Guru Purnima is celebrated on July 27 this year. Seek your guru’s blessings and present them with sweets that you made especially for them.
In many ways, a teacher is like a second parent to one. While your parents handle your upbringing at home, a teacher manages the same at school, or in some class, or wherever else you might meet them. A teacher imparts training in a specific discipline – and in doing so, they also impart life lessons, teach discipline and improve your focus. A teacher enriches life and inspires a dedicated student to become excellent in their chosen field.
Many people are indebted to their teachers forever. The skills and life lessons they impart stay with you all your life and become the foundation of your success. There are not enough words to express the gratitude you feel for your teacher – a simple ‘Thank you’ seems so inadequate!
This Guru Purnima, you can show your appreciation to your teacher with a small token of love – gift them a box of sweets that you made yourself. Your teacher will appreciate the gesture more because you took the trouble to create something for them, instead of buying a generic box of sweets from the store.
But what can you make? We recommend a simple Indian sweet that speaks of love and admiration in every bite. A simple kalakand recipe is more like it.
Why kalakand?
Simple, unassuming, but packed with flavour, kalakand is a sweet that everybody appreciates. The kalakand recipe can become quite complicated, so we suggest looking up the simple four-step one on the Milkmaid website.
Kalakand is said to have originated in Rajasthan several centuries ago, when the sweet was prepared in the kitchens of royal households on auspicious occasions. The sweet was also prepared when inviting guests for social events – even today, a box of kalakand (also known as ‘Milk cake’ when it is lightly fried) accompanies the wedding invitation cards when they are sent out to relatives and friends.
Some variations of the Kalakand recipe are also found in Arabian cultures, which reduce full fat milk to about 1/3 of its original quantity to impart rich creaminess to the dessert. Since milk is reduced over a low flame for hours, it is often difficult to get a milky white colour in the kalakand when you cook it in the traditional way. You can get a white coloured sweet when you follow a kalakand recipe that uses condensed milk and dairy whitener instead of milk and sugar.
How to present kalakand
- Once cooked over a low flame in a shallow pan, the kalakand will start leaving the sides of the pan and solidify. Take it off the flame and transfer to a greased plate.
- Pat into a uniform layer. Cut into equal sized pieces when the mixture becomes semi-cool.
- Garnish with grated almonds and pistachios. Transfer to a grease-proof box and present it to your guru.
