Nabadwip-er lal doi

Nabadwip-er lal doi, meaning the red curd of Nabadwip, is a Bengali dairy sweet that is also called kheer doi or chakku doi. It belongs to the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent and originates in present-day West Bengal, with the town of Nabadwip in Nadia the place most associated with it. Although curd is usually white, red curd is treated as a distinct kind of confectionery. Its colour is not added: pure cow or buffalo milk is boiled down slowly, first over a wood fire and then over coal, until roughly three litres have become one and the milk has turned reddish and reached the kheer stage, and it is then fermented into curd in clay pots that are covered and kept around the coal fuel. Quality is judged by stickiness, and the name chakku doi comes from the knife pushed into the pot to test it. The sweet is credited to Kali Ghosh, also known as Kalipad Modak of Nabadwip, who is said to have invented it in 1930, and it keeps for up to ten days.