KamlaLebur Kheer or Orange Kheer

Jump to Recipe

...Orange Kheer in want of a better name. Kamlalebu in Bengal, is what is Narangi, Santra or Orange in different parts of India.

Kamlalebu or Orange is a fruit which I closely associate with the mild Winters back home in India. Come winter and the markets would flood with these small round glossy skinned orange colored beauties. The Darjeeling Orange I am familiar with were grown in Orchards in the hills of Darjeeling and would come down to the plains of West Bengal around the months of November-December
By then the finals and later the half-yearly’s would be over and school would break for a reasonably long stretch of winter vacation. Every day after our mid morning bath the ritual would be to head for the terrace or chaat with oranges in one hand and a book in the other.
Sitting there soaking up the soft orange sun, peeling the oranges, popping one koa (or segment) after other , the sweet juice exploding the taste buds and being lost in the novel which had been neglected for the exams or the Anandamela ( a very popular childern's magazine in Bengali) which had arrived just that morning…that was life, warm, sweet and carefree.

My Ma like most other Bengali households would make this Kamlalebur Kheer during these months and serve it as a dessert with luchi & alurdum or by itself. It is pretty easy to make and considering the very little effort that goes into it, it’s heavenly to taste.

Kamla Lebur Kheer

What you Need

Whole Milk ~ 1 litre
Sweetened Condensed Milk ~ 1 can
Sugar ~ 1/2 cup

Clementines or Oranges ~ 7 or 8 . I used clementines , you can try with other sweet oranges like mandarin oranges. You can also use canned mandarin oranges.

How I Did It

Peel the oranges and separete out the segments
Take out the transparent thin film/skin and the white thread like thingy from each of the segments and make small pieces
Heat Milk in a deep pan
Bring the milk to boil and then stir it intermittently
Add a can of condensed milk and continue the process of stirring
When the milk has reduced a little add the sugar
Keep on stirring continuously at medium heat till the milk has reduces to almost ¼ the initial volume. By this time the color of the milk would take on a creamy hue and it would have thickened. Continuous stirring is necessary else the milk may stick to the bottom and burn
The consistency is now like smooth kheer
Pour in a serving bowl and put in the refrigerator.
After 2 hours or when it has cooled down add the orange pieces and refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours
Serve chilled

Note: I made this yesterday night but it tastes even better when I am having it right now in the morning, all that overnight saoking has made the milk/kheer soak up the orange flavor

Here in the US I was initially and even now baffled with the choice of Oranges offered. Product of various mutation I have a varying choice from Navel Oranges to California Oranges and the Valencia to the Mandarin orange and I still am not sure which I should pick

The closest that I have found to the small, sweet Orange popular in India, known as Kamlalebu in Bengali is a fruit called Clementine. Clementines are commonly called mikan in Japan, satsuma in the UK and Southern United States, and clementine or tangerine in Canada. Its fruit is sweet and usually seedless, about the size of a mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata), smaller than an orange. One of the distinguishing features of the clementine is the distinctive thin, leathery skin dotted with large and prominent oil glands, which is lightly attached around the fruit; enabling it to peeled very easily in comparison to other citrus fruits. They are widely available in the US from November to January-February

What I like about Clementines is that they peel very easily and easily separate into several juicy segments a feature similar to my familiar Orange in India. Since Clementine too is a hybrid but between Tangerine and pomerans, I am not sure if the Orange or Santra or kamlalebu in India was also a Clementine or some other hybrid of orange

I am sending this over for this weeks Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging to Coffe & CornBread. Hope all of you like this simple and delicious dessert

Trivia:It has been proposed that Clementine was "originally an accidental hybrid said to have been discovered by Father Clément Rodier in the garden of his orphanage in Misserghin, Algeria."