Mathura is a city in Uttar Pradesh in India - The city of Lord Krishna is famous for its Peda which is made from dried whole milk. There is a belief or a story that one day when the Yashoda Ma was heating the milk to make pedas, Krishna started crying and she went to see him. By the time she returned, the milk had turned into a brown color. So she made the pedas, from the same mawa or khoya and served them to Krishna who liked them so much that Krishna always wanted to have these pedas. That is when all over Mathura these pedas were prepared and became very famous.
The traditional method of preparing Mathura pedas is very tedious. Firstly, the mawa or khoya is prepared by heating milk on a low flame until it reduces in quantity. Then it is roasted until it turns brown in color. Later, small dough balls are made which eventually are pedas.
But nowadays, we always are looking for shortcuts - Even the quality of the milk is not as good as in earlier days. In the place where I live, we don’t even get the milk as we get in India for making mithai.
You can prepare this peda with ready-made mawa or khoya also but today I have used milk powder to make them. I suggest you use Full cream milk powder to prepare Mathura Peda. The milk powder is roasted on a low flame until it turns brown, add little milk and later once it is cooled, add powdered sugar. Later, roll a small ball and coat it with powdered sugar.
Here the method is a bit different but there is no compromise to the taste. Trust me once you make them - no one can tell that you have made them at home and that too with milk powder. Only one step which is important is the roasting which takes 20 to 25 minutes to prepare. Apart from this, even the ingredients for Mathura peda are readily available at home.
Janmashtami is coming next week, so please try this peda recipe and serve to Lord Krishna's bhog thal.
Recipe:-
Ingredients:-
Milk Powder (दूध का पाउडर) - 2 cups
Ghee (घी) - 4 tbsp
Milk (दूध) - ½ cup
Boora Sugar / Tagar/ Powdered Sugar (बूरा चीनी / तगार / पिसी चीनी)- ¾ cup
Cardamom powder (इलायची पाउडर) - ½ tsp