• Khoya are of 3 types : Hard  Khoya or Batti Khoya is the toughest variety of milk solids used in making pedha or ladoo.Smooth Khoya or Chikna Khoya is soft,smooth and sticky variety used in shondesh  and rabri making.There is also a granulated variety known as Danedaar Khoya and is used to make kalakand,milkcake etc.In this the milk is curdled before evaporation leading to a grainy texture of khoya.
• Khoya is used in making many Indian dessert,but the sweetened variety is a dessert in itself and is known as Pal Khoya .

Khoya ”cakes” wrapped in sarees and dupatta(s) in old Delhi’s Khoya Market
(Photo Courtesy : eatanddust)

• Around Diwali about 2000 people flock in old Delhi’s whole sale khoya market at Mori gate bus terminal and huge quantity of khoya and mawa comes from U.P,Punjab,Haryana  and Rajasthan.
• You can find numerous shops in old Delhi selling mawa or khoya for a living.Om Shiv Mawa Bhandar,Jamnadas Khoyawale,Vishal Mawa Bhandar,Pawan Dairy Products are few Khoya dealers from Patel nagar,ChandniChowk,Khari Baoli markets of  Delhi.

Khoya trader in old Delhi’s wholesale khoya market (Photo courtesy : eatanddust)

• Old Delhi’s khoya market handles 50 tonnes of Khoya on any given day.Apparently tons of milk solids are auctioned everyday at Khoya Mandir at Mori Gate on a wholesale basis.
• Khoya or Mawa are widely used in Indian,Pakistani,Bangladeshi and Nepalese cuisine in making dessert and exotic savory dishes.
• It is similar to  Ricotta Cheese but the moisture content is much less in Khoya than in Ricotta Cheese.
• Khoya/Mawa are great source of Vitamin D and calcium.
• The usage of khoya or mawa largely increased and spread over the whole of North India with the Mughal rule and the previous muslim invasions.The Arab traders  brought with them exotic spices,  Khoya or mawa  and the royal rasoi(kitchen) hugely patronized the usage of such food ingredients leading to spread of this culinary culture along with the Mughal rule.

Being brought up in Kolkata,the epicentre of the art of ‘mishti’ or ‘shondesh’ making along with the Kolkata style mughlai food I got introduced to khoya or mawa quite early in childhood.Mom’s Shahi Paneer or home made ledikini would contain proportion of milk solids.We got our supply of milk solids or khoya readily available in the para’r mishti’r dokan (local sweet shops).The khoya could have been bought from the shop and used at one’s disposal,and even sometime stored in air tight containers in the fridge for over 1-2 days atleast.

The grainy textured Khoya/Mawa

After coming to UK I realized the blessings of the local  sweet shops ,because the khoya making process is indeed time and energy consuming.Being the foodie that I am I was ,however,unperturbed by the unavailability of khoya from the local shops.I decided to make it on my own  without being bogged down by the strenuous and time consuming procedure. I came up with a shortcut.Yes ‘short cut to success’ do exist..at least in case of khoya or mawa making 🙂

The Khoya ”Cake”

In a microwave safe bowl take 3 teaspoon ghee and to it add 1/4th cup milk(room temperature).Mix it well and put in the microwave for 1 and 1/2 minute or till the milk is warm .After taking out the bowl, put 2 cups of dry milk powder over the hot  ghee-milk mixture. Stir and mix it well with a spoon.The mawa/khoya is ready.

Checking the texture of the Khoya

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