Eid hardly feels complete without semai, and no Eid goes by without some fancy semai dish. This Eid you can make mango lachha semai.

Once you taste it, the flavour will stay with you. Made with mango puree, this semai is also quite easy to prepare. Here is the recipe.

• Mango juice or puree, 1 cup
• Lachha semai, 200 g
• Milk, 2 litres
• Green cardamom, 2–3 whole pods
• Sugar, half a cup, or condensed milk (to taste)
• Powdered milk, 2–3 tablespoons (for a creamy texture; it can be left out)
• Chopped pistachios and mango pieces for garnish

First boil the milk in a pot with the cardamom. When the milk comes to the boil, add the sugar and stir every so often so it does not stick to the bottom. When the milk has thickened somewhat, reducing to about one and a half litres, add the powdered milk.

Whisk it well so no lumps of powdered milk remain. Cook for another 3–4 minutes, then take out the cardamom. Remove from the heat and let the milk cool until lukewarm.

Then mix in the mango puree well (mixing mango juice or puree into hot milk may curdle it). Now spread the lachha semai in a dish, breaking it up a little.

Pour the mango-milk mixture directly over the semai in the dish. At first it may look like too much milk, but after 10 minutes you will see the semai has soaked up the milk and turned creamy.

Scatter chopped pistachios and pieces of ripe mango on top, and serve the mango lachha semai at room temperature or chilled from the fridge.

Recipe and photo: Jhumur's Kitchen

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.