Making Shrikhand with Greek yoghurt

During our stay in Kolkata, when she had no puran yantra to mix the chakka and sugar uniformly, aai would use pithachi chalni with fine mesh. It was fun, sitting down on the floor to help aai...she would hand over a fulpatra or a vaati to sieve the chakka and sugar mix. Aai transferred the chakka in small quantities onto the sieve while she prepared the chapatis. Finally, aai would mix in a couple of tablespoons of milk infused with saffron and stir in cardamom crushed on her polpaat. Finally came the chopped nuts (almonds,pistachios etc) into the mix to garnish.The hard work paid off when we got the most creamist of shrikhand for our meals.

Now when I am in England, I am always on the verge of finding options to get the same taste and texture in our food we had in India. After trying hanging yoghurt during my first couple of attempts, I chanced upon Greek Yoghurt which became more of a child's play to make our favourite dessert.

Here's how to make Shrikhand using Greek yoghurt:

Ingredients:

1 pack Greek Yoghurt

3-4 tablespoons Sour Cream (optional for those who like sour taste)

Castor or confectioners' sugar as much one likes

Chopped nuts of your choice

Saffron strands infused in warm milk

Cardamom powder

For variation you may use gulkand( a couple of tablespoons) or apricot puree(which I made with 5-6 apricots in a juice of half a lemon) or even melted chocolate.

How to prepare:

Mix a small portion of yoghurt with sugar and mix well. Fold this with the rest of the yoghurt mix. Fold in the sour cream if you are using. To this add in the saffron infused milk and cardamom powder. Garnish with the nuts of your choice.

In case you choose to have a variation, mix in the gulkand or fruit puree or melted chocolate in the small portion of yoghurt and sugar mix. This is then folded in with the rest of the yoghurt mix before infusing the saffron, cardamom powder and the nuts for garnishing.

Preeti Deo, India News Bulletin’s food expert, works in a Special Needs School and is passionate about cooking and experimenting with traditional Maharashtrian recipes.

Recently she has started a project whereby she is cooking up dishes following the recipes from the traditional Marathi cookbook Ruchira by late Kamalabai Ogale.

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