Mawa/Khoya Penda

My hubby and sons have been asking me to make these Mawa/Khoya Penda (or pedas) for a couple of days as they knew that I had bought some mawa/khoya from the Asian Stores.  It comes here in a block and needs to be kept in a fridge and can also be frozen.  It looks like a block of cheese but of  a pale beige/brown colour.

Mawa /khoya  is made from milk by boiling it (and continuously stirring it so that it doesn’t stick) until it becomes a thick paste.

The recipe for these Mawa/Khoya Penda is my father in laws. He made great mawa pendas and I think he would have approved of the ones I made.

Ingredients

• 350 grams of mawa or khoya
• 350 grams of milk powder
• 300 grams of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of ground cardamom
• 8-10 strands of saffron
• ½ cup of milk
• 2-3 tablespoons of almond slices.

Method :

1. Mix the mawa, milk powder and sugar. If you are using ready made mawa/khoya, then I would suggest that you grate it first.

2. Add half a cup of milk to this mixture.

3. Heat this mixture on a low heat.

4. It’s important that you keep stirring the mixture

5. This is a slow process as the mixture will first become all runny.

6. Keep on stirring and cooking the mixture.

7. Add the cardamom and saffron to the mixture.

8. You will notice the penda mixture going from a pale colour to a slightly darker shade.

9. You will also notice the mixture getting to a thicker consistency.

10. At this stage, switch off the heat and spread out the mixture to cool.

11. Once cool, divide the mixture into small balls and press them with the back of any bowl or use a mould to shape your pendas.

12. Sprinkle the almond slices on the penda. To make it interesting, you can colour the almond slices with food colour

13.   These pendas were made with an extra ingredient – Love- so they tasted divine!!

14.  Any left over pendas can be kept in a cool place in an air tight container.

As I mentioned above, these pendas have to be made at low or medium heat.  You need to keep stirring the mixture to stop it from sticking to the base of your saucepan. Also. it does take quite a bit of time to make but it’s worth it at the end.