mishti doi, recipes,techniques.. Options

[gingerly]

'the rest' want to know

[gingerly]

here it is-
take two standard cartons of milk (i used 3.25 mf) or 2 kg by weight.
pour into a large vessel and bring to a steaming simmer.use a heat diffuser if you have one.
keep it on that steaming mode,do not allow 'malai' to form.
stir around and lift and froth the milk at regular intervals with a ladle or cup-you've seen those halwais,now do it!
keep going.
meanwhile,combine between 75-100 gms-i used 75gms(this is for a 1kg finished volume batch)light brown cane sugar,two dsp(really!)liquid palm jaggery if you have it and a couple of spoons of water in a heatproof bowl and stir to mix.place this in a pan of water and keep on a low heat to dissolve.leave the heat on and allow the sugar syrup to start crystallising slowly.
take a tsp(not more)of your starter dahi and combine it with a tbsp of euro style unsalted butter.smoosh them around till you have something that looks strangely like 'makkhan'.set aside.
check the volume of the reducing milk by pouring it into a measuring cup/pan.when it's down to half,remove from the heat,scoop out a cupful and add it to the by now crystalline sugar in the bowl.dissolve and mix into the main batch.
while the sweetened milk is cooling,take a little(and this is key)of the starter and smoosh it in the palm of one hand with one finger of the other.smear the resulting paste over the inside of the dish you're using to set the dahi.
when the milk has cooled to the right temp to pour into the dish,spoon in the 'makkhan' mixture and gently stir to melt.make sure the milk isn't too hot.
pour into the prepared dish,cover and place in a suitably cozy nook.i used the trusty oven with the light on but covered in a tea towel to provide a slightly less direct heat,
about 9 hours later,you should have perfectly set mishti doi.
any questions?
beginners luck?maybe!
still mighty pleased
and i'd like to hear if anyone else attempts this or other versions.

edit:one last pic!

This post has been edited by gingerly: Apr 8 2005, 01:53 AM

[Wildflower]

meanwhile,combine between 75-100 gms-i used 75gms(this is for a 1kg finished volume batch)light brown cane sugar,two dsp(really!)liquid palm jaggery if you have it and a couple of spoons of water in a heatproof bowl and stir to mix.place this in a pan of water and keep on a low heat to dissolve.leave the heat on and allow the sugar syrup to start crystallising slowly.

add it to the by now crystalline sugar in the bowl.dissolve and mix into the main batch.

While we wait for Frangi and her panvatied by Anjali mishti doi recipe....pondering over G's recipe which I had not stumbled upon before.

About this crystallizing business: (a) not sure how the crystallizing happens -- is the idea just to dehydrate the liquid palm jaggery part? (b) if the sugar is being dissolved into the milk anyway why crystallize, and not just carmelize?

G, I think you need to do a ishtep by ishtep fotu feature (esp because I haven't even got in to that makkhan business). What better time than summer for mishti doi, eh?

Ed: to fix link post merge.

This post has been edited by Wildflower: Aug 1 2007, 09:56 PM