SHRIKHAND ( Sweet Dewatered curds with dry fruits )

INTRODUCTION

INGREDIENTS

You can't separate a Tamiz from Sakkarai Pongal, Keralite from Payasam,Punjabi from Gajar da Halwa ,Bengali from Rossogolla, Kannadiga from his Poli and A Gujarati from SHRIKHAND. 

Onset of summer means season of SHRIKHAND in any Gujarati home. Yes, You guessed it right. I am posting the recipe for Shrikhand today. It is probably the only sweet which does not require any heating process and it is so yummy that you would like to make it again and again. 

So here we go folks!!!

(For a family of five two helpings each)
Fresh curds 5 litters
Sugar 1.25 kgs
Raisins 25 gms
Figs 5 to 6 nos
Badham (almonds) 15 nos
Pista (pistachio) 10 nos
Cardamom 10 nos
Saffron 1/4 spoon

METHOD OF PREPARATION

Buy five liters of full fat milk in the morning, boil it and cool it. At about 8 pm, add quarter cup of curd to it. (use very good culture. You can buy dairy curd for this purpose). By evening 8 pm, the curd would have set. Now take a fine muslin cloth (one meter ) and place the curd in it. Tie all the corners and further tighten the neck and tie it with a string. Hang it and keep a large vessel under it. By morning, complete water from curd would have dripped off. You have a nice creamy mass of solid white creamy looking curd chenna. Take it down, sieve it thro a fine mash, knead it and make a fine creamy mass. Set aside. If the water has not dripped off fully, agitate it with hand as if you are pressing the rubber horn of an old car .Ensure that you have thick vadai consistency of chhenna. 

Soak Badham in hot water for fifteen minutes and when the brown skin is loose, remove it and make wafer thin slices of Badham with a sharp knife, and set aside. Slice Pista also similarly. Make small 1 cm pieces of Figs and set aside with raisins. Check for insects in figs. 

De-skin Cardamom and make a fine powder in a steel mortar (it is difficult to do it in mixi as the quantity is small). Set aside. Now soak saffron in two spoons of water for ten minutes .when it softens, crush it thoroughly using a pastel stone. 

Now powder the sugar and add it to chhenna. Also add all the ingredients except sliced Almonds and Pista and blend them thoroughly. Ensure that powdered sugar is completely dissolved in Chhenna. And light orange colour of saffron is uniform. The SHRIKHAND is ready. Garnish the top with thinly sliced Almonds, Pista and if you want, use vegetarian Varak (silver foil) after removing the SHRIKHAND in individual Glass ice cream cups. Put the ice-cream cups now in your fridge and serve cold with hot Phulkas or poories. If your friends eat this dish at your home, you are going to have them coming back and asking for the same , time and again And that is a promise.!! 

ENJOY!!!! And I would love to have your feed back please. 

VARIATION You can use only solid fruits like, mango, apple etc in place of dry fruits. 

WARNING !!!!!!!!!! Your Guests would feel terribly sleepy after lunch. So please provide them with sleeping quarters for rest of the day. If you are hosting a dinner, please make your own accommodation for the night at your neighbours or in your garage.!!!!