The glass case at an Indian mithai shop is a kaleidoscope of carefully stacked sweets that are, well, really, really sweet.Indian sweets are polarizing. They're also for a certain breed of eaters, ones with a particularly aggressive sweet tooth, whose bodies can handle regulating an excessive glucose intake.If you're one of those people, Indian sweets are delicious. But if the shimmering jalebi or sticky sugar bombs that are gulab jamun—both deep fried and soaked in simple syrup—are too cloying for you to handle, these pistachio peda are where it's at.
These fudgy little discs of khoya (a semi-solid dairy product made by slowly boiling milk until it thickens) are topped with crushed pistachios, saffron, and ground cardamom. They're an Indian dessert for the everyman, and are the perfect compliment to a nice cup of chai.Then again, they're also the perfect appetizer to a jalebi or gulab jamun.RECIPE: Pistachio Peda