenRao]

Have you tried any of the suggestions here in Bawarchi?

←

Thanks Anzu,

I will try the one with condensed milk this weekend!

Rupen

[anvi]

Hello,

This is my first post here on eG,though i have been reading all the posts -esp here on the India board for quite some time.

I too have my own make shift version of khoya which i usually resort to around Diwali when i make 'Gujiya'.I mix a stick of butter,a 16 ounce can of whole milk Riccotta,and a cup or so of dry milk powder.Heat the mix in a nonstick pan until fairly dry,and than when i am too lazt to keep stirring ,i pop it in the microwave until all the moisture is gone.

you do need to stop and stir every couple of minutes while microwaving.

The resultant khoya is pretty good.I have made Til laddu's with this(they are a North Indian speciality in the winters,also called Til Bhugga) and they are simply delicious.

Hope this helps!

[liv4fud]

anvi,

til laddoos with khoya - will need a recipe for that

love till laddoos but have only had the ones with jaggery

interesting suggestion on the khoya substitute will like to try it

just curious rupenrao / anvi / anzu about the actualy process of making the actualy khoya?

coz ricotta is definitely curdled while condensed milk is not

[anvi]

liv4fud,

til-khoya laddus are great.i cannot tell you the exact amounts because like most home cooks,my recipes are not based on exact cup measurements.

Take about a cup of Til,roast them in a pan until they release a slight aroma,and are just a shade of light brown.

cool and coarsely grind them in a mixer.

Add almost the same amount of khoya to the ground Til.

Add sugar,i guess one would need to add about 2 cups ..i am sorry for not giving the exact amount,cos i usually taste as i go.

Add some ground cardamom to the mix and roll into laddus.

In case the mix is a liitle dry and cannot be shaped,than you sould add a sprinkling of milk or half and half inorder to make the laddus.

They taste just great.i will try them again one of these days and than perhaps ,i will be able to give the exact proportions.

About your other question,in India i believe khoya is made by reducing milk over heat until all the liquid evaporates and you are left with milk solids.you can do it at home too,but it takes a lot of time and continuous monitoring at the stove. Hence all the riccotta,condensed milk substitutions!

[anzu]

For making your own khoya at home all you have to do is reduce milk, the same as for rabri, etc., but just keep on reducing it until all the liquids are gone.

Minimum requirements are lots of time, lots of patience, lots of milk, and a thick bottomed pan with a broad top to allow as much evaporation as possible to occur, but preferably not so shallow that the milk can easily boil over. Same as for any other time you reduce milk, it's better not to use a non-stick pan as - for me at least - with non-stick pans the milk tends first to get cooked to the base and stick to it, then gets released in little brownish strips as you stir. If you are not stirring often enough, these will be little burnt strips of milk instead. This doesn't happen with a regular surface, so even though you might think that non-stick would surely be better, in this case it is not.

To speed up the process as much as possible, divide the milk into several pans and heat them all on the stove at once. No cookbooks I ever see mention this, but (unless my science is wrong) the greater the surface of heated milk, the faster the liquid can evaporate, so it makes sense. Also, if you are unlucky enough to have milk burn on the inside of a pan, you have not wasted you entire batch of milk.

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat if you have problems with the milk boiling over, or with potential burning. Keep stirring...and stirring...and stirring. Do not stop stirring the pan at any point.

It will get very thick. At some point along here, I transfer all the milk back into one pot, and put my tava between the flame and the pan, so that the heat is less direct. This reduces the chances of burning, and allows you to have the heat on full so as to reduce the milk faster. If you don't have a tava, I'm guessing that a flame tamer would help, as long as it is fairly heavy duty.

I've done it quite a few times. It takes maybe 40 minutes (? I never timed it that carefully). With the amount of effort involved compared to the smallness (and pitifulness in color and texture) of the khoya I always get, I'd say that any of the substitute recipes for khoya look like a good idea, though actually I haven't tried any of them yet. (been intending to for a while, which is why I had the Bawarchi page bookmarked).

They certainly make it more likely that the home cook outside of India will try making any of the dishes that contain khoya.

I'm hoping that Rupen will report back on how it went.

[liv4fud]

anvi, thanx for the recipe direction, I believe what you made is called til-barfi in our home. I love that too, can't wait to give a shot

anzu, love rabri - actually don't do that myself as I am very very fond of rabri and pretty much end up consuming it all based on the pretext of tasting

but whenever that I have been forced to let it go till the end for the laddoos to be made, I still haven't seen that crumbly dry texture of that store bought kind.

and offcourse my concern was with the ricotta being curdled which I thought was not the case with khoya

[BBhasin]

Here we go my friend....

take one 3lb tub of WHOLE milk Riccotta cheese

'pour' into a pyrex or similar baking dish

microwawe 15 minutes ( in a 1000 watt microwave) or untill the edges start browning a bit.

Mix well in the dish and give it another 15 minutes in the microwave.

Transfer to a non stick pot and cook on med/low until your desired consistancy.

This is perhaps the easiest ' Khoya' recipe. If you prefer, like me, when you are reducing it further in the pot, adding a few table spoons of clarified butter or desi ghee will enhance the flavor and aroma.

enjoy

bhasin

PS: you can freeze the unused portion for later.

[muichoi]

Why has no one mentioned the obvious substitute, dried whole milk powder? It works very well and is widely available from indian shops.

[anzu]

You can use milk powder, but just milk powder alone won't usually give the right consistency for a khoya substitute. There's a page on khana khazana which explains about different types of khoya, and gives nine possible substitutes.

Has anyone tried sweets using milk powder?

I tried making milk powder peDas a couple of times, and while they were more or less okay, I wouldn't bother making them again.

A friend of mine kept saying how wonderful her milk powder gulab jamuns were, but when I tasted them, both taste and texture were pretty awful. (She doesn't actually eat sweets herself, so always makes them for other people, and I suspect everyone is too polite to tell her).

I do use milk powder for thickening milk for rabri, kulfi, kheer, etc., and find it okay there. So to me, there seems to be a crucial difference between using the milk powder to thicken (where its okay), and using the milk powder to make up almost the entire body of the sweet (where the flavor and texture are less desirable).

What are other people's experiences?

Edited October 4, 2005 by anzu (log)

[muichoi]

I know milk powder is used by reputable sweetshops here-though I must say I don't choose to eat indian sweets myself!