The Cashew Fudge
Kaju Katli is a famous and loved dessert in the north of India. It was one of the rare delicacies while we were growing up. It is served often at festivals, especially Diwali and at weddings. The thing is back home there are very famous sweet shops, where in you can find endless delicacies of sweet so most of the time people buy them and not make them at home. But this is the case in the north of India. Back in the 90`s we were liking in Bangalore. I had time and developed interest in cooking through my neighbor (Neeti Auntie) She and I used to exchange food all the time, actually its very much an Indian thing to do. Whenever you make a speciality a little bowl/plate will go to your neighbour and this bowl will never come back empty. It will also come full, if nothing a bowl full of sugar will be given back to you. I think thats a great unspoken tradition, and I think that was the start of me to get to learn the new south Indian cuisine. They loved my Cholas and
Paneer and I loved their food.
Love thy neighbour
So once Neeti Auntie bought me a few pieces of Kaju katli, hers was a bit caramelized and I loved it. Me Love Caramel! But the authentic Kaju katli is milky white. So with her recipe I made the kaju kati a couple of times and finally settled on this very simple one. The girls always loved my Kaju katli and they still do! Whenever we go to India, Papa used to get for them the best ones from the most famous shops of Jaipur but they always said Mama`s is better and my family didn't understand, poor things never developed the palette for the good sweets and settled for the home made kind. But I used to be ecstatic! Anyways its not the store bought kind but its quite nice and its home made so you know whats going in there.
Ingredients
250 gm of cashews
150 gm of sugar (a little bit more or less can be taken too as preferred)
1 tsp ghee/unsalted butter (I prefer ghee)
silver foil to decorate if you have it, I have it now, didnt have it then :(
2 tbsps of water
a greased plate and a small greased bowl with a flat bottom.
Method:
If you have sun, then put your cashews in the sun for a couple of hours, if not then just dry roast them on low heat for a minute or two, just to let the moisture out. Let them cool.
Now powder the cashews to a fine powder with your grinder, you need a nice grinder for that.
Take a non stick pan and add sugar to it and spread it evenly in the pan.
Now add the table spoons of water to the pan, let the water spread around and heat the pan to dissolve the sugar. Keep the heat low. Keep stirring it every now and then.
See that the sugar dissolves completely. Now add the cashew powder and ghee to the pan and keep stirring it regularly for a couple of minutes. You will see the mixture will start to leave the sides of the pan in a couple of minutes..
This is the time to take the mixture out on the greased plate and from the back of the greased bowl start to press and make it into a round.
If you have silver foil, put it on the top now.
Cut it into small diamonds and enjoy it. It keeps well for atleast a week, but I dont think it will last that long.
Here you see the step by step directions on how to make it. Do try it this Diwali.
So you see it was rather easy to make and now you cut it into diamonds or squares according to your wish. This Diwali try this very delicious and simple recipe. This is probably one of the first Indian sweets which I learned and it has been with me for mover 30 years now. I hope you and your family will cherish it as well as we do.
Tip: If you happen to see that the sugar is hardening as it might happen if the heat is more and more
water has evaporated then feel free to add one more tablespoon of water.