Tharattipaal (Paal Gova)

9th Nov, 2010

Tharattipaal brings back lots of memories from my childhood. In my village in Southern India, tharatipaal made out of fresh cow's milk was a norm. My grandmother used to make it on firewood stove (Verakku aduppu) and the smell of it was out of this world. But now a days, we don't have time to make it on a regular basis. I look forward to my vacations to India, when I have the pleasure of eating my favorite food cooked by my mother. I am also including a recipe for quick tharatipaal (Microwave method).

Talking about the timings, tharatipaal made the traditional way takes anywhere between 3-4 hrs. It is not lot of work, but it needs to be on the flame for long time and needs stirring once in a while. The microwavable recipe is much shorter and tastes very close to traditional one. I am not a big fan of Ricotta cheese. Lot of microwavable recipe includes ricotta cheese and I have never tried one. This recipe is from one of my friend and it works great and most of all, I love it because it does not need Ricotta..

As always, I look forward to all your experiences with these recipes and comments.

Preparation time - none
Cooking time - 3-4hrs
Difficulty level - easy

Ingredients

• Milk - 8 cups
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Elaichi powder - 1 tsp

Procedure

• Pour the milk in a wide heavy bottomed vessel and keep it on medium flame. Let the milk come to a boil and then simmer the heat and let the milk reduce.
  
• Once the milk starts to boil over, add a small stainless steel plate inside the vessel to keep the milk from boiling over.
• Let the milk reduce over and once it gets to a mud like consistency (Almost reduced to 1/4th), add the sugar and stir it well.. This takes around 2 hrs. keep stirring it once in a while bottom down, so that the milk does not stick to the bottom.
• Once the sugar is added, it will liquefy a little. Upon cooking down a little bit, it will come to a semisolid consistency.
• Take it out of the flame, when it has little liquid in it. Otherwise, when it cools down, it will become very powdery. Add the Elaichi powder at the end and switch off the flame.

Stage 1 -Milk just beginning to boil

Stage 2 - Milk half way boiled down

Stage 3 - Mud like consistency, when I added the sugar

Stage 4 - Final product :)

Microwave Tharattipaal

Preparation time - None
Cooking time - 7 Mins
Difficulty level - Easy


Ingredients

• Condensed Milk - 1 can (14 oz)
• Curd/Yogurt - 1Tbsp
• Sugar - 3 tsp (Optional, if you are sweet toothed like me)
• Elaichi powder - 1/2 tsp
  

Procedure

• Mix all the ingredients in a wide microwavable glass bowl. the sugar could be totally omitted or it could be reduced to 1 or 2 tsp.
• Microwave it on high for about 7 Mins. Keep stirring in between (Say every 2 Mins or so).
• Depending on the microwave it could take anywhere between 6 -7 Mins. Again take it out when it has some liquid in it. Add the Elaichi powder and mix well.
  
• Quick tharattipaal is ready.