Plain barfi (Indian milk sweet)

Ingredients

1 litre whole milk

2 tbsp lemon juice

A few strands / a pinch of saffron

3/4 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

40 gms sugar

Pinch of cardamom powder

A few sliced almonds or pistachios

Preparation

Grease a plate with some ghee and keep ready for later.

In a wide non-stick pan bring the milk to boil (approximately 5 minutes) on a medium flame stirring continuously (to stop it from sticking to the pan).

When the milk is warm, take out 2 tbsp in a bowl. Add the saffron strands and leave aside.

Let the milk in the pan boil for a couple of minutes before adding the lemon juice, a tbsp at a time, to make it curdle.

Once the milk starts curdling, remove 1 cup of the whey.

Let the curdled milk boil until it is reduced and the whey has almost completely evaporated. Now add the sugar, cardamom powder, saffron milk and ghee. Mix well and cook until the mixture thickens and comes together.

Remove onto the greased plate and use a spatula to shape into a square (or as square as you can manage :) ). Garnish with the sliced pistachios or almonds.

Let it cool, then refrigerate for at least an hour.

Slice into smaller squares.