Junnu or kharvas is a traditional pudding made with cow's colostrum milk.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 6
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cow’s colostrum milk ((First day milk))
  • 6 cups Full fat whole milk ((use only if using first days milk, otherwise replace with colostrum milk))
  • ¼ to ½ tsp Green cardamom powder
  • 2 pinches Pepper powder ((optional))
  • 400 grams Jaggery (powdered or grated)

Method

How to make junnu or kharvas

  1. Mix jaggery, whole milk and colostrum milk in a large bowl.
  2. Stir well till the jiggery melts off completely.
  3. Filter this to a wide and deep bowl.
  4. Sprinkle pepper powder and cardamom powder.
  5. If you use a bowl that is not deep enough the milk might spill over from the bowl while steaming.
  6. Add water to a steamer or pressure cooker or idli cooker as you would do to steam idlis.
  7. Place a plate that comes with the steamer. When the water begins to bubble, put on the flame to medium.
  8. Steaming the milk on a very high flame will seep the water into the milk bowl and the milk can spill to the steamer. So control the flame well at this stage.
  9. Place the milk bowl in the steamer and steam for about 25 to 40 minutes.
  10. After 25 minutes, you can open the lid of the steamer and check if the pudding is done.
  11. If it is cooked well, you can find some jaggery water over the pudding and the milk all set well.
  12. This is the best indication to know if the pudding is correctly cooked.
  13. If you find no jaggery water over the junnu or kharva, close the lid and steam for some more time also check if more water is needed in your steamer. Repeat checking.
  14. Cool junnu completely or place it in the refrigerator for a while to cool quickly. Cut to desired size pieces.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.