Strawberry Peda | Strawberry Palkova | Strawberry Milk Sweet

Valentine's day celebration without strawberries? Impossible right? Some way or the other strawberries enter the special day's menu as strawberry fudge, strawberry cake, strawberry smoothies or milkshakes etc. The light pinkish color and the lovely flavor that strawberries gives makes the recipes reflect love even more. But still almost every valentine's day special recipe is either western or will have a western influence in it, of course they are yummy and delectable, but I don't want to let our Indian sweets down. So I still keep focusing on Indian treats to be added to the Valentine's day special menu. Nothing can beat our Indian sweets for sure. So planned to make strawberry paalkova or pedas and it ended up all successfully. The sourness of strawberries curdled up the milk so well and the palkovas came out so well. It tasted too good and everyone at home loved it. The pedas had nice tint-ish pink / metallic pink color and the ghee gave a beautiful glaze making it look so appealing. Make these for your loved ones and brighten up the day. 

Check out my South Indian Valentine treat!! Heart Shaped Paniyarams!!

INGREDIENTS

Makes nearly 10 to 15 palkovas
Total Preparation Time - 30 minutes 

1. Strawberries - 100 grams 
2. Condensed milk / Milkmaid - 100 ml 
3. Milk - 80 ml 
4. Sugar - 2 spoons 
5. Ghee - 2 spoons 

PREPARATION METHOD

• Wash strawberries well in water, pat dry using a towel or tissue paper then puree it using a blender. Do not add even a single drop of water. 
• Now take a pan and add the strawberry puree into it, then place on flame and cook on low flame for 2 minutes, then add sugar and stir well until it strawberry puree gets cooked well. 
• Then pour in condensed milk, milk and stir well. 
• Keep stirring until the mixture thickens. This may take upto 15 minutes. 
• Then when the mixture forms into a single mass add 2 spoons of ghee and keep stirring well until it thickens well and does not stick to the pan. 
• Then remove from flame and wait until it cools down. 
• Now flatten it using your palm gently. (grease your palms well with ghee so that the prepared paalkova does not stick to your palms while flattening) Then make different shapes with a cookie cutter, I used a heart shaped cookie cutter. You can either serve as such without making shapes, or you can simply roll it and flatten it into flat circles. 
• Serve!!

 

TIP 1: As soon as you add the milk it will curdle up as the strawberry's acidic content makes the milk curdle. So there is no need for lemon juice, but still if you feel that it has not curdled up well you can add a spoon of lemon juice to the mixture. 

TIP 2: The recipe is so easy but you need a lot of patience and take care to keep stirring the mixture, never leave it unnoticed it may get burnt. 

TIP 3: You can skip adding ghee but adding ghee gives a pleasant aroma to the pedas and gives a glaze to the pedas. 

TIP 4: Do not keep on flame for a longer time or else will crystallize and become hard. You can remove 5 minutes prior from flame if you want it bit creamy. Serve it in cups. 

TIP 5: I haven't added any food color but if you wish you can add some pink or red food color.

Lip-smacking and romantic Strawberry Pedas are now ready!! Serve it for your loved ones!! Am sure they will just love it!!

Here is a testimony from a fellow blogger who tried this recipe. Read about it at her space!!