Khubani ka Meetha

Khubani (Apricot) Ka Meetha (Sweet)

“Khubani Ka Meetha” one of my favourite desserts and very easy and quick to make. I remember during Diwali we used to get lots of dry fruit boxes containing assorted dry fruits and at the end of festive season only dry fruit remaining in those boxes would be these hard and dry looking Khubani, which nobody would eat. If you have some of those lying around in your house this recipe is perfect for you, if not then go ahead and buy some it will be worth it.

We are going to prepare this dessert in three layers.
Serves: 5

Ingredients:

For Layer One:

17 pieces of dried khubani (apricots)

(Indian dried apricots not the imported kind which are quite soft.)

1/4^th cup sugar

1 tsp. Lemon juice

1 tsp. Rose water/pure vanilla extract

Almonds taken out from all the seeds

For Layer Two:

1 and 1/2 tbsp.Ready to use custard powder

2 and ½ tbsp. Sugar for making custard

250 ml. milk

1/8^th cup crushed/finely chopped pistachios (unsalted and shelled)

For Layer Three:

1/4th cup fresh cream (low fat will also work well)

1/2 tsp. Powdered sugar for adding to cream

¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract

Method:

Layer One:

1. Take dry Khubani (apricots) and clean by soaking in water and rubbing with your fingers for few seconds. Drain and soak in fresh water overnight. Put enough water to cover all Khubani.

 2. Next day you will see that Khubani (apricots) are all puffed up and tender. In case you forget to soak overnight you can soak khubani in hot water for 4-5 hours, but soaking overnight is best.

3. Take khubani (apricots) one by one and split it open to remove seed from inside. Take out seeds from all khubani (apricots). Save all the seeds and the water in which we had soaked khubani overnight.

4. We have to break the seeds and take out the almonds which are inside. You can use your pestle from your mortar&pestle to break open the shell, or any other device you see fit.

5. Keep aside all apricot almonds you have taken out, its OK if some almonds break while extraction.

6. Take a pan and put all deseeded khubani (apricots) along with sugar and water they were soaked in.

7.  Put the pan on burner and switch it on low flame. Keep stirring occasionally and you can use your spoon to mash up apricots. 

 8. Add lemon juice and cook till all khubani are pulpy and we have almost jam like consistency. All this cooking process can take approx. 15 minutes.

9. When your Khubani are done take it off the burner add Rose water/vanilla extract and Khubani almonds we have taken out.These almonds can be added while cooking Khubani,either way its OK. Keep aside to cool.

Layer Two:

10. Take milk in a pan add custard powder and sugar to it and give it a stir. After custard powder is totally dissolved in milk you can put your pan on burner on low flame. Keep stirring the mix because soon it will start to thicken. We want a Firni like consistency for custard not pudding like.Basically we don't want very  thick set custard but thinly set. You can also check instructions on box of the custard powder you are using,or just follow the measurements I have mentioned above.

11.  Allow this custard mix to cool slightly.

 Layer Three:

12.Take out fresh cream in a bowl add sugar and vanilla extract to it and mix it well so that sugar is dissolved. We want a very thin layer of cream on top so whipping the cream is not required.

 You can serve this dish in multiple ways. I prefer to make individual servings but you can do large single dish serving too.

Assembling the dish:

13. For assembling this dish we must have all the elements of the dish ready. First spoon in the Khubani jam into the glasses then add custard mix and then a thin layer of fresh cream. Between all three layers keep sprinkling crushed or chopped pistachios.

In what proportion you want to use Khubani jam,custard or cream is entirely up to you.But I generally try to use equal portions of Khubani jam and custard topped with thin layer of cream.

14. On top of the cream layer you can use some chopped pistachios and silver foil for garnishing. If you don’t have silver foil that’s OK you can use fresh rose petals also or just pistachios will do.

15.When all servings are assembled cover them with cling film and ,keep them in refrigerator to chill for at least one hour.

My Notes:

1.I have used Indian dry apricots in this dish because it has a distinct flavour which is slightly different from the imported variety. But in case you don't have these available you can try using soft ones or even fresh apricots. I haven't tried these options but there is no reason these wont work, obviously flavour difference will be there but I feel it will still taste good.

2. This dessert can be prepared a day in advance but make sure that you cover all your serving dishes with cling wrap so that other smells from refrigerator wont spoil your dessert.
3.You can easily make Khubani jam and freeze it for a month or so, and whenever need arises just thaw it and use it to make Khubani Ka Meetha.