Kulfi

Kulfi is milk reduced slowly until thick, sweetened, scented with cardamom, then frozen solid without churning. It is India's dense answer to ice cream, denser and creamier than a churned scoop precisely because nothing beats air into it as it sets.

What it really is

Milk simmers for a long stretch, uncovered, until it reduces by more than half and thickens into something close to a light custard, concentrating both the sweetness and the milk's own flavour far beyond what a quick boil could manage. Poured into narrow moulds — traditionally metal cones — and frozen solid without any churning or stirring, it sets dense and slightly grainy rather than smooth and airy, which is the texture the dish is built around rather than a flaw to fix.

No churning is the defining choice, not an oversight. Churned ice cream stays soft by beating in air as it freezes; kulfi is deliberately left still, which is exactly why it comes out denser, chewier and slower to melt than a scoop of ice cream ever does.

How it is served

• Frozen solid, unmoulded and sliced into rounds or served still in its cone shape.
• Plain, or studded with pistachio, almond or mango depending on the flavour.
• As the closing sweet after a meal, rarely mid-course.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the dairy plainly.
• Say which flavour is offered, since pistachio, mango and plain cardamom are all common and genuinely different.
• Note that it's denser and slower to melt than ice cream, since that's a real point of difference guests may not expect.

The ingredients, allergens and dietary notes listed here describe a typical recipe. They are not a binding declaration for any particular restaurant: recipes, portion sizes and the products used can differ.