Kaju Kand - Cashew nut Fudge

Food is the defining characteristic of every culture, every region, of every people! In line with that, certain ingredients become a staple in kitchen pantries. Rawa (semolina) is one such ingredient that is almost certainly found in every Maharashtrian kitchen. 'Rawyache ladu', 'rawyachya wadya', 'rawyacha sheera', 'rawyacha upma', the list goes on. 

My aaji (maternal grandmother) has always been the expert in 'rawyachya wadya'. Growing up, I remember spending summer vacations at her house. Each day we would wake up, in anticipation of a special treat that aaji would make for us. Anna as our grandfather was called, was her cheer leader when she was cooking up her special treats.  He would hang around the kitchen, in his words, as a taste master, to ensure the dish was coming along well. There is a tradition in Hindu culture to offer the first morsel of a sweet dish to God. In aaji's house, there was a tradition of first two morsels being earmarked, one for God and the other for Anna. Those carefree days it never did occur to me to observe aaji when she made her yummy treats. Now I wish I had!! She is getting on in years and is not as active in the kitchen anymore. Fortunately my mum is almost as good as her mum and she gives me tips as and when I get stuck in the sticky stuff!!

In this age of web information, novice cooks have a lot of help out there and I make the most of it. This recipe is my take on the 'rava kaju barfi by Veginspirations.com'. The way I cook it (I have a longer cooking time) gives it a fudge-like texture, which is why I call it Kaju kand - Cashew nut Fudge.

Ingredients : 

1/2 cup Semolina (fine)

1/2 cup Cashew nuts, roasted and powdered fine

1/4 cup Coconut (fresh or frozen)

3/4 cup Sugar

1/3 cup Water

2 tsp Everest Milk Masala

1 tsp 'Icecream' Essence (optional)

2 drops Red/ Pink food colour (optional)

2 tbsp Ghee / Clarified Butter 

Butter for greasing tray.

Method : 

Dry Roast the semolina in a heavy bottom pan till it releases its aroma. Transfer to a bowl and add the roasted, powdered cashew nuts, milk masala, and the coconut. Mix it through.

Grease a slice tin or tray with butter or ghee and set aside.

In the pan, mix the sugar and water. Set the pan on medium heat/flame and stir continuously till the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar dissolves, turn down the heat to low and let cook till the syrup starts to thicken. Check for consistency of the syrup. Put a drop of the syrup on a cold plate and let cool. Dip the tip of your index finger in the drop and gently pull your finger away. If the syrup is ready, it should form a thin single string. This is  refered to as the 'ek taari paak' or literally translated, one string consistency.

Once the consistency is right, add the contents of the bowl, the ghee, the essence and the food colour to the syrup and mix well. Now this next part requires a bit of elbow grease. Keeping the heat low, continue stirring / mixing the contents of the pan. This has to be done continuously. There comes a point during all this stirring, when the mixture begins to come off or separate from the sides of the pan. It begins to come together as a ball. 

Remove pan from the heat. Transfer contents to the prepared tin / tray and spread it out evenly using the back of a 'katori' or a piece of baking paper. Let it cool to room temperature and cut into pieces of desired shape. 

The pieces I made were about 1"x1" and about 1cm in thickness. Makes about 20 pieces depending on the thickness and size of each piece. 

The extra stirring makes the coconut and semolina come together such that they loose their grainy and stringy textures. They become what we say in Marathi 'ek-jeev'. And that my friend, is where the fudge-like texture comes from. Without that extra stirring, it is your normal barfi, which retains the coarse textures of the semolina and the coconut.

You can use plain or salted cashew nuts for this recipe. I used salted ones because it improves the overall taste of the preparation.

There, my kaju kand - Cashew nut fudge! I hope you enjoy making it just as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

If you try out this recipe do leave me a feed back with your preparation picture, would love to see it.

Happy cooking!!

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