Khova, khoya or mawa is dried or thickened milk similar to ricotta cheese. In Indian it is used to make a variety of sweets like gulab jamun, peda, burfi, etc.

Here`s how you can make khova at home:

1. With unsalted Ricotta cheese - Take two cups of ricotta cheese, cook for about 10 minutes in a non-stick sauce pan. Add two tablespoons of butter and three cups of carnation dry milk powder. Keep on stirring constantly, until it reaches khoya consistency in about 7 minutes on medium heat.
2. Knead milk powder - not tightly - like chapati dough. Take a muslin cloth. Transfer the dough on it. Sprinkle some water on it. Then tie the ends of the cloth to form a bundle. Steam this bundle in a pressure cooker with water. Don`t let the bundle touch the water, you can put the bundle in a vessel before putting it in the cooker. Cook it upto 2 whistles and then turn off the gas. Open the cooker after it cools. Untie the bundle. Remove the khova after it cools down completely.
3. If you have some mawa powder on your shelf, here`s how you can make khova with it: Take 2 cups of dry milk powder and knead together with milk to make a hard dough. Wrap in a nylon or muslin cloth and freeze for one hour. After that, remove from freezer; grate on grater and use in any recipe.
4. Mix 1 cup of milk powder and 1/2 cup of white butter and add enough milk to make a batter of cake consistency. Cover and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Mix with a fork and again cover and microwave on high for 1 to 3 minutes (this time varies with the type of microwave used). When the khoya is ready it will be dry, there will be no moisture of the milk in it.
5. If a recipe calls for sweet khoya, condensed milk may be used to blend the butter and milk together to batter-like consistency. In a bowl take 3 cups of full cream milk powder and 300ml of thickened cream and a can of condense milk. Microwave on high for 4 minutes, then stir. Keep for 4 minutes and stir again. Your khoya is ready to use in halwa, burfi or pedha.

Also read: Recipes made with khoya