Belgavi Kunda

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While on the hunt for regional recipes this Sankranti, I stumbled upon a little gem. Belagavi Kunda.

My roots are from Mangalore and I have been attempting different dishes from my hometown recently. During my research, I have been uncovering some treasures from Karnataka. Read about Belgaum’s Kunda and how famous it was. Strangely had never eaten it. So did some research and managed to find a recipe I could work with.

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There is an interesting story to the discovery of this dish.
‘Gangaram Mithaiwala, whose shop still runs at Shahpur in Belgaum, used to have a mithai maker named Jakku. One day Jakku left the milk boiling and forgot about it. He returned only when the milk had nearly dried up and was reduced to a brown paste. He added some sugar to it, and it tasted lovely. That is how this mithai was born. He named it after his daughter Kunda’

kunda

 Ingredients

2 cups fresh Milk

3/4 cup Sugar

1 tbsp semolina

1 tbsp fresh curds

3 tbsp desi ghee

1 tsp cardamom powder

Chopped dry fruits

1) In a heavy bottomed pan, add a tbsp of ghee. once the ghee is warm, add a tbsp of semolina & saute until it gets slightly changes colour & is aromatic.

2) Add Milk & bring it a boil. once the milk boils, add a tbsp of yogurt & turn off the stove.

3) In another heavy bottomed pan, add sugar & caramelize over low flame. Be careful not to burn the sugar else u will get a bitter taste in the dish. Also do not touch the sugar when it’s is caramelising or it will crystallise. Just swirl the pan.

4) once the sugar gets caramelized, add to the split milk & mix well.

5) Cook on medium flame until the mixture becomes slightly thick & start leaving the sides of the pan. Do keep stirring at regular intervals to avoid the bottom from getting burnt.

6) Turn off the stove, Add cardamom powder & give it a good mix. Garnish with Dry fruits before serving

NOTE:

Kunda gets a little thick on cooling. So you may want to stop cooking when the mixture is still slightly runny. If you find the mixture too thick, add some more milk & cook for a while.

Recipe courtesy – vegetableplatter