"Jean B." <jbxyz@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
news:6br1eeF3dlipfU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Has anyone ever discovered a shortcut to making rabdi that doesn't
> skimp on flavor? I have seen Tarla Dalal's version with paneer,
> but I'm not sure that is what I'm looking for.
Since I have seen neither the recipe nor the book, for that matter, I
offer this suggestion with no context whatsoever: You have to be careful
to ensure that you and your audience share the same understanding of the
word "rabdi".
To me rabdi identifies the following dessert:
Milk is simmered down as in making kheer, with as little agitation as
possible, using a kadahi of preferably shallow curvature. A fan is waved
over the surface of the kheer to promote the formation of the malai
(skin, more or less) so earnestly avoided in making kheer itself. As the
skin develops enough texture to allow this, it is moved over to the
sides of the kadahi, above the surface of the kheer, where it gets drier
and acquires some texture. Periodic additions of newly developed malai
to the sides, with the accompanying fluid, keeps the texture from
getting leathery but does produce definite layers of drier material,
with wetter stuff in-between.
Too gentle a simmer will take too long. Too rapid a boil will break up
the skin as it forms and make for a less structured rabdi. Given the
memory of a reasonable rabdi or that of a standard Indian, the right
boiling/simmering conditions are not difficult to divine.
If the right amount of sugar is added at the beginning, you wind with a
moderately sweet modified cream ****tion and a considerably sweeter
kheer ****tion.
At the point when the stuff in the bowl of the kadahi is clearly kheer
and the stuff on the sides is clearly yearning to become rabdi, the
material on the sides is cut up with the spatula, while still on the
walls, insto sections a few cm on the side and scraped down into the
kheer.
There exists some range of opinion as to how thick the kheer should be
at the end. If you intend to refrigerate it, the kheer should be
relatively fluid. If you intend to serve it up at room temperature or
slghtly above, it can be boiled down a bit more.
I regret to say that I see no reasonable way to simplify this.
I have not made rabdi in perhaps twenty years. It took some practice to
get it right.
You will find rabdi made with completely unnecessary flourishes, such as
ground almonds and pistachio and who knows what else. Rabdi does not
need any of these adulterants.
You will find short-cuts involving bread. Preserve your soul from these
blasphemies. I have nothing against bread puddings but they ain't rabdi,
as they say in the American.
- Shankar
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